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San Francisco Giants fans might want to think for a moment before they start crowing over the idea of slugger Corey Hart being acquired in trade to fill, once and for all, the right field.

Hart’s a 28-year-old right-handed hitter who is under contract through 2011. So, the idea of acquiring the guy who already has 19 home runs and 61 RBIs is incredibly appealing. He’s hitting .288 for the Brewers and even has the speed to steal bases.

Giants beat writers who are reported things like, “I heard the Giants are interested in Hart” are guilty of understatement. The club likely covets Hart greatly. The Giants don’t really have a need that Hart wouldn’t do much to fill.

What beat writers and other rumor-mongers aren’t providing Giants fans is information regarding what the Brewers would likely want in return for Hart. Milwaukee’s 37-47 and won’t find its way back into the playoff race this season. The Brewers will be sellers as the trade deadline nears.

What would Hart cost the Giants?

Left-hander Jonathan Sanchez is likely the first guy that San Francisco would have to offer up. Giants fans knows that he has trouble throwing strikes, but that still hasn’t kept the 27-year-old from a 7-6 record and impressive 3.15 ERA. He’s a strikeout pitcher, which comes in handy after back-to-back walks.

San Francisco would have to provide quality minor league prospects — most likely two. They’d be getting an outfielder so it figures the Brewers would ask for a top outfield prospect like Thomas Neal or Roger Kieschnick who are coming on strong after slow starts at Double-A Richmond.

Hart fills a hole in the everyday lineup and the Giants celebrate Madison Bumgarner’s first win in the No. 5 spot in the starting rotation by … beginning a search for a No. 5 starter after Sanchez is dealt and Bumgarner moves up to the No. 4 spot.

The Giants don’t have a capable starting pitcher ready to jump from the minor leagues. So, they’d most likely have to fill that hole with right-hander Joe Martinez or some other stop-gap guy who has yet to prove he’s ready for the big leagues.

As the Giants slowly rally from the near disastrous seven-game losing streak, fans might not get so excited about the prospect of Hart batting third and playing right field that they forget that Todd Wellemeyer’s travails in the No. 5 spot in the rotation were very costly. Remember?

Before suffering an injury, Wellemeyer got 11 starts in the fifth slot. The Giants lost seven of those games. His inability to perform in the No. 5 spot radically slowed the Giants during their quick start.

A deal for Hart makes sense, but the club would need to have a companion move in mind to fill the No. 5 spot in the starting rotation before it becomes the type deal that sends fans out to buy tickets for a certain, second-half rush toward the top of the NL West.

On the surface, it wouldn’t seem difficult to fill the No. 5 spot. It took the Giants until the 20-year-old Bumgarner completely righted himself at Triple-A Fresno to do it, though, so make no assumptions that there’s a veteran to be had in a steal of a deal.

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Ted Sillanpaa is a Northern California sports writer and columnist. Reach Ted at tsillanpaa1956@gmail.com

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A fistful of names in baseball this year are steadily producing, but not necessarily gaining the recognition that they deserve. Many of these performances that are flying under the radar are overshadowed by those of early Cy Young and MVP candidates.

By now, Ubaldo Jimenez, Albert Pujols, Miguel Cabrera and others are household names this year. But who else will stand tall with these names as the season rolls on, and who will be surprising contributors in baseball?

Here is a handful of players in Major League Baseball who seem to be getting lost in translation behind the league leaders and flashiest of names.

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Baseball-reference has a stat that is rarely ever used: bequeathed runners. 

It’s the number of runners on base when a pitcher leaves the game.  Subsequently, there’s also a stat on how many of these runners score.  These runs are added to the starter’s ERA, even though the relief pitcher was pitching and, ultimately, allowed the runs to score. 

Want a full year of data? Look at the stats from 2009. 

Roy Halladay is the only starter who didn’t have a single bequeathed runner.  Think about that.  He started 32 games and left every single game without a runner on base.  Of course, leading the league in complete games helped.  His 2.79 ERA is a true representation of how he pitched.

On the opposite end are Jonathan Sanchez and Zach Miner who had 30 bequeathed runners apiece.  In Sanchez’ case, seven of them scored— his ERA ended up being 4.24. 

I’m not one to change stats, but I’ll do a “what if” here.  If none of Sanchez’ seven bequeathed runners would’ve scored, his ERA would have dropped to 3.86.  And if the Giants had an awful bullpen and all 30 of them would have scored, his ERA would skyrocket to 5.51. 

That’s a 1.65 range that his ERA could have fallen to.  Since less than half of the 30 scored, he was fortunate to be on the low end of that, but he could just easily have been on the high end.

Miner had a very similar ERA at 4.27, but 11 of his bequeathed runners scored.  Since he didn’t pitch as many innings as Sanchez, his range was higher.  His ERA could have been anywhere from 3.22 to 6.14; a difference of 2.92! 

Miner is an unusual case, since he only had 5 starts; the majority of bequeathed runs come from starters.  A pitcher’s bequeathed runners become another pitcher’s inherited runners, a more common stat that is used to gauge relievers.  Miner had 29 inherited runners and 10 of them scored; so I guess you could say his ERA is pretty accurate, as his 10 runs scored from inherited runners cancel out his 11 runs scored from bequeathed runners.  Are you as confused as I am? 

Who had the worst luck?  Probably Roy Oswalt.  11 of his 12 bequeathed runners scored.  His ERA would have fallen in the range of 3.57 to 4.17.  The low end of that was more in line of what was expected. 

The best luck?  A.J. Burnett.  Only 1 of his 19 bequeathed runners scored.  His ERA range was between 4.00 and 4.83. 

Another Yankee, Joba Chamberlain also had good luck, only 1 of his 14 bequeathed runner scored.  His ERA range was from 4.69 to 5.49.  The Yankees bullpen was really good (3.91 ERA) so this is understandable.

I could keep going on with other examples, but you get the idea. 

What does this all mean?  Not much. It’s a very interesting statistic, but l ike I said, I’m not one to change stats. 

This could, however, be a useful tool in fantasy baseball strategies. 

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Underrated. Players like Alex Rodriguez, Jason Heyward, and Stephen Strasburg have never really known that assignation.

Yet as highly touted as any one player may be, there are just as many, if not more, that prove better in the long run.

Just ask Dustin Pedroia and his five and a half foot frame.

Underrated is a fantasy baseball player’s dream.

Finding that diamond in the rough that others have discarded makes one’s draft.

It’s the same for real General Managers.

The joy of watching that first round pick fall apart while your supplemental pick flourishes.

Must be amazing.

In any case, I’ve taken it upon myself to rank the top 10 most underrated players in Major League Baseball.

Some are old, some are young.

All deserve more respect.

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The Colorado Rockies scored a run off Jonathan Sanchez in the fourth inning on Sunday to take a 1-0 lead over the San Francisco Giants.

Sanchez left the game with the Rockies still on top 1-0, with runners on first and third, with one out in the fifth inning.

It’s going to require a more patience than what fans and, perhaps, the Giants are showing in order for the hard-throwing left-hander Sanchez to truly emerge as a consistently solid starting pitcher.

It’s just a hunch. No second-guessing Bruce Bochy. More of an amateur psychologist’s view of not repeating the same treatment for the same guy who consistently runs into the same problem.

Just wondering if taking a sideways look at Sanchez might result in giving him credit for strides he’s made and, maybe, agreeing that he’s got such electric stuff that … we can learn to stick with him just a little longer.

Sanchez got the hook down by a single run, while the Giants were being no-hit by Jhoulys Chacin…in the top of the fifth inning on Sunday. Sanchez had thrown 94 pitches.

Imagine if Bochy hooked Tim Lincecum in a similar situation — down a run in the fifth after throwing 94 pitches. Instead of walks, imagine that Lincecum had given up bouncers for basehits.

The game is certainly a great deal more relaxing when Lincecum or someone like him is pounding the strike zone and keeping the Giants in the game. However, it might be worth exercising a little more patience with Sanchez because—he isn’t Lincecum, but he has all the tools to be one nasty left-hander.

Sanchez goes from unhittable to unable to find the strike zone in the blink of an eye. In 2009, he blew up and let a scoreless tie turn into a 3-0 deficit—because he got wild. He’d groove a fastball in a desperate attempt to throw a strike and, most times, 3-0 became 6-0.

In his outing before Sunday’s start, he struggled through a tough fifth inning, got the hook and got a win. On Sunday, he was removed after walking two hitters in the fifth. The Rockies blew the game open against Brandon Medders and won 4-1

Instead of remembering the throbbing headache fans feel watching Sanchez feel for the strike zone, consider the lefty’s downfall on Sunday.

Sanchez recorded two quick outs in the fourth on Sunday. Then, he hit Jason Giambi with a pitch.

Then, he walked the bases loaded. Fans stirred. Announcers’ voices hinted at disgust.

Sanchez walked in a run with Medders up in the bullpen.

Admit it, the Giants and all their fans wanted Sanchez out of the game. Right?

By the time Chacin finally flied out to end the inning, the Rockies led…1-0.

It’s gut-wrenching to watch Sanchez lose the strike zone in the middle of what seems to be a fine outing. That hasn’t changed from 2009.

This season, though, Sanchez has minimized the damage and shown he’s at least learning to avoid the complete meltdown that ended innings like Sunday’s fourth for him in 2009.

That painful fourth that left the Giants fidgeting in the dugout and that prompted boos from corners of AT&T Park resulted in the same number of runs that Lincecum or Matt Cain would’ve yielded on, say, a single, a walk, a sacrifice bunt, and a sacrifice fly out.

A 1-0 lead is a 1-0 lead. It doesn’t matter how the other team scores the run. So, maybe don’t be so quick to call for Medders just to get Sanchez off of the field. Maybe?

Regardless of how well Sanchez had pitched Sunday, he could’ve done no better than enter the bottom of the fifth inning tied. The Giants didn’t get him a hit, let alone a run.

Granted, Sanchez walked two more batters in a row after getting an out to start the fifth. But, he’s making it clearer with every outing that he’s a better bet without good location than Medders and some others are with middle-inning relief type stuff.

Medders came in and gave up back-to-back hits. The Rockies grabbed a 4-0 lead.

Sanchez has the masterful stuff that comes and goes. Someday, the Giants hope, it comes and stays for six or seven seasons. He doesn’t know what happens when he goes from wildly dominant to plain old wild. So, maybe give the guy a chance to right himself when the Giants are being no-hit?

As things stand right now, the Giants and their fans are in for three pretty relaxing games in every five. Heck, they skipped the No. 5 starter’s spot, so they’ll get Lincecum, Cain and Barry Zito one game earlier when the road trip begins in Florida.  The bullpen’s underworked to the point the club sent reliever Waldis Joaquin down to make room for Aaron Rowand coming off of the disabled list.

As hard as it is to sit through an inning where Jonathan Sanchez loses the strike zone, it might be that the Giants and their fans learn to sit through them. For all his struggles on Sunday, he only trailed 1-0 through 4 1/3.

The Giants and fans must learn to let Sanchez have time, given the score and the inning, to learn to work out of the trouble he causes for himself. He certainly has the stuff to minimize the damage.

If Sanchez keeps looking over his shoulder at the bullpen with runners on in a scoreless game, in the fourth or fifth inning, he’ll never develop into the pitcher that his stuff indicates he could become. The Giants have the talent at the top of the rotation to let Sanchez struggle through and, perhaps, learn to avoid those nightmare innings altogether.

Patience.

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