I know we all like to make fun of the current lineups, and we make our own mock rosters. But did you know that there's a website that indexes previous line-ups? Yep - http://www.baseball-reference.com/teams/SFG/2009-batting-orders.shtml

What I take from this is that this next year's opening day lineup is already an improvement over last year.

Please note the following:

• Burriss, Winn, and Renteria dominated the first 30-50 games.
• Molina, of course, batted fourth more often than not
• 134 Batting Orders were used (154 including pitchers)
• The most common batting order, used 6 times, was the following:
• 1. Rowand
  2. Winn
  3. Sandoval
  4. Molina
  5. Schierholtz
  6. Renteria
  7. Ishikawa
  8. Uribe
  9. Pitcher

• Bochy used 134 Batting Orders in 2008
• Jose Castillo, Dave Roberts, Aurilia, Burriss, and Bocock accounted for a significant number of at-bats in 2008
• The Giants are still several notches below a team like the Phillies.

Discuss.

In response to Grant's front-page post on interestingness, here's a pointless poll.

The poll has to do with players that are tied to Giants for whatever strange reason. A bunch of these players are older GAMERS and WINNERS who play to go to the PLAYOFFS, which makes them attractive even though their contracts could threaten the Giants ability to hold onto more reasonably paid younger players. These are the anti-Garkos, the anti-Ishis, the anti-BowkerLewisNates, the anti-Madisons.

Share your thoughts. Who makes for interesting and acceptable?

I've taken this from the Yahoo page.

Continue reading this post »

I keep having this whack-a-doodle idea that trading Jeremy Affeldt after a career year like he had last year might not be a terrible idea. He's at peak value, and some team desperate for a closer would have to consider him. I realize this puts the Giants in a troubled spot for the 8th inning set-up man, but let's face it, they're gonna be there in a year when Affeldt's contract is completed and he's in line for a look around the league. If he's traded now, the Giants can reap the benefits of last year's performance while investing in some younger players - arms or bats.

Is this idea completely crazy?

What would be a fair and beneficial return for trading him?

Garrett Atkins, Nick Johnson, Adrian Beltre, Chone Figgins, Mark DeRosa, Xavier Nady, Eric Byrnes, and Khalil Greene,  are all guys MLBtraderumors.com has highlighted as free agents for this year, and I expect the Giants to take a look at all of them if they hit the open market without vested interest from their current teams. It seems pretty likely for all of them.

These are the kinds of players who could help this team if they were picked up under the right conditions (ie. Greene and Byrnes get minor league contracts like Uribe did last year). I really would like to see Giants pick up somebody like Jason Bay or Matt Holiday, but their cost seems prohibitive when Matt Cain, Tim Lincecum, and Brian Wilson are due raises, and this team really should be looking a couple years down the road to when Baumgarner and Posey are solidified as contributors.

For discussion, which 1-3 of these players would you most like the Giants to sign?

The Giants finally have a middle of the order position player in Pablo Sandoval. But, you can't win in the playoffs (if you get there) with just pitching, because most other teams have at least one ace, and a bad lineup can make a middle-to-end of the rotation pitcher look good.

So, what do they do? How can they begin to build a lineup to support this excellent pitching staff?

I've included a nifty little poll here. Add any other options in the comments.

If you look at the teams who are entering the playoffs, one thing is pretty consistent with all of them: you envy their starting lineup. Cardinals, Phillies, Yankees, Red Sox, Dodgers, etc. Each of these teams also has a decent starting staff, either one or two aces, or three decent top pitchers.

We've known this for a while, but the Giants lineup compared to those teams is just silly. Pablo, Bengie, and Sanchez would likely start on some of those teams, but pretty much every other guy wouldn't cut it as a starter. They'd be good solid backup players off the bench, starting every third or fourth fame, but not frontline starters.

Here are things I think the Giants should do

• Send Pablo Sandoval to Triple-A to work on his abilities in the field and at the plate. In his place, they can bring up Scott McClain for a few weeks. Eventually, they can bring up Dallas McPherson for competition.
• Bring up Steve Holm
• Schedule Jonathan Sanchez's starts so that he can face #4 or #5 pitchers, instead of Ace pitchers. That way the Giants can score some runs to support him and calm him down.
• Play Andres Torres or send him down
• Give Barry Zito more time to warm up on the mound. Have him throw enough pitches until he is comfortable with his pitches before the game begins.
• Trade Aaron Rowand to the Yankees for Xavier Nady and change
• Try out this line-up

1. Fred Lewis
2. Randy Winn
3. Aaron Rowand
4. Bengie Molina
5. Travis Ishikawa
6. Edgar Renteria
7. Pablo Sandoval
8. Pitcher
9. Emmanuel Burriss

Call me crazy, but anything might be better than what they have going on right now.

Take the pressure off the pitchers. They won't win games for us. Don't expect it of them. It doesn't help them relax.

It just occurred to me that the Giants love Boras almost as much as they love the D-gers. Or is it the other way around?

I think the Giants just have to be pleased that all this Manny Ramirez dealing is giving others a sense that it's not only Barry Zito whom Scott Boras uses to pound headache deals into the lives of General Managers.

If the Giants are even remotely interested, it's good that they are acting nonchalant about this particular deal, especially in this economy.

Shaun Hill and Alex Smith look like they will both be sticking around. However, Singletary has made it fairly clear that the QB position is far from settled. The question, then, is who should the 49ers seek out for QB?

Should they go after a seasoned veteran?

Should they draft a third round QB (like Joe Montana, Tom Brady) with long term upside?

What names are out there?

I don't want them to pick up someone already in the league unless that QB is going to be a dramatic improvement over Shaun Hill.