The Positives: As of this morning, the Giants are in second place in the NL West, one half game behind the Dodgers. Given what happened with Melky this week, that’s the positives. OK, for more, Buster Posey is practically single-handedly carrying the team, Brandon Belt and Crawford are playing very good ball and hitting well (both averages are climbing, and Crawford has an 8 game hitting streak), Hunter Pence is starting to show what he can do (which is attack the ball; his swing is vicious), and the PANDA IS BACK! The Questions: What was Melky thinking? That he wouldn’t get caught? That his agents would protect him? That the Barry Bonds lesson has been forgotten? A 50 game suspension basically means that he’s never coming back to the Giants (I agree with JT Snow) and we need to move on. The question is how? Soriano hates SF (and he’s an asshole besides carrying a $45 million contract – he did clear waivers I understand) and anyway there is no one out there capable of hitting .351 and carrying a team from the three-hole. Is Gary Brown ready? Probably not. Sabean might or might not make some moves. Frankly, he may not need to. The line-up is good (not as good as with Melky) but good so if the pitchers come through the playoffs could still happen. I heard Marty Lurie on NPR yesterday predicting that the G-Men would win the division. Right on Marty!
The Negatives: The pitching staff looks tired. Two bad starts in a row for Vogelsong and Zito and we need to see what Lincecum does this week against the Dodgers. Cain and Bumgarner are still looking strong. The relievers have also been giving it up and we don’t have a closer; this closer by committee idea is a dog that won’t hunt. I won’t even talk about the line-up. They just need to suck it up.
The Division: It’s between the G-Men and the Dodgers. The Gigantes go into Chavez Ravine tonight a half game down to the Dodgers and can expect taunts of “cheaters” by the blue crowd (as we say at the Lair, “blue cheats”). The response should be one word (“Manny”!!) at the top of our lungs at Kemp. It’s going to be vicious from here on until the end of September. Almost all of the games are against the NL West, and the majority are at home. This is it, the stretch run. Remember the 1951 Giants came from 13 game back to beat the Dodgers, we can do it also.