Drama Surrounds Giants' Losing Season

Well, anytime you follow up a World Series Championship season with a full on tanking in the 2nd half of the season like the Giants did, blame was bound to surface and fingers were going to be pointed.

On the forefront of the Giants end of season headlines, is a lot of panic surrounding the teams future, especially offensively. The Giants were so bad this season at the plate, that it's prompted some fans in the area to call for extreme measures in order to upgrade the offense, some even suggested dealing away the team's franchise starter, Tim Lincecum. Now, I highly doubt the Giants are entertaining the idea of dealing Lincecum away for offensive help, but it's been widely speculated that he's hesitant on taking a long-term deal with this team because of the offensive uncertainty. Some people are fearing that Lincecum will bolt for greener pastures, and a better lineup, once he's a free agent, so their thinking is why not turn him into a great hitter while his value is still extremely high. While I certainly can see where these people are coming from, I still think Tim Lincecum is the last guy this organization can afford to lose. Lincecum is the face of this franchise and is a perfect poster boy for this laid back, tight-nit group. I have a very hard time fathoming any situation in which Brian Sabean could drastically improve this team by dealing away his 27 year-old ace. That said, I think it's quite obvious that the Giants need to shake things up on the offensive side in order to right their ship, and dealing away a pitcher may be only way to do just that, but Cain and Lincecum should be as untouchable now as they were 2-3 years ago. The pitching is the strength of this team and should be for years to come. You get rid of Lincecum or Cain, and you change the whole makeup of this team and deliver a major blow to the starting rotation.

The Lincecum trade idea is just one of the overreactions you'll see from fans after a disappointing year in which the expectations where so high, especially after the Giants cruised for the first 4 months of the year. Another thing popped up recently too, something that I was completely unaware of before I heard it, and that was Mike Krukow's comment on how the Giants turned their backs on Aubrey Huff, one of leaders of this team during their championship run. I don't remember the comment, but apparently Huff stated that "you can't be good every year" when discussing his struggles at the plate. It was obvious during the season that Huff wasn't 100%, and things just got worse as the season wore on, but I didn't know how careless he was towards his conditioning. The Giants players easily picked up on this and lost a lot of respect for their thong-totting first basemen when he actually went public with his nonchalant attitude towards his "off-year". I'm not going to sit here and beat this topic to death, but I certainly hope this only drives Aubrey Huff to comeback stronger that ever in 2012. The Giants are stuck with him for another year and paying him over 11 million next season, so they really need this guy to rebound, and if he wants another multi-year deal, he's going to have to show up next year in top shape. Brandon Belt is playing in the winter league right now, and you can tell he's going to be hungry for a spot this spring, and if Huff returns in the same physical shape as he did in spring this year, he should lose his spot to Belt. The Giants have already sat Barry Zito and his $18 million down, and cut Aaron Rowand and his remaining $13 mill, so I don't think they'll have a problem sitting Huff.

It's too bad they couldn't pull it out in the end, because right now Arizona is no match for Milwaukee, and I have no doubt the Giants would be better equipped for playoff ball than Arizona. That said, the Brewers are no joke, and I don't even know if the Phillies will be able to slow them down. They're getting hot at the right time, a lot like the Giants did in 2010, and it wouldn't surprise me the least to see a Texas/Milwaukee Series with the way things are looking right now. Texas is also thriving right now and can out-slug anyone, while the Brew Crew have a tremendously balanced team, with speed, power, and a deep pitching staff.