Despite being over .500 (15-14) coming into today's series finale against the Los Angeles Dodgers, much has been stated about the San Francisco Giants' anemic offense.
Granted the Orange & Black are 26th in average, 29th in slugging, 29th in on base percentage, 28th in doubles, 29th in hits, and last in both home runs and runs scored, they are still one game over .500 and in second place in the wide open National League West.
Manny Ramirez has been suspended for 50 games and the Giants have a chance to take two-out-of-three in their only series against their hated rivals while Ramirez serves his suspension.
Now, San Francisco is still without a round tripper from their first-base position, which is primarily a power position in most big league lineups. Travis Ishikawa who has manned the first base position for 22 of the Giants' 29 games this season has hit just .191 with no home runs, only three extra base hits and is slugging an atrocious .250.
The Giants' most consistent hitter over the past two seasons has been their corner outfielder Randy Winn who hit for an even .300 average in 2007 and .306 last season. However so far in 2009, Winn is hitting a dreadful .219 with just two home runs and ten RBI.
Their current lead off hitter Fred Lewis has struck out in over 1/3 of his at-bats and has seen his average drop from .429 (15-35) in his first 11 games to .299 for the season after hitting just .222 (14-63) in his last 18 games.
Lewis has more hits in his first 11 then he has in his past 18, yet we have yet to see the No. 4 outfielder Nate Schierholtz get any extended playing time.
The poor individual offensive numbers don't stop with just those three particular Giants. It would not be fair to forget to acknowledge the highest paid hitter in their lineup. Center fielder Aaron Rowand is hitting .216 with just two home runs and only 12 RBI.
With a lineup struggling as bad as the Giants lineup is right now, one wouldn't be wrong to ask "How in the world is this team over .500?"
However, the reason is because of their pitching and defense. For as bad as the Giants offense has been early on in the season, the pitching staff has been equally good.
The Giants staff ranks sixth in era, fifth in team shutouts, second in hits allowed (only the Dodgers pitchers have allowed fewer hits than the Giants), and eighth in strikeouts.
However those numbers don't do justice to how well the Giants starting rotation has been over the last three weeks. Since April 17, the Giants starters have combined for a 9-4 record, while throwing 125 innings with an era of 2.59.
Combine the quality pitching with a defense ranked 4th in the mlb with a. 989 fielding percentage, and the Giants as a team are a difficult bunch to score against.
Clearly the Giants pitching has been just as advertised before the beginning of the season and should continue to perform at a high level.
However, the offensive numbers listed above are so extremely atrocious, there really is no where to go but up.
Randy Winn and Aaron Rowand are not going to continue hitting in the low .200's, Rowand is a career .281 hitter and Winn is a .287 hitter.
If Travis Ishikawa doesn't start to swing the bat better over the next week or so, the Giants will most likely start playing Sandoval at first and giving the majority of Ishikawa's reps to Juan Uribe at third who will definitely put up some home runs as he has averaged 18 homers a season for his career.
Fred Lewis' strikeout numbers are bound to come down from the near 35 percent clip so far on this season as last year he struck out in only 26 percent of his at-bats over a full season. But if the strikeout totals don't come down, the Giants have a very competent replacement in Nate Schierholtz who is chomping at the bit to be an every day player.
The fact is, there is reason to believe that the Giants offense will start to pick up the slack as the season moves on and the weather heats up. And if the offense doesn't improve to the point where Giants General Manager Brian Sabean feels it should be, don't be surprised if the Giants make a splash at the trade deadline to bring in a prime hitter.
The Giants are deep in the minor leagues with talent all over the place including an extremely lethal group of minor league pitchers. Sabean will have plenty of options come July to improve the Giants offense for the stretch run.
However for the time being, Giants fans ought to have a little faith.
Despite the lack of offensive prowess, the Giants are playing quality baseball and more often than not are scoring just enough runs. In games where the Giants pitchers allow four runs or less, the Giants are 13-3.
Remember, Brian Sabean has engineered some quality moves in his past, bringing in Jeff Kent and Jason Schmidt to name a couple.
Forget about the AJ Pierzynski trade, forget about Armando Benitez and have faith that if the Giants can hover around .500 and are still within striking distance of the Dodgers, that Sabean will make a move to jump start the offense.
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