Kuzul

2010 has been a year packed with surprises, from the success of unsung heroes to the struggles of previous years' stars. Let's take a look at the Giants' 10 biggest surprises. Begin Slideshow

The are people who refuse to acknowledge reality and continue to insist that the San Francisco Giants needed to make a blockbuster deal before the trade deadline passed. The Giants did exactly what they should've done. They gave up a minor leaguer for a veteran right-handed relief pitcher. Then, they traded two players with big league experience, but not much success, for a left-hander for the bullpen. How anyone who has been paying attention to the club and its competitors since the All-Star break ended can think the Giants did anything but the right thing is baffling. The Giants are scorching hot and just one and a half games behind the San Diego Padres in the NL West. They've managed stirring back-to-back wins that push the Los Angeles Dodgers further off the pace and put more room between San Francisco and the Colorado Rockies in the division. The Giants are building a nice, ...

  While some members of the media are clamoring for the Giants to trade for a big bat and Brian Sabean is kicking the tires on every non-impact bat available, the Giants' best trade option is right in front of them: John Bowker. Bowker’s detractors would say that he’s had his chance and failed to produce, that he’s a AAAA player who feasts off AAA pitching or that he doesn’t fit what the Giants need; but Bowker is a left-handed outfielder with power. This is exactly what the Giants are looking for. Bowker has absolutely raked in Fresno this year, while hitting .329, with a .408 OBP, .629 SLG good for a Bondsian 1.037 OPS and 12 home runs in 167 at-bats. Some people may remember Bowker’s 2008 campaign when he burst on to the scene and had a great first half, but sharply declined in the second half of the season. That ...

The San Francisco Giants really need another left-hander out of the bullpen now that Jeremy Affeldt's sidelined with a torn oblique muscle. The club also needs minor league talent to attract a proven big league run-producer in trade. Todd Wellemeyer's pitching well for the Fresno Grizzlies in the Pacific Coast League, but that doesn't mean that fans calling for the club to trade Jonathan Sanchez for a hitter have any idea how difficult it would be to fill the No. 4 spot in the rotation. Oh, there are starting pitchers in Triple-A—but there's a good reason that only one has ever reached the big league level and for the big club's hesitance to turn a starting spot back over to Wellemeyer. The organization does have some talent other teams might seek in trade, but the most proven player in Fresno is middle infielder Emmanuel Burriss and the Giants could use him themselves down the ...

The San Francisco Giants' decision to trade Bengie Molina creates an opening in the everyday lineup, primarily at first base. The club surely isn't interested in returning Aubrey Huff to first base, with Buster Posey the everyday catcher. Huff giving up his spot in the starting outfield creates a spot that could only be filled by returning Aaron Rowand to his role as the starting center fielder, with Pat Burrell, Andres Torres, and Nate Schierholtz sharing the other two starting jobs. (Burrell's listed as an outfielder-first baseman, but it's hard to imagine the club moving him and creating even more chaos in that outfield.) Torres hasn't torn it up in the lead-off spot lately. Schierholtz, clearly, isn't in the Giants' long-term plan. Burrell, arguably, merits the everyday left field job, even though the club can't be certain he will return to the form he showed in his heyday with the Philadelphia Phillies. The Molina deal does ...

Damn that Brian Sabean! Bruce Bochy is ruining everything! Geesh! How in the world could Sabean not anticipate that Mark DeRosa's surgically-repaired wrist ligament would rupture even after DeRosa was given a clean bill of health by team doctors and other physicians? DeRosa wasn't considered that "old" when the club signed him and then got off to a fast start in April. But, hell, now it's apparent that Sabean just can't help but sign broken down old free agents—like the 35-year-old DeRosa. The Giants need hitters. They need a veteran presence in the middle of the order. How could Sabean have not signed a frontline slugger like (name a frontline slugger who hasn't been injured or flopped since entering free agency) ? Sure, DeRosa's a veteran. And, OK, he's put up good numbers while playing up to five different positions. Sabean was wrong to sign him, though, because after doctors told Sabean that DeRosa was healthy, ...

Enough with watching these Giants snatch defeat from the jaws of victory and having to listen to some knucklehead impersonate a first-grade teacher and say, "There's no reason to panic. It's still early in the season." Oh, we'll hang with the Giants through all 162 games. It's the folks who think anything short of accepting every loss gracefully is actually a show of pure panic. Some of us realize that the 2010 Giants could have put some distance between themselves and their NL West foes by now. We don't look at the record they have and say, "Boy, that's better than we expected!" We look at the record and think about the games the Giants gave away and we fume. We don't panic. We know it's a long season. We just know how important it is to take full advantage of Tim Lincecum's magic or the inexplicable games where Nate Schierholtz goes 5-for-5. (Or, of ...