Almost There

The San Francisco Giants may be the winningest MLB franchise of all time (percentage wise, the Yankees have the most World Series but they have had some truly awful stretches in history). This season is not going to be one of those years that add to that claim though.

The Giants are struggling without Barry Bonds. This was not a surprise. As much as he was a huge distraction in the locker room, he was almost a guarantee to get on base or drive home a few runs every game. These days AT&T Park is seeing what happens when a huge star, no matter how controversial, leaves. The big signing of Aaron Rowand has done little to fill the crater left in Bonds’ wake.

It is not that Rowand has been bad. He is having a solid season, still not worth the nearly $10 million a year the Giants are paying him though. He and catcher Bengie Molina are the only thing keeping the offense from landing in last place in all of Major League Baseball.

Randy Winn is doing his best to spark offense, but he has never been an utterly dominant hitter despite being a complete player. The Giants hitters are not as bad as the Padres though. Ray Durham, Fred Lewis, and Rich Aurilia are solid hitters that are keeping the offense afloat with tons of singles. If anything, San Francisco is proving that a team full of contact hitters is not going to win it all. The pitching has been anything but stellar this year. Tim Linecum has been a tremendous starting pitcher and a good amount of the bullpen is steady, but the rest of the starting rotation (Jonathan Sanchez, Matt Cain, Barry Zito, and whoever is the fifth starter at time) has been a disaster. It is hard for a team that cannot score to win games when the starting pitchers are giving the game away in the first three innings. The Giants may in third place in the National League West right now, but that is not saying much when they are barely edging out the Padres and the Rockies. That is a small victory that will not end in a huge demand for World Series tickets. San Francisco ticket brokers must be wondering what they are going to do this summer. Although the great whether on the West Coast is still a good reason to catch a game at AT&T Park.