San Francisco Giants

There isn't a Major League Baseball franchise with any interest in dealing talent in return for John Bowker, Travis Ishikawa and Nate Schierholtz. Here are some other thoughts as trade deadline talks begin...

Forget Oswalt

Take a peek at the San Francisco Giants' active roster and you'll see a curious thing. You'll see Pablo Sandoval and Buster Posey checking in at a green 23 years of age—the Kung Fu Panda's birthday is coming up in August whereas Gerald Demp the Third just had his in March.

There's also newbie reliever Dan Runzler, who's recently turned a grizzled 25.

We Giants fans have seen a number of wild, yet successful, closers in the past 20 years.

With Rod Beck's curly locks flowing from behind his head in a mullet-type of hair style, he gathered 199 saves in his seven years as a Giant, becoming the greatest closer in the franchise's history and an instant fan favorite.

Shortly after, a man took that honor from Beck when he played for the Giants from 1998 to 2002, raising the bar and putting up 206 saves in a Giants uniform. That man goes by the name of Robb Nen. 

The second place San Francisco Giants are good enough to win the National League West as is.

Yes, with a pitching staff that features two Cy Young candidates, nobody is denying that.

But to make a serious run in the post-season, the Giants are going to need some additional help.

Ranked No. 19 in home runs and No. 24 in runs batted in, San Francisco can't continue to expect flawless pitching from its staff.

Offering opinions in print, particularly on the Internet, curses the writer to be haunted by his opinions forever.

Oh, it must be nice to be in the electronic media where you can offer an opinion and have it just disappear into thin air.

It's hard to deny having opined that the San Francisco Giants would finish 75-87 once the opinion appears in print. Say it on TV or radio and ... "Well, I mentioned that they COULD potentially finish 75-87, but I think I made a bit larger point and, really, I'm not surprised to see them in the thick of the NL West race."

**First of all, this is the first time I' ve had the chance to write an article in a while. An electrical fire took out the internet to my building for the past week. But the show must go on.**

In the last couple weeks, the Giants have seen an addition to the way they play baseball.

No, it wasn't Buster Posey, although he's been great since he got here. It wasn't Pat Burrell either, even if he has contributed to the party a little bit.

Still guessing?

In the world of sports, there are no absolutes. Especially in baseball, absolutes simply don't exist.

Home runs are ruled as ground rule doubles, perfect games are ruined by wrong calls, and strikes are called balls.

Leave the absolutes to the sciences (and vodka, I guess?).

But with baseball? Everything is open for evaluation and change.

Unfortunately, the San Francisco Giants have a personnel team that believes in absolute untouchables.

Or at least they will tell you that is what they believe in.

Almost as surely as flowers bloom in the spring, great young hitters slump in their second full seasons in the major leagues.  Well, maybe not with that much certainty, but it’s probably more common than not, particularly if you include a few spill-over stars who slumped significantly in their third (Chipper Jones in 1997) or fourth full seasons (Barry Bonds in 1989).

Even after absorbing Tuesday's loss to the visiting Baltimore Orioles, the San Francisco Giants are humming along now that May is but a memory.

Since the calendar flipped to June, the Gents (quick note—I don't care that the New York nickname was Gints and neither does anyone else in the Bay Area) are 9-5. If you include the last five games of a mediocre preceding month, San Francisco is 13-6.

So things are good for the baseball-conscious in the City.

Nevertheless, there are three glaring and potentially enduring problems with the club.

Home run records holder and alleged steroid user Barry Bonds, earned a major win Friday when a federal appeals court ruled prosecutors could not use drug tests and doping calendars in the former All-Star's ongoing perjury case. 

Bonds' case went to the ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals after a lower court ruled the government could not directly tie blood and urine samples to the retired slugger.