Positives before negatives. I want to focus on three players: Matt Cain, Freddy Sanchez, and Buster Posey.
Matt Cain with Tim Lincecum's prolonged struggles has assumed the role as the top man of this staff, and no one should be surprised by this development. He's always possessed a winning combination of great stuff with tremendous poise, and it's hard to believe that he's only 25. He'd get a ton of more well-deserved national attention if abysmal run-support didn't plague him now and then. Cain now has a 2.36 ERA, a 1.00 WHIP, and an opponent's batting average of .192. In his last few starts, he's been able command all four of pitches, as evidenced by his 4 walks in the past 25 innings. With Lincecum's slump, the responsibility of carrying this talented pitching staff rests on Cain's broad shoulders, and I'm very confident that he'll handle the task well.
The clamoring for trading for an accomplished hitter is justified; the Giants need a hitter like Prince Fielder in the lineup. But Matt Cain should be absolutely untouchable, and part of no trade for a bat. Cain is truly a special pitcher, a player that can be the ace of a team for 10 years. Just look at his physical stature; he's built to pitch 200+ innings every year, as he's already done three times in his young career. If he played on a team that had a half-decent offense, he'd be a Cy Young contender every year, and even though his career record is only 48-55 now, I'm 100% sure that he's going to finish his career with many more wins than losses.
We Giants fans were getting fed up with Freddy Sanchez with his slow recovery from offseason surgery, but his play thus far has been worth the wait. He's hitting .327 thus far with a fantastic .414 OBP. Perhaps the biggest surprise has been his stellar play defensively at 2nd base. I think we all knew that he'd be a solid 2nd baseman, but with his play so far, he's become the best Giants' defensive 2nd baseman since Robby Thompson. He and Andres Torres, with his .375 OBP, have formed a nice 1-2 at the top of the order and if only other players on this team were hitting, the Giants would actually score some runs. That hit-and-run single off the bat of Sanchez in the 9th-inning comeback in Sunday's game was beautiful example of his excellent bat control.
Buster Posey is finally here, and all he's done is hit .474. Let's hope he's here to stay for good, because the Giants absolutely need his bat in the lineup. Even though he's played only six games, he probably has the best approach at the plate out of all of the Giants' players. To help this team win now, the Giants should find a way to play Posey every day, whether it's at 1st base or behind the plate. He's advanced and mature beyond his years.
On the negative side, Tim Lincecum has now struggled mightily in his last three starts, and it's a legitimate source of concern. The numbers over his last three outings are not pretty: 15.1 innings, 14 earned runs, 15 walks, and 14 strikeouts. Those are the exact opposite of the Lincecum numbers that we've grown accustomed to. It's true that every great pitcher goes through slumps, but this stretch doesn't look like a normal stretch. Smart money is that Lincecum will work his way out of this funk; you don't win back-to-back Cy Young awards without having tremendous skill. But whether it's a mechanical issue, or whether he's being bothered by blisters, Lincecum needs to get out of this rut now because the Giants depend on him so much. Every time Lincecum starts has to be win day for the Giants.
The Giants will now embark on a 7-game road trip to face Pittsburgh and Cincinnati, one of the major surprises of the National League with a 31-23 record. The Giants' current road record of 9-13 is not consistent with playoff contention, and the Giants need to drastically improve their play on the road. As always, it has to start with the hitters taking smart at-bats.
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