Edgar Renteria

MLB rumors continue to heat up the hot stove—or at least New York City—as we inch closer and closer to February.

And that magical date when pitchers and catchers report.

Around baseball, it's actually been a somewhat quiet offseason for player movement. No free agents of note have signed, with the exception of the reports that former Yankee Javier Vasquez will sign with Florida.

But not even the much-coveted Jayson Werth and Carl Crawford have been in the news as much as Derek Jeter's very public contract talks with the Yankees have been.

The San Francisco Giants are looking to rebuild the left side of their infield after winning the world series with a combo of Edgar Renteria at short and Juan Uribe at third base.

Game 2 of the 2010 World Series belonged to Edgar Renteria, Matt Cain and the San Francisco Giants from start to finishing Thursday.

Cain tossed a scoreless gem in 7 2/3 innings of work to vault himself into some historic company, extending his consecutive scoreless innings streak to 21 1/3 innings.

But it was the 35 year-old shortstop from Columbia who absolutely stole the show.

The Giants have a magic number of one.

The only way the Giants do not win the division is for the struggling Padres to win four in a row against San Francisco.

What I am trying to say is that it's over.

For those who have commented on my articles, I will say it: I was wrong. But I did say the Giants would win the division at the beginning of the season.

With just a few weeks left in the 2010 baseball season, teams will begin to rest players down the stretch, unless their division won't be decided until the last few days.

For those that have their division well in hand, days off will help their most productive players get ready for another month of baseball.

It won't be a easy stretch and not having those players could be detrimental to any World Series chances.

Here are 10 players that need to be healthy for their teams to make a legitimate October run.

Down 4-0 by the fifth inning, the Giants did not throw in the towels. Not one bit.

Matt Cain settled down and threw shutout innings in the fifth, sixth, and seventh for a final line of 7 IP, 4 ER, 7 H, 1 BB, 6 K.

Thanks to Marty Lurie of KNBR, I got the idea to write just how good the Giants are and how well certain players are performing compared to previous seasons.
As August begins, the Giants begin a difficult two months to catch the first place Padres. Starting off the second half going 8-1 in the division and 13-4 overall, they're the hottest team in baseball. Giants' players are peaking at the right time and this team is having fun again as they fight for a post-season berth.

It's been an incredible year so far, and fans have a lot to look forward to in the coming months.

Fireworks were bursting in the air as we celebrated Independence Day, but they weren't coming from these players.  Here's a list of those who slumped the most last week:

Bruce Bochy hasn't done anything differently from the San Francisco Giants' fast start in April to the roller-coaster ride that got them spiraling downward in a seven-game losing streak.

Bochy didn't make Tim Lincecum, oddly, less dominating. The manager didn't have anything to do with Pablo Sandoval's struggle at the plate. The bullpen many like to insist he mismanages really just isn't very good.

There's no reason to fire Bochy, unless you believe in momentum and chemistry and "shaking things up in the clubhouse."

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.