I say hold onto Molina and trade Winn. I am a dedicated rebuilder, but love the prospect of winning the wildcard. Nate is at worst, Winn's equal (now at least), and hopefully part of our future. The way Winn has played, there are no prospects that would exchange hands but is salary relief possible, and maybe a guy who could provide a spark Rajai Davis style before getting DFA'd?

Let's win the wildcard!

Randy Winn: Yes; Bengie Molina: No.

Winn, on many counts: he should get us a good enough prospect, he has an able replacement that is about his equal in Schierholtz, plus we have Bowker waiting in the minors, and potentially could play Frandsen in LF if need be.

Plus, I'm leaning more towards he won't get us a draft pick in the offseason, no one is giving up their first round pick for Winn, and he definitely would accept arbitration, I think his agent should be able to see the writing on the wall regarding his age and career.

Molina should get us a good prospect, but while Sandoval would be an able replacement, as you noted, that would take his bat out of the lineup more often for rest. Plus, more importantly, what if his elbow goes out again? Then we would be out both Sandoval's AND Molina's bat. That would be a huge risk to this promising season.

In addition, while we have an able replacement in Sandoval, we don't have one for Sandoval at 3B who can replace Molina. Frandsen might be able to, in terms of OPS, but that's the best we can do. Uribe cannot, I don't think, based on what he has done for us so far, though he might eventually replace the HR power (but very unpowerful this season so far in extended ABs). Rohlinger, isn't doing that well in AAA that I think he could replace Molina's bat at 3B.

Plus, Molina should get us a first round pick and is still good enough that another team would give up such a pick, particularly a contending team. And, even if he accepts arbitration, I don't think it would be the worse thing in the world if Posey played in the minors to start in 2010, with the starting position clearly his for 2011. That would extend when we control him another year in the future. Plus, Molina would have to understand that, respect or no, if we need to trade him mid-2010 to bring up Posey, that's a risk he'll have to take if he accepts arbitration.

Yeah, Rowand is suspect because of last year's and previous year's disappearing acts later in the season. I think this is his level of performance when he's 100% healthy, but it just takes another injury to set him back for the season. Still, looking good for now.

And Sandoval just gets better and better. Ain't life sweet!

Let's see if we can sweep the A's again. I was hoping they might skip Sanchez one start now, as that would give us Lincecum, Johnson, and Cain against the A's and give us our best chance to sweep them again.

But Sanchez has been bombarded with Randy Johnson advice, which is good in the long-run, but it's taking him time to assimilate all his lessons, and each game it's like he's working on one lesson and doing OK, while doing poorly at all the other things. It's like he's learning to pitch all over again. Hopefully the lessons will either stick or end for now until Sanchez is ready to take more.

There is no way that the Giants get anything of use for Randy Winn, salary relief or otherwise. He's ours for the rest of the year. Just because he's on the roster, doesn't mean he should be playing regularly, though. Boulderhead should be giving Schierholtz extended playing time, since it's not much difference between him and Winn.

Can someone explain to me why Rich Aurilia is still on the roster? It makes no sense. He's so done, it's not even funny.

We should keep in mind Winn is a notoriously second-half offensive player. This might be a blessing in disguise if we're in it still. Either way, I think our analysis of arbitration/compensation picks in the offseason ought to reflect that front-office opinions have changed, and that type As will result in picks for us less probably. (If we go for a Type A, our 1st-rounder in '10 looks like it won't be protected, either.)

As an aside, I haven't observed Nate's D to have gotten up to Randy's level yet. I'm fine with our outfield offense/defense as a whole, with a dash o bowkermania and less of this first-half FLew.

-Get a decent 2B in there
-Pray for continued Uribe resurgence
-I want a Guzman/Ishikawa platoon to work out to ~.850 OPS by August 1.

"For those who say this is not a team built to go deep in the playoffs, and there(fore) it's not worth making trades to get to the playoffs, step back a minute and think about that."
In 2000, the NY Mets went 8-2 down the stretch and then blew through the best-ML-record Giants like a hot bullet through a butter sculpture of Brian Sabean. They then beat the Cardinals 4-1 and returned to normalcy, losing to the evil empire. Three hot weeks from a wild card spot. The playoffs are a crapshoot. The Giants are not built to go deep in the playoffs, yet that doesn't in any way predict their chances of doing so. Having said that, I think that any reasonable 1 for 1 trade is not going to be of much help to the Giants because we don't have 1 that is of much value to someone else. We have to put together a package to attract someone of value and if Bengie, Randy or both of them are in it, fine.

If I'm a GM of another team, and I look at San Francisco, I see Lincecum, Cain and Sandoval. I think: "I want one of those guys." Perhaps I salivate over Buster or MadBum or another hot prospect. The rest? Forget it.

We don't have anything else to trade that has any value to another team. We'd have to give up one of our three best players or one of our potential future stars. We can't afford to do that. I'm happy the Giants are playing well and I hope it lasts. But unless we can get some hitting help on the cheap, we are stuck with this offense.

As long as neither Winn nor Molina is a Giant in 2010 I'm happy, regardless of how it happens.

Winn for marginal return? Yes, I do that. Mainly to get the play time for clearing out and evaluating the other Outfielders not named Rowand (Like Zito he is going no were).

I don’t see them moving Molina for love, money or talent. It has been a long time since the Giants have been remotely in a post All Star break pennant chase and moving Molina would be viewed has giving up even the glimmer of hope for a pennant race.

I mostly agree with whats being said. Trade Winn, keep Bengie. We should be actively shopping Winn around for whatever we can get, most probably a nice prospect or two if he is traded. I don't think we need to swap Sanchez for a big bat since Ishikawa is showing signs of adjusting to the major league level and starting to hit for power. As for Bengie we should hang onto him as moving Pablo behind the plate seems counterproductive(if we are moving Pablo behind the plate now why didn't they trade Molina in the offseason?). Bochy should recognise though that Bengie needs to be dropped to 6th or so in the lineup as his inability to run is killing us. Bump Pablo and Ishikawa up the order and hope that Travis' home/road splits start to even out towards the home side.