San Francisco Giants

These athletes may be dominating their respective sports, but if they were actors they likely couldn't get a call-back for Freddie got Fingered.

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Dear SF Giants Offense,

We're writing this letter to express our deep concerns over a growing team problem: good offense.

In 2010, the Giants' offense has scored less than three runs accordingly:

April: 9/26  34 percent.
May: 11/28  39 percent.
June: 1/12  8 percent. 

The offense is currently riding an 11 game streak of scoring three runs or more.

Before we dive in, let us remind you since the departure of Barry Bonds, we have become accustomed to sluggish inconsistent limp offenses.

I plan to write a more thorough run-down of the Giants’ minor league performers around the All-Star break, but I thought I’d give you a few of the highlights at the moment.

AAA Fresno Grizzlies: Now that John Bowker is safely back at AAA and playing every day, he’s thumping the ball again.  After eight games, he’s hitting .382 with a 1.023 OPS.

The current conventional wisdom is that the AL is the better of the two major leagues.  The Giants seem to be taking advantage of this fact.

Aubrey Huff, Juan Uribe, Pat Burrell, and Santiago Casilla are all AL cast-offs who seem to have rediscovered their old glory coming (or returning) to the NL.  In the case of Burrell and Casilla, in particular, the sample sizes are too small to draw any firm conclusions.  However, even with them, the changes have been so dramatic that they’re worth commenting on.

Ever since the Giants parted ways with Barry Bonds in 2008, wait check that, ever since the last couple seasons of Bonds's career, the San Francisco Giants simply couldn't score runs.

From 2006-2009, the Giants lived and died with their pitching staff. And prior to 2009, they did nothing but die with their pitching staff because in each of the previous four seasons, San Francisco finished under .500.

But then came 2009, and the Giants pitching staff put together one of the best seasons a staff has ever had.

If you talk to any Giants fan this year, they'll probably talk to you about Aaron Rowand's dismal slump, the equally underwhelming season by Bengie Molina, and the slight concern about franchise players Tim Lincecum and Pablo Sandoval and their sub-par seasons.

You'll hear stories about the lack of opportunity for young guys like Nate Schierholtz and John Bowker and the clamoring for youngsters like Buster Posey and Madison Bumgarner.

And, as always, you'll hear plenty of criticism for San Francisco general manager Brian Sabean and manager Bruce Bochy.

As the Giants head home to face the Oakland Athletics, they look back on a solid roadtrip with a 4-3 record. However, many Giants players and fans saw 5-2 in their sights. However, the weak teams sit and wallow, the strong strive to learn and correct, especially one looking at a possible run to the playoffs. And a lot can be learned from a successful, yet disappointing trip.

Usually, as the weather starts to warm up around the country, so does baseball season. Division races become a little more solid, and the cream of the crop is starting to rise above the bottom of the barrel. 

In the Bay Area, the situation is as it always is.

The American and National League West divisions are bunched together, with all of the teams seemingly within a nice winning streak of first place (except for last-place Arizona, who recently rattled off a 10-game losing streak and now stands 11.5 back of first place San Diego).

As the Giants prepared to finish their three-game series in Pittsburgh yesterday, 54 games were in the book. Their record was 29-25, and at the one-third point of the season, it's easy to do the math. If they continue to play at this pace, they can expect to be 12 games over .500, or 87-75.

Much like last year.

Which is to say good ... but not good enough.

In an NL West now characterized by the surprising Padres, the resilient Dodgers, and the Ubaldo-led Rockies, 87 wins will fall short of first and will probably not lead to a wild card spot.