Giants Offense Can't Help Cain

Two trends that have haunted the Giants all year continued this weekend in San Diego. While the Giants offense has looked downright horrible a lot this season, I don't think I have been more frustrated watching this team at the plate than I was watching Saturday's game vs. San Diego. The Giants' hitters were once again shut down, but it was the fact they where dominated by Brett Tomko that really magnified things. Tomko was 2-11 with an era in the high 5's coming into that start and had been released by the Dodgers just a few weeks earlier, but he looked like an ace vs. the Giants' pathetic bats. And not only was the offense embarrassed by a very hittable pitcher, they once again failed to support another quality start by Matt Cain. They couldn't even muster a run off Tomko or anyone else to get Cain off the hook for the game, so he suffered another loss in a game in which he gave up 1 base runner in 6 innings pitched. Matt Cain has to be wondering what in the world he has to do to string together some wins. His record now sits at 7-15 but in reality should be closer to 15-7.

The Giants are quietly starting to put in motion ideas for next years squad. It was reported in the San Francisco Chronicle that the Giants and Omar Vizquel are working towards a deal that would keep the shortstop in San Francisco for another season. Omar mentioned earlier this season that he's looking for a 2 year extension but will likely drop his demands after his subpar year. I think that would be a wise move if they can keep it at a 1 year extension. This years free agent class is not a deep one and it is very thin in the middle infield department. If the Giants were to let Vizquel walk they would be looking at guys like Ramon E. Martinez and Cesar Izturis as their fallback options because they have nobody in their system ready to play shortstop everyday at the ML level. I had always considered the possibility of moving Kevin Frandsen to shortstop, but he doesn't quite have the range to play the position everyday. So, while bringing back Vizquel doesn't fit into the grand scheme of getting younger, but it does make sense to keep him around for another year.