Buyers or Sellers?

Before I get to today's blog, I wanted to say...

Buster Posey is not just the greatest catcher of our generation, but to ever put on a mask. I can't wait to see him hoisting that 2010 World Series MVP trophy in Tim McCarver's smug little face.

Now on to my regularly scheduled pessimistic Giants blog:

I participated in an online poll today asking how high in the standings the Giants would need to be for me to consider them buyers at the trade deadline. Basically, how good do they need be by July 31st to fool me, an innocent fan bystander, into thinking they are good enough to make a playoff run if they found just the right piece.

My initial answer was that tied for first or in the lead in the NL West would be enough for me. But the more I thought about it, the more I thought that for them to go looking for a trade is not what these Giants at this time should be doing. And to do so is exactly the kind of short-sighted philosophy upon which Brian Sabean has built his reputation for spinning this organization's wheels for the past six seasons. From Renteria all the way back to Sidney Ponson, almost every move that fans ridicule or hasn't worked out was intended to push them over that offensive hump and into the playoffs finally. When I think of the guys who I'm happy to see in the lineup - Huff, Posey, Sandoval (when he remembers he's good, which he will) Torres, Schierholtz - with the exception of Huff, none of them got here because the front office was trying to make a splash.

Now, I do bleed orange, so of course I would love to see the Giants in the playoffs for the first time in seven years. Maybe Sabean is due to get lucky and trade for someone that contributes and brings them some more consistency. Even in this case, I have to honestly ask myself if this hypothetical team would be good enough to win the West, a division which has been better this season than in recent years, but it still has that mentality of a litter entirely full of runts. Everyone is just scratching to survive. Before the season began, one of the few things that I and the local Dodger fans could agree on was that it going to be a dogfight for the division title, and it still seems that way to me on the cusp of the All-Star Break.

The worse news is that Giants have an absolutely lousy record within the division. They're 1-5 vs. the Dodgers (people down here remind me of that often), and I don't think they've beaten the Padres since their uniforms were orange and brown. In fact the only winning record they have vs. an NL West team is Arizona, a team which, honestly, I thought was disbanded to turn Chase Field into a pool dealership. So even if they are tied for first at the deadline, unless they build up a lead big enough to not have to worry about it, they boys are going to have to win some crucial inter-division series late in the season. In the past, these series have been legendary in their drama, and astronomical in sheer number of remotes thrown at my living room wall. Records go out the window in a Giants-Dodgers September series. That's what it always comes down to in the NL West.

Over the weekend, Pat Burrell told Aubrey Huff that the Giants goal should be to climb one game in the division race per week, that way it's not so overwhelming and stressful. Doesn't exactly sound like a conversation Monte Irvin and Bobby Thomson would have had in 1951. Or the thoughts of a team that can climb 7 games by the trading deadline then climb another seven and stay there by the end of September.

Now, I started writing this post before this Buster Posey led an offensive parade through Dowtown Giantsville. But Giantsville citizens are wise, and know that a grey cloud lurks. A stretch where they only score one run in eight days can be right around the corner. For this reason, I believe if they are to win this division it will be clawing and scratching and sweating. With or without Mr. Magical Trade.