NL West

The San Francisco Giants made short work of the Atlanta Braves in the National League Divisional Series.  Tim Lincecum and his teammates gave Braves manager Bobby Cox a rude farewell, winning the series three games to one.

Their reward?  They get to play the Philadelphia Phillies, who swept the Cincinnati Reds in their first round match-up.

But, that series won't start for a couple days, so let's take a look at five players who played key roles in the Giants' first round victory.

Are the 2010 San Francisco Giants the new "Atlanta Braves" of the 90s and early 2000's? 

Maybe. Think about these:

1.) Buster Posey could potentially be the Giants' version of "Chipper Jones."

2.) Tim Lincecum could potentially be the Giants' version of "John Smoltz."

3.) Matt Cain could potentially be the Giants' version of "Gred Maddux."

With all of the changes to the Arizona Diamondbacks over the past two years, several good resources that have been made available to pursue other opportunities. Now it seems other teams are in a position to make changes themselves and are reaching out to these former Diamondbacks employees. I thought it might be interesting to see who is interviewing where.

San Francisco Giants Vs. Atlanta Braves: Game 3 Live Blog

Bennett Spector here, live-blogging all of the action from today's NLDS Game 3. Join me for 9 innings of playoff baseball LIVE from the ATL. Hummmmm baby!

Read more MLB news on BleacherReport.com

Such is the masochistic pleasure of being a Giants fan. The only thing we enjoy doing more is pouring liquid rooter on ourselves or watching old reruns of “How I Met Your Mother.”

I love me some pain.  

This article is going to be more of a blog post than an article since I was talking on the telephone for the first five innings of the game.

Here are some of my exact thoughts as the game took place.

Cain in trouble. Gets strong and gets out of it.

Sanchez base hit. Nice. Huff strikes out, he's really not locked in.

[Girl continues to chatter.]

Burrell yanks one. Holy sh*$! It's outta here! Yes!! Yes!

[fist pumps in air]

The Atlanta Braves couldn't get anything started against the San Francisco Giants' vaunted pitching staff, so the home-standing Gents took an admittedly unorthodox approach.

They decided to start the Bravos' offense themselves—not the wisest thing to do for your World Series aspirations, but it sure makes for an exciting night of baseball.

And another significant challenge for emerging southpaw Jonathan Sanchez.

Rumors of Milwaukee Brewers first baseman Prince Fielder being traded to the San Francisco Giants are nothing new. In fact, Fielder to the Giants has been talked about in both Milwaukee and San Francisco for a couple years now. However, the time for talk is over. The Brewers and Giants need to come together this winter and make a deal for the All-Star slugger.

Those of you that are regular readers of this space know my opinion on drafting pitchers early: With so many players that impact your team on a daily basis, it is hard for me to draft ones that only take the ball once every five days.

Last night was the most dominating playoff performance by a Giants starting pitcher possibly ever.

Complete game, two hits, 14 strikeouts.

It was only Lincecum's second complete game of the season. He also matched a career high in strikeouts. He struggled a bit in the first inning but figured it out after that.

Lincecum seemed to be overly excited and gave up a leadoff double to the Braves' Omar Infante. The double seemed to settle him down and Timmy was able to pitch his game.

He was in complete control.