I hate seeing Lewis on the pine. Even in the midst of some serious struggles at the plate, Lewis has valuable skills (OBP, speed, runs scored) that seem under-appreciated. Whether Lewis wants to be the lead-off man or not, with his high OBP and his high K-rate, that is where he belongs right now. I don't really have a problem with him not getting starts against a few lefties while he works out his ills, but I sure hope this doesn't become "perma-bench". Does anyone know whether or not he has options? Can the Giants send him down to regain his stroke should they decide this is necessary? I doubt he is going to come out of his funk while sitting on the bench. I am hoping Schierholtz becomes Winn's replacment in the offseason or at the trade deadline, not Lewis' replacement.

I have spent much time arguing that the valuable currency the Giants have to trade is pitching, whether currently at the major league level or as prospects. It seems as though that is being supplemented by several credible middle infielders, including some minor leaguers, and also by outfielders. All of which makes a trade scenario look somewhat more intriguing - the Giants could put together a package of prospects + players that they could lose without having a significant adverse impact, and may not have to surrender top pitching prospects (and certainly not top pitchers) as a result. I mean, they can't play all these guys anyway. Often you see trades of 5 guys for 2, where the 5 are young up and comers, maybe none of which has "star" written on him, and the 2 include one star and one fill-in.

What people need to remember is that Fred Lewis has been a puzzle as a hitter his whole time he has been a Giant. He had very nice seasons in 2007 and 2008, but his high BABIP was very suspect, making his batting line susceptible to bouts of strikeouts and regression to his mean.

That has hit hard this season as his strikeout rate has increased again, while his BABIP, while still high at .344, fell from his .365 rate last season. And as I showed above, he had a great first few weeks of hitting, but has been cold since then and practically frozen for the past month.

The key thing about giving Schierholtz a chance is that he is clearly a hitter with power, and while it would be great if he takes a walk now and again, if he can hit .300 with 200 ISO power, that would be great for us, because we can use that. We won't know if he can or can't do this for us if we don't give him a good opportunity to show off what he can do.

Given how poorly Fred has played for a whole month now, I think that Nate deserves to take a number of starts away from him, plus get some in the next (and last) AL series, against the A's, putting, say, Rowand at DH to rest and protect him since he puts his body through the wringer in the field. Give him the next 9 games to play most of them, and see how that goes.

If he continues to play well, let him continue and if he does well enough, perhaps we can consider trading Randy Winn to pick up a prospect and let Schierholtz start the rest of the season, as I like Fred overall and he can then return to starting LF.

But if he's having a rough patch, why not give Schierholtz a chance to show off what he can do while they work on Fred to fix whatever problems he's been having while batting.

Clearly a hitter with power? I like Nate but he is not a slugger..He didn't hit for much power in the minors, though he wasn't bad, he simply will not be patient enough at the plate to get a pitch he can drive consistently and his swing doesn't lend itself to flyballs.

Nate had a great day at the plate, off a lefty no less, but the key stat is he saw a total of 7 pitches in 4 ab's. He mostly hacks away at the first pitch and opposing teams will soon figure this out. Unless this kid develops some patience I don't see him sticking as a regular.

Freddy earned his benching though. Personally, I would ride Torres everyday until he cools off.

Crazy idea, make Merkin the 5th starter and move Sanchez to the pen if you aren't going to trade him. When Merkin filled in for Lincecum last year in a rain game, he was lights out and had a different mentality and used his offspeed pitches instead of relying on the fastball as he has lately out of the pen.

If it doesn't fit then you can always move him back to the pen but as a starter he will be forced to use his offspeed and this can only help him as a reliever. Sanchez would be valuable out of the pen as well and he may end up there anyway towards the end of the season when guys like Pucetas, Alderson, and Bumgarner start showing signs of being ready.