Surviving Without Melky

The Giants ran into a double-dose of bad luck Wednesday as the news of Melky Cabrera's suspension came down just before the Giants lost their series with Washington.

Melky Suspended for Season

Melky Cabrera, who was quickly becoming huge fan favorite around the Bay Area, just gave Giants fans a sucker punch to the gut. The '12 All-Star MVP was suspended the mandatory 50-games for violating the MLB drug policy by taking a Testosterone-based supplement. Once again the Giants are left shorthanded and without one of their lineup's cornerstones. Whether it's been suspensions like with Mota and Cabrera season, or injuries like with Wilson and Pablo Sandoval, the Giants just couldn't seem to get their A-team out on the field all together this season. They had the one game with Pence, Panda, Cabrera and Posey all in the lineup together and the offense looked completely rejuvinated. Turn the page to Wednesday's game, and you saw a 180-degree turnaround. And just like that, the "Melkman" honeymoon comes to an end with the 28 year-old leading baseball in hits with a .350 average and 84 runs scored. If the Giants do reach the postseason, he'd be eligible to play in a potential NLCS and World Series, but getting there just became a much tougher trek.

So, what do the Giants do now? I'll tell you what, it's really a good thing they did swing that deal for Pence before the deadline or else this would have been an even bigger blow. Bochy used Gregor Blanco out in left field in Wednesday's game, but mostly because he had a short bench and got the news about Melky less than 2 hours before first pitch. Blanco has been struggling terribly over the last 6 weeks and I don't think he'll be the answer. My guess is that either Brett Pill or Justin Christian will be back with the team by Friday, but San Francisco did pick up Xavier Nady a few weeks back, and they could ultimately look to him to pick up some of the slack that Cabrera leaves behind. There are still 2 weeks left before the waiver deadline too, and Sabean is likely to hike up efforts on that front, but he said before Tuesday nights game that the waiver wire stuff was extremely quiet right now. He added Cody Ross under similar circumstances in 2010. It wouldn't even surprise me if Sabes looked into a guy like Johnny Damon, who was just released by Cleveland.

It just sucks this came down when it did, being right in the thick of the pennant race and all. I have definitely lost some respect for Melky and do wonder how much of his production has been a byproduct of the PED use, but I'd still take him back under the right circumstances. He obviously just lost out on a lot of money, and it's a good thing the Giants put extension talks on hold when they did cause now they may have a shot at getting him on that bargain 3-year deal they were pitching to him. That is, if they still want him. We'll have to see how the rest of the season goes though. I'm still a little shocked by all this, but the Giants do have enough talent to pull out of it. They'll need Timmy to be a lot better than he was Wednesday, and everyone else in the lineup will have to step it up a notch, but I still have playoff expectations for this team.