San Francisco Giants

The Giants are in rebuilding mode, and the team is winning.  Now is the time for a push for the playoffs and moving forward next year.  I understand Bochy will probably keep trying different players at various positions, but now that the Giants have proven they are playoff contenders, the lineup now is good.  With the players they have now, here is a suggested starting lineup:

C: Molina (Whiteside has proven a good backup until Buster Posey comes up).

1B: Ishikawa—Great defense, offense is picking up.

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Why don’t the San Francisco Giants lock up ace Tim Lincecum to a long-term contract?

Since the end of his 2008 Cy Young campaign, I have been answering the above question to more people that I can remember. 

Now, with another stellar season almost halfway done, and with Lincecum among the leaders in almost every pitching category, that question is once again finding its way into many a conversation.

For the first time since 2005, the San Francisco Giants have a chance to be in the playoff race down to the final week of the season.

Players like Pablo Sandoval, Nate Schierholtz, Sergio Romo, and Ryan Sadowski have seemingly come out of nowhere to be major contributors to the NL Wild Card leading San Francisco Giants.

Combine the surprising young studs with the savvy 1-2 punch of aces Tim Lincecum and Matt Cain, the Giants have a core group that may end up taking the team to the playoffs.

Before I begin, let me plainly state as clearly as possible, I hope I'm dead wrong about this.

My beloved San Francisco Giants are two full games up in the National League Wild Card race and only seven games behind the division and MLB-leading Los Angeles Dodgers.

However, for as much credit as General Manager Brian Sabean should receive for not trading away his prime prospects, there should be just as much ridicule for the increasingly irritating game-to-game decisions.

Since the end of the 2006 season, San Francisco Giants' general manager Brian Sabean has found himself on the hot seat.

In that time span, the Giants have not won more than 76 games, and have consistently been a non-factor in the National League West.

To make matters worse, it doesn't help Sabean's case that every team in the division has made a playoff appearance in that time span except for the Giants.

It has been a long seven years since the Giants were one inning away from winning a World Series title, and the fans haven't been too happy about it.

The Giants sit seven and a half games out of first place and hold the lead of the wild card.

They have 44 wins with seven games left before the All-Star Break.

Did anybody expect them to be here? If anybody says yes, they are lying to you and themselves.

Pablo Sandoval has been more than advertised and Tim Lincecum has been his Cy Young-self again. Not to mention Matt Cain has started to show the potential we all knew he had.

For those of you who haven't heard, the 2009 San Francisco Giants are built on pitching and for the most part, their pitching has been nothing but dominant.

Both the starting rotation and bullpen have been rock-solid all season long, but not without their fare share of weak spots.

One of those weak spots was recently replaced when rookie pitcher Ryan Sadowski took over the fifth spot in the rotation from a struggling Jonathan Sanchez.

1. Tim Lincecum

He is the best pitcher the Giants have had since Jason Schmidt. Lincecum is 9-2 with a 2.23 ERA this season.

This Cy Young winner is on track to start the All Star Game in St. Louis. Fans love watching him strike out batter after batter and he makes all the Filipino fans in the Bay Area proud of him.