San Francisco Giants

The San Francisco Giants enter the last week before the Major League Baseball trade deadline three games behind the San Diego Padres in the National League West. The Giants have so far won on the heels of their tremendous starting rotation, but there are other pieces needed if the Giants are to return to the postseason. Those pieces? Bats.

Rivalries have always played a huge role in sports, and we all know the fun in rooting against a team we hate.

In the past, rivals have been compared in a number of ways, from who has the best current team to who has won the most championships to who has the best fans.

San Francisco Giants fans who have spent Bruce Bochy's entire tenure as manager calling him names and blaming him for much of what troubles the club have to step back now.

The Giants rallied from a 5-1 deficit to beat the Dodgers, in Los Angeles, 7-5 on Tuesday night. Bochy deserves credit for putting a club that has done everything right since the All-Star break in position to come back, then win.

When you take a look at the Giants organization, from top to bottom, they're arguably one of the best in baseball. In fact, in 2009, they were the best in terms of overall organizational record. 

Four of the six Giants affiliates made the postseason (San Jose, Fresno, Augusta, Salem-Keizer), and two of those four won their respective league titles (San Jose Giants, Salem-Keizer Volcanoes). 

Brandon Belt has been on the radar of die-hard San Francisco Giants fans since the start of the season when he established himself, at least statistically, as the best hitter in the entire organization.

What's hard to believe is that the guy can sustain his amazing performance because it just is never done much past high school and to a lesser extent college.

As Giants fans know, F. P. Santangelo is the Giants’ fifth radio/TV announcer.  He provides “color” when the team needs a fifth announcer, which doesn’t happen all that often since Jon Miller, Dave Fleming, Mike Krukow, and Duane Kuiper can usually handle both radio and TV on any given date.

For the second straight game, the Mets got shut out by the Giants—this time 1-0 at AT&T Park.

Barry Zito pitched an absolute gem, one which may have even been better then Tim Lincecum’s start yesterday.

The Mets lineup seemed lost without Jose Reyes and Angel Pagan . It was a Mets lineup that featured Jeff Francoeur as the five hitter, Ruben Tejada as the leadoff man, and Jason Bay hitting second.

As the San Francisco Giants open up the second half of the 2010 season with a 2-0 victory over the New York Mets on Thursday, the rumors of trading for a big bat still grabbed more attention.

Whether it is more talk about Milwaukee Brewers' outfielder Corey Hart, Kansas City Royals' outfielder Jose Guillen, or even what the minor league signing of pitcher Dontrelle Willis' means to trading for a bat, the buzz about the Giants is centering around improving the offense.

The guy who looks like the Giants’ top prospect is at Class A Augusta, 20-year-old right-handed starter Jorge Bucardo, who has slumped the last two weeks.  His ERA has risen to 2.38, although he allowed only one run in seven innings pitched on Wednesday.

In some recess of his or her brain, every San Francisco Giants fan is thinking the same thing now that Dontrelle Willis has signed a Minor League contract with the club.

Does this mean someone in the current rotation is on his way out?

It's natural.

Although rookie Madison Bumgarner's name has popped up on the trade radar, it's doubtful the Gents would be interested in moving the 20-year-old lefty, given he's twirled a quartet of blinders since being called up at the end of June.