I am not certain but I believe the Giants could transfer Lowry to the 60 day DL to clear a spot on the 40 man roster.

They will have to decide what to do with Torres too.

I believe Torres could hit as well as Rowand is/has been hitting and play much superior defense. He could run down all the fly balls Rowand dives for (and misses).

"We're nearly to the end of May, which means evaluation time is over." I must most respectfully disagree. I earlier posted the following at Raising Matt Cain:

Meanwhile, in the Chron on Sunday morning, Henry Schulman asks the question, "...are the Giants truly the plucky team that built an 18-14 record and could contend under the right circumstances or a squad with too many flaws that were exposed in three losses to the elite New York Mets?" Valid question, perhaps, but this is, unfortunately, exactly the worst way to frame the debate. The reason for that is because of where the answers lead you. If the Giants are a team that "could contend under the right circumstances" then we are talking about a trade to get us into the playoffs at the end of the summer. That suggests a pitcher (our currency) for a hitter - perhaps a proven veteran type of hitter who can help RIGHT NOW. If, on the other hand, they are "a team with too many flaws that were exposed in three losses to the New York Mets" then we are talking about many more changes and much more rebuilding to be done than we think. The problem is, both those conclusions are wrong, because neither response involves much patience, and patience is what is needed most here, especially among media writers and the lunatic fringe (whether that patience should extend to Sabean and Bochy is another matter). I am becoming convinced that the Giants have the base of a very good, competitive team. Sandoval continues to impress, particularly with his defense at third, and Burress is winning me over. All the talk about when MadBum or Alderson are going to be in the rotation are way, way premature. We really need to wait at least until the trade deadline to evaluate this team, and then only make a move if it is a good deal for the Giants future (long term, not this season's future).

I also tuned in to espn in time for the leadership blather, saw one batter and and Frandsen make a great defensive play, and immediately turned on the radio.

I agree with most that. I can’t imagine a worse broadcasting duo than Morgan/Phillips. Phillips’ criticism of Carlos Beltran—the three-time defending gold glove centerfielder with the 1.068 OPS this season—was one of the most bizarre diatribes I’ve ever heard. Looking to harsh on overpaid players? Wrong dugout, Steve.

Bocock has no business on the 40-man roster. Bocock could be placed on waivers with $1 million in cash taped to his body and no GM would pick him up.

Bring up Jesus now. He will hit a lot until pitchers stop throwing him anything near the plate, but the sooner he goes through that, the better.

Richie has value simply because the rest of the Giants are such awful situational hitters, but I agree, his bat has slowed down, he’s lost all his power, and he’s average or worse defensively.

Schierholtz needs more at bats at the MLB level. Velez needs more time in AAA.

I actually think Rowand will improve to league-average over the course of the season. The San Francisco Giants, where the best players are under 25 and $10-17 million buys league average.

And seeing Gillaspie on the 40-man reminds me of how ridiculous it was to bring him up last year. I’m sure, as many pointed out, it was something he negotiated as part of his signing, but it was absolutely ridiculous to start his clock that soon.

And furthermore, I'd like to officially change the definition of "contending" to "have a shot to win the WS." The Giants are a not a good team. The Giants are not "a player or two away" from competing for the WS, unless those two players are Albert Pujols and David Wright. Bowker, Rohlinger and Jesus are raking in AAA. And Bowker is doing things that no one with the big club is doing, getting on base a lot while not striking out a lot.

Joe Morgan is damn lucky he has Jon Miller to carry him through the broadcast. It is kind of a mystery to me how some people actually think he makes good points during the game but last night was a perfect example of why he should fade away and only show up on old timers days. He made one point about why the mets didn't steal when they had a first and second and no out situation. Has anyone who knows anything about baseball ever thought that no outs and runners at first and second was a good situation to steal?

Good points all around Lefty on moves that need to be made short term but I think the bottom line as UVHaight mentions is that this isn't a good team. No changes that dont include trading Alderson or Bumgarner for a middle of the order bat are going to change this fact. Something has to change so that next year isn't more of the same.

Watching Frandsen at short on sunday made me wonder what in the world is Sabean thinking. Second guessing doesn't get you anywhere but after 4 years of losing baseball and little hope for this year and next, Sabean needs to go. Frandsen should have been up from day one and guys like Aurelia and Uribe don't get us over the hump, they are bandaids covering a shark bite. Velez is clueless and has no value and if this team is going to get anywhere next year it is time to get Guzman, Rohlinger, and Bowker up to see if they can be of any help because guys like Uribe, Aurelia, and Velez are open books that say "don't read me unless you are in the mood to vomit all over yourself".

I'm going to post what I posted at MCC:

You don't see posts like this when he's hitting .808 OPS

Like Rowand was for the month of April, .283/.358/.450/.808. He was basically over .800 OPS the whole month due to a hot start and some hitting after that.

Plus, since May 9th, he has hit .333/.421/.515/.936 in 33 AB and 9 games, so the timing is kind of interesting since he’s in a midst of a hot streak which has been just as long as his cold streaks.

The real problem this season is that either he is hot or he is cold, and he hasn’t really been in-between. And he was like that even during his poor second half, from August 5-23, he hit .346/.429/.596/1.025 in 16 games. From Sept 8-24, he hit .320/.404/.360/.764. He was just stone cold in-between. And people seem to have conveniently forgotten that he was hitting .323/.389/.514/.902 as late as June 11 last season and was still .296/.358/.463/.822 at the half way point on June 30th.

What’s causing that problem, I think, is that he’s suffering from Zito-itis: getting a case of the yips and thinking too much while hitting and trying too hard. He talked about this in a recent interview with Andy Baggarley, about how he’s trying to do too much, i.e. living up to his contract, rather than just staying within his capabilities and doing what he can do. Instead he’s trying to get the mythical 5 run homer with one swing.

As the old saying goes, figuring out you have the problem is half-way through solving the problem. He is 4 for 7 with a HR after saying “screw it” and simplifying everything. The next few weeks will be interesting, if we can get the guy who hit OPS in the 800’s or the guy who was horrible on and off the last half of last season. If that’s all he really needs to be back to his 900 OPS self that he can be when things are going well, that would be a huge boost.

About Affeldt: I was expecting as much from him because many of the commentary on him as a free agent was that he would be a closer on the cheap, that he's closer-worthy. I see him and Wilson forming a nice duo at the end of games.

I like the Guzman idea except for one thing: he's not really that much of an upgrade right now. His numbers in AAA are not better than what Ishikawa did last season, and he hit way less HR than Ishikawa did. Bringing him up would be useless AND cause us to lose a player off the 40 man.

I would rather use the DH to get Schierholtz some regular AB, maybe rest a vet at DH and give Schierholtz RF all 3 games and see what he can do (though, frankly, it won't be fair to whichever young player you chose to play, because he'll be facing their best, Bedard, Washburn, and King Felix, you would expect hitters to do poorly against them).

As I noted above, but want to emphasize: sit Rowand right when he's been on a good hot streak? I can understand it when he was oh-fer-forever, but when he's actually hitting well?

With AL teams on the horizon, use that opportunity to give Schierholtz more starts, whether in OF or DH.

I didn't see the ESPN telecast, but apparently the idiocy reached the tipping point when Phillips and Morgan began criticizing Carlos Beltran for being a careless baserunner. Beltran...the guy with the best stolen base percentage in major league history. It defies words.

Dude. You are right on with Morgan and Phillips. It was freaking exhausting to listen to their blather about who is a leader on the Mets. Not only was the topic not worth the time they gave it, but no one was even making a point. For the love of God. They almost forgot there was a game going on. It was like listening to two stoners discussing the shape of a cloud.

Everybody needs to email ESPN and complain about Morgan and Phillips. I did because ESPN won't be reading the Giants Blogs.

Not only was the commentating bad, but their stats were off too. I caught a few that stuck out, but the only one I can remember was them giving Pablo Sandoval's stats from the minors and saying that last year he did well in AA and AAA, when he never played AAA. Then they showed a graphic of his stats and it said San Jose (AAA). The funny thing was John Miller just got done talking about how Frandsen got called up from AAA Fresno....

I'm going to disagree with everyone but don't worry about it cause I've been wrong about almost everything this season.

The Giants are a good team by definition. They have a winning record. I think they'll have a winning record at the end of the season.

And I like Joe Morgan.

I totally disagree: I LIKE Ren and Stimpy. Phillips is a moron and Morgan gives me an earache.

As for the Gigantes, right now they look like what everyone thought in spring training: a .500 team that is much improved over last year but not yet good enough to contend. One could hope for marginal improvement by some of the players (Winn, Lewis) but this group as a whole doesn't measure up to the Mets, Phillies, or even the Evil SoCal Empire. They need a serious upgrade at 1B and CF.

I am going to mostly agree with you fly. Only on 2 points do we differ.

1) Between Lewis, Burriss and Sandoval we could very well see improved production. If someone, anyone, takes the reigns over at 1st and gives this squad almost league average over all production we see a big boost as well.

2) The Evils are truly not much better than the Giants. It is not just the fan in me. Go check the record of Giants VS Bums since last All Star break. It is not the Bums with the most wins. And if the Bums were not aware and worried about it Blake would have never popped off in the dugout like he did.

Lefty, you are echoing my thoughs on SF Gate...we have seen enough of Velez to know he is not going to make it in the big leagues. Frandsen should have been on the big league squad since Openign Day...he at least has the glove to be a valuable bench player and will likely not swing at every first pitch...

Can the Mets take Aurilia for a ham sandwich to play a little first while Delgado is out??? I think Guzman and FFrandsen shoudl be up and Velez and Aurilia or Uribe down...

Do you think Omar Minaya will swap us Beltran for Aurilla+Rowand? I mean Steve Phillips would probably offer us cash as well but I'd take a straight swap, you know, as a favour to them.

Here's why I think the Giants will be a winning team this year. They are a .500 team now despite having an OPS+ of 75 (94 is average in the NL). That number is bound to improve one way or another. It surely couldn't get worse.

I'm going to quit this stuff.

I wrote they had a winning record. Next game they lost and went back to .500.

I wrote they couldn't get a worse OPS+ thn 75. Next game they got one run and 6 hits. Their OPS+ GOT WORSE.