Giants Rebound In LA

After sweeping the Washington Nationals for their first home series win since mid-May, the Giants again slumped back into their losing ways getting swept at home by the Diamondbacks, before rebounding in LA on Monday night. That's pretty much the Giants season in a nutshell there: play good for a few games, then look horrible for a few and vice versa. Last nights game in LA could have been disastrous, as the Giants defense fell apart behind Kevin Corriea in the fifth inning after staking a 7-0 lead. Corriea had one of his better starts of the year, carrying a no hitter and not allowing a base runner into the 5th inning, but the team got sloppy behind him and it almost cost him the game. It was good to see "KC" throw well as he has had a tough year battling injuries. His line doesn't look great, but if you saw the game you'll know that he pitched a whole lot better than the box score shows. He was also helped out by the bullpen as they came through in getting the final 11 outs of the game. Bruce Bochy made an announcement that he's going to start using Jack Taschner as the 8th inning set-up man to Brian Wilson and in his first test holding a game, Taschner passed with flying colors. Taschner's promotion pushes Tyler down in the bullpen depth chart and with the way Sergio Romo has thrown since his call-up, Walker may be moving down even further here pretty soon.

As far as the trade deadline rumors are concerned, it has been pretty quiet on the Giants front since they dealt Ray Durham to Milwaukee last week. There was a report out of Florida that the Marlins have Bengie Molina at the top of their wish list of possible catchers to target. Molina is the one Giant veteran who the team isn't actively shopping and they will need to be blown away by what the Marlins or possibly the Angels are going to offer for him. The Giants don't have any catcher that is anywhere close to taking over an everyday role yet and Molina does a terrific job with the young Giants' pitching staff. The one guy who everyone has been talking about in the Marlins system this year is Dallas McPherson, who all the sudden has become a "late-blooming" prospect again with 38 bombs in AAA. I wouldn't do a Molina for McPherson deal straight up, but if Florida threw in top ten first base prospect Gaby Sanchez, I think the Giants would need to consider a deal like that. Another team linked to the Giants this weeks has been the New York Mets. The Mets have inquired about both Molina and Randy Winn. Surprisingly, Sabean said he is not actively pursuing trying to deal Winn, who if dealt would open up a position for Fresno's top hitter, Nate Schierholtz. Winn's a good pro and not hurting the team by any means, but Schierholtz is ready and will probably be just as productive, if not more. If the Giants pass on a deal that would give up Winn, they better have a good plan for this winter because they still have an abundance of outfielders lined up to return next season.