The Giants Baseball Blog

The Giants stayed relatively quiet on Saturday as the non-waiver trade deadline came and passed. They did pull the trigger on two small moves in order to bolster their bullpen, adding lefty Javier Lopez from Pittsburgh and righty Ramon Ramierez from the Red Sox. The Giants and Brian Sabean apparently re-visited the most logical trade options for the team in the hours leading up to the deadline, including re-starting the Corey Hart talks with Millwaukee and they even were in talks regarding a potential 3-way deal involving the D-Backs and Blue Jays that included n ames Kelly Johnson, Jose Bautista, Jason Frasier and Scott Downs. However, in the end, they came to the realization that there just weren't any deals that made enough sense for them to pull the trigger on. Every team wanted either Jonathan Sanchez or Madison Bumgarner, and Brian Sabean wisely kept the team's strength in-tact. Still though, I think he gave up a tad too much in order to get Javier Lopez in here. I like L...

The Giants continued their 2nd half magic Wednesday with another extra-inning victory over the Florida Marlins in a wild one, 10-9. And with the way the team has been thriving right now, it must have Brian Sabean in a tough spot, with the trade deadline looming (72 hours and counting), as he decides whether to add or stand pat. When I saw the headline the other day from MLB Rumors that said the Giants were interested in Scott Podsednik, I was at first surprised, but then I remembered, this is Brian Sabean after all, and when he sets his sights on a player (the Giants have had interest in Podsednik more than once in the past too) he never gives up. What does surprise me, and upsets me to a degree is that he's spending his time focusing on adding a leadoff guy, while Andres Torres (4-6, 1 hr, 3 RBI Wednesday) does all he can to prove himself. I mean, I'm not totally sold on Torres as the future leadoff man for the Giants, but right now, I'd say he's doing an admirable job...

The second half of the Major League Baseball season is barely 2 weeks old, but since it started, there hasn't been a team hotter than the Giants in all of baseball. Since the 3 day break, the Giants have gone 9-2, and lost those 2 games by a combined total of 3 runs. It's been the two rookies that have grabbed most of the headlines over the last two weeks, with Buster Posey extending his hitting streak to 18 games on Sunday, and Madison Bumgarner getting stronger with each outing at the big league level. Over that 18 game hitting streak, Posey's hitting .467 with 7 home run and 23 RBI and a 1.300 OPS. Talk about video game numbers! I don't really like making comparisons unless I really see something in a player, but I can't help but be reminded of a right-handed Joe Mauer with even a little more power, when looking at Posey . If Posey can somehow manage to get to the minimum plate appearance number in order to contend for the batting tittle, I'd put my mon...

The Giants offense really started to pick up early in July up until the all-star break, and it looks like they've picked right up where they left off. They started off the 2nd half of the season by taking 3 of 4 from the Mets and like always, got tremendous starting pitching in the process. Timmy Lincecum started the 2nd half with a complete game shutout on Thursday night, allowing just 6 hits while striking out 5 batters and needing just 110 pitches to get through one of the better lineups in the NL. Lincecum was followed by an even stronger performance by Barry Zito, who allowed just 2 hits and 2 walks while striking out 10 in 8 strong innings to earn his 8th victory of the year. It was a big start for Zito who had hit a rough patch over the last month, and only won 1 game after May 16th. Matt Cain continued to add to the Mets offensive frustration Saturday with 7 strong innings, allowing just 3 hits and 2 runs. The Mets did touch up the Giants bullpen for 2 runs after Cain depar...

The 2nd half of the Major League Baseball season officially begins tonight, and the Giants hope they will pick right up were they left off before the break when they won 6 of 7 and had their offense clicking on all cylinders. What really kept the Giants afloat for much of the first half was their spectacular starting pitching. All of their starting pitchers have era's below 3.76 and all of them and all should have winning records, although Matt Cain has once again pitched through some terrible luck. For a while there in early-mid June, it looked like 4 of the Giants 5 starters had legit shots at making the all-star team. All of them (besides Todd Wellemeyer) had era's under 3 and had winning records. They were thriving even though they weren't getting consistent run support. Unfortunately, they haven't really been able to get their offense and starting pitching clicking together at the same time. For much of the first half of the year though, the Giants offense has bee...

Heading into July, the Giants were sputtering and fans started to panic a little bit. However, over the last 10 days, the Giants seem to have hit their offensive stride, it's just too bad they did it just in time for the all-star break. All of the sudden, over the last week, the Giants offense has just exploded. They've scored 53 runs over their last 7 games, good for about 7.5 runs per game, and they've gone 6-1 in that span. One guy who's really flown under the radar in this first half has been huge over the last week, and that guy is Travis Ishikawa. Before July 1st, Ishikawa had just 36 at-bats all year, but since July 1st, he's collected 25 at-bats and has been extremely productive with those ab's (.385 with 1 hr and 8 RBI). Ever since the Giants traded away Bengie Molina, they've they've been working with some extra at-bats and Ishikawa has taken full advantage. So much so, that Giants fans are going to be expecting to see more of him when the Gian...

With the draft in June taking up most of our organizational focus, it's been a couple months since we've had a chance to take a look at whats happening down on the farm with the Giants' minor league affiliates. Since our last minor league update, the teams top-2 prospects have finally been called-up to the Big Leagues, and I think it's for good this time for both guys. With those two up with the Giants, the guy who has stepped into the spotlight in the minors this year has been Brandon Belt. The 22 year-old put up ridiculous numbers in the first half of the year in San Jose (.383 avg, 10 HR, 62 RBI, 18 SB and a 1.121 OPS in 269 at-bats). Then the 6'5" first basemen got the call-up to AA Richmond last week, and arrived with a bang there as well. In his first 3 games with the Squirrels, he's got 5 hits in 11 at-bats, including 2 more solo home runs. The Eastern League has traditionally been a tough hitters league, so if he can keep this up there, that would ...

The Giants traded away one of their longest tenured position players on team, sending Bengie Molina to the Texas Rangers for reliever Chris Ray and a minor leaguer . Bengie wasn't exactly tearing the cover off the ball lately, and started to lose more and more playing time after Buster Posey was called up towards the end of May. He'll always be remembered best for his clutch hitting, leadership and his ability to catch and call a very good game. A big reason why the Giants signed him to come back this year was because of the way he has handled their young staff and nurtured these guys along. He's been basically the only catcher the Giants' young arms (Cain, Lincecum , Sanchez, Bumgarner ) have ever thrown to at this level and although I expect them to be fine on their own, they now have a new responsibility with Bengie Molina no longer back there for them. Eli Whiteside got the first start back there on Wednesday, but I fully expect Buster Posey to be the everyday...