Kuzul

So, who is still ready to throw Barry Zito into the nearest dumpster? Anybody?

Zito threw 5.2 innings and gave up one hit and no earned runs. He picked up loss No. 13.

He is 8-13 with a 4.02 ERA.

Now I realize when he is bad, he’s really bad. Zito has allowed four or more earned runs in nine of his 30 starts. In those nine starts, he has allowed 46 runs in 44.1 innings.

Zito is 0-6 in those starts. The Giants are 3-6 in those starts.

Has Zito been inconsistent in his Giants career? Absolutely.

But when Zito is hitting his spots, there may not be a better left-hander in the National League.

In every other start, he is 8-6 with an ERA of 2.30.

Wait, how does someone with a 2.30 ERA have six losses?

Run support.

Whenever Zito allows three or fewer runs, the Giants score an average of three runs per game. San Francisco has scored two or fewer in 11 of those starts.

Zito has seven no-decisions in these starts.

The offense is what is at fault in Zito’s starts. It has been the Giants’ Achilles’ heel all season.

Is the offense improved from last season? Yes.

Do the Giants have a deeper bench? Of course.

But do the Giants have a single guy that strikes fear into the opposing team?

No, they don’t.

On the most recent road trip, there was a different hero each night. It’s time to get back to that.

With Andres Torres possibly out for the remainder of the regular season, it is even more important to get contributions from everybody.

Aubrey Huff is a nice player, but he has been slumping for a couple of weeks now. Torres is out. Pat Burrell is a good player but was paid $10 million to go away by Tampa Bay.

Buster Posey is the most legitimate threat on the team, but he’s only a rookie. Not there yet.

Cody Ross is only hitting .194 as a Giant. Jose Guillen has also tapered off, now hitting .280.

Without a new hero each night, this team struggles. Someone needs to step up.

It seems when the pitching staff throws well, the offense vanishes. Whenever the pitching struggles, the offense comes alive.

The Giants are hitting .206 as a team in September with Guillen, Ross, Pablo Sandoval, and Torres batting below the Mendoza line.

The team ERA in September is 1.68. San Francisco cannot continue to waste outstanding outings by the pitching staff. No more.

The Giants will be facing another guy that has owned them this year: Chad Billingsley.

The Padres seemed to have woken up and are showing the Rockies their run is over. This makes the offense that much more critical.

It is September, and this is the time teams prove where they belong.

If the Giants want to be playing in October, the offense needs to wake up and contribute this month.

They cannot make the playoffs without it.

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It’s time to make the cuts. Spring training is over, the contracts have been signed. Now it’s time to play some ball.

But who should actually play? There have been a lot of great players in San Francisco Giants history.

Bonds, Mays, McCovey, Cepeda.

The list goes on endlessly. But let’s cut it down to the best 25. How would you put a roster together?

How many pitchers do you carry? How many lefties?

I need a backup catcher, don’t I?

No matter how you build a team, you need to have a solid base and a pitching staff that will carry you the distance.

This will illustrate the entire pitching staff, bench, and starting lineup.

Let’s see what it looks like.

Begin Slideshow

Before our very eyes, the Giants are only one game back of the Padres.

This comes only two weeks after trailing San Diego by six games in the division.

The biggest change in the Giants’ fortunes was not Tim Lincecum finding his composure once more. It was not Juan Uribe’s bat coming alive in September.

As the calendar turned to September, the Padres forgot how to win.

The Padres had lost 10 straight games before beating the Dodgers 4-2 on Monday night.

They were carrying a team ERA of over 5.00 and scoring just over two runs per game. Not the way if you are trying to win baseball games.

San Diego became the first division leader since the 1932 Pittsburgh Pirates to lose 10 games in a row. That team would lose the division by four games.

Many have chimed in saying, “I knew the Padres would have a bad streak,” or “Their talent level finally caught up with them.”

Fact is this team had not lost three or more in a row all season.

They still have the best ERA in the majors. They also still lead the division. For now.

To realistically say a division leader will lose 10 games in a row was a preposterous statement. I could see eight of nine or nine of 10.

But not 10 straight.

Wanna know how good the Padres have been?

They lost 10 straight and still led the division after the streak was over.

All that said, the Giants did exactly what they needed to do. They finally capitalized on the Padres woes and are nipping at their heels, again.

The pitching seems to have been revived after a dreadful month of August. The offense is doing enough to get by.

The Giants have won seven of their last 10 games and have only one game left in Arizona before a season changing series at the Padres.

Lincecum has picked up two straight wins. The Giants have taken series from three divisional opponents.

Two of these series have been on the road, a place where the Giants have struggled much of the season.

On the flip side, the Padres have started to look worn, beaten and tired. Pitching had been their strength and, with three pitchers hitting career highs in innings pitched, they are starting to show signs of fatigue.

Luke Gregerson, whom had seen super human this season, has pitched in three games but has only lasted one inning while giving up seven earned runs.

San Diego has had the conversation about when to shut down Mat Latos. Latos had never thrown more than 125 innings in a season.

He is already above 150 innings.

If the Padres hold onto the division lead through the weekend, they will believe they have weathered the worst of their season. Another series loss to the Padres could also be devastating for the Giants.

The Padres have probably been looking forward to this series. There is nothing like facing a team that knows you have their number.

Momentum seems to favor the Giants but they only hold a 2-9 record against the Padres.

This is why this series means more for the Giants.

A series win against San Diego would be their first all season. Seeing the division lead the Padres have held since June 17 vanish will only feed the hungry Giants team.

The four game series that starts Thursday will carry whichever team leaves with the division lead.

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It was only a matter of time.

We knew it was coming.

How could a team being led by Juan Uribe, Andres Torres, and Aubrey Huff be in the thick of a playoff race?

The team is made up of streaky hitters, inconsistent pitchers, and Major League scraps ready to be hauled to the dumpster.

Freddy Sanchez is either red hot or ice cold.

Barry Zito is either unhittable or like hitting off a batting tee.

Uribe, Huff, Torres, Pat Burrell, Jose Guillen, Cody Ross, Santiago Casilla, Guillermo Mota.

Each name is a story of how their former team or teams gave up on them. Teams said, “we’ve had enough of you.”

“Waste of our time.”

Yes, Torres and Huff are having career years, but the rest have been inconsistent at best.

When one is hitting well, everybody is hitting well. When one is in a slump, they all hit their slump.

What does this team lack?

The Giants lack a star. Playoff teams have a star. The star pulls the team from the brink of oblivion to rescue his team.

The star doesn’t go into two-week slumps. He is the slump breaker.

Don’t start screaming Tim Lincecum because he has been anything but a star the past two seasons in the second half.

Pablo Sandoval should have been a star but for a multitude of reasons, those plans have been set back.

Buster Posey isn’t at that stage yet.

The streaky nature of the Giants season is evidence of why the season is lost.

After the Cincinnati and Arizona series, it looked like the pitching was a lost cause.

The past two nights against the Rockies, the Giants haven’t been able to hit themselves out of a wet paper bag.

They have had the perfect opportunity to gain ground on both the Padres and the Phillies. What did they do?

They failed to capitalize.

The Padres have lost a season-high six games in a row. How many games have the Giants gained?

Two.

This was illustrated perfectly on Monday night.

The Giants had a 1-0 lead against the Rockies going into the ninth. Wait, the Rockies haven’t scored? That can’t be right.

Sure enough, the baseball gods brought the Rockies back for the win.

That night, you saw the difference between a good team and a mediocre team. If you didn’t know the records of the teams that night, who would you have said was the better team?

The Rockies.

They play with purpose and believe they will win every night. This is a team that has put together incredible runs in September each of the past three years.

The Giants play like they are afraid to lose. The fans expect something to go wrong.

“No, no. We can’t lose. Please, don’t let us lose.”

So, goes the life of a Giants fan.

The only good thing I can say is at least we are not Cubs fans, wherein apathy has taken hold.

Are they fun to watch? Yes.

Is baseball nothing but entertainment? Of course.

That does not change the agony many Giants fans go through each day after watching this befuddled group of players.

The Giants are a good team, just not a playoff team. Until they find “that guy,” the Giants will stumble around the 80-90 win total and watch as the playoffs go on without them.

As Mike Krukow says, “Giants baseball. Torture.”

Truer words were never spoken.

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It is not often catchers make any fan say, “Wow!” Usually catchers like this have a bust of themselves in Cooperstown.

So when a catcher like this comes along, you have no choice but to take notice.

When two come along, there is no choice but to compare them.

This is where Joe Mauer and Buster Posey come in.

Mauer has been the epitome of catching prowess since his rookie year in 2005. Hits for average, hits for power, great arm and handles a staff as well as anyone in the game.

He is the gold standard, for now.

Posey is the new kid on the block and being heralded as the best Giants position player of any kind to come out of the farm system since Will Clark.

High praise but well deserved to this point.

To examine these two phenoms, we will break down each part of their game.

How do their numbers stack up? Well, let’s see.

Begin Slideshow

At the beginning of August, the Giants trailed the Padres by one game and led the Wild Card race.

They came off a month where they won 20 of their 28 games. They led the majors in runs scored.

But since then they are 7-8 and have fallen to five games back in the division. Now they are on the outside looking in on the playoff picture.

What happened? Three things.

Power outage:

Since the Giants entered the month of August, the offense has sputtered along with little consistency (unless you count consistently bad).

In their 15 games, they have scored a total of 54 runs. That is good for 3.6 runs per game.

One of those games they scored 10 runs in. If you take that game out, 44 runs in 14 games is 3.1 runs per game.

The only solace I can find in this is it’s not a surprise. We knew the offense needed help, and now we are seeing why. Many people started to drink the Kool-Aid of a really hot month for the offense.

This offense is still only 18th in RBIs, even after leading the league in runs for a month. What does that tell you?

Where’d the pitching go?

The one strength of this team was supposed to be pitching. More specifically, the starting pitching.

Well, the Giants have gone 13 games without a starting pitcher picking up a win.

Some of that is Barry Zito getting lit up and Tim Lincecum not being able to find the strike zone. And some of it has to do with the offense not scoring enough runs.

Whatever the case, it has not been good.

Lincecum entered August with an ERA of 3.10. In three starts it has ballooned to 3.62, and he has an ERA of 9.00 and an 0-3 record in that time.

Zito’s ERA in August is higher than in any other month this season. His 4.91 ERA has earned him two no decisions and last night’s loss.

Matt Cain’s ERA is much like his career. Good, but not good enough for this offense. He has an August ERA of 2.89 and one win in his three starts.

Jonathan Sanchez’s mouth has gotten him into trouble lately, and his performances have not helped the case. Despite starting the month with six shutout innings against the Rockies, his performances have mirrored his career: Inconsistent.

In his last two starts, he has given up seven runs in nine and a third innings (6.75 ERA).

Even young Madison Bumgarner has not been impervious to this trend. In three starts, he has an ERA of 4.86 and has allowed 31 baserunners in 16.2 innings. That’s almost two an inning!

But this is not the most troubling part about this month.

The competition is better

Remember who the Giants played last month?

The Nationals, Brewers, Rockies, Dodgers, D-Backs, Mets, and Marlins.

Now, take a look at the standings. Only two of those teams are above .500 and those two teams are only four and two games above .500.

They have a combined winning percentage of .471.

This month?

Cardinals, Reds, Phillies, Braves, Padres, Cubs, Rockies, and D-Backs.

They play or have played each division leader, and the top Wild Card contenders this month.

All but two of those teams have a record above .500. The combined winning percentage? .554.

The offense is having trouble with the tougher pitching staffs and the pitching staff has forgotten how to keep runners off the base paths.

But as I said in another article (http://bleacherreport.com/articles/425012-giants-playing-with-fools-gold), this could very well be the month that makes or breaks the Giants.

It is starting to lean toward break.

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The Dodgers go out and trade for Scott Podsednik, Tedd Lilly, Ryan Theriot, and Octavio Dotel.

San Diego went out and traded for Miguel Tejada and Ryan Ludwick.

What did the Giants do? They traded for Ramon Ramirez and Javier Lopez.

Could they have done more? Should they have done more?

The answers are yes and no.

Sure, they could have traded more Adam Dunn. They could have traded for Corey Hart. If they really wanted, they could have traded more Prince Fielder.

Why didn’t they? The price was too high.

The names Madison Bumgarner, Buster Posey and/or Jonathan Sanchez were brought up, and in no way were we willing to part with them for seperate reasons.

Any conversation Giants’ GM Brian Sabean had involving Posey or Bumgarner probably ended with the other GM left hanging on the other end. As well, it should.

Dunn and Fielder are both free agents at the end of the year, and Sabean wanted a player the Giants would control for the next few years. Neither of those guys fit the bill.

That is, unless you wanted to have Scott Boras, Fielder’s agent, calling Sabean again and asking for Ryan Howard or Barry Zito money again.

Been there. Done that.

Who believes the Giants are an Adam Dunn trade away from the World Series?

Anybody?

I didn’t think so.

Trading Sanchez was a more likely conversation, but it would have left the Giants with a couple of questions.

Who would take his place in the rotation? We now know Joe Martinez is not an option, as he has been traded. And wasn’t Todd Wellemeyer placed on the 15-day disabled list in early June?

The other question is when will Bumgarner be shut down for the year?

The Giants are not going to risk his 20-year old arm by throwing him for longer than needed. Keep in mind, the Nationals’ Steven Strasburg was placed on the disabled list for a sore arm.

We don’t need that with Bumgarner. We don’t need Noah Lowry Part II.

What we get with Lopez and Ramirez are two solid veteran pitchers to add to a struggling bullpen.

These past two games are proof these guys need a miracle to get to Brian Wilson. It has less to do with being hit and everything to do with the amount of batters they walk.

Denny Bautista has walked 24 betters in 31.2 innings. Santiago Casilla has 17 in 22.2 innings.

Even Dan Runzler and Jeremy Affedlt have had their issues. Runzler has walked 19 batters in 30 innings. Affedlt? Twenty walks and 38 hits in 35 innings.

Lopez is a lefty specialist and has a WHIP of 1.47, lower than Casilla, Affedlt and Runzler.

Ramirez boasts a 1.30 WHIP.

These are guys who throw strikes and will help bridge the gap to Wilson.

They are not the flashy moves every fan hopes for at the trade deadline but they are they moves that make the most sense.

Also think about this. Do any of these names scare you?

Dotel, Lilly, Theriot, Podsednik…

Tejada and Ludwick?

A couple of years ago, maybe. Not now.

Besides, you never know what might fall through the waiver wire…

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Buster Posey and Aubrey Huff have led the Giants to the best record in the Majors (16-6) since July 1.

Three games back of the Padres for first place in the West, and a game and a half lead in the Wild Card on the Reds, with the most runs in the month of July.

All’s good, right?

Hold on, right there. Take a better look at what they have done.

Who have they played?

The Rockies (Team ERA: 4.12, 17th in MLB), Brewers (4.87, 26th), Nationals (4.22, 20th), Mets (3.75, sixth), Dodgers (4.06, 15th), and the D-Backs (5.30, 30th).

Through all of the recent success of the Giants, they have gotten fat off of the worst pitching in baseball (except the Mets). The offense has started to play better, but I do not want to completely throw my heart and soul into this team…yet.

Part of me wants to say what I have seen is fool’s gold.

There is only one way to prove me wrong (and I hope I’m wrong): The August schedule will be the test for the Giants.

During the month of August, 21 of the Giants’ 28 games are against teams with records over .500. They will face all three division leaders and all four of their divisional foes, not to mention the second place Reds.

The Giants still need to prove themselves against their own division. Remember, the Padres own a 8-1 record against the Giants this season, with three more in San Francisco starting on the 13th.

The Cardinals (3.30, second), Reds (4.13, 18th), and Braves (3.65, fourth) are going to give the Giants all they can handle.

Juan Uribe, despite his grand slam on Saturday, has seen his average slip almost 40 points since mid-June. Freddy Sanchez has played superb defense, but has not had a productive offensive game in a couple of weeks.

This pitching staff still leads the majors in walks. It’s a miracle they have not allowed more runs.

Sometimes I think Brian Wilson walks batters just to entertain himself, but that’s a different article for a different time.

A bad stretch here could place them in the same position they were in last season: outside looking in.

The X-factor is, as many have said, Pablo Sandoval. If Sandoval begins to hit more consistently, say .280-.290, the Giants will be there in September.

However, if they hit the same funk they went into right before the All-Star Break, August could be the end for the Giants.

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