The Giants Baseball Blog

What's been the strength of the team for the last couple of seasons has all of the sudden become a liability. The starting rotation which was one of the ML's best throughout the first half has looked downright bad through most of August. A big reason for the rotation's downfall has been the struggles of Tim Lincecum, which we broke down in our last post. However, it hasn't just been Lincecum. Barry Zito, Matt Cain and Jonathan Sanchez have all been pretty inconsistent lately. And the bullpen hasn't been much of a help either. The Giants lost 2 of 3 against the St. Louis Cardina ls, again losing to a first place team, and gave up 17 runs in the process. Even when the Giants offense is on, it's asking a lot of them to score 17 runs in a 3-game set, and they just can't keep up with teams when they get behind by a large margin early in ballgames. Surprisingly, it's been rookie Madison Bumgarner who's really been the most consistent Giants' starter th...

I've been noticing a pattern here lately with the Giants, and it's becoming a tad disturbing. Yes, the team is still 13 games over .500 and in pretty good position to make their playoff push in the final month of the season, but they just can't seem to figure out the NL's better teams lately. First off, the Giants were punished by the Padres, once again, in their own home ballpark, losing 2 of 3 to the first place Friars in a series the Giants really needed to make a statement in. Just a few weeks back, they were really cruising but lost 3 of 4 to the NL East leading Atlanta Braves in Atlanta, then beat up on the lowly Cubbies before sinking vs. the first place Padres. Now they're struggling again vs. a solid Philly squad. It seems like the Giants just can't seem to win the big series vs. these winning ballclubs, and that's going to hurt them down the stretch. A big reason for that is the fact that their dominant starting rotation has hit a bit of a bump in ...

The Giants started their most important series of the season to date on Friday, and hours before the first of three with San Diego, the Giants added that final offensive piece to the puzzle that they had been looking for. Brian Sabean made a couple of small, but necessary moves before the July 31st trade deadline, adding some bullpen help in Javier Lopez and Ramon Rodriguez, but they saved their big move for August. The Giants obtained Jose Guillen from the Royals for some cash and a player to be named later, bringing Guillen's .255 average, 16 homers and 62 RBI to the Giants lineup likely in time for Saturday's game 2 of the ever so crucial 3-game set with the first place Padres this weekend. Surprisingly, Guillen cost the Giants less than both of those relievers did, and he has the chance to pay huge dividends down the stretch. I talked a lot about Guillen in our last post when it became clear that the Giants had a good shot at getting him, so I won't repeat all the same ...

The Giants have been looking for ways to add power to their lineup without giving up the farm, and their best chance to do so may be right now, as the Kansas City Royals have waived outfielder/DH Jose Guillen. Supposedly, the Giants looked at Guillen when they were scouting Scott Podsednik back before the deadline, buy obviously didn't have enough interest in him to work out a deal. However, now they can scoop up Guillen just by assuming the remaining $3.75 remaining on his contract for 2010 and maybe sending KC some irrelevant minor league prospect. Guillen would definitely bring a potent right-handed bat to the Giants lineup, and solidify one of their corner outfield spots with a guy who's a pretty good defender with a cannon arm. Prior to his release, Guillen was carrying a .255 batting average along with 16 homers, 62 RBI. On the Giants, that would immediately place him 2nd in the HR and RBI categories behind only Aubrey Huff. The real question regarding Jose Guillen though...

It looks like the Giants players were glad they didn't do anything too drastic to disrupt chemistry at the trade deadline, as they went out and completed their 3-game sweep of the Los Angeles Dodgers Sunday, a sweep that really hurt the Dodgers in the standings. The Giants did sweep them, but the series was a lot closer than it would appear. The Dodgers lost all 3 games by a combined 4 runs, and their starting pitching did a very good job in keeping down the Giants lineup, but when the Giants starters are on, they're tough to beat, and they were on this weekend. We already discussed Tim Lincecum's solid outing Friday night, and he was followed up with a 7 inning, 3 hit, 1 run, 6 strikeout performance by Barry Zito on Saturday. Unfortunately for Zito, the Giants didn't score until Pat Burrell hit a go-ahead 2-run homer in the bottom of the 8th inning, so Zito was once again left without a decision, but everybody had to be pleased with the way he threw the ball. Zito was ...