San Francisco Giants Must Acquire Dan Uggla and Andruw Jones

(Photo by Nick Laham/Getty Images)

Coming off a successful road trip and a three game sweep against the Oakland Athletics, the Giants' spirits were running high. 

Suddenly, the offense doesn't seem to be a problem.  The Giants bullpen was stellar.  First it was Tim Lincecum, then Matt Cain went the distance against the A's. 

I fell for it.  The Giants fell for it.

Three days later, the Giants fell back to Earth.  The Giants put out Zito, Sanchez, and Lincecum.  Three days later, the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim had swept the Giants. 

Now, the Giants face the AL West leader, Texas Rangers.

The issue does not seem to be the pitching, but rather, it is the hitters that are dooming the Giants' pitching staff.

As of June 18, General Manager Brian Sabean had not decided if they will be buyers or sellers at the trade deadline. 

The Giants are currently one and a half games behind in the National League Wild Card playoff chase—behind two power hitting teams, the St. Louis Cardinals and the New York Mets, who have yet to hit their stride this season. 

The Giants are also eight and a half games behind the National League-leading Los Angeles Dodgers.  Let me remind you, folks, the power bat of Manny Ramirez comes back in little more than two weeks. 

On July 3, the Dodgers will get Manny Ramirez back. Not to mention, they currently hold the best record in the Majors—without Manny Ramirez.

Brian Sabean's indecisiveness could have affected the potential trades for Dan Uggla. 

Sabean refused to trade Sanchez during the offseason. While the southpaw owns a 2-7 record and a 5.43 ERA through 12 games started, his strikeout to walk ratio had ballooned up to a 3/2 ratio. 

Although Sanchez has a high K/IP ratio of 60/61.3, he also owns 61.3 innings in 12 games. The easy math here is, Sanchez averages five innings pitched per game. 

It is safe to say that Jonathan Sanchez is not working out as the Giant's No. 5 starter.  The Giants have decided for the upcoming Monday, they will skip Sanchez's start, and proceed with Tim Lincecum, but there will be a need of a fifth pitcher comes Tuesday. 

Will the Giants send Pucetas, Alderson, or Bumgarner to the mound? 

Leave off Sabean for a bit for his indecisiveness.  Remember during the 2007 offseason when the rumors of Lincecum or Cain for Alex Rios?  Sabean would either be missing a 2008 Cy Young winner, or a 9-1 pitcher for this year.

As far as the bat or bats the fans would love to acquire, who is there for the Giants to trade away? 

The first step is to acquire a power-hitting second baseman.  The Giants have already tried with Emmanuel Burriss, but fine defensive plays at AT&T park does not translate to hitting. 

The solution seems to be Dan Uggla.  The Giants can trade away Randy Winn, who is seemingly a Type-A free agent after the season, and the Marlins would have a compensation draft-pick when Randy gets picked up by another club, or they can use him to fill their void in left field. 

This would enable them to move Hanley Ramirez down from the lead-off spot, and put him as a clean-up hitter. 

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