In response to this Cutthroat Island of a season, Giants fans are grumbling loudly. Even the normally chipper folks are starting to ride the wave of Giants angst. While the blame pie can be tossed at Sabean with little guilt, few of us thought it would be this way. Our worries at the start of the season consisted of Mike Matheny, Marquis Grissom, and a shaky bullpen. Matheny's been better than we hoped, Grissom's free fall was cushioned by the mini-emergence of Jason Ellison, and the bullpen is in the process of moving from awful to competent.
The real reason this team is out of the playoff picture is the starting pitching. There could have been doomsayers predicting awful things for the collective of Jason Schmidt, Brett Tomko, Noah Lowry, and Jerome Williams at the start of the season, as all four had some sort of question mark hanging over them. I certainly wasn't one of doomsayers, and expected all of the above four to have good-to-great seasons. The rotation was a strength, consarnit. Now, it's the reason we're in July, wondering what the freaking Orioles would give us for Tomko.
This is all a lead-in to a formulaic post, detailing five things I hope to see in the Giants second half:
- Continuing youth in the bullpen. Herman Munter is a great start, but the Giants are going to need to stick with Jack Taschner at all costs over Jason Christiansen. Jeremy Accardo should be taking the innings being given to Jeff Fassero. Replace anyone over 30 with someone younger and cheaper, and see who looks good for next year.
- One of Kevin Correia and Brad Hennessey finishing the season well enough to earn automatic consideration for a spot in 2006. Both are more Jamie Brewington than Russ Ortiz, but there's no harm in finding out if either is one to trust going into the next season.
- Barry Bonds hit a home run off Jeff Weaver.
- Matt Cain. There are a million reasons why Cain shouldn't be called up. It brings him closer to his arbitration days. He is doing fine in AAA, but hardly dominating. His control would be a serious problem in the majors. He's young, and should be given ample time to develop in the minors. Now, here's the reason why he should be called up: because I wanna see him. While there is certainly no crying in baseball, there is plenty of room for whining. And I wanna see Cain. Now. I wanna.
- Mike Krukow caught saying Lou Seal is the worst mascot in the majors, after he thinks the mics are off for commercial. That would be awesome. That, or Noah Lowry having the same finish to 2005 that he had in 2004.