BASEBALL

The San Francisco Giants blow this year. This is intuitively obvious to the casual observer. However, I really think that we could be good pretty soon. Here's what I'm thinking.

Sorry this is so long, it's mostly just so i can get my own thoughts on paper

To start - pitching. The Giant's starting lineup is obviously their greatest strength right now. Tim Lincecum is an ace, Matt Cain and Jonathan Sanchez are very very good, and Zito and Correia are fine for fourth and fifth in the rotation. Although we are paying a lot of money for zito, there's nothing we can do about that, so mise well play him. Our relief pitching is not nearly as good, although if Merkin Valdez and Yabu stay healthy they should be able to help there. But relief pitching is one of our big holes - we need somebody to bridge the gap between our awesome starting pitching and Brian Wilson, who is a pretty effective closer.

Our problems this year have obviously stemmed largely from the position players, but this isn't as bad as it looks. A lot of that comes from inexperience, but going forward, we have a lot of future players pretty much locked in. Fred Lewis and Aaron Rowand are long term solutions in the outfield. Fred Lewis in particular has hit very well this year as a rookie, and Rowand is solid. Right now, Dave Roberts and Randy Winn are our guys in left field, but they're 36 and 34 respectively. Still, our outfield is pretty well set.

In the infield, John Bowker at first has been, along with Fred Lewis, one of the awesome rookie stories for the giants this year. Hopefully he'll be playing there for a long time. Ray Durham and Omar Vizquel have been our guys in the center of the infield, but Durham was traded and Vizquel, although he's one of the all-time greats, and he's still incredible defensively, is aging and also not hitting all that well. At all. In the future, it looks like the Giants want Emmanuel Burriss and Eugenio Velez to be there. They're not exciting, but they're fine for holding down those spots. Hopefully they'll improve defensively as they mature; Velez could also use some work on his baserunning. Ochoa is another possibility here. At catcher, the Giants have Molina right now, and draft pick Buster Posey should be a lock there going forward. I have to say, I hope they don't rush him along too quickly - if he sees play in the big leagues next year, I feel like it should be mostly as a backup to Molina.

Third base is a black hole. Right now, we seem to be playing Rich Aurilia and Jose Castillo there. Rich Aurilia is an awesome guy and a Giants classic, but not a long-term solution at 37. Fuck Jose Castillo.

So I think the plan from here is to trade or sign as a free agent a third baseman who can hit really well, get some more relief pitchers, and then rely on our youth players and prospects coming up. It's not a bad plan, and given how shitty our division is, I really feel that playoffs are a possibility in 09 or 10.