The first stage of the San Francisco Giants 2011 season is skidding sideways in a puddle of errors, an epidemic of hitting slumps, and embarrassing slapdowns by a series of mediocre opposition starters. Not helping are the snickering references to the stale "Giants baseball-- torture" soundbite from 2010, which is totally out of touch with what's going on with this team. The only current "torture" comes from the local radio sportstalk dudes and Comcast broadcasters who use that tired phrase as punchline after every loss.

And lately there's been plently of opportunity to drag that dead horse out of the barn.

While the local nine try to find their various MLB mojos, San Francisco Giants rookie Brandon Belt is roaming free in Central California having his way with Triple A pitching and taking no prisoners. After making the starting team out of Spring Training, Belt was sent to the minors with a .192 BA after 17 big league games to work on a hitting issue. That issue was adjusting his swing to properly "square up" on fastballs; so far Belt is punishing fast balls, curve balls and whatever else they're throwing to him in the Pacific Coast League.

Through 9 games Fresno Grizzlies' left fielder Brandon Belt is batting .517:

Games	9		TB	25
ABs	29		BB	8
H	15		SO	8
R	8		SB-CS	3-0
2B	4		OBP	.622
HR	2		OPS	1.484
RBI	10		E	0

When Brandon Belt is called back up to the San Francisco Giants in the next several weeks, he will take over as the everyday left fielder. And it's irresistible not to imagine Belt being this year's Buster Posey-- firing up the offense, improving the defense, and bringing new energy to the team. A tall order and a boatload of expectations to put on a young player; the question is, does he have the tools and mental make-up to take on that role? The answer: absolutely.

The Giants front office faces a difficult task in determining exactly when to bring Belt up from Fresno. The Giants are going through a very bad stretch of baseball right now and the pressure is on to do something/anything to jump-start this team.

How bad of a stretch? In losing 3 of 4 to the Nationals this past weekend, the Giants were shut out twice and scored 4 runs in the four games. Since beating Colorado on April 19th, the Giants have gone 3-8. Virtually the entire line-up is slumping and the loss of Pablo Sandoval's bat has just begun to further impact the faltering offense.

The loss of Sandoval's glove at third has already impacted the defense, as replacement Miguel Tejada continues to play as if he is just about to announce his retirement from baseball. Tejada started the season looking lost at the plate and slow in the field and has continued to regress to the point where the Giants may be forced to also deal with finding an everyday replacement at short.

Tough times. But the promise of Brandon Belt is a positive that will impact this team and, hopefully, the entire National League. 

About ten days ago the Florida Marlins decided they probably would need a Major League third baseman after all. The Fish developed their preferred short list and one name on that list was Mark DeRosa of the San Francisco Giants. Subsequently, DeRosa went on the 15 day DL with an inflamed left wrist-- hardly a deal breaker but it put any further trade discussions on hold.

All in all a pleasant little story until Giants third baseman Pablo Sandoval broke the hamate bone in his right hand last weekend and will be out for up to six weeks.

How big a blow is this to the Giants? Try hugenormous. Sandoval leads the team with a .904 OPS and in total bases with 44; he is tied with Pat Burrell for the team lead in home runs with 5. His fielding improves seemingly week by week: Sandoval leads all NL third basemen in fielding percentage (.988), assists (58), and Range Factor (3.58); his 5 double plays tie him with two other NL third baggers in second place.

To put Sandoval's importance to the team's offense in perspective, the Giants have scored 99 runs so far this season-- good for a tie with the Pittsburgh Pirates at 14th out of 15 NL teams.

But with some luck, the beautiful symmetry of baseball could kick in if...  . If Mark DeRosa comes off the DL in ten days, takes over at third base and goes on an offensive tear. Last year the capable DeRosa was on the sidelines almost all season with injuries as the Giants surged to the World Series. This season, DeRosa looked to be a super back-up along the lines of Juan Uribe. Now the Giants need that super back-up at third and pronto.

As for the Marlins, they are currently 17-9 and a half game behind the Phillies at the top of the NL Eastern Division and they can smell blood in the water: Atlanta has not found traction early on and, despite Philadelphia's dominant starting pitching, a number of their veteran hitters look like they might be more comfortable in a gated retirement community than at home plate.

Florida's top minor league prospect at third, Matt Dominguez, was given a shot at the starting job in Spring Training but didn't hit. The team grudgingly sent Dominguez down to the minors, where an injury promptly sidelined him until July. Now the Marlins are rotating Greg Dobbs, Emilio Bonifacio and Wes Helms at third and are just this side of desperate to find an everyday player at the hot corner. The best possible outcome for the Marlins would be if they can possibly swing a deal with the Texas Rangers to get Michael Young, a longshot that would cost Florida several prime prospects and a large section of downtown Miami.

Mark DeRosa would have been a perfect fit for the Marlins at the right price, but now it's the Giants who are crossing their fingers and plugging in stop gap players like Miguel Tejada and Ryan Rohlinger at third base until DeRosa comes back.

And if the thirty-six year old DeRosa doesn't come back all the way or tanks as an everyday player? Maybe Emilio Bonifacio will still be available...           

ESPN.com columnist Jerry Crasnick reported today that the San Francisco Giants have made it known they are actively shopping outfielder Nate Schierholtz. The Giants have to make a roster move in the next week when starting center fielder Andres Torres comes off the disabled list, and Schierholtz has no minor league options left. The bid to move Schierholtz provides insight into what the Giants are thinking in terms of how their outfield shapes up for the remainder of the first half of the season and beyond.

Schierholtz, 27, has been a late inning defensive replacement in right field for the Giants, a role that may be completely eliminated as the team draws up a long term plan for their 2011 outfield alignment. He's hitting .226 this season, and hit .242 in 227 ABs in 2010. Schierholtz has a .710 OPS over his five year career, and has never been able to put up anything near the offensive power numbers expected from a starting right fielder. 

Two factors are in play here: first, the signing of Cody Ross solved the defense/offense issue that has plagued the Giants in right field for the past six years, during which the front office alternatively settled for a good glove/bad bat solution (Randy Winn, Schierholtz) or a potential power bat/bad glove solution (Jose Guillen, John Bowker, Fred Lewis, Moises Alou).

During late September 2010, and throughout the 2010 playoffs and World Series, Giants' manager Bruce Bochy would start Cody Ross in right field, then late in the game move Ross to left field as a defensive replacement for Pat Burrell, replacing Ross in right with Schierholtz. It worked well at the time, but now everything has changed.

Putting three critical starting line-up issues together may give a clue to how this could all play out: 1) Pat Burrell is a huge defensive liability in left field, and adds best to San Francisco's offense by coming off the bench everyday and maybe starting once a week. 2) Aubrey Huff had a terrible start to the season trying to replace Ross in the outfield, and it appeares to have affected him at the plate. Huff is obviously much more comfortable at first base; in fact, the entire team seems more settled with Huff at first. 3) Highly touted rookie first baseman Brandon Belt has been playing left field for the Triple A Fresno Grizzlies since his demotion last week-- a position Belt has experience playing in his minor league career.

Brandon Belt will be rejoining the Giants sometime in the next month or so, and it will likely not be as the team's starting first baseman. With an outfield of Belt in left, Torres in center, and Ross playing all nine innings in right, the Giants could finally stabilize their outfield for the first time in years.

The rest of the outfield becomes a matter of money. After the front office apparently could not find a buyer for Aaron Rowand and some piece of the $24 million remaining on the final two years of his contract, he appears to be the fourth outfielder by default. A career center fielder, Rowand has grudgingly started to play in both left and right field which adds to his team value; but the Giants should not give up trying to trade Rowand, especially since his hot start at the plate could make him a more attractive buy.   

Speedy 25 year old outfielder Darren Ford is currently on the roster, but even if the decision is made to demote Ford to Triple A Fresno when Torres returns, Schierholtz's days are still numbered with Belt in the wings.

If the Giants hope to get any value for Schierholtz they need to move him now, before it becomes obvious that he no longer fits into the long term outfield scheme. Otherwise Schierholtz could end up being designated for assignment and simply released.

             BASEBALL COMMISSIONER ORDERS FURTHER MLB TAKEOVERS 

NEW YORK-- Following the recent forced takeover of the financially mismanaged Los Angeles Dodgers by Major League Baseball, Commissioner Bud Selig today announced he will immediately institute a number of further takeovers for the good of the game.
 
Effective immediately, an MLB trustee will be appointed to be the new hitting coach for the Oakland As and assume all hitting instructor responsibilities for the team. “Major League Baseball”, stated Selig, “can no longer stand idle as the Oakland As continue to embarrass the sport with a .236 team batting average.”

Selig noted that all other Athletic baseball operations are unaffected “at this time.”

Also announced were two major media moves the Commissioner will make for the good of America’s game.

Selig issued a statement announcing the Major League Baseball takeovers of Chicago White Sox TV and radio media to enforce the removal of Ken “Hawk” Harrelson from all broadcasting duties. In addition, MLB attorneys have filed an injunction to prevent FoxSports TV baseball color commentator Tim McCarver from “ever publicly speaking about the game from this time forward.”

In a statement to the media, Selig stated “these moves were long overdue, and no sane person can argue they aren’t critically important for the future of baseball.”

Selig also warned that Major League Baseball is looking at a number of other oversight moves, including reviewing the amount of allowable rat hairs in the hot dogs at the Mets’ new Citi Field ball yard, and starting each Pittsburgh Pirate season off with a 25 win handicap to “give that franchise a decent chance to have a .500 season for the first time in 19 years."

Commissioner Selig also suggested that Major League Baseball may go beyond the game and take control of all military operations in Afghanistan as well as any future legal prosecutions of Lindsay Lohan and Charlie Sheen. “In fact,” stated a stern Selig, “I may appoint an overseer to assume control of Lohan’s entire life at some point.

“Baseball is part of America,” said Selig, “and we will not sit quietly in the bleachers as our American way of life is threatened and demeaned.”

Selig was unavailable for further comment as he was busy overseeing the move of all MLB administrative operations to a secluded location inside a subterranean complex near Henderson, Nevada.

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At a time when end of the world predictions are as plentiful as No Doze at a Charlie Sheen concert, jittery fans of the San Francisco Giants endured a series of shocking developments during the recent three game set with the Colorado Rockies.

First, the Giants only took two out of three games, which sabermetricians quickly pointed out proves that San Francisco will not go 155-7 this year. Point taken, but it still stings. Luckily, there are 144 regular season games to go; to make my 2011 season prediction of 97 wins, los Gigantes will need to go 87-57 the rest of the way.  I know, I know, that's asking a lot.  

On top of that development, the Giants were repeatedly bitten on the butt by the injury fairy. With Andres Torres (strained left Achilles tendon), Barry Zito (sprained right foot), Cody Ross (calf injury), and Santiago Casilla (inflamed right elbow) already on the DL, the Rockies did their best to expand the Giants' wing of the local emergency room.

In Tuesday's 6-3 Giants' victory, Aaron Rowand caught a 94 MPH fastball on his left forearm, but managed to play the next day; Pablo Sandoval strained his right triceps during batting practice prior to Wednesday's 10-2 loss (but I'm still blaming the Rockies); and an inning after Buster Posey's left wrist got whacked by a swinging bat during that game, he took a fastball foul tip off his mask square in the forehead. Luckily, Posey was OK; he currently leads all MLB catchers with 65 at bats and 14 RBI.  

On the good side, right fielder Cody Ross came off the DL prior to game 3, assuming his permanent job as the Giants' starting right fielder. Ross went 0-4, but even with Torres out for another week or so, the Giants outfield is now stablized for the first time this year.
 
In a development that I believe the Mayans noted as a possible indication of the end of time, San Francisco Giants third baseman Pablo Sandoval actually walked three times during a 9 inning game: the Giants' 8-1 win over the Rockies on Monday. The other possibility here is that Sandoval really is maturing as a hitter. In fact, let's go with that.

Coming up, three sold out home games at AT&T Park this weekend against the Atlanta Braves and their excellent pitching staff:
Friday - Madison Bumgarner (0-2, 7.36) vs. Tommy Hanson (1-3, 3.86)
Saturday - Tim Lincecum (2-1, 1.67) vs. Tim Hudson (2-2, 4.05)
Sunday - Jonathan Sanchez (2-1, 3.13) vs. Brandon Beachy (1-1, 3.86)

Atlanta's offense is mired in a team-wide slump; the Braves are 24th out of 30 MLB teams in runs scored with 66. Cincinnati leads the Majors with 107 runs, St. Louis is 2nd with 104, and Colorado is 3rd with 99 runs; the Giants are in the middle of the MLB pack at 15th with 78 runs.

While the three game series with the Rockies was seen as a test of the two dominant teams in the NL West, Atlanta brings credentials as one of the best teams in baseball. In 2010, Atlanta's pitching staff finished with the 3rd best team ERA in the Majors (behind San Diego and San Francisco). So far in 2011, Atlanta's pitching is 6th overall in team ERA at 3.22; Oakland leads the Majors at 2.58, the Giants are 12th with a 3.66 team ERA.

Bottom line on the bottom line... these series never seem to get any easier (unless it's the Arizona Dbacks).   

The San Francisco Giants opened their first home series of the season with extravagant pomp, lengthy pre-game ceremonies, and taking two out of three from the St. Louis Cardinals. In an era when the team's ownership prides itself on preserving and honoring Giants' history, 2010 demonstrated we can legitimately add one other item to the top of their priorities list: a commitment to win.

But the quaint mantras of the 2010 season no longer apply: the "Giants baseball: torture" and "it's magic inside" were appropriate for last year, but what's happening now isn't magic. The 2011 Giants win games because they're tough, because they can hit and pitch, because they never give up, and because hard nosed baseball is better than magic seven days a week.   

The 2011 schedule forced Giants fans to endure six road games before they had a chance to welcome the World Champions back to their home park. On Opening Day Friday and Opening Night Saturday, St. Louis Manager Tony LaRussa and his team had to wait a good hour before each game as the Giants held a variety of ceremonies and presentations celebrating their 2010 World Series win.

Prior to the Friday April 8th opener, closer Brian Wilson raised the team's first World Series flag since April 14, 1955, when the New York Giants unfurled their Series flag over the Polo Grounds. Before Saturday night's game, each member of the team walked from the dugout to the field to receive their World Series ring from Giants ownership leader Bill Neukom and  team President Larry Baer.

Being in AT&T Park for both the raising of the Championship flag and the ring ceremony were two emotionally charged moments of history that will stay with me for many years to come.

The reaction of the fans in the stands at AT&T for the first two games was a fascinating contrast. On Opening Day, the first opportunity for home fans to see the team after that final Series game win at Texas last year, the stadium crowd was remarkably reserved. I expected an extra-dimensional, electric response that would raise the roof and create thunder in the air. But it just wasn't there. Don't get me wrong, the fans cheered and clapped, but it just didn't reach that higher level I'd experienced at a several home playoff games in 2010 and 2002.

In fact, during Friday's pregame ceremonies with the team lined up along the third base line after individual player introductions, on-field announcer Jon Miller actually had to ask twice for the crowd to applaud and cheer the team. Miller's first "Let's hear it for your World Champion San Francisco Giants" resulted in a brief low-keyed response from the crowd, prompting the Miller to repeat, "Once again let's hear it for the World Champion Giants". The AT&T fans responded with yet another brief low level reaction.

This wasn't a big negative that in any way affected the excitement of Opening Day; it was simply a matter of the unpredictability of group dynamics on that particular day. In a sense, you could say the independent nature of San Francisco fans was on display-- maybe the crowd was anxious to move on to the actual game and get some wins; after all the Giants came into the opener with a 2-4 record.

And win they did, taking game one on Friday from St. Louis after being down 3-2 in the 9th with two out. Pablo Sandoval knocked in the tying run in the bottom of the 9th, and Aaron Rowand won the game in the bottom of the 12th with a bases loaded single to deep center that scored Nate Schierholtz from third base.

On Saturday night, it was again the bottom of the 9th inning with Giants down 2-1. Again two outs, this time with two on base as Giants' shortstop Miguel Tejada quickly went down in the count 0-2 against Cards' closer Ryan Franklin. After battling back to a 3-2 count, and fouling off several pitches, Tejada hit a drive to deep center field where Colby Rasmus and left fielder Jon Jay converged at the warning track. Rasmus attempted a basket catch and the ball popped in and out of his glove. Two runs scored, Giants win 3-2.

The Cardinals finally managed a 6-1 win Sunday, but the victories in games one and two set 2011 in motion for this team and the fans. The Giants have a line-up that will not quit and has the ability to get hits from any spot in the batting order at any time. That will be the extra dynamic that powers this team's outstanding starting line-up and bullpen the rest of the way this season.

And the magic? When you're playing real good, the wand you're waving is made of maple wood and it produces extra base hits instead of rabbits.

In the words of the brilliant Greek thinker and philosopher Aristotle, "it's a damn crazy world." Nowhere does that better apply than the start of the 2011 Major League Baseball season. The first week of real baseball since the final game of the 2010 World Series has seemingly been a series of illogical events and contrary circumstances that proves two things beyond any doubt: 1) the game always does stuff like this; and, 2)  it's early yet.     

Boston fans are collecting pitchforks and torches because the best best offense in the game is 0-4 and expensive free agent outfielder Carl Crawford is hitting .133. The team with the best young talent in the game, Tampa Bay, lost third baseman Evan Longoria to a 2 week stint on the DL and they've graciously joined the Red Sox in the 0-4 club to start the season.

Colorado star Troy Tulowitzki is sporting a .091 average, and Rockies' ace Ubaldo Jimenez is on the 15 day DL with a cracked cuticle on his pitching thumb. In New York, Yankee captain Derek Jeter is hitting .167 having been moved back to his lead-off spot after former lead-off man Brett Gardner started the year batting .125.

On the other side of midnight, the Baltimore Orioles are 4-0 and their pitching staff leads the Majors with a 1.00 team ERA.

The World Champion San Francisco Giants are 1-4 after dropping three of four at Los Angeles, and losing the first of two at San Diego. As SF Chronicle beat writer Henry Schulman pointed out, the Giants have only managed a 2-15 record at Chavez Ravine and Petco Park in March and April since the 2009 season. So in a sense everything is normal.

Jumping briefly back to reality, several things are going wrong early for San Francisco. These include, but are not limited to:

a) Terrible fielding. The Giants' five errors puts them third worst in the Majors behind Kansas City (6) and Oakland (9), but hardly reflects the bad choices, bad positioning, and several opposition hits that probably should have been called errors. Aubrey Huff will be fine in the outfield, but the team can't support Huff and Pat Burrell starting every day out there.

Cody Ross will solve that problem in about ten days, but this is an early warning that down the line the Giants need to be thinking about starting outfield help.

b) Not hitting with runners in scoring position, which is basically how you score runs. The Giants have plated an average of 4 runs per game which is OK, but they are 16th in the Majors in extra base hits with 12. XBHs are the bread and butter of this team's offensive success and that has to change. The Texas Rangers have hit 30 XBHs.

The Giants' strength-- pitching-- is strong early. The staff is 5th in the Majors with a 2.85 ERA and the bullpen is coming around. A tip of the cap to Guillermo Mota and Ramon Ramirez for 5 shutout innings yesterday when starter Madison Bumgarner was taken out after three innings.

Yogi Berra, perhaps the greatest philosopher of all, might have put it this way: "It's too soon to worry about what's happening early...".                 

> ESPN.com reported today that the San Francisco Giants and second baseman Freddy Sanchez have agreed to a $6 million contract extension through 2012. Sanchez came to the Giants from Pittsburgh in a 2009 mid-season trade that sent RHP Tim Alderson and outfielder John Bowker to the Pirates.  The Giants picked Alderson second in round 1 of the 2007 First Year Player Draft; Madison Bumgarner was the team's #1 pick.

The Giants signed Sanchez to a two year $12 million contract prior to the 2010 season. Throughout his tenure in San Francisco Sanchez has missed a number of games with knee and shoulder injuries, but he is an accomplished hitter and an above average defender at second base. In 2006 he won the National League batting title with a .344 BA in 157 games for the Bucs.

Although San Francisco has several promising second base candidates in the Minors, this is a solid move by the team to insure consistency in the infield and in the second spot in the batting order until a legitimate replacement rises to the top. In-house second base candidates Emmanuel Burriss and Nick Noonan have been in the Giants' farm system for several years, and Charlie Culberson has impressed the front office at the plate and on the field over the past year.

> The first game of the 2011 season featured a Giant-Dodger pitchers' duel, with LA's 23-year-old LH pitching star Clayton Kershaw dealing strikes and controlling the game for 7 shut-out innings. Kershaw took the 2-1 win over Tim Lincecum by allowing only 4 hits and 1 walk with 9 strikeouts in a masterful 96 pitch effort. If the Dodgers can build even a little more quality pitching around Kershaw, and find a consistent closer, they could think about contending.

Lincecum threw a decent game, giving up no earned runs in 7 innings with 5 hits, 3 walks, and 5 strikeouts. He threw a total of 103 pitches. The problem for the Giants was the epidemic of sloppy defense breaking out all over the diamond: outfielders Aubrey Huff (right), Andres Torres (center), and Pat Burrell (left) all looked tentative and slow, with Burrell charged with an error for allowing Tony Gwynn to get to second base on a single in the 3rd inning. Shortstop Miguel Tejada threw a ball away, and catcher Buster Posey contributed an error and a passed ball.

Note: Giants' rookie Brandon Belt got his first Major League hit in his first Major League at bat in this game. Belt also handled several dicey plays at first and managed to get 27 pitches out of three plate appearences against Kershaw and one against reliever Jonathan Broxton. An outstanding effort. 

After the loss, panicked Giants fans flooded the local sportstalk radio cloud with apocalyptic doom-saying, and many had to be talked back into the building from the 30th floor ledge. Luckily, the National League will pretty much insist that the remaining 161 games be played, and the expectation continues to be that the Giants will win the majority of those games.

Tired of all the endless blather about Major League Baseball? The mind-numbing tedium known as sports talk radio ("This is Bad Dog from Vallejo... why can't the Giants snag Albert Pujols for Eli Whiteside and Nate Schierholtz-- the Cards really need an outfielder and... ").

Or the sheer density of angry sports blogs from the far reaches of the great ethernet ("Pissed off? You're damn right I'm pissed off. Ownership sucks, the manager has his head up his big fat ass, and the starting staff couldn't even find a paperbag to punch out of... ").

And of course that intellectual black hole otherwise known as FoxSports TV ("Wow, that booming home run from A-Rod just tied this game, Tim McCarver...". "You know, Joe, I have to disagree with A-Rod's approach here-- in this situation a walk would have actually been a better play for the Yankees than the two run homer...").

Thankfully this year you can skip all that because the The Giants Cove organization has put together its predictions for the 2011 MLB season. Armed with the following information you can now book that five month bike tour of eastern Poland knowing that there will be no surprises waiting for you when you get back:

American League

West	Central	East
1. Texas Rangers 2. Oakland As Wild Card 3. Los Angeles Angels 4. Seattle Mariners	1. Chicago White Sox 2. Detroit Tigers 3. Minnesota Twins 4. Cleveland Indians 5. Kansas City Royals	1. Boston Red Sox 2. Tampa Bay Rays 3. New York Yankees 4. Baltimore Orioles 5. Toronto Blue Jays

AL MVP	Miguel Cabrera 1B Detroit
AL Cy Young	David Price Tampa Bay
AL Rookie of the Year	Jeremy Hellickson SP Tampa Bay
ALDS winners	Oakland & Boston
ALCS winner	Boston Red Sox
World Series	San Francisco over Boston

National League

West	Central	East
1. San Francisco Gaints  2. Colorado Rockies Wild Card 3. San Diego Padres 4. Los Angeles Dodgers 5. Arizona Diamondbacks	1. Cincinnati Reds 2. Milwaukee Brewers   3. St. Louis Cardinals 4. Chicago Cubs 5. Houston Astros 6. Pittsburgh Pirates	1. Atlanta Braves 2. Philadelphia Phillies  3. Florida Marlins 4. Washington Nationals   5. New York Mets

NL MVP	Buster Posey C San Francisco
NL Cy Young	Tim Lincecum San Francisco
NL Rookie of the Year	Brandon Belt 1B San Francisco
NLDS winners	Atlanta & San Francisco
NLCS winner	San Francisco Giants
World Series	San Francisco over Boston