Ladies and Gentlemen, Your 2005 SF Giants!

They were supposed to win the division this year. They were supposed to win the pennant. They were supposed to be World Champions. This is a team built for winning the World Series right here and right now, and frankly they're not winning period. Contrary to what people might say though, the problem isn't a lack of Barry. The offense hasn't been the problem. The Giants are batting .272 as a team right now so thats definitely not an issue. The problem with our dear home team is that something is always wrong. At no point this season have the Giants had all their elements working for them. First, their offense has problems getting runs home. Once their offense starts hitting again, the bullpen blows 4 games in a row. Once the bullpen gets its act together, the starting pitchers cant make it out of the 4th inning on a regular basis. Then the starting pitching catches fire and the we're back to the offense slumping, and so on and so forth. Up until now, they just havent been firing all cylinders. Now, they're not firing on any cylinders. To be honest, there are no cylinders to fire on. This is a dead team right now. They are playing without flare, and without enthusiasm. Right when there's some sign of life with a 4 game winning streak, they hit a wall and lose 7 in a row. They win the first 2 against the Dodgers in a 3 game series, and have us Giants fans thinking sweep. Then they lose the last game and now we're thinking "ok 2 out of 3 isnt bad". Then they lose another one. And another. And another. And before we know it they're 9 games out of first in the cellar with the Rockies.

The Giant's real problem is Felipe Alou. There, I said it. Everyone in this city seems to think that he's the best manager we've ever seen and I'm the only person who seems to think that he's a Dusty Baker protege'. He hasn't been a good manager the last few years. Rather he's been given good teams to work with. This year his resources have been limited and he has not managed what little resources we do have. He won't let starters finish innings and he favors lefty-lefty and righty-righty matchups. In the 8th inning of 6-1 game against the Mets, Brett Tomko lets a couple runners get on with 2 outs, and Felipe decides that he'll bring in our overused bullpen. He's putting faith in a bullpen full of tired and ineffective arms when his faith should be with his starting pitchers. What does that say to a starter when his manager yanks him while he's trying to complete a game and focus on getting hitters out. He then has more to worry about than the man standing in the batter's box. Now he needs to worry about when his manager is going to take him out of the game on top of finishing an inning. When a pitcher gets the concept in his head that his manager doesn't think he can complete a game, he himself starts to think that too and then his confidence in his pitching ability is shaken too. Mike Krukow has it right when he says "Managers shouldn't put this 100 pitch standard on starters. Pitchers should be expected to go at least 120-130 pitches." You shouldn't expect that many complete games out of a pitcher if he's conditioned to go only 100 pitches a game. Livan Hernandez through 160 pitches in his last complete game, so pitchers and managers alike need to stop whining about not being able to go past 100.

It's getting to the point of no return for the Giants right now. They need to pick up their game and do it fast. Maybe Sabean can make those moves that we've been promised for 3 weeks now. This team needs a reality check, so maybe a trade is just the thing they need. Shake up the roster and see what happens. Seriously, they have nothing to lose seeing as they're already losing games.