The Giants, oh, the Giants. Where do we begin? The anemic offense? Or how about, the poorest situational hitting that I’ve seen since Tee-Ball? Bad luck and injuries? As the A’s rolled through AT&T with a sweep, making it look easy, it really dawned upon me that the season is going to be a hard one. Call me a slow learner if you will, or even delusional but I knew that the Giants wouldn’t necessarily be the ’27 Yankees in 2007 but I had no idea they would be this bad.

If you scrapped the bottom of the NL West barrel you would find the Giants. Currently, 6 entire games under .500 the team has lacked every type of consistency that a winning team needs. Imagine if we didn’t have the 8 game winning streak earlier in the season? Wait, don’t imagine that too much, as the results are even more grim than that of current reality. It’s time to belly up the bar and face reality, the Giants aren’t a good team this year. Sure, the starting rotation has done well but every other part of the team has been below average.

The team has to look to the future and not make panic moves. This is my biggest fear as usual. A package of Jonathan Sanchez and Kevin Frandsen for Ty Wigginton? Good god, don’t’ do it Sabes. I know that asking Sabean to deal away older players to other desperate teams looking for help is akin to asking Paris Hilton to make intelligent life choices but how on earth can anyone, even through the rosiest eye wear, believe that this team is any sort of contender? Deal away vets for prospects, let Bonds do his thing, and regroup for next year.

Case-in-point, Ken Rosenthal writes in a recent column, that the Devil Rays may be open to moving troubled, but talented, Eljiah Dukes. Dukes, is only 22, and has tremendous upside. Perhaps a change of scenery could do him good? Regardless, just assume that he is somewhat available for the right price. Tampa Bay would probably want pitching, probably most likely to be bullpen help. This is the type of trade that Sabean should look into. If Dukes was acquired for pitching (maybe something along the lines of Correia + Sanchez + Hennessey, just speculation) he would instantly become one of the best young players on this team not named Cain and Lincecum.

This is just one example and not one that even has to play out but this is the type of moves that we should be looking to make. Writing about the Giants lately hasn’t been very fun and that’s one of the reasons I have been slow to update between this post and the last. There is only so many times that you can write “Cain pitches a gem but loses 1-0″ after awhile, it becomes depressing.

—

Draft Thoughts

I’m a little late weighing in on the draft but better late than never. First, I was dissapointed that we didn’t pick up a Mills or Heyward with the #10 pick. Of course we all know that the Giants system is hitting deficient and in need of some hitters. I was really hoping to grab a guy like Mills who could move quickly through the system to help out. On the other hand, I don’t mind the pitchers we did get. Bumgarner is a lefty that throws mid-90′, which isn’t something you see everyday. If he can learn a legitimate breaking pitch then he could look nice in the Zito-Cain-Lincecum rotation of the future.

Here’s what MLB.com had to say about Madison Bumgarner:

Bumgarner certainly looks the part, with the body type and fastball of a professional pitcher. Lefties from the high school ranks with plus velocity like that don’t come around very often. Any team who takes him will have to keep him from changing his arm angle on his breaking stuff, but chances are there will be many teams willing to give that a shot.

I also love the Alderson pick and I hope that he can move through the system as a starter. I hate, hate, hate, the idea of drafting relievers. Alderson will also have some work to do to remain a starter. The Giants will have to rework his mechanics to include a windup move because he only pitched out of the stretch in high school. His motion is also a little funky but from videos I’ve seen it looks like he repeats it well. He also has plus, plus command and only walked something like 4 compared to 100+ strike outs in high school. I’ll take it.

Here’s the blurb on Tim Alderson from MLB.com as well:

With a unique delivery pitching out of the stretch and unorthodox arm action, some teams may be wary. But Alderson has the chance to have three above-average pitches with outstanding command in a big, athletic package.

You can also see some live videos of the Giants draft picks here. The Giants went with pitching in the first two picks and then did something a little different, drafting high school OF Wendell Fairley with the #29th pick. Fairley has drawn comparisons to Carl Crawford and suppsodely has “5 Tools” that scouts love. Some questions of makeup knocked him down in the draft but I think he’s a solid pick for the Giants. I also, liked the pick of 2B Nick Noonan who could move quickly through the system as well. His bat is legit from what I’ve read, with good discipline and a little pop.

Overall, I can see why the Giants concentrated the most on pitching with their first round picks. They have a track record of developing pitchers and I felt that they stuck with what they knew for this draft.