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

The San Francisco Giants announced today that 22 year old rookie first baseman Brandon Belt has been named the team's starting first baseman. Back-up first baseman Travis Ishikawa has been designated for assignment, and the Giants hope to move him in a trade during the upcoming week.

Belt stormed through three Minor League levels in the Giants' farm system in 2010, hitting a cumulative .352 with 23 HR, 42 2B, 10 3B, 23 HR, 112 RBI, and 99 runs scored. Belt also posted a 1.075 OPS with a .455 OBP. The Houston, Texas native has been rated an outstanding fielder at first base and brings excellent speed in the field and on the bases. Giants' incumbent first baseman Aubrey Huff will take right field until regular right fielder Cody Ross returns from the DL in about ten days, then Huff will become the team's everyday left fielder.

During the past 18 years, starting with the Barry Bonds era, the Giants have variously constructed their teams around great hitting or great pitching, never quite bringing a balance to both attacks. During the 1993-2007 Bonds years, the idea was to have just enough back-up hitting and just enough pitching to support Bonds' unstoppable offensive powerhouse. During the last several years of Barry Bonds' tenure, the front office began drafting quality pitchers, setting the stage for the formation of arguably the best starting staff in the game, and certainly the best in Giants franchise history.

But the farm system still lagged behind in producing home-grown hitters. San Francisco even entered their 2010 Championship season with serious questions about run production, but the starting staff and the bullpen were dominant, and a number of hitters posted above average offensive numbers-- enough to power the Giants through the 2010 playoffs and World Series.

The arrivals of Brandon Belt and Buster Posey signal the begining of the Giants Minor League system producing above average position players for the big club over the next several years. In 2012-13, look for a number of young players to make their marks: outfielders Thomas Neal, Gary Brown, and Francisco Peguero; and infielders Brandon Crawford, Charlie Culberson, Nick Noonan, and Ehire Adrianza.

Excellent pitching prospects are also on the horizon: Zack Wheeler, Jose Casilla, and Jorge Bucardo will likely be pitching for the Giants in AT&T Park sometime in the next three years.

Brandon Belt represents that extra dimension missing since the days of Will Clark, when San Francisco Giants were dominant at the plate as well as on the mound. Belt's addition turns an already potent run-producing line-up into an absolutely filthy run scoring machine.

The San Francisco Giants have left their Arizona desert encampment to finish the 2011 pre-season with a three game set against the Oakland As in the Bay Area. Opening Day is Thursday March 31st in the decidedly unfriendly confines of Chavez Ravine, Los Angeles. But there will be a delay in making the final Spring Training roster changes, leaving the team and several players in limbo for another week or so.

Cody Ross will open the 2011 season on the disabled list, where he will rehab for about 10 days and join the starting line-up during the first home stand against St. Louis. Let's peg Saturday April 9th as a likely return date. That means decisions about the final outfield set-up are on hold for now. The elements here are:

1) the status of Aaron Rowand, who heard boos from the Monday night AT&T crowd when he came up in the bottom of the 7th inning against Oakland, and more boos when he struck out. The Rowand issue will only get worse for the team and for Aaron Rowand in the coming weeks, but the Giants are likely to put a resolution to the Rowand problem on hold because of the injury to Ross.

2) The fate of Nate Schierholtz. In a sense Schierholtz is the perfect fourth outfielder: a great arm with great fielding instincts, and an occasional extra base hitter with speed on the bases. But someone has to go if Rowand stays when Cody Ross rejoins the team.

3) Travis Ishikawa's situation is the most precarious at this point. The slick-fielding first baseman played some left field this Spring to broaden his value to the team, but there is no question that Schierholtz brings a more skills and versatility to the outfield and at the plate. Which presents another problem for Schierholtz: his greater value over Ishikawa means the Giants can move him in a trade much easier and potentially receive more in return.

Of course the other shoe falling for Ishikawa is Brandon Belt. Whether Belt makes the team on Opening Day, or gets called up in July, at that moment there will simply not be a legitimate roster spot on the team for Ishikawa.

Closer Brian Wilson will also open the season on the DL, and likely return in a week if all goes well. That could mean Wilson makes the 25 man roster on Opening Day at AT&T Park on Friday April 8th against St. Louis. The four way battle for the final spot in the bullpen between Guillermo Mota, Dan Runzler, Jeff Suppan, and Ryan Vogelsong has been won by Mota. Suppan will leave the Giants organization to look for another opportunity, and Vogelsong will likely take an assignment in Triple A Fresno to be brought up if/when the pitching needs a fix. This leaves left hander Dan Runzler, who has fully demonstrated he belongs on the 25 man roster.

While Manager Bruce Bochy will mix and match to fill the closer role until Wilson returns, Runzler will probably take Wilson's slot to open the season. But the real issue is what to do after Wilson returns, because Dan Runzler has demonstrated his value and needs to be part of the Giants' 2011 bullpen. When Wilson returns, the front office will stash Runzler in Fresno, and when that happens we could very well see another Buster Posey-like scenario.

After the Giants sent Posey to Fresno to start the 2010 season, the young catcher immediately started producing runs for the Triple A team-- runs that the Major League team desperately needed. Now Runzler will be getting outs for the Triple A team, and it should only be a matter of time before the Giants will want those outs to be at the expense of National League hitters.

A note about the first pre-season game with Oakland last Monday: fully 38,000 fans attended a Monday night game in San Francisco that was essentially a practice game. The buzz and excitement from the 2010 World Series Championship is alive and loud, and this season is almost as unique as last year-- the team and the fans have never experienced what a season is like after winning a World Series. So it's all still new and wondrous as the adventure continues...

By all accounts the 2011 Cactus League has been a relatively smooth ride for the San Francisco Giants. Closer Brian Wilson's strained left oblique muscle has been the only speed bump on an otherwise open road, and Wilson is typically gritting up and playing down what would likely be a more serious injury for any other player.

But now everything has changed. Opening Day is eight days away and the team roster has just been trimmed down to 34 players. You don't need to slide too many abacus beads back and forth to figure out that nine players currently in camp will either be sent to the minors, cut, or traded in the next week. Spring Training is no longer about feel good stories, slow moving ballgames in the desert sun, and fans stretched out on the lawn beyond center field.

Now, it's all about which players will be chosen to go to battle for the NL West title; it's about athletes who have worked their butts off striving to survive and either get a job, keep their job, or do a better job; and it's about ending old relationships and dealing with new ones. This is when the game gets serious and tough.

The Giants' front office has been creative in providing an array of possible pieces to the 2011 puzzle, but it's time to make the final decisions:

> Will Aaron Rowand be cut? In a scenario that defines the concept of a tough decision, Rowand has two years left on his 5 year $60m contract, with an actual dollar figure owed of $27.2m-- but he lost his center field job and is not a useful utility outfielder. If the team keeps Rowand, players who have an obvious contributing role on the 2011 team will be traded or cut.

The New York Mets, a team in unimaginable disarray on and off the field, recently released pitcher Oliver Perez and infielder Luis Castillo to the tune of $18 million. The Mets are hardly models of baseball business excellence, so this is more along the lines of "wow... even the Mets did it...".

To be clear, it would best best for the franchise if Rowand is moved out before Opening Day; having said that, the season will not be lost if the Giants keep Rowand, an investment that simply didn't work out. Happens all the time and is part of the game.

> The bullpen spots. I say "spots" because there could be a surprise here. In the battle for the acknowledged single open slot, Guillermo Mota appears to have it locked with 10 SOs and 1 walk in 10 innings pitched, plus Mota brings a ton of experience. Dan Runzler and Ryan Vogelsong, who were supposed to be battling Mota for that one opening, have both had a good Spring and the Giants may feel compelled to find room for one of them.

If the Giants trade one of the relievers they signed in the off-season, Runzler could make the team with Vogelsong going to Fresno. He would be the first one called up if a serious problem develops in the bullpen or if any of the starters falter. Although both Javier Lopez and Ramon Ramirez have been hit magnets throughout March, their market value will likely never be higher than it is now.

>The Brandon Belt watch continues. As was the case with Buster Posey, Giants management has to think about the economic impact of keeping Belt with the big club in terms of accelerating his eligibility for free agency and arbitration. These types of considerations are anathema to fans, but the front office can't arbitrarily blow off the business responsibilities of franchise ownership simply to appease the fan base. 

In Posey's case, the 2010 team left camp with obvious run scoring and power hitting issues; Posey's bat would have significantly improved the offense if he had been a member of the Opening Day line-up. In Belt's case, the 2011 team is starting out as an extra base hitting machine that will almost certainly score enough to fully support the pitching staff. In other words, there is legitimate room to let Brandon Belt develop more in Fresno, and bring him up when everyone feels the time is right.

I actually wish teams spoke more openly about this aspect of the game because it's not something to hide or cover up, it is a legitimate part of what it means to own a professional franchise. The timelines of arbitration and free agency are set for all players, and any team that doesn't balance the business side with the performance side of the game will end up exactly like... well, the New York Mets.

The sophisticated fan base in San Francisco is more than capable of understanding the extra dimensions of the game, beyond simply wanting more home runs and yelling real loud.

Ken Rosenthal is the senior Major League Baseball writer for FoxSports.com and one of the most astute and knowledgeable sports scribes in the country. So when Rosenthal weighs in on specific team issues, it's always worth reading. In a March 18, 2011 piece for Fox Sports, "Giants Can't Hold this Phenom Back", Rosenthal discusses San Francisco Giants' prospect Brandon Belt and the now familiar options available to Giants' team management.

Throughout Spring Training, General Manager Brian Sabean has publically hinted that Belt would benefit from more time at the Triple A level. Last year, the slugging first baseman managed only 48 at-bats at Fresno after 175 at-bats at AA Richmond, and 269 for Single A San Jose. Management and coaches often use a minimum 200 at-bat threshold at AAA ball to ensure a hitter can work out the holes in his hitting at the highest level prior to a big league call up.

But it doesn't always work out that way. When Giants icon Will Clark was brought up to the big club in 1986, he had a total of 22 at-bats at the Triple A level (at the time, the Phoenix Firebirds). 

So things can change. Brian Sabean talked with SF Chronicle writer Henry Schulman on Friday March 18th, and Sabean indicated the team might actually be open to bringing Belt up north: "If Belt forces his way on it would have to be legitimate, and we're all agreed he would be the 7th hitter." While this is probably only positive PR to placate fan enthusiasm for Brandon Belt (and to keep Belt focused), it is interesting that Sabean went out of his way to leave a door open that may only end in disappointment.

And let's add one more positive indication re the Belt issue. The San Jose Mercury's Alex Pavlovic (subbing for Andrew Baggarly) noted Bruce Bochy's announcement that Aubrey Huff (and Travis Ishikawa) would be finally getting more playing time in left field-- a prerequisite to Brandon Belt joining the team and taking over at first base. (Note: Pavlovic has done a great job filling in at Extra Baggs the past week.)

The other dominoes that could fall as a result of the Giants keeping Belt primarily involve two players: Aaron Rowand and Travis Ishikawa. Ken Rosenthal used a term that perfectly defines contract money owed a player like Rowand who is not only unproductive, but is also taking up a critical roster spot: "sunk costs". If the Giants either trade or release Rowand, they do not "lose" the $27.2 million they still owe the center fielder. That money is gone --a "sunk cost"-- whether Rowand leaves or stays. But it further defines the term "addition by subtraction".

In Travis Ishikawa's case, few teams have a back-up first baseman who only plays first base, no matter how good his glove (and Ishikawa's fielding is outstanding). But take a minute to look at Ishikawa's sub-standard 162-game summary stats as a San Francisco Giant: a .727 OPS, a .265 AVG, 87 strike-outs and 46 RBI/46runs scored. He had some success coming to the plate as a pinch hitter in 2010, but batted .200 in 10 post season ABs, with 4 strikeouts. Ishikawa has been a great Giant and some ties are difficult to cut, but this team can no longer waste roster spots on average players.

Which brings us back to Bandon Belt.