Shenanigans

Does anyone remember where they were and what they were doing when they heard that terrorists attacked on September 11, 2001? What about when Barack Obama was elected? Even more recently, what were people doing when Osama bin Laden was killed? How about when Scott Cousins collided with Buster Posey at a play at the plate leaving Posey with a broken leg. Sure, Buster Posey's injury is no where near the scale of the other events that I mentioned, but it still left a heart-sinking feeling into many Giants/Posey fans. Posey will ultimately miss the rest of the season after a successful surgery on his fibula and torn ligaments in his ankle. The rest of this year will be a continuous rehab for Posey as he continues to become healthier in preparation for the 2012 season. Posey's collision continues to be one of the central topics for Major League Baseball and its rules towards plays at home plate. Posey requested that the league look into changing the rule in anyway, to protect the catchers that sometime can be defenseless. On an even more depressing side note, Freddy Sanchez might miss the rest of the season as well due to a dislocated shoulder. So with the recent and past injuries, what does this mean for the Giants for the rest of the season?

Lets look at yesterdays lineup against the Cincinnati Reds: (June 12, 2011)

1. Torres CF
2. Tejada 3B
3. Schierholtz RF
4. Huff 1B
5. Ross LF
6. Crawford SS
7. Burriss 2B
8. Stewart C
9. J. Sanchez P

Honestly...kind of depressing. While fans want all these guys to do well and there is nothing but confidence in Bruce Bochy, this line up is definitely lack luster. A few things stand out here. Schierholtz is not a number 3 hitter. If you take away the last 3 games, Tejada is not a number 2 hitter. There is absolutely NO production from the catcher position offensively. So how do they improve: trade and/or play the waiting game. Currently, the trade talks and free agent signings are very quiet as there is still a month before the all-star break. However, there is some talk about the Giants acquiring Mark Ellis from the Athletics. Without breaking this down into intricate detail, I'm going to summarize this rumor by saying that I'd rather the Giants have Bill Hall (who they signed as soon as Sanchez went down), than Ellis.  For the waiting game, the Giants have to do just that, wait. Wait for Brandon Belt to recover from the hit by pitch. Wait for Pablo Sandoval to start producing again (will start tomorrow against the Diamondbacks. June 14, 2011). Wait for Barry Zito to finish his rehab assignment. Make no mistake, Zito will open doors to trades in the future. After the all-star break, the line up could look like this:

1. Torres CF
2. Belt RF or 1B (if living up to potential)
3. Sandoval 3B
4. Huff 1B or RF
5. Ross LF
6. Crawford or Tejada SS
7. Burriss or Hall or a traded player 2B
8. Whiteside or a traded player C
9. Lincecum P

Definitely a lot less depressing, especially if the Giants pick up a player via trade. *cough* Jose Reyes *cough* To dive deeper into trading, I feel like the Giants could make a strong case for trading Ryan Voglesong as his value has never been higher. With so many teams looking for decent pitching, infield help would be most welcome and Zito would resume his role back in the rotation. All in all the Giants are still in first place as the division seems to be fairly weak right now. Also, injuries are extremely high this year on all teams throughout the league. So before other Giants fans start complaining about injuries, just tell them to take a look around. Thanks for reading and enjoy the summer!


Final food for thought: Major League Baseball is looking to change or remove divisions and leagues in different ways. Rumors currently have two suggestions. One is to take out all divisions and reward the play-offs to the top 5 teams in both leagues. The other is to remove both current divisions and leagues and create regional leagues. For example the California League, hosting the Giants, Angles, Dodgers, Athletics, and Padres. In any case, change seems to be immanent.