Ouch. The Giants just demoted Eugene Espineli, the guy who was supposed to go to the Olympics. His promotion to S.F. last month trumped his Olympic berth, but now, just as Team USA begins its competition, he’s back in Fresno. I guess the silver lining is he doesn’t have to endure the nasty humidity or air pollution of Beijing. I’m sure he would beg to differ.

(Speaking of Team USA, when I clicked on the live Web feed of the USA-Netherlands game last night the first thing I saw was former Giant prospect Shairon Martis pitching to Nate Schierholtz. Schierholtz looked at a called third strike.)

According to Andy Baggarly, Matt Palmer replaces Espineli. Someone will need to be bumped from the 40–man roster, as Palmer wasn’t on it before. With five catchers currently listed, I would vote Guillermo Rodriguez off the island.  

Baggarly, who is absolutely running circles around his competition, also reports that Buster Posey is all but signed. I guess Posey news merits its own post; in journalism this is called “burying the lead.” (That’s lead as in “take me to your leader,” not lead as in “lead pipe.”)

Baggarly says it’s “in the neighborhood of $7.5 M” for a big-league contract, more than triple the bonuses they gave to Lincecum and Villalona. He also says fourth-rounder Brandon Crawford, a shortstop at UCLA, has also signed for $375,000. That would wrap up all their top draftees, as third-rounder Roger Kieschnick signed yesterday.

A couple other notes before today’s matinee kicks off — with all three newbies in the lineup, to boot:

* Congrats to Ryan Rohlinger on his first big-league hit and RBI last night. Now just do something about that number 57. It’s the inverse of 75, which has to be some kind of bad luck. Speaking of which…

* Zito’s ugly implosion last night masked some subtle but heartening trends. First, he wasn’t hit hard. Bad luck (bloop single), bad calls (Wigginton safe instead of out at first base), bad D (Lewis missing the cutoff man on the first sac fly), and a bad bullpen (Sadler’s two hit batsmen) added to his nightmare inning. I’m not letting Zito off the hook, but this also marks the second straight game, and third of four, when one bad inning — one horrible inning — has ruined an otherwise solid outing. He’s also throwing his fastball harder (86, 87, 88 MPH) and his curve with more bite these days. His walk rates are still inexcusable, but the strikeouts are coming back (27 BB, 33 K in his last 41.1 IP), and he’s doing a good job of keeping the ball in the park. Is it possible that he’s close to fixing the mechanics, and now he needs to work on his head? I’m not hoping for a return to 2003, but perhaps by year’s end he can creep back up to league average, which is roughly what he was last year. (For more on what makes for “league average,” click here.) 

Question: If Posey signs a major-league contract, is he immediately on the 40–man roster?