I think you mean "right handed starters" in the last sentence there.

I agree that it's time to sit Randy regularly against lefties, though it's unfortunate that the Giants other candidates for future corner spots are all lefties.

Does Schierholtz have a significant platoon split in his minor numbers?

I think that your statement "Perhaps it’s all ridiculous small sample sizes" is where this discussion should begin and end. Winn's performance has been super consistent overall for a long time and nothing points to a rapid decline. Sometimes he is hot, sometimes not, but he is solid overall. I think the rationale for playing Winn less has nothing to do with his performance and everything to do with him not being on the squad next year and the urgency of evaluating talent in light of this inevitability. The Giants massively botched their opportunity to evaluate Schierholtz last year when the W-L record didn't matter a lick. Now that they are in semi-contention they are in a real bind regarding talent evaluation. Personally I hope we see a whole lot of Ishikawa, Schierholtz, Lewis, Frandsen, and Bowker in second half of the season and a whole lot less of Molina, Winn, and Aurilia. Uribe should not be a starter except if he displaces Renteria at SS. I would seek to trade Molina (Sandoval to become starting C) and Winn at the earliest opportunity and play for the future not the present. Who knows, the kids might outperform the vets regardless and playing for the future may end up equaling success in the present. I wouldn't be a bit surprised if this indeed proved to be the case.

(sorry about the double post -- server error)

If memory serves, Winn has always been streaky during his Giants' tenure. That said, he is not a young player who needs ABs to become acclimated to the bigs. Platooning him until he gets it together from the right side (or until Schierholtz plays himself out of the rotation) is a good idea. Randy is a grown man: he understands that if he does not produce he will be on the bench.

Makes a lot of sense!

I think aGIANTman makes a very good point that Winn has been very consistent during his career.

However, Grant made a much better point in his recent post that Winn's strikeout rate has increased to levels not seen since his first seasons in the majors. It is not horribly bad right now, but the best hitters in the majors can keep their strikeout rate at 15% and under.

Winn, once he established himself, was able to do that and has been able to do it for many years, even in his 2006 season where he wasn't very good overall, after his May injury. Just counting from there, his strikeout rate was still good.

Unfortunately, Winn currently cannot do it this season. His strikeout rate is both not good and regressed to his early career levels. This looks like he has entered into his declining years this season. We should not offer an extension nor hope to get a draft pick when he goes free agent.

The problem is, who to play now? It is not like Winn is doing a whole lot worse than usual, just a month ago he was around his usual hitting area. If Lewis was still hitting, I could say sit Winn more, but Lewis is hitting even worse than, since his hot streak ended in Apri.

Torres is a journeyman who is having a bit of luck now.

Bowker would be a fine choice, but then who would we send down to bring him up? And with Bowker, then that's another lefty.

As I noted somewhere, I think Bochy should just play whoever is hot right now, then rotate in the rest in the remaining starting spots. So right now Schierholtz and Rowand would get the start while the rest fight over LF. And Rowand hasn't hit for much in a few games. I think over a two week period would be good for gauging this.

A concern? I would say yes, given is prolonged track record. In and of it’s self I don’t think the new K rate would be enough to bench Winn.

The reason with enough force to reduce Winns play time is 2 fold. They are not going to reduce Rowand’s play time ( now that he is playing better than a corpse would be exactly the wrong time to do that) and the Giants’ really should be playing the other younger Outfielders. (I include Torres in this because it would be nice to see if his offensive game is good enough to be next years back up centerfielder for length of time encase Rowand gets hurt or returns to his last half of ’08 form.) They need to not only know what they have but in the off chance one of the 4 young(er)ones catches another team’s attention enough to be part of a package.