Posey arrived at AT&T Park in time for Saturday's game vs. the Diamondbacks and Billy Buckner. The 23 year-old catcher turned first basemen went 3-4 in his 2010 big league debut and drove in 3 runs in the process. Coincidentally, the Giants scored a season-high 12 runs in the ballgame as well. The offense just seemed to click with Posey in their in the fifth spot behind Pablo Sandoval and Aubrey Huff. Buster followed up his 3-hit, 3-RBI debut with another 3-hit game, including 2 doubles and an RBI vs. Ian Kennedy on Sunday. With Posey in the lineup at first base, the Giants have decided to move Huff out to left field for the time being and their lineup has improved drastically. Unfortunately they were shutout on Monday, which ended their 4-game winning streak as Ubaldo Jimenez bested Tim Lincecum in a matchup of the two best right-handers in the NL West. I can't get too down on the Giants for a loss to a guy who's far and away the NL Cy Young favorite at this point, as Jimenez is now 10-1 with a gaudy 0.78 era. They will have to get back on pace Tuesday night against Jason Hammel though, because if they lose tonight, they will fall back one spot in the division into 4th place.

Since Posey has "officially" arrived, their is going to be a ton of pressure on him to help carry the Giants offensive load. There was an article in Sunday's Chronicle that talked about how good the Giants are going to need Posey to be in order for them to be contenders as the season wears on. Then, there are some people that are wondering what is going to happen to Posey once Mark DeRosa returns from the DL. DeRosa just started his rehab assignment Monday, and if all goes well with him, the Giants will be expecting him back within a 7-10 days. It's not so much the roster spot I'm concerned about, it's going to be the division of the playing time. Posey has obviously shown his value to the Giants lineup, and I don't see how they could just remove that type of production. Granted, it's only been a few games, Posey looks like he's got the same type of magic in his bat that Pablo Sandoval had when he first came up and this lineup needs that type of production. Then there's Andres Torres, who has caught fire and solidified the top of the Giants order. He's earned a starting spot too, and the Giants are going to have some real tough personnel decisions to face over the next couple of weeks.

It's been reported all over the Bay Area over the last few days that the Giants were in talks with Burrell, and now it appears to be pretty much wrapped up. According to Henry Schulman, the Giants should announce the signing of Burrell by Saturday evening. Burrell won't be immediately added to the roster upon signing though, as he'll likely go through a small stint in Fresno before the Giants figure out what capacity they're planning to use him in. As far as my reaction to this move? I don't really see any harm in it, but I'm really not expecting Burrell to come in and be any kind of savior for this lineup. That said, there's always that chance he comes up, gets hot and puts together a couple of streaky months and works his way into the lineup. This situation almost reminds me of the Brad Penny deal from last year. After successful seasons in Philly, Burrell never got comfortable in the AL with Tampa and was really castoff by the organization because of it. The Giants are hoping a move back to his more familiar setting may help kick-start his bat. Again, they're adding him on the cheap and it's not costing them a roster spot, so essentially, it's a potentially low-risk, high-reward type add and you can't complain about those.

At least the Giants have been hitting better as of late and did get back on track vs. the Nationals by taking 2 of 3 games. Then started off solidly vs. the D-Backs on Friday night behind a Matt Cain 1-hit shutout. The top of the lineup, Andres Torres and Freddy Sanchez, are starting to provide some consistency to that part of the lineup, and it's allowing the Giants bats in the middle of the order to relax a bit. Out of nowhere, Andres Torres is becoming a very serviceable major league outfielder, and his stats are climbing with the more pt he's getting. Torres is carrying an OPS of nearly .900 this season, and remember, he was basically obsolete in April. As a matter of fact, there were a few different games in April in which Torres played a big part in the Giants losing and I was ready to see him sent down at that point. I'm just glad Sabean and Bochy had more patience with him than I would have cause he really has been a blessing for this team. Freddy Sanchez has picked it up right along with Torres too. He's had multi-hit games in his last two starts and has 3 RBI in those two games. He and Torres need to stay right around .300 in order to keep the top of that lineup afloat.

The tail-spin strangely coincided with the return of Freddy Sanchez, which is a surprise because so many people were hoping he would give the offense a shot in the arm. The Giants have lost all five games that they've played with Sanchez in the lineup, and have scored just 9 runs in that span (7 of those came in 1 game though). Not placing the blame on Sanchez at all, but he hasn't really done his part since his return, and, as I mentioned in the last post, he doesn't have a bunch of room for error. The Giants' second basemen collected just 1 hit over the weekend series in Oakland and has been a big part of the black hole that is the top of the Giants batting order. Aaron Rowand has been hideous since returning from the DL as well, and it's caused Bruce Bochy to finally move him out of the leadoff spot in favor of Andres Torres. It's not just Rowand and Sanchez though. Pablo Sandoval has continued to struggle and isn't playing nearly up to his capability. As a matter of fact, the only guys who can say they are doing their part offensively at the moment are Aubrey Huff and Andres Torres and it's not like those 2 are tearing the cover off the ball either. Coming into the year, the Giants were a team that would have to do the little things like move runners over, hit the sacrifice fly and get bunts down, and their struggling to do even that. I have no problem with lineup overhauls in situations like this and I hope Bruce Bochy is thinking along the same lines.

Things really hit rock bottom this weekend I think though. I mean, the A's have some decent arms and all, but there is no excuse for scoring just 1 run in a 3-game set, I don't care who the opposing team is throwing at you. Two more brilliant starting performances, one by Jonathan Sanchez and one by Matt Cain, ended up in losses because of the piss-poor fundamental baseball. Cain went 8 strong on Saturday, allowing just 6 baserunners all day and dropping his era back into the 2's, but his record fell to 2-4. Sanchez now has the same record as Cain after his 7 inning, 2-hit outing on Sunday afternoon. If they keep this up, all the Giants starters are going to have losing records despite ridiculous era's by the end of the year, and regardless of what the pitchers say, it's going to start taking a toll on them sooner or later. I mean, how many 8 inning shutouts does it take to get a win? I think now is the time to roll with Buster Posey. The Giants need an offensive boost, and Posey has the potential to be so much more than that for them right now. With Mark DeRosa still out, Posey has a spot in the lineup where he could play everyday and the situation now just seems right at the moment. There are just too many factors that support calling up Buster right now, on May 25th 2010. Now is the time for Buster Posey to come and attempt to save the day.

Up Next: Speaking of call-ups, the spotlight will be on Todd Wellemeyer tonight as he goes against the Washington Nationals and former Giant Livan Hernandez. It could be Wellemeyer's last chance to prove his value to the Giants rotation, as there has been plenty of talk of replacing him with Fresno's Eric Hacker. Something tells me that if Wellemeyer causes the Giants to continue their losing streak tonight, we won't be seeing him starting again here anytime soon! We here at the Giants Baseball Blog also would like to advise our readers to use gottapark.com to make parking at Giants games easy!

The Giants suffered a 3-game sweep at the hands of San Diego, and it was due largely in part to some wild starting pitching and some missed opportunities at the plate. Matt Cain was wild in his start on Wednesday and gave up 5 runs in 6.2 innings, and that game probably was the one that the Giants really didn't deserve to win, but the other two games were there for the taking. Zito walked 7 guys in the series opener on Tuesday night, but did a pretty good job getting himself out of the trouble he got into and allowed just 3 runs. Unfortunately, the Giants offense could only muster up 2 runs in support of him. They didn't even score in game 3 on Thursday though, and only managed 4 runs in the full 3-game set. The discouraging part about that is that they didn't really face elite pitching. They faced some young arms in Wade LeBlanc and Mat Latos who are both good, but are rookie arms who made a veteran lineup look downright bad. Jonathan Sanchez was brilliant on Thursday to no avail. He went a season-high 8 innings, allowing just 3 hits and 1 walk. It was the second time this year that Sanchez was beaten by Latos in a close game like that. More importantly though, the 3-game sweep pushes the Giants back 3.5 games behind the first place Padres in the West.

Hopefully the Giants will be getting an offensive re-enforcement very soon. Freddy Sanchez has had a couple of games down in San Jose with the A San Jose Giants, and he's looked pretty good so far. In his first game, he had 2 doubles and a few RBI's, and if all goes well, he should be back with the Giants within the next week to 10 days. Juan Uribe, Matt Downs and Aaron Rowand have all started struggling in the last week, and the Giants' top of the order could use a shot in the arm. Speaking of struggling Giants, Pablo Sandoval's batting average continues to plummet and is now into the .270's. This is easily the longest stretch of slumping he's had to endure in his young career, so hopefully he's not taking too much of a hit to his confidence. The Giants are going to need Sandoval to return to form now more than ever with recent news on Mark DeRosa. The Giants starting free-agent acquisition from last winter has really had a rough go of it in his first 6 weeks with his new club, but apparently he's been playing at less than %100. He had offseason wrist surgery that is giving him problems and could ultimately lead to another procedure. He had his wrist worked on in November of 2009, and it took him until about late February before he was able to do all baseball activities, so if he has the same type of procedure done, it likely would keep him out for most of the rest of the season.

If DeRosa indeed needs to miss a large portion of playing time, it could prompt the Giants to bring up phenom Buster Posey. Aubrey Huff has the ability to play the outfield, and although he's been surprisingly solid with the leather at first so far, it may not be a bad idea to move him into left field and let Posey get some time in at first, where he worked extensively this spring... It's definitely going to be a situation to keep an eye on going forward though no matter what.

The teams only 2 losses on the trip were due to late game heroics by the New York Mets, so they playing well even in the games they aren't winning right now. It's a bit surprising too because they're doing it with two of their most important offensive pieces under-performing. Both Mark DeRosa and Pablo Sandoval had forgettable road-trips, and have really had a terrible few weeks here in May so far. So far in May, Sandoval is hitting just .081 with 1 RBI and just 3 hits in 37 at-bats. DeRosa isn't much better, sitting at .148 with 3 RBI and 4 hits in his 27 at-bats this month. The reason why the Giants have been able to weather the storm without those guys hitting has been the stand-out play of youngsters Nate Schierholtz and Matt Downs. Schierholtz has finally gotten his everyday shot, and he's making his mark. He's not hitting with an abundance of power, but he's hitting .351 which will put him amongst the NL batting average leaders as soon as he hits the minimum plate-appearance mark which will be very soon at the rate he's now playing. He's also been tremendous in right field with that glove and throwing arm. Downs, who's hitting right behind Schierholtz, is hitting .400 this month, .359 overall and will have second base to himself for the next 2 weeks with Renteria out. Also, Aaron Rowand has been on fire since his return from the DL, hitting .344 with 3 homers and 11 RBI.

Now the Giants return to AT&T Park for a 3-game showdown with the co-NL West leading San Diego Padres. Right now, with the rest of the division struggling below .500, this is time for the Giants to separate themselves not only from San Diego, but the rest of the division as well, which is why this makes this such a key series for the Giants. They'll send the hottest pitcher in baseball, Barry Zito, to the hill vs. a guy who's been a huge lift for the Pads as well, Wade Leblanc. Zito has been lights out all season long, and is off to the best start of his career. He hasn't yet had a start in which he failed to make it through at least 6 innings, and all 6 of his starts so far have been "quality starts". This has all lead to his incredible 5-0 record, 1.49 era and 0.92 WHIP. He's showing how much of a help he can be to this team when he pitches well. If Zito started this year like he had the last 3, the Giants aren't sitting in first place right now, but probably floating around .500 like the Dodgers and Rockies. You can visually see the difference in body language and confidence from this year compared to the past. I don't think this is a fluke. He's going to eventually lose, and his era will rise, but I think Zito is back to form.

It's not just Zito though, all the Giants starters, minus Todd Wellemeyer, have been brilliant. And speaking of Wellemeyer, the Giants may have to make a move in his spot due to his 9.61 road era. I know it's all hindsight now, but I never was a big fan of letting Kevin Corriea walk, as he was extremely versatile and was really improving before getting hurt in 2008 (as he's shown by going 16-13 with a sub-4 era in his 39 starts with San Diego). It's kind of got me wondering... With Madison Bumgarner struggling in Fresno, and probably not going to be counted on for much this season, the Giants may want to think about adding another starter from outside the organization. I know the fans will probably want them to add a bat if they do make a deal, but imagine what another solid starting pitcher would do for this rotation. I'm not talking about an ace, but another Brad Penny type from a year ago. I don't think another middle of the line hitter like a Mark DeRosa or Aubrey Huff would make a huge difference on this team, so unless they can get a stud hitter like a Lance Berkman, they should bulletproof their starting rotation by adding a legit fifth man in my opinion.

Most of the minor league attention surrounding the Giants early on has been on their AAA Fresno team where they have their top-2 prospects awaiting their opportunity to be moved up to the big league level. Bumgarner, who was favored to win the 5th spot in the Giants' rotation coming into spring training, didn't pitch like he was supposed to during the Cactus League, and that carried over into the regular season. In his first two starts in Fresno, Bumgarner allowed 21 hits and 11 earned runs in just 7 innings of work. However, since those first two outings, Madison has seemed to get back on track. Over his last 3 starts, he's gone 17 innings while allowing just 9 hits and 3 earned runs. His strikeout numbers have been a little bit down as well, as he's got just 16 total over 24 innings. The concern with Bumgarner once again is his drop in velocity, as he's down to about 88-90 rather than sitting at 92-95 mph like he was most of 2009. Hopefully his last 3 starts are a sign of better things to come for Bumgarner, but I'd be lying if I said that his significant drop-off isn't a big concerning for the Giants top minor league pitching prospect.

MadBum's battery mate, Buster Posey, is really making his case to be called up and if it weren't for the arbitration situation, he'd probably be up with the club right now. In 25 games, Posey's hitting .320 with 2 jacks, 13 RBI and a team leading 17 runs. He's doing a little bit of everything, and is improving behind the plate each day. Outside of Bumgarner and Posey, there aren't a bunch of notable players playing in Fresno at the moment, but they do have a few pitchers who have gained some attention. 27 year-old righty, Eric Hacker, is a perfect 5-0 in 5 starts with a 1.67 era and 31 k's in 27 innings. In the bullpen, Henry Sosa has carried his strong spring into Fresno with him, as he's allowed just 6 hits in 14 innings of work and should really get a strong look next time the Giants need an arm.

While Bumgarner, Posey and Sosa are all up in Fresno, the majority of the team's top-20 prospects reside in AA with Richmond. Roger Kieschnick, Darren Ford, Thomas Neal, Nick Noonan, Connor Gillaspie, Brandon Crawford and pitcher Clayton Tanner, a big core of the 2009 San Jose Giants, are all playing together again in AA now, but they aren't having the success they did in San Jose yet. Kieschnick is the only one hitting over .250, but he has no homers and just 3 RBI to go along with his .275 average in 91 at bats. Ford's hitting .247, with 1 hr, 5 RBI and 5 SB. Crawford's at .238, with 2 hr, 7 RBI and Neal's at .212, with 2 hr and 12 RBI. Gillaspie got off to a nice start, and hit 3 homers, had a bunch of RBI's and looked like he could be on the verge of a breakout year early on, has just 6 hits and 3 RBI over his last 10 games. Tanner has actually been solid on the mound though, even better than he was in A last year. He's gone 2-2 in 5 starts, sporting a 2.16 era and 14 k's in 25 innings spanned over 5 starts. I've made the comparison to Noah Lowry with Tanner, and I continue to see it in him. The 22 year-old could probably go up to AAA and manage pretty well as he just seems to be almost dominant at times without being a huge strikeout guy.

In San Jose, first basemen Brandon Belt has gotten off to a huge start, hitting .404 with 3 homers and 14 RBI and 7 steals. Francisco Peguero, who was on our top prospect list this winter is hitting .278 with 2 homers and 12 RBI and is amongst the minor league leaders in stolen bases with 13... In Augusta, '09 third rounder Chris Dominguez is hitting .284 with 4 hr and 19 RBI, and could be in San Jose before long. He's a guy who I was really high on after the draft because of that power. The Giants '09 first rounder, Zach Wheeler, is in Augusta as well, and has struggled so far, going 0-2 with a 6.23 era and 15 strikeouts in 13 innings. Not what Madison Bumgarner did after the Giants took him in 2007, but I'm ready to be patient with the 18 year-old Wheeler cause I do expect him to ultimately put up the minor league numbers that Bumgarner has and be a top-3 prospect sooner than later.

After struggling through that rough Southern California road trip last week, the Giants returned home in strong fashion, taking care of the Cardinals in 2 of 3, then followed that up with another 2-win series victory vs. the Phillies. They got timely hitting, and amazing starting pitching over the homestand, and have fought their way back atop the NL West because of it. The latest dominant start was delivered by Tim Lincecum on Wednesday afternoon, as Timmy went 8 1/3, allowing just 3 hits and 2 runs while striking out 11 Philly hitters. Unfortunately, Brian Wilson couldn't hold the 3-run lead and the Giants eventually lost the game in extra innings. It was a tough no-decision for Lincecum to take for sure, and definitely will leave a bad taste in the Giants' mouths for the moment, but overall, they have to be very pleased with the way they bounced back after their tough road trip. They are starting to swing the bats a little bit better and will be getting one of their catalysts back this weekend in Aaron Rowand. They aren't out of the woods yet though, as the Rockies come into San Francisco for a 3-game set starting Friday night.

The offense was what stuck out on this homestand for me, especially the way they handled Roy Halladay on Monday night. The Giants banged out 10 hits, including 4 extra-base hits, and put up a 5 spot against the guy everybody wants to call the best pitcher in baseball. A big reason for their recent offensive improvement has been the play of Andres Torres. Right after I posted about Torres needing to improve in a hurry, or else he'd be out when Rowand came back, the speedy center fielder got it going offensively. Torres is hitting .409 on the homestand, with 4 RBI, 4 runs, 2 steals and 4 2B. He's now hitting a respectable .275 for the season after entering the homestand at .111. It hasn't been all about the bat with him either, as he's really made some tremendous plays out in center field as well over the last week. Both Torres and second basemen Matt Downs(.308, 1 hr, 1 RBI, 2 runs, 13 ab's ), who actually took Rowand's roster spot, are both making an argument to stay on the team when Rowand comes back. Their play has caused there to be whispers about Eugenio Velez, who has 1 hit in his last 20 at-bats, possibly being sent down in place of Rowand over the weekend.

GBB Notes: Again, I'd like to apologize for the lack of posting over the last 2 weeks. Things have been pretty busy with school and computer issues. I should be back to normal though now, so we should be updated every other day or so like normal again.... We also haven't had a chance to discuss much minor league stuff yet, so be on the lookout for April's minor league report in the next week or so, as we take a look down on the farm and see what the likes of Buster Posey, Madison Bumgarner, Darren Ford and Thomas Neal are up to!