There were people yelling at the Giants on July 4. Well, there were a lot of people yelling at them because Eric Stults made them look bad, but there were others yelling at them because they were outfoxed by the A's. Jeff Samardzija and Jason Hammel would have made the Giants' rotation much, much better, but the A's swooped in and got both pitchers first. This made people angry.
Here's some context for those people. Both Baseball America and Baseball Prospectus released midseason top-50 lists, in which they adjusted their preseason rankings based on the results of the season so far. The Giants don't have a single prospect in either list. More than that, they don't get a mention in the honorable mentions. If you ctrl-F or command-F both pages looking for "Giants," nothing comes up. Nothing at all.
This is why the Giants didn't get Samardzija (other than possibly not wanting another pitcher). This is why they will not get David Price. This is why they won't get Chase Utley or Ben Zobrist. This is why they'll get Daniel Murphy for Kyle Crick, Adalberto Mejia, and Joe Panik, and you'll have to watch a Crick/Wheeler All-Star combination in blue and orange for the next 10 years. The state of the farm is ugly.
No, wait, the state of the farm is Florida. Very flat. Lots of weird stuff going on. Huge bugs. Some very nice redeeming qualities that are overshadowed by the other stuff. The state of the farm is Florida.
If you're looking to feel better, remember that three out of the eight lineup spots are taken by excellent players under 30, and that Madison Bumgarner is young enough to be the #1 prospect on both lists instead of a two-time All-Star and World's Champeen. I'd rather have all of that than a good showing in the BA and BP lists right now.
Still, it's more than a little discouraging. I was really hoping that Cal League rotation from last year was going to lay waste to the Eastern League this year, dang it. Prospects are so mean.