"I probably watch him a little bit closer," Bruce said before a recent game in Washington against the Nationals. "I'm just being honest. I'm going to see if he pitched and how he did."

As of now, the Giants aren't actively looking for a starting pitcher to buttress the back end of the rotation. Evans called reports claiming that the Giants might be searching for another starter "not true."

Giants catcher Buster Posey, the 2010 NL Rookie of the Year, has bounced back from a devastating ankle injury that wiped out last season to earn the starting nod behind the plate in his first appearance in the Midsummer Classic. Joining Posey in the NL's starting lineup are teammates Pablo Sandoval, who was named to last year's team by Giants manager Bruce Bochy, at third base and fellow first-time All-Star Melky Cabrera in the outfield.

"The Giants won’t take McCurdy, right?" says Billy. The San Francisco Giants had the twenty-fifth pick, the only pick between the A’s next two. "Take Blanton with 24 and McCurdy with 26." "Swisher and Blanton and McCurdy," says Erik "This is unfair." He clicks the button on the speakerphone, and his voice shaking like a man calling in to say he holds the winning Lotto ticket, takes Blanton with the twenty-fourth pick, pauses while the Giants make their pick, then takes McCurdy,

Tim Lincecum is out of sync, his segments are not in sync and he's putting stress on his labrum (shoulder) that is playing catch up but most of all that continuous pounding on his knee and left hip is the main cause of his problem, which I believe can be fixed rather easily. Segmental velocities in the pitching motion are rather important to any pitcher and Tim is facing these problems head-on.

San Francisco's outfield is a veritable WAR Machine. Cabrera ranks fifth among big league outfielders and ninth overall among position players with a Wins Above Replacement of 3.0, according to FanGraphs. Blanco is the 13th-ranked outfielder at 2.3, and Pagan is tied for 21st at 1.9. That aggregate WAR of 7.2 places San Francisco's outfield second to the Atlanta trio of Bourn, Martin Prado and Jason Heyward among the 30 major league teams.

As Barr indicated, it's anybody's guess. Various mock drafts have linked the Giants to Piscotty, right-hander Nick Travieso of Archbishop McCarthy High School in Pembroke Pines, Fla., right-hander Lance McCullers of Jesuit High School in Tampa, Fla., infielder Richie Shaffer of Clemson and left-hander Andrew Heaney of Oklahoma State University.

"The biggest thing is getting myself in a hole and not putting balls in play that should be in play," Belt told me on Friday, when he carried an 0-for-12, eight-strikeout streak into the game. "That’s an approach type of thing. It’s a mental type of thing. At the same time, there might be a need for a mechanical adjustment."

But Sergio Romo vs. Rickie Weeks might be the most one-sided performance I’ve ever seen on a baseball field:

Weeks is 0-for-6 against Romo in his career.
Weeks has struck out six times.
Weeks has struck out swinging six times, three times on just three pitches.
Romo has thrown Weeks 22 pitches, and 19 of them have been sliders.
Of the 19, 16 have been strikes.
Of the 16, 10 have been swinging.
Weeks has not fouled a pitch off.
Weeks strikes out.

The Giants will option pitcher Eric Hacker back to Triple-A Fresno and recall reliever Steve Edlefsen on Saturday morning, a team source said after Friday’s 5-3 loss to the Padres.