The Belt situation is really pretty simple. They brought up BB DESPITE the financial repercussions because they were operating under the assumption that he could be one of their better hitters and the Ross injury only furthered this premise. This was largely encapsulated by the "every gm counts" argument, stating that the G's should do everything in their power to win as many gms as possible in a forseeably difficult division race this yr, regardless of future fiscal consideration. As of right now, Belt is being outperformed by most of his competition. DeRosa, Holtz, Rowand, etc are all better options in the present, compounded by the defensive improvement gained by moving Huff in from the OF. Therefore, we're actually SACRIFICING the present for the long term good and development of Belt. I have no problem w/ this tact and in most non-contending yrs would have been in favor of such, except that it directly flies in the face of the "every gm counts" argument. Furthermore, if Belt accrues enough time in the Minors this season, the G's can effectively delay his eligibility for Free Agency by a full year. So in review: -Belt gets demoted to a level more appropriate for the good of his development -G's gain an extra yr of Free Agency on Belt's contract -The Giants put the best players on the field (presently, at least) in their quest for the divisional crown The best part- if the "other options" fail, Belt is just a phone call away and still more than likely would have met the service time requirements in the Minors to gain an extra yr prior to Free Agency. This isn't just a WIN-WIN...this is more like a WIN-WIN-WIN-WIN. Randy Winn thinks that's an excessive amount of winning.

People forget that had Cody Ross been healthy, Belt would have most likely been sent down to AAA as one of the last cuts. Getting sent down is no big deal, it is what most likely would have happened before Ross's injury. And if they don't want Belt to sit but keep him up, then that means one of Burrell, Ross, Huff sits. Don't see that happening. Now, had Belt pulled a Jason Heyward and hit from the get-go and continued hitting, then it would have been a nice problem to have to decide on what to do. However, he didn't, he's sucking pretty badly right now, though that's mostly bad luck with balls falling in. But at what point do you continue to jeopardize your offense and chances of repeating in order to let your top prospect get out of his funk? Matt Weiters continues to struggle, starting essentially his third full season, despite not striking out that much (about league average) plus walking a good amount as well. The benefit of Ross's injury is that the Giants got to kick the tires on Belt and see what they got, and what Belt might need to work on. It also exposed that playing him at 1B and pushing Huff to RF was not an ideal defensive situation, as Otis noted and many like me agree. I think Belt should get sent down so that he can start working on re-acquainting himself with the intricacies of playing RF. Assuming he hits his way back up to the majors, I would rather we get about average defense with Huff at 1B and Belt in RF (he played RF regularly before being converted to play 1B), than stellar defense at 1B with Belt and below average defense in RF with Huff. That also works with the AAA roster. They already have Pill and Ishikawa fighting for 1B time (though so far, they have split Ishikawa's time between 1B and LF), but RF is currently manned by organizational players, so they can sit while Belt starts in RF.

I say give Belt at least 120 PA's to get it going.

Baggs mentioned a reporter asking Bochy if Belt needed to be more aggressive at the plate, and Bochy at least mildly agreed. Hurts to hear the Giants management talking like Luddites. And reporters falling back on cliches when they don't know what to ask.