SwanShadow Thinks Out Loud

Do I think that the San Francisco Giants have become world-beaters, now that they’ve added Ryan (Don’t Call Me Donnie) Garko and Freddy (Don’t Call Me Dirty) Sanchez to their everyday lineup?

No.

But I do think they’re a better ballclub than they were three days ago. And I think they’ve improved their chances in the National League wild card race, which they currently lead by a half-game over the Colorado Rockies.

Sanchez is legit — a career .300 hitter, an All-Star three of the last four years (including this year), and a solid defensive second baseman. Assuming that his inflamed knee clears up sooner rather than later, and doesn’t prove to me a chronic complaint, Sanchez is light-years superior to the cast of thousands the G-Men have trotted out to the keystone sack thus far this season.

Garko, while not the player than Sanchez is, will give the Giants more consistent offense than the incumbent, Travis Ishikawa, who will still see action as a late-inning defensive replacement and against certain right-handed pitchers. Garko’s a former Stanford guy, so he’s got to have at least a few synapses firing, and he brings post-season experience to a team with next to none.

Had I my druthers, sure, I’d have liked for the Giants to pick up a bat that could jolt the ball out of the yard once or twice a week. Unfortunately, most of the available power hitters come with serious negatives — either they would cost San Francisco more in trade than the Giants would want to surrender (Jermaine Dye), or they’d command too high a salary to guarantee return on investment (Adam Dunn), or they’d alter the team dynamic (specifically, the defense) in unpalatable ways (Dunn again, or Nick Johnson).

With these considerations, I believe that GM Brian Sabean and his team have done as well as one could expect.

Now, we just need Freddy’s quarrelsome knee to mellow out, keep Garko swinging the stick the way he did in his first at-bat today, and follow our world-class pitching staff into the playoffs.

Of course, if we could snag Jermaine Dye for a rosin bag and a shoe-shine, that would be wicked awesome too.

This entry was posted on July 29, 2009 at 8:11 pm and is filed under I Love the Giants, My Home Town, Ripped From the Headlines, Sports Bar. You can subscribe via RSS 2.0 feed to this post's comments. You can comment below, or link to this permanent URL from your own site.