2010 World Series Game 5: SF 3, TEX 1

This will be a short game recap. You can be assured that Mack and I will have a lot to write about this coming week, but now is not quite the time for analysis or remembrance. Now is simply the time to savor and celebrate.

The 2010 Giants have brought home the first World Series championship to San Francisco. Game 5 turned out to be the classic pitching duel we expected in Game 1, with both Lincecum and Lee putting up zeroes through 6 innings. Lincecum was at his best, the kind of Lincecum we saw so many times in 2008 and 2009, the kind we saw in April and September of 2010, and the kind we saw in the playoff opener against the Braves. He could not be beaten tonight. Every pitch was working for him, and his velocity was strong. The Rangers simply had no chance. The only damage was a late solo HR from Nelson Cruz. Even then, the game felt over. Because the Giants did what they had to do with Lincecum throwing a gem. They got to Cliff Lee. Again.

Cliff Lee is a great pitcher. But he isn't everything he was made out to be, and that's no knock on him at all. He just isn't Sandy Koufax. He pitched quite well tonight, but the Giants once again weren't baffled by him the way other teams have been in the playoffs. They had hit the ball somewhat hard, but had nothing to show for it until the 7th inning. That was when 2 of the biggest playoff contributors, Ross and Uribe, hit back to back singles up the middle. Aubrey Huff sacrificed them over, getting his first sacrifice bunt of his career. An odd play, but I can't say I disagreed with it. Even though he is one of their most important hitters, the run environment tonight was low, and the smart play was to trade outs for runs. Huff also nearly reached, so it was a good call by Bochy, again. After Pat Burrell struck out, Edgar Renteria came up, and the Rangers had the opportunity to walk Renteria and pitch to the potentially much easier out, Aaron Rowand. But Cliff Lee, the proud, somewhat arrogant pitcher that he is, didn't want to walk Renteria. And I commend him for that. But I'm sure he wishes he had pitched around Edgar. On 2-0, Lee threw a fastball down the heart of the plate, and Renteria swung.

On the swing, the ball went straight into the air towards left center. It didn't really look like Edgar had driven the ball. But as it kept carrying and carrying, it became evident that this ball was not going to be caught. The outfielders were just too far. I thought it would land near the warning track, scoring 2 runs. But then it kept going, until it slipped over the left field wall for a 3 run HR. It looked very much like the NLCS winning HR by Uribe. The ball just found a way to get over that wall. Notice that it didn't hit the top and bounce back.

And that was all they would need to win the only thing that matters in baseball, the World Series. Lincecum pitched 2 more innings. He finished with 10 Ks in 8 innings, only giving up 3 hits and walking 2. Wilson finished off the 9th easily against the heart of the Rangers order. That's all I can really say now. Wasn't that short of a recap after all. Look for more posts this week about Game 5, the series, and the season as a whole.

2010 World Series Game 4: SF 4, TEX 0

FFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFF

When your team is up 2-1 in the World Series, Game 4 isn't normally a MUST WIN. But tonight's game was pretty much a must win. After last night's game, the Giants really don't want to go to a Game 7, and tonight's win makes that less likely. Cliff Lee is pitching tomorrow, and despite getting knocked around by the Giants' offense in Game 1, he is a dominant pitcher. The odds aren't great that the Giants can beat him a second time in a row, this time in Texas. Tonight they were also facing the most mediocre starting pitcher they will see in the World Series, Tommy Hunter, and needed to capitalize. And capitalize is what the offense did, although the hero of the night was very obviously Madison Bumgarner.

Holy hell, Bumgarner is the most popular guy in San Francisco right now and he deserves it. 8 IP, 3 H, 0 ER, 2 BBs, 6 Ks. For a 21 year old rookie. Did you see that stat line? Zero runs. Three hits allowed. All this against a fairly potent Texas Rangers lineup. Although, that fairly potent lineup has been shutout twice in this World Series and scored more than 4 runs just once. It just goes to show that a team with great pitching like the Giants should never be counted out. Great pitching usually tops great hitting. It's the reason all Giants fans knew the Giants had a very good shot at winning this thing. It's the reason Giants fans were baffled that the vast majority of experts picked the Rangers to win and a couple even said the Rangers were a much better team. It's the reason the Giants are 1 win away from winning the World Series. Wow, yes I did just type that sentence. Alright, now back to Bumgarner. I don't really even know what to say. The Rangers got one runner past 1st base tonight and it was only because of an error. The three hits given up were 2 groundball singles and a soft flyball to RF. The sexy stat going around tonight is that Bumgarner is the 2nd youngest pitcher to ever throw 8 shutout innings in a World Series game. He was just on. There was a certain point, maybe the 6th inning, when I just felt like he wasn't going to give anything up. He was great. Beautiful. Fascinating. Dominant. Delicious. Use any adjective you want. I'll use one last one. Tonight, Madison Bumgarner was amazing.

The offense got started with Aubrey Huff's 2-run homer in the third inning, which was a great sight to see. Huff hasn't exactly been slumping, but that was his first home run since September 25th. Andres Torres added an unnecessary insurance run with his RBI double in the 7th and Buster Posey scored the 4th run by hitting a home run straight away to center field. It was a pretty bizarre homer too. When he hit it, I looked down at my computer because I thought it was a simple flyout, but it kept carrying all the way out. Seemed like his first homer in a while too. I'm probably very wrong, though.

As you might expect, the Giants are in a great position, up 3-1. My gut tells me the Rangers won't lose for a second time with Cliff Lee on the mound tomorrow, especially in Texas, but the Giants are countering with Tim Lincecum. That game is very winnable. And if they can't win tomorrow, Matt Cain starts in Game 6. Cain hasn't allowed an earned run this postseason, so I'd be pretty freakin' confident with him on the mound. The Giants are 1 win away. One win away from winning the World Series. I don't even know how I'd celebrate if it were to happen. This all so surreal. Sometimes it doesn't even feel like the Giants are in the World Series. Sometimes it just seems like the Giants are playing normal baseball and playing really, really well. It hasn't quite hit me, but I hope it does soon because this is awesome. One. More. Game.

2010 World Series Game 3: TEX 4, SF 2

The Giants lost tonight, but that is not the main concern to take away from Game 3. They have Bumgarner going tomorrow against a weak pitcher, Tommy Hunter, and Lincecum in Game 5 (against Lee of course). All they really need is to win 1 game in Texas. They have a good chance of getting that done. Matt Cain on the mound in Game 6 would give the Giants a great chance to finish out the series. The real concern is if this series does go to a 7th game.

Jonathan Sanchez is scheduled for that start, and Sanchez just doesn't look good right now. He pitched fine in the final game of the season, dominated the Braves in Game 3 of the NLDS, and pitched well in Game 2 against the Phillies. Then there was Game 6 of the NLCS against Philadelphia, where he looked lost, and couldn't finish the 3rd inning. Tonight, he gave up more runs, but didn't look as bad as he did in Philly. Still, it was clear something wasn't right. It'd be wrong to write a good pitcher like him off just because of 2 poor starts, but after he left the game, a few issues came up that hadn't before.

Sanchez has apparently lost some measurable velocity on his fastball, and it is affecting the way he pitches. He seemed to recognize it during this start, and after some damage was done, he adjusted well, until Hamilton homered off him in the 5th. He was throwing more breaking balls, because the fastball just wasn't working, and he ended up hanging one to Hamilton. The speculation was that this loss of velocity is due to Sanchez's long season, and Dave Righetti all but confirmed the reality of this situation after the game. He's never pitched near 200 innings until 2010, and then you add in the playoff starts, and you could see how a young arm can get tired. And one thing is probably for sure: that arm isn't going to get much less tired for Game 7. So the question becomes: should Sanchez start Game 7? If the issue were simply about a couple bad starts, but nothing to do with fatigue or injury, I'd say absolutely yes. But we are dealing now with a fatigue problem, and a tired arm is a dangerous thing to rely on, especially in Game 7 of the World Series. But then the question becomes: who would start? The Giants don't have any relievers that are "starters" (Barry Zito could have been one), so we are left with the 2 other starters, Bumgarner and Lincecum. Cain is out of the question because he started the previous night. The most he might be able to provide in that game would be an inning or so of relieve.

The difficult part of this is that when trying to avoid making Sanchez throw, the other pitchers that are options could be facing the same problem, in a different way. Do we know that Lincecum can throw effectively with 2 days rest? 3 days isn't ideal for Bumgarner, but it is more realistic, but then you think of Bumgarner. He's far more inexperienced than Sanchez, and younger. What if he is getting tired too?

Hopefully, this simply won't be an issue. Hopefully, the Giants can win the series before it gets to Game 7. And if it does, hopefully Bochy and Righetti will have observed Sanchez to see that he is okay for a start. And in the case that he isn't, the Giants have options, although none are very attractive. Without time to think it over much, I'd say give Bumgarner the ball to start the game, but make anyone available, including Lincecum and Cain.

Pat Burrell looks horrible at the plate, but he should start tomorrow. The Giants simply don't have anyone that's going to do much better. Hopefully he can figure it out right away. I have little doubt he'll be moved down in the lineup, and Ross will move up to hit behind Posey. I also think that Ishikawa will get the start at 1st, and with Huff at DH.

2010 World Series Game 2: SF 9, TEX 0

Big wins are the toughest to write about, and the surreal experience of them coming in the World Series makes it even tougher. But here we go:

The Giants ended up winning by a larger margin tonight than they did in Game 1's slugfest, but until the 8th inning, this was the kind of game San Francisco fans have gotten used to. Edgar Renteria hit a solo HR in the 5th inning to break the 0-0 tie, and Juan Uribe added a run with a bloop single in the 7th inning. The Giants had 2 outs and the bases empty in the Weird Inning, and proceeded to score 7 more runs. A single by Posey. A fistful of walks. A triple by Aaron Rowand. Double by Torres. The Giants batted around for the 2nd straight day against the Rangers. Ron Washington's bullpen managing was atrocious in a close game, and now you have to question the state of the bullpen itself going back to Texas. The Giants did well to let the Rangers pitchers dig themselves into deeper holes, and it allowed for a stress free 9th inning. The Giants defense has also been stellar in the 1st two games, most notably the old men on the left side, Renteria and Uribe.

Oh, and then there was Matt Cain.


Cain went 7.2 innings, giving up only 4 hits and 2 walks to a strong Texas lineup. He now has pitched 21.1 innings in his first postseason without giving up a single earned run. Tonight, he was what all Giants already knew he was: A great pitcher. A pitcher who makes hitters slam the bat down in frustration when they popup a high fastball. There's been a lot of talk this whole postseason among the sabermetric community anytime Cain was pitching, wondering how he does it, because his peripheral numbers just don't match the end results. Yes, Cain has pitched all of his postseason games at AT&T, and there have been flyballs that might have been home runs in other ballparks. But you can forget all that, because the dominance is evident. It's shown by the past 4 years of quality pitching, and his performances in the last 2 months are just a microcosm of that. We saw it tonight, and last week against Philadelphia, and in Game 2 of the NLDS. And we saw it at Coors Field in September, when Cain single-handedly tossed the Rockies out of playoff contention. He has baffled great lineups. He has gone long in games. He has worked with slim leads. He does it all, and he only just turned 26, but has the composure of a 10 year veteran. After Cain's complete game in Denver, I said that he may not be the best pitcher on the Giants. In fact, he certainly isn't. But he's the one I love the most. Because while composure, toughness, and heart can't possibly be measured, they can be recognized, and they are things we can admire and love a player for. Matt Cain has great stuff, and he had the Texas Rangers off balance tonight because of a good fastball and changeup. That's why he pitched so well. But even I like to think that a certain factor in this admirable World Series performance was Cain's own unrelenting, undaunted drive to win.

2010 World Series Game 1: SF 11, TEX 7

I make it go POW!

Cody Ross was the NLCS MVP and the Giants probably wouldn't have won the series without him, but let's acknowledge that Cody Ross isn't THAT good. He isn't a bad player, but it was mostly a fluke. I'm not trying to diminish his series. It was great, every successful playoff team needs a guy like that, and if the Giants can go all the way, he'll be remembered by Giants fans forever. Well, maybe it's Freddy Sanchez's turn to be the unpredictable guy that has a great, kinda fluky series. He was not fooled by Cliff Lee at all, going 3-for-3 with 3 doubles in his first 3 at-bats and 4-for-5 overall with 3 RBI. There were other contributors, but Sanchez sparked the Giants' huge 11-7 Game 1 win against Cliff Lee and the Rangers.

You know how many runs were scored in this game? In case you don't read the title and can't do simple addition, the answer is 18. That is a lot for a game in which Cliff Lee and Tim Lincecum are the starting pitchers. Both were obviously not themselves, but Lincecum was less bad. Lee went just 4 2/3 innings and gave up 8 H, 6 ER, and 1 BB with 7 Ks. Lincecum's line looked like this: 5 2/3 IP, 8 H, 4 ER, 2 BB, 3 Ks. Yeah, just 3 strikeouts.

The game started off in a pretty bizarre way. Lincecum gave up a base hit to the first batter and walked Michael Young. Josh Hamilton hit a weak grounder that advanced both runners. Then Vladimir Guerrero hit a ball that deflected off of Lincecum, allowing a run to score and no outs were made. The next play was, as Lincecum put it, a "brainfart". With runners on 1st and 3rd, Nelson Cruz hit a grounder right to Lincecum and they had Michael Young in a rundown between 3rd and home. But all Timmy did was run Young back to 3rd. It wasn't really even a rundown because Lincecum didn't even try to throw the ball to the 3rd baseman to get Young out. No idea what happened there. He was lucky to get a double play in the next at-bat, limiting the damage to just 1 run. In the bottom half of the inning, with Freddy Sanchez on base after his first double, Buster Posey hit a bloop in the air towards right fielder Vladimir Guerrero, who does not move well at all. Sanchez must've figured there was no way Guerrero would get to the ball, but he seemed to not realize that Ian Kinsler was going for the ball as well. Sanchez badly misjudged it, headed almost all the way to third, and was easily doubled off 2nd base when Kinsler caught the ball. It was a terrible, terrible baserunning mistake. The Rangers would score again in the next inning after a Cliff Lee (the pitcher) double and a sacrifice fly, Texas took a 2-0 lead, and a Giants fan freakout ensued.

Maybe the freakout wasn't all that irrational; Lincecum looked kind of average and the Giants were playing some terrible baseball. But like I said, Lee was not all that sharp either, generally not having his trademark great command and location, and the Giants started doing damage in the 3rd. Renteria reached base on a fielding error by Michael Young. Torres was hit by a pitch. Freddy Sanchez hit his 2nd double, scoring Renteria. Buster Posey singled up the middle to bring in Torres. Bam. Right back in it. And more importantly, Cliff Lee was hittable, which doesn't happen a lot.

Onto the 6th, and what an inning it was. It started with a pair of doubles from Torres and Sanchez (his 3rd). 3-2 Giants. Pat Burrell walked and Cody Ross singled. 4-2 Giants. Aubrey Huff singled. 5-2 Giants and Lee was out of the game already. But the dagger came off the bat of NLCS Game 6 hero, Juan Uribe. His homer in Philly probably would've been a flyout at AT&T. Tonight, he hit hit a legitimate 3-run bomb to right field, giving the Giants an 8-2 lead. The Rangers scored twice in the 6th and that's when Lincecum exited.

The Giants scored a few more funs in the 8th that would actually end up mattering a little bit because the Rangers scored 3 in the 9th, but the game was ultimately too out of reach for the Rangers. It may be a concern that Texas ended up scoring 7 runs off Giants pitching because the Giants normally won't be able to win slugfests. But I'm not too worried. The late innings weren't managed like a tight game with the exception of Brian Wilson coming in; Affeldt and Ramon Ramirez were pitching, not exactly our top relievers.

The Giants played some of their worst baseball in the first 2 innings and still won. The Giants scored 11 runs in a game that Cliff Lee started. Tim Lincecum was not Tim Lincecum and the Giants won. This was a great, huge win. I've always thought that because in all the other pitching matchups the Giants seem to have the advantage, if they won a game against Cliff Lee, they'd be in pretty great shape. Tomorrow's starter for the Rangers, C.J. Wilson, is a very good pitcher. It'll be interesting to see how the Giants do against him. Of course, we always have confidence in Matt Cain, who is very, very good and not average. The Giants should know to never take a World Series lead for granted. A Game 2 win and a 2-0 series lead would be delightful.

2010 World Series Preview: Giants vs. Rangers

This will be a basic preview, evaluating both teams offensively and defensively and how they match up. Today we learned that Tim Lincecum will pitch in Game 1, Cain in Game 2, and Sanchez and Bumgarner will pitch in Texas for games 3 and 4, respectively. Okay, let's begin with the pitching.

Pitching

The headlines will all be about Lincecum vs. Lee in Game 1, but both teams have other quality starters. The Rangers' CJ Wilson will face Cain, Colby Lewis will face Sanchez, and Bumgarner will go against Tommy Hunter.

For Game 1, you probably have to give a slight edge to Lee, but both pitchers are so good, it really doesn't matter. In 3 starts so far this postseason, Lee has gone 24 innings, struck out 34 batters, and walked just 1. That's the thing about Lee: his command and location are impeccable and he almost never walks guys (his 1.003 WHIP, 10.28 K/BB and 0.8 BB/9 led the AL this year). It's hard to find any way to beat Cliff Lee, but the Giants will probably have to take a similar approach to what they did vs Roy Halladay. Since Lee will be in the strike zone, they need to be aggressive. Easier said than done of course, but patience will not work. Tim Lincecum is obviously a much different pitcher, as he'll count on the Texas hitters swinging at his nasty changeup to get strikeouts. This is going to be another great postseason pitching matchup.

After Game 1, it becomes pretty clear that while Texas has good starting pitching, it doesn't compare to the Giants staff. In Game 2, you have to like Matt Cain the edge over C.J. Wilson. When the playoffs started and Cain started to get a little more exposure, a bunch of "Matt Cain is actually lucky and pretty average" started popping up. It may be easy for national writers writers for other teams to make that observation because his FIP and xFIP* aren't too impressive (career 3.84 & 4.43), but it's simply not true. Cain does depend on his defense - he's a flyball pitcher who doesn't get a ton of strikeouts - but that doesn't have to mean he's an average pitcher, it just means he's a pitcher who relies on his defense. Consider that since 2007, Cain's highest ERA has been 3.76. That's 4 seasons of an ERA at or below 3.76. And his ERA+* in that same period has never dipped below 123. An ERA+ of 100 is average. That can't just be 4 years of coincidence. Matt Cain is a very good pitcher who relies on his defense and he's at his best when he locates that fastball. That is all. Glad I got that out of the way. His counterpart in this game, C.J. Wilson, seems to be the Rangers version of Jonathan Sanchez. Wilson led the AL in walks during the season, just like Sanchez, but he's able to get out of it because he strikes out a fair amount of guys and batters hit only .217 against him. Sounds a lot like Sanchez, huh? Because of all those walks, the Giants will need to be patient. Wilson is a very good pitcher who will be hard to hit.

So, C.J. Wilson = Jonathan Sanchez. And C.J. Wilson > Colby Lewis. I'm no good at math, but I think through the transitive property or something, that proves that Sanchez > Lewis. Sanchez can be inconsistent, yes. And I'm sure many have soured on him after that not-so-good outing in Game 6. But when he's on, like he has been for the better part of the last 2 months, he is GOOD. His strikeout rate this year, 9.5 K/9, was very good and he held batters to just a .204 average, best in the NL. Colby Lewis ain't no slouch, though. Lewis, as you may know, had a terrible major league career, went to Japan for a couple of years, then came back and had a great year for the Rangers. I can't pretend like I've seen a ton of Lewis, but his K/9 of 8.8 and 1.189 WHIP are quite good. This matchup is actually pretty good, and it will all depend on which Sanchez we see.

In Game 4, a big edge has to go to Bumgarner over Tommy Hunter. Hunter had a good year for the Rangers: 3.73 ERA, 1.242 WHIP, but his year was just a little better than average. His stuff isn't great (just 4.8 K/9), so he doesn't have the natural ability to overpower hitters. In 2 starts so far in this postseason, he's pitched 7.1 innings and has a 6.14 ERA. Bumgarner is more of a flyball pitcher who also relies on location but can get a strikeout when he needs to (7 K/9). So far, Bumgarner has shown great poise and ability to get out of stressful situations for a guy who's only 21 years old. He's gone 12.2 innings with 12 strikeouts and a 3.55 ERA in 2 starts and a relief appearance during this postseason.

One more note: The Giants probably have an edge in the bullpen too. Brian Wilson is the best closer in the league, and the Giants have several other guys like Sergio Romo, Ramon Ramirez, and Santiago Casilla, who, even though they haven't performed well so far in the postseason, had very, very good years. And I assume Javier Lopez's assignment for this series will be to come in and shutdown Josh Hamilton. The Rangers also have a very good closer, Neftali Feliz, and a few good arms in Darren O'Day, Darren Oliver, and Derek Holland, but the edge has to go the Giants.

Offense

The Rangers offense is their strength and it's very good. In the AL, they ranked 5th in runs scored, 6th in team slugging, 5th in HRs, and 5th in team OPS. Ian Kinsler, Michael Young, Nelson Cruz, Josh Hamilton, Vladimir Guerrero, and David Murphy are all good hitters. Hamilton, the probable AL MVP, and Cruz are particularly scary. Guerrero can also be very dangerous.

We all know about the Giants offense: not very good, but definitely able to put enough runs to win games. Andres Torres and Freddy Sanchez started to get hot towards the end of the NLCS and Buster Posey had a pretty good series. Cody Ross was a god, but we'll have to see if he can keep that up. It'd be nice if the power guys, Huff and Burrell, got going because with them working, the Giants offense isn't so bad.

It's clear that the Rangers have a huge advantage here.

The DH

There's been quite a bit of debate over who should be the DH for the Giants when they play in Texas. Some like the idea of having Burrell do it so a better defensive outfielder can play. Some don't want to do that, because Burrell doesn't like to DH and says it affects his hitting. I don't buy into that way of thinking. Others want Sandoval as the DH because he seemed to be hitting well in his limited at-bats during the NLCS, but his defense kept him out of the lineup. I don't really know what I would do. In terms of having the best hitters in the lineup, having Sandoval DH and Burrell stay in LF is probably the best option. On the other hand, Burrell always gets taken out early for defense anyway, so if he is the designated hitter, that doesn't have to happen anymore. The other thing that comes into play is that I think Pablo Sandoval hasn't necessarily played his last game at 3B. His defense has been bad, but there aren't many great options over there, as Renteria is certainly not perfect and probably shouldn't be starting every game. In all likelihood, the DH duties will probably be split between Sandoval and Burrell.

Defense

I feel obligated to say something about the defense. The Giants don't make many errors, but they aren't a good defense. Really, Torres and Sanchez are probably the only above average defenders. Maybe Cody Ross, too. Buster Posey is solid of course. But the Rangers have a better defense. Elvis Andrus is great defensively and the entire infield defense isn't bad at all. However, for at least one of the games in SF, Vladimir Guerrero will be playing the outfield. That's gonna be interesting and if I were the Giants I'd hit it as much as I could to him. He doesn't move too well anymore.

Conclusion

On paper, the Rangers are the favorites. The Giants have better pitching, but it's not like the Rangers have a terrible staff. And the Rangers have a huge advantage on offense. So, it's a lot like the series against the Phillies. But as Giants fans, we know this team well and we know that the Giants can beat anyone. Their pitching is so good, that they can shut down the best offenses. And while the Giants' offense is usually pretty mediocre, they don't need to score a lot and they aren't incapable of scoring. The Phillies also had a good offense and a much better pitching staff than the Rangers, but the Giants outplayed them. This is going to be a very good series. Don't count on it going any less than 6 games.

*If you are unfamiliar with FIP, xFIP, or ERA+, you can click on those links for explanations.

Bengie Molina Traded to the Texas Rangers

UPDATE: Wow. Turns out the PTBNL is Michael Main, the 24th overall pick in the 2007 draft. Now, Main did have a terrible 2009 in Single-A, going 4-6 with a 6.49 ERA, but he has rebounded this year to post an ERA of 3.45 and 7.1 K/9. His 2009 year was supposedly affected by a bout with a viral infection. Main has a ton of potential, can reach the mid-90s with his fastball, has a potentially plus curve, and is still just 21 years old. He was a first round pick for a reason, so obviously he has some upside. He's a no risk, high reward player. I can't believe Sabean got both Main and Ray for Molina. I can't believe what I'm about to say, but good job Brian Sabean.

Bengie Molina has been traded to the Texas Rangers for RHP Chris Ray and a player to be named later, as first reported by Jon Paul Morosi of FOXSports.com. The Giants will also reportedly send about $2 million in cash to the Rangers.

First of all, Bengie Molina was a good Giant. He deserves credit for catching one of the best pitching staffs in the major leagues and a two-time Cy Young award winner and he was always an important veteran presence in the clubhouse. While he was never a great average hitter and had mostly below average OBPs, in 2007 and 2009 he hit 19 and 20 home runs, respectively, as the Giants cleanup hitter. He should've never been the cleanup hitter, but that isn't his fault. That being said, it was absolutely time for Molina to go. His line of .257/.312/.332 with an OPS of .644 just wasn't good enough to justify him being in the lineup. There's also the fact that a young catching prospect by the name of Buster Posey needed to be catching everyday. With Bengie gone, Buster will move to catcher, Uribe will slide over to third and Renteria will be manning shortstop on most days. The bottom line is that now the Giants will be putting their best players out on the field.

This deal is pretty surprising because I assumed the Giants weren't going to get much at all for Molina, but they ended up with two players. Chris Ray is a reliever with a fastball that runs up to 94-95 mph and a slider and splitter. His best year came in 2006 when he was the closer for the Baltimore Orioles. He had 33 saves, a 2.73 ERA, and a WHIP of 1.09. He missed the entire 2008 season recovering from Tommy John Surgery and came back to have a horrible year in 2009 when he had 7.27 ERA and a 2.01 WHIP!! However, he's recovered nicely this year, posting an ERA of 3.41, and should be a good addition to the bullpen. Don't expect the PTBNL to be anyone significant, but the fact that the Giants were able to get relief help and another player for one of the worst hitters in the lineup has to make Giants fans happy.

Even though Molina's season has been a struggle, you've got to appreciate his contributions to the Giants.