San Francisco Giants: How to Fix Their Hitting Woes

Lately the Giants have been hitting much better. Not coincidentally, they have also been winning more games. Prior to yesterday's loss to the Milwaukee Brewers, the Giants had won eight of their last 11. 

In those 11 games the Giants averaged almost five runs a game—a far cry from what the Giants had been scoring.  

With the Giants pitching, five runs will win a good deal of the time. In fact, when the Giants have scored five runs, they have won 11-of-14 games! 

But there are still many games where the Giants offense gets shut down. In the 28 games they have scored four or less, they are 10-18. And when the Giants score three or less, they've only won 1-of-13! 

So, because of some shaky relief pitching, Tim Lincecum's struggles and defensive issues, the Giants have had to score more runs to win. Whether these issues will continue to hurt the Giants is anyone's guess. 

The bottom line is that the Giants need to score more runs to win consistently. 

The rallying cry from the fans is to go out and get a big bat, which is easier said than done. First of all, the Giants have little to trade, with a farm system that's already thin. 

If you look at the Giants position players and project ahead a couple of weeks when Pablo Sandoval returns, they're not in that bad of shape. 

With Sandoval at third, an improving Brandon Crawford at short, the surprising Joaquin Arias at second and an outfield of Angel Pagan, Gregor Blanco and Melky Cabrera, things aren't too bad at all. 

I didn't mention the Giants' leading RBI man Buster Posey for a reason. I'll get to that in a bit. 

Where the Giants are hurting the most right now is the offensive production coming out of the first base position. With Brandon Belt getting the lion's share of the playing time and Brett Pill playing against lefties, the Giants first basemen are collectively hitting .257 with three home runs and 20 RBI.

Giants first basemen rank 23rd in offense in the majors. By the way, all of those homers and nine of the RBI come from Pill. If you take Buster Posey out of the equation, Pill and Belt are only hitting a combined .219 for the year (including some outfield play and pinch-hitting duties). 

In the next couple of weeks, if Belt doesn't get hot or if Pill isn't given a chance to take his place, a change will need to be made. The Giants can't continue to get so little offensive production from a position such as first base. 

The most logical thing to do would be to install Hector Sanchez as the everyday catcher and move Posey to first base. 

Sanchez has not only been very impressive in limited action as a batter, but his defensive skills are improving every single day. Sanchez is hitting .290 with two homers and 16 RBI. His RBI total is good enough for third on the team, despite the fact he only has 69 at-bats. Posey has 23 RBI in 140 at-bats. 

That means that Sanchez has a .23 RBI for every at-bat, while Posey is at .16. 

Of course, I'm not saying Sanchez is a better hitter than Posey, but the kid can swing the bat. It's possible when he's exposed and scouted more that the league will adjust to him, but it's certainly worth a shot on a team that needs more offense. 

Sanchez could be that "big bat" the Giants have been looking for. 

Now I'm sure this wouldn't go over real well with Buster, but he would do it for the good of the team. And the advantages to Buster are obvious. He can play more games at first base. He'll be less fatigued and there will be much less of a strain on his healing left leg. 

It's been obvious that Buster has been out of gas at times this year, and he seems to be favoring that bad leg. A move to another position is inevitable. If the Giants are going to improve offensively, now may be the time.

I know that Posey had some defensive issues at first earlier in the year, and that the Giants will lose some defense with him there instead of Belt or Pill, but Buster is a great athlete. He will learn fast, especially if that's his position every day. He will become a good defensive first baseman. He has all of the tools.

It's more than worth it having Sanchez in your lineup as opposed to Belt or Pill. The overall offensive production should pick up considerably. 

Every time Hector gets into a game he makes his presence known. He has two game-winning hits for the Giants this season. Yesterday he hit a three-run double that got the Giants back into the game. 

Of course, a healthy Freddy Sanchez would be great for the Giants as well, but so far that hasn't been in the cards. Until I see Freddy at second base in the Giants lineup, we have to forget about him. Arias has made that much easier to do with his hitting and fielding prowess. 

So with Hector Sanchez behind the plate, Posey at first and Pablo back at third, this is what the Giants lineup could look like in a couple of weeks: 

Blanco 

Crawford

Sandoval

Posey

Cabrera

Sanchez

Pagan

Arias

Pitcher 

Not a bad lineup, huh? 

Of course, if Blanco struggles, then Nate Schierholtz could get another long look, but Nate just hasn't looked right for many games in a row this year. He could be trade bait along with Belt and, of course, Huff (if anybody wants him).  

At the trade deadline the Giants may go out and get another outfielder and perhaps a middle infielder. 

Bruce Bochy and Brian Sabean have to keep making changes and use out-of-the-box thinking (something Bochy always seems to have a rough time with) for this team to get back into contention in the NL West. The Los Angeles Dodgers lead is now seven games, just past the one-quarter point in the season. That is the largest division lead in baseball, and that's after the Giants' recent run.

It's time to make things happen, or the Giants will go into the All-Star Break with virtually no chance to win this division.