The 2009 Midseason San Francisco Giants Report!

Wow, it's hard to believe that we're at the All Star break already. Even more hard to believe is how GOOD the Giants are doing. This was supposed to be somewhat of a rebuidling year. Before the season started, most analysts figured that the Giants would probably finish a few games over .500, maybe come in 3rd place in their division. Earlier in the season, even that seemed out of reach. The quality pitching was there, but the offense just couldn't score any runs. This was an ugly team. But then something crazy happened: the Giants' bats started to wake up, and they became a surprisingly well-rounded team. Now, halfway through the season, they're ten games over .500, seven games behind the best team in baseball, and they hold a two game lead atop the NL Wild Card standings. It's an exciting time to be a Giants fan. If they can manage to cut loose some of their dead weight in exchange for a good hitter who can come in everyday and produce, they could be a force to be reckoned with at the end of the season.

Let's break down each aspect of the team:

Starting Pitching
As predicted, the Giants' starting pitching has been their key strength. Tim Lincecum and Matt Cain have been amazing. They're both serious Cy Young candidates at this point. Randy Johnson hasn't been amazing, but he's gotten the job done, which is more than I could hope for with a 45 year-old pitcher on his last legs. Signing Johnson in the offseason was a fantastic low-risk move by the Giants. Although now, he's hurt. It's nothing too serious, but he is 45 years old, after all, so now you have to wonder if he's gonna be much of a factor further down the line. But the real story this year has been the resurgence of Barry Zito. He'll never be worth the amount of money he's earning, but I've come to terms with that. It's the Giants' fault for overpaying. But this year, he's finally regained some sort of consistency and has emerged as a perfectly acceptable #4 starter. Most of the time. He's still prone to having a terrible game every now and then, but he's been decent for the most part. Then there's Jonathan Sanchez, the promsing young starter turned inconsistent trade bait turned worthless long reliever turned no-hitter-throwing hero. It'll be interesting to see how he pitches throughout the rest of the month with Johnson out of the picture. Hopefully, he'll pitch well and his stock will rise, and then he can either prove to be a valuable force for the Giants or he'll be able to bring back a quality hitter in a trade. Ryan Sadowski, Sanchez's rotation replacement, pitched well in his first three games, so it'll be interesting to see what happens with him too. Right now, it looks like the rotation is extremely talented, but slightly thin, so we'll see if they stick with what they have or try to look into acquiring another starter along with a solid hitter.

The Bullpen
Bob Howry gives up a few too many runs every now and then. And Brian Wilson has four blown saves. But other than that, the bullpen has been stellar. When you look at the pitching stats, it surprising to see how pretty much everyone in the bullpen has an ERA in the 2's and 3's. And it's interesting to see a new group of pitchers this year. Of course you've got Wilson and Romo, and Merkin Valdez is finally back from the minors and the DL. But other than them, the bullpen consists of two offseason free agent signings and two spring training walk-ons. Outstanding relief work this year.

The Infield
Pablo Sandoval had a slow start, but is now having an all-star caliber season. He's really provided the offensive spark that the team desperately needed, and he's easily the team's offensive MVP so far. Just an absoultely electric player. And he's only 22! Bengie Molina has had hot and cold streaks, but he's been good overall. I hope they can keep him around for another year or two until Buster Posey is ready to move up to the big leagues and play full time. Juan Uribe has been as good as you could hope for from a utilityman who came to the team on a minor-league contract. He's been a good hitter off the bench, and he's played well enough to start on several occasions. Edgar Renteria has been passable. Not worth $18.5 mil over two years, but certainly not bad either. 2nd base has been in a state of flux as of late. Manny Burris did an okay job as the opening day starter - not great, but good enough for the most part. But then he fell into an 0-for-27 slump and was subsequently demoted to Fresno to work on his swing. He is still young, after all. Matt Downs started briefly, but is now back in Fresno. That leaves Kevin Frandsen, often considered the heir apparent to the 2nd base spot. He hasn't done much offensively, but he hasn't had a whole lot of opportunities either. I like Travis Ishikawa at first base. His offense isn't gonna turn many heads, but he's gotten a lot better since the beginning of the season. Certainly good enough to get playing time over Rich Aurilia. So hopefully he'll be able to keep hitting decently and things'll work out for him. I'd rather have him getting at-bats than overpaying for half a season of Nick Johnson. And as for Rich Aurilia... well, at this point in his career, he's only suitable as a right-handed pinch hitter. Even then, he's not hitting terribly well. His days are probably numbered in San Francisco.

The Outfield
Aaron Rowand started the year in a slump. Giants fans were starting to write him off as Marvin Benard with a Barry Zito contract. Meanwhile, Bruce Bochy wasn't getting much from the various people he had hitting leadoff. So one night, as a change of pace, he put Rowand in the leadoff spot. And there's been no looking back ever since. Rowand is hitting very well and the Giants finally have a reliable leadoff hitter. Maybe he can stick around after all. Randy Winn has been his usual above-average self. Fred Lewis hit well as the starting left fielder, but he drew more attention for his strikeouts and fielding errors than his on base percentage. Nate Schierholtz was confined to the bench for the first month or two, but has been given a lot more playing time since Lewis started slumping. In his time as a starter, he's been doing pretty good, hitting over .300 for a time. It remains to be seen if he has what it takes to be a solid full-time starter. But hey, at least he's finally getting playing time. Fred Lewis, on the other hand, has been reduced to an afterthought in the past month and a half, left to ride the bench the majority of the time. Fans generally seem to have given up on him, hoping that he can be thrown into a trade package for something decent in return. I personally would like to see Randy Winn traded too, since he's in his mid 30s and his contract is up at the end of the year. But since he's still a fairly good hitter, it would only be worth it to trade him if the Giants can get someone of equal or greater value in return, which I just don't see happening. Also in the outfield are Andres Torres, who's a fine backup, and John Bowker, who was a breakout star for a brief period in 2008 before being sent to AAA until just recently. They can't keep six outfielders on the roster for long, so some kind of shake-up should be happening in the near future.


In summary, the Giants have been a very impressive team this year, playing well above expectations. The pitching is as good or better than everyone had hoped, and the offense has been able to get it going more often than not. However, I'm still uncomfortable with the number of times that they've been blanked by other teams' solid pitching. It's almost like a pattern: they're able to win a few games, either closely or decisively, and then they get shut out or nearly shut out once or twice a week.

I think their biggest question mark right now is second base. If they can trade for a good-hitting, solid-fielding second baseman without giving up too much, I think it would help tremendously. The Pirates' Freddy Sanchez has been linked to the Giants in trade rumors, who I'd totally be in favor of. And their rotation is good, but if Johnson isn't healthy, and if Sanchez does get traded, then suddenly they'll need another reliable starter to fill in the back end of the rotation. And getting a solid long-term outfielder would great, but we still have to see how things shake out in the next few weeks before attempting to make any big moves. It's been an interesting year so far. Hopefully it'll only get better.

Go Giants!