I took a long hard look at the 2008 pitching results and here is what I found:

AWL = Ahead When Starter Replaced W/L.  BWL = Behind When Starter Replaced W/L.  TWL = Tied when Starter Replaced W/L.  CGWL = Complete Game W/L.  OWL = Overall W/L.

Starter      GS   Innings   Runs   BpInnings   BpRuns   AWL   BWL  TWL  CGWL  OWL

Lincecum 34      227         72          80.2              47        20-4     1-4     0-3      1-1    22-12

Cain          34     217.2       95          91.2              56          8-3     3-14   2-3      1-0    14-20

Zito            32      180        115         102               37        10-0     2-17   1-2        -      13-19

Sanchez   29      158         90            97               56          9-2      4-12   2-0        -      15-14

Other         33     176.2     123        111.1             68         5-2      1-16   2-6      0-1      8-25

Total        162     959.1     495        482.2           264      52-11  11-63  7-14    2-2    72-90

Please note that I counted April 2nd (rain delay game) as a Lincecum start not a Valdez start and April 26th (oblique Injury game) as a Hennessey start not a Correia start. 

To me the area we can make the biggest improvement in is obvious.  Replace our 5th starter (Other) with a second #1 (CC) to combine with Lincecum and we should immediately improve to an above .500 team!  We should be able to get an Overall Win Loss Record of 21-12 in these 33 starts if it was CC making these starts instead of the clowns we used.  This would be 13 more wins which would improve our record to 85-77 which would put us one game ahead of the Dodgers and thus NL West Champs!        

Tomorrow (September 29th) all players on the 60 Day DL must be returned to the 40 Man Roster or DFAed.  The Giants currently have two on this list (Noah Lowry and Melkin Valdez) and 39 others already on the 40 Man Roster.  Clearly the Giants will not be DFAing either Lowry or Valdez so who do they DFA to make room?  I supose the Giants could just DFA either Richie or Omar since they both become free agents anyway after the World Series.  But, I am betting that they do not choose to do this and instead DFA Alfonzo since it is clear (at least to me) that he has no future with the Giants while I still see a chance that the Giants could re-sign both Omar and Richie to be the backup infielders next year.

Before we had Matt the Giants had 8 (count them 8) consecutive winning seasons with 4 (count them 4) playoff appearances and 1 World Series appearance..  Matt Cain is just a flat ass jinx.  Just look at his Win Loss Record compared to his ERA.  How is that possible without being a jinx?    If we want to start winning again and making the playoffs again we need to trade his bad luck bad ass ASAP!  It is our only hope.

It seems to me that most here have already written off 2009 and want Giants Management to do the same.  But is this the correct view of what it would take to compete in 2009 or is it just an emotional reaction to how bad the Giants have been since the last time we truely competed in 2004?

Let's look at the different elements of our beloved Giants and see whch ones are ready to compete now and which ones need  upgrades.  To me this really isn't very hard.  The Starting Pitching Is clearly ready to compete now.  The Outfield could compete now if none of the bats had to hit 4 or 5.  The Catching  could compete now if the bat was used hitting 6th, 7th, or 8th  instead of cleanup.  It is only the Infield and the Bullpen that are currently not ready to compete.

How far away are the Bullpen and the Infield? 

To me the bullpen is close.  Sabean has talked about adding an experienced arm or two in the offseason to close the gap.  I think this would be a misuse of our trading chips and/or free agent dollars.  We need to give our young arms the opportunity to fill these roles.  Out of Sadler, Hinshaw, Romo, and Matoes I think we should be able to find an 8th inning guy to pair with Wilson to close out the games.  I am fine with keeping Walker and Taschner in reduced roles  as a righty/lefty pair in middle relief before the 8th.  I think our current bullpen just needs more experience and will become a competative bullpen during the 2009 season.

Clearly the Inflied is where we come up short and today we are not even close.  We need to find two bats that can legitimately hit 4th and 5th and man the corner infield spots with at least league average defense.  We need to find two gloves that can man the middle infield spots with defense that is as much above average as their offense is below average.  When we solve this infield puzzle is when we are ready to compete.

So is it possible and reasonable to try and sovle this infield puzzle this offseason so that we can compete in 2009?  In my judgement it is.  We have pitchers and outfielders to trade.  If the salary budget for 2009 returns to $90M we have $30M in free agent dollars to spend.  Why can't we fill these 4 holes with players that allow us to compete in 2009 with these resources to aquire them?