As a long suffering Giants fan I need a place to vent.  So, here goes:

With what everyone considers to be a good young rotation the time is now for the Giants to make their first playoff appearance in 5 years.  After all, pitchers don’t hold up forever – they get hurt, become free agents, burn out, etc.  And with a very mediocre outfield (Rowand, Winn, Fred Lewis, Dave Roberts) and a pathetic infield (Renteria and a bunch of unproven middle of the road prospects) clearly the offense needs an upgrade.

Signing Manny seems very unlikely – it would be very expensive, who knows how Manny’s attitude will be, and weak as the OF is, it is the infield that really needs help.  Most of the available third basemen are either very weak fielders, are only under contract for one more year, or are big injury risks.  Meanwhile, the Giants do have Pablo Sandoval, who tore up the minors last season and who had a great couple months recently in the Caribbean league.  So, it seems the Giants should sign a big bat to play 1B and then give Sandoval a shot as the starting 3B. (Scoresheet note – that would give Sandoval third base eligibility, which could make him a very valuable player in Scoresheet if he continues to hit.) So let’s sign Adam Dunn to play 1B! The complaint about Dunn is that he strikes out too much.  But so what – an out is an out.  And his on-base percentage is actually quite good because he does walk a lot.  And while he does not play a great first base, he is a better fielder there than Manny would be in LF.

And let’s not stop there.  The O-Dog (Orlando Hudson) is still available, and would be a huge upgrade over what the Giants currently have at second base (Burris, Velez and Fransden.)  With the addition of Hudson and Dunn I think the Giants would be in great position to win a very weak NL West.