San Francisco Giants: Time to Blow Up the Whole Thing Before It's Too Late

Tonight the San Francisco Giants won their second game in a row. Doesn't sound that impressive does it? Especially considering you're talking about the defending World Series champs.  

How long has it been since the Giants won two in a row? I'm glad you asked. It was August 13-14 vs. Florida Marlins. Prior to that the last time San Francisco won two in a row was July 27-28 vs. the Philadelphia Phillies. That surprised even me, a Giants fanatic, when I looked it up.  Yes, things have been very dismal by the shores of McCovey Cove.

The reason the Giants are losing is simple; the Giants have virtually no offense. Even tonight when they eked out a 2-1 win on the night that rookie Eric Surkamp made a spectacular major league debut, it took 10 innings to score two runs.

Their very first run came in the first inning, meaning they had an eight inning scoring drought in the middle of the game. The Giants had a grand total of five hits. Jeff Keppinger has driven in three of the Giants' four runs in the last two days. Four runs in two games and five in three games against a Houston Astros staff that has a team ERA of 4.58, 29th in all of baseball.

Who are the culprits? Some are the obvious suspects, but not all of the ones you'd expect. Aubrey Huff has had a better August, although he's slumped lately.

Check out these August averages for six Giants hitters:

Miguel Tejada .158
Cody Ross .179
Aaron Rowand .163
Chris Stewart .152
Eli Whiteside .235
Andres Torres .185

For the record, Mark DeRosa was at .182 prior to his hit, steal and scoring the winning run tonight. That boosted him to .250, however he had done a lot of nothing prior to tonight's game.

It's time for Brian Sabean and Bruce Bochy to blow some things up. Bench the under-performers. Scour the wavier wires and the minor league system and bring in some fresh blood wherever possible.

First, DeRosa should be thanked for his help with this win and sent packing. He's done. The man has had a nice career, but it's time to take his weak wrist and retire.

Andres Torres will be given yet another chance tomorrow when he comes off the disabled list. Why? I don't know.  

It probably has more to do with him being the feel good story of 2010. He hasn't performed well all year for this team, hitting .228 with a .314 OBP and only three homers and 14 RBI's. That as compared to his breakout year in 2010, when he hit .268 with an OBP of .343 plus 16 homers and 63 RBI's.  

Granted he's been injured much of the year and only played in 85 games, but when he has been in the lineup, he's been ineffective. He is now excess baggage. Send him to the minors where he belongs.

The Giants catching situation is a mess offensively. It's like having two pitchers in the lineup, or should I say nine at times. Eli Whiteside and Chris Stewart aren't getting it done at the plate, despite the fact they are doing a nice job handling the pitchers.  

With the exception of Tim Lincecum's starts (where Timmy has expressed a strong preference for Chris Stewart), the Giants should bring up Hector Sanchez and stick him in the lineup every non-Lincecum start.You don't mess with Lincecum's catchers, the Giants have learned that the hard way (see August 2010). Sanchez came up, had a pinch RBI single and was never heard from again. Send Whiteside to Fresno for a week to make room for Sanchez.

Aaron Rowand shouldn't be playing at all, except for some pinch hitting duty and late game defense, if the Giants choose to keep him on the roster. He has regressed terribly this month and has been useless.

Cody Ross needs to sit and possibly even be released if the Giants need room for another outfielder, possibly even Francisco Peguero or Brett Pill, unless they can acquire someone in a trade.

Yes, he was the hero of the post season. Edgar Renteria was also a hero and you see where that got him.

There was a lot of hope for Ross after the post season. But he hasn't lived up to it at all. He's hitting a paltry .231, well below his career average of .261. His career OBP of .322 is average at best. He strikes out 21 percent of the time, which is high.

Miguel Tejada has been a disaster from day one. He can't play shortstop anymore at the major league level (someone break that to Bruce Bochy and Tejada please) and is hardly hitting his weight. He used to be a good player, but he isn't anymore. Tejada should retire. Cut him loose. Bring up Brandon Crawford, who has picked it up offensively since going to Fresno.

The San Francisco Giants need to make some serious and uncomfortable moves prior to September 1st, which precedes by one day the big series against the first place Arizona Diamondbacks on Friday. If they don't, then nothing will change. Unless Bruce Bochy and Brian Sabean think the same guys who have made up the worst hitting team in baseball through 133 games will magically start hitting the final 29 games.

The old saying goes, the true sign of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result.  Running the same guys out there night after night and expecting them to do something different is just that: insane.

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