San Francisco Giants Culprits During Slow Start

Despite their winning record and second-place standing, the San Francisco Giants still seem as though they haven't hit their groove.

In previous years (including their 2010 championship year), problems always revolved around a lack of offense.

The 2012 Giants, though, rank in the middle of the league offensively—a relative improvement!

So why has the record not reflected the offensive improvement?

Timmy

The two-time Cy Young winner hasn't started the season with his usual stuff.

It has gotten to the point where fans are questioning whether or not he is still the ace of the staff; particularly with the reemergence of "veteran" Matt Cain and eye-popping stats of up-and-coming Madison Bumgarner. 

Currently, Lincecum is the only Giants starting pitcher with a losing record.

The pressure is on for Lincecum to produce results after both Cain and Bumgarner inked long-term deals in April and have been thriving since.

Regardless of the cause for Lincecum's struggles, he isn't performing the way Giants fans have grown accustomed to, and for the Giants to win the division, they need Lincecum performing better.

Although it'd be nice to have the dominant Lincecum of old, most would settle for just a consistently victorious Lincecum.

Injuries

Freddy Sanchez began the year on the DL. That happens in sports--veterans who you'd like to rely on for a day-to-day basis get old. Hopefully he can provide a spark to a weak middle infield after the All-Star break. This is an injury that Giants management has known about since June though, so either they felt no need to address it, or they decided to sacrifice it. Regardless, as nice as the Crawford/Burriss/Pill trio has been for the Giants, they were all in the minors last year. Now, the Giants are feeling the growing pains, and worst of all, they are occurring simultaneously.

When iconic closer Brian Wilson underwent his second Tommy John surgery in April though, it was the first of two unexpected midseason injuries the Giants had to deal with. When Wilson went down, the strength of the bullpen was tested again, and Santiago Casilla has stepped up in the closer role and kept the bullpen on track.

The most detrimental injury this year though occurred in early May, when Pablo Sandoval broke a bone in his left hand. Sandoval, who was arguably the teams greatest offensive weapon, started the season hot with a 20-game hitting streak looking to repeat his All-Star 2011 season. After the injury, the Giants were then forced to call up Joaquin Arias adding more youth to the aforementioned young infield.

As the calendar flips to June, the Giants hope to get their true everyday guys back in the lineup to overtake the rival Dodgers.

Dodgers Won Again?

As if the playoff successes of the Lakers/Kings/Clippers weren't enough, the Los Angeles Dodgers currently maintain the the best record in baseball. 

Will the Giants eventually catch up the Dodgers? Yes.

Baseball is cyclical in this manner, because over the 162-game season, "rebuilding" teams often fall by the wayside in September.

It's unlikely the Dodgers will ride the Magic Johnson momentum to an NL West pennant, but until they begin to falter, the Giants have to keep looking up.

Over their last 10 games, the Giants have gone 6-4, only to lose two games in the standings! It is discouraging to constantly feel seven games behind in the standings, and it is a feeling and mentality that can affect a team's play.

Until the Dodgers begin losing, though, the Giants are going to be in second place—enjoy it, LA.