Trade for Ryan Braun!
Dump Santiago Casilla as closer!
The back end of the rotation is an inferno waiting to happen!
There. Had to throw some red meat to the more voracious and angst-ridden Giants fans out there. Because there are other storylines, you know:
The Giants open a road trip Friday with a nifty 41-26 record (.612 win percentage) that is third-best in the National League.
And there’s that 6.5 game lead in the NL West over the Fightin’ Kershaws.
And that pudding-soft schedule coming up, a heaping helping of Phillies and A’s and D-Backs and Rockies-by-the-Bay before the All-Star Break.
That’s the thing about the 162-game mosaic, as my main home slice Martin Lurie likes to say: sometimes, you don’t need to panic. Sometimes, you ride those waves of good baseball and you don’t pull any hair-trigger moves.
Now. Understand. This is not to say I slip into my orange-and-black jammies every night, tap my Brandon Crawford bobble head bed side three times for luck and go to sleep, dreaming of Albert Suarez smiling through confetti on Market Street.
With the Giants and their on-again, off-again offense, you’re always a three-game skid away from fans flooding the KNBR Cache Creek Text Line with plans to dismantle the 25-man roster.
But the Braun move, while sexy as heck, is not one they need right now. Angel Pagan’s return has lengthened the lineup, and the Giants don’t believe Joe Panik is a .268 hitter or that Buster Posey is a .274 hitter. Braun is expensive, both in terms of future contract and prospects demanded. And Hunter Pence could be your late summer pickup, when he returns.
Casilla? Since he surrendered his game-losing home run to Justin (The Ginger Godzilla) Turner, he has pitched in three games, all wins. Two of those were lock-down saves, one against the dastardly Dodgers. And for irony’s sake, he fanned Braun himself in an 11-pitch war that won a one-run game over Milwaukee.
No, he’s not 2000 Robb Nen (41 saves, 92 Ks in 66 IP, for the nostalgic among you), but he has fanned 34 in 27 innings and right-handers are hitting .169 off him.
Yes, I’d be in favor of a bullpen move come late July to strengthen his surrounding cast, but for now, Casilla has validated Bruce Bochy’s faith in him.
Besides, this starting pitching is nuts.
What Madison Bumgarner (8-2, 1.91 ERA) and Johnny Cueto (10-1, 2.10) are doing has warmed the cockles of your John Burkett-and-Billy Swift-loving hearts, and the real key to it all may be Jeff Samardzija righting the ship — he’s a better No. 3 than LA’s Scott Kazmir — and the surprise resurgence of a crafty, post-velocity Jake Peavy.
This is to say nothing of their defense, which is a prime reason they’re winning ballgames at the clip they are. Only the Nats have made fewer errors than the Giants.
Put it all together, and Giants fans have to do that most difficult of things: Appreciate the good baseball, stay patient and enjoy the game, as Jeff Kent once advised us.
Besides, once that three-game skid hits, we’ll be here for you to vent.