The Giants are basically set for the next two years at least in the starting rotation, with Tim Lincecum, Matt Cain, and Jonathan Sanchez all under team control til at least 2011 at cost-controlled prices. And with the vaguely serviceable Barry Zito signed til forever and closer Brian Wilson still with 4 years left of arbitration, on the pitching side of things GM Brian Sabian’s job consists of little more than plugging in a 5th starter and filling in a few gaps in the back end of the bullpen from year to year.

The offense, however, is another story.

Even with the emergince of Pablo Sandoval as a superstar-type bat, the Giants still put up the following team numbers:

OBP – .309 (last in the majors)
BB% – 6.7 (last in the majors)
wOBA – .305 (last in the majors)

Yes, that is correct. Despite seeing their third baseman post a slash line of .330/.387/.556, the Giants still had the worst offense in the game – that’s just how bad everyone else on the team was.

Of course, the Giants kind of shot themselves in the foot by benching the player with their second best OBP, left-fielder Fred Lewis, for much of the season behind guys like Nate Schierholtz (a putrid .302 OBP), but Lewis’s OBP that was good enough for second best on the team was still only .348, which tells you something about the kind of “talent” Sabean has assembled in the lineup behind Sandoval.

What they really need is to clone Big Panda.

They Giants are not entirely without hope of improvement. The recently resigned Freddy Sanchez improves the offense at second base a bit, and a full season of highly touted catching prospect Buster Posey might provide a boost, but then again that would require actually playing Posey, rather than letting him rot on the bench behind punchless Eli Whiteside the way Bruch Bochy did all last September.

But the problem is that the Giants already have subpar offensive contributors ensconced at too many positions, with Garko at first, Renteria at short, and Rowand in center. Assuming the Giants are committed to giving Posey some sort of shot and letting either Lewis or Schierholtz play one of the outfield corners, their only real chance to upgrade offensively is at the other outfield corner.

But given how good the Giants pitching is, they have a real shot to go deep into the playoffs if they can add only a modicum of defense, and with huge numbers coming off the books this offseason, they should go for it now, while they have pitching a low prices, by signing a star, run-producing outfielder.

Knowing when your team is on the verge of playoff contention and thus that you should spend big to try to get a few extra wins is a key skill in baseball, and for the Giants the time is now. After all, they won 88 games last year despite having the worst offense around.

In sum, what the Giants need is to start Lewis instead of Schierholtz in right field, play Buster Posey full-time, maybe sign Brad Penny if he’s cheap, and do whatever it takes to sign either Jason Bay or Matt Holliday.

What They Need Index

The Giants and the Rockies are battling it out for the National League wild card, but both teams are refusing to put their best lineup on the field.

Seth Smith is the second best hitter on the Colorado Rockies. In 251 at-bats, he has compiled a .909 OPS, and his .394 wOBA is second on the team only to Todd Helton’s .397. And yet on most nights Smith rides the pine behind obviously inferior hitters like Ryan Spilborghs and Eric Young Jr.

Fred Lewis is the second best hitter on the San Francisco Giants. In 273 AB, he has compiled a .360 OBP, and his .339 wOBA is second on the team only to Pablo Sandoval’s .395. And yet on most nights Fred Lewis rides the pine behind obviously inferior hitters like Nate Schierholtz and Eugenio Velez.

Both of these players are clearly superior to the other options at hand, at this point in the season, and both are the second best hitters on their team, and it’s not particularly close. Plus both players have the pedigree and the at-bats this season to suggest that their numbers are not just a sample size issue. Lewis’s numbers in particular are almost dead on his career marks across the board.

It’s pure foolishness for these two teams which each harbor playoff hopes to both make their second-best hitters sit in crucial stretch-run games. I can’t remember the last time I saw even one contending team do this kind of thing, let alone two.

It’s no secret that Barry Zito has undergone a mini career renaissance this year, clawing his way back from two sub-par seasons that had many calling his contract the worst free-agent contract ever to post some surprisingly solid numbers this year. His FIP is the best in four seasons, and his K/9 is the best he’s posted since way back in his 2002 banner season.

As has often been noticed, Zito’s decline has been a product of two things – a loss of velocity on a fastball that was already marginal at best, and a loss of command over his big looping curveball.

While Zito’s fastball velocity has inched up a bit this year, and his command is slightly better this season, neither has improved very significantly, and pretty much all other peripheral numbers are right at career norms.

No, the one big difference between 2009 Barry Zito and all other Barry Zito’s is that he is suddenly throwing a new pitch a lot more often – an 80 mph slider with good command.  This slider has allowed Zito to get more K’s and have another option to get a strike over without having to always grove his 86 mph fastball right down the pipe.

When Zito first came up and dominated in the early years of this decade, he was basically a strictly fastball-curveball guy, mixing in an occasional changeup only about 15% of the time.

10 seasons later, he is still throwing his changeup about 15% of the time, but instead of throwing his fastball 60% of the time and his curveball 25%, he is now mixing in a slider.

Zito began experimenting with the slider as early as 2005, but until this year it was still an experimental pitch which he only threw on rare occasions (only about 7% of his pitches).  But this season he is throwing the slider almost 18% of his pitches, and it’s been the main secret to his increased effectiveness.

The Giants have surprised me this season by playing reasonably good baseball, sporting a record of 34-30 so far, good enough for second place in the NL West.

One of the biggest reasons has been the hitting of third baseman Pablo Sandoval, the man they call “Big Panda.”

We all knew the Giants had good pitching, but we also knew that they have truly atrocious hitters. But with pitching that good, all you need is one or two good hitters sometimes, and Sandoval has literally won several games almost single-handedly, especially in his most recent tear in the month of June when he has OPS’d 1.245 and raised his batting average from .301 on June 2 to .335 as of today.

And not only does Sandoval swing a lively stick, but despite his chunky frame, he even plays a solid third base, weighing in at exactly major league average for the position by most measures (career UZR/150 of 0.00).

All the old doubts about Sandoval still remain to some extent. His big frame still makes you wonder how long he can stick at third base, his flat swing makes you wonder if he really can be a power hitter, and his peppy .367 BABIP still looks unsustainable in the long run.

But whichever way you slice it, for a man to play the game of baseball this well at age 22 suggests that the Giants have found themselves a top-shelf hitter, which would be a first for them since Barry Bonds retired two seasons ago.

With the season one-third gone now, it’s become pretty clear which players were only slumping and which players actually just suck at baseball. And yet on every team there is at least one player which for foolish reasons, whether it be an over-developed sense of loyalty, a case of GM-player man-love, a reputation for grit and hustle, or a bloated contract, the team just hasn’t been able to pull the plug on yet. In this post, we have a look at each team in the National League with an eye for the one player who really needs to be cut as soon as possible.

Dodgers – RP Guillermo Mota: This guy looks permanently broken: he gives up too many hits, he doesn’t strike enough guys out, and he walks too many batters. His WHIP is an appalling 1.79 and he needs to be shelved somewhere.

Giants – 1B Travis Ishikawa: The main job of a first baseman is to hit, so when your first baseman is the worst hitter on your team, you are doing something wrong.

Diamondbacks – CF Chris Young: Chris Young was supposed to be one of those guys whose power and speed would somehow make of for his complete lack of any ability to get on base.  Well, now you have a guy whose power and speed have fallen off, but who is even less able to get on base.  It is unbelievable that Young is still on pace for well over 500 at bats this season despite his .220 OBP. He needs to be working out his suckiness in the minor leagues.

Rockies – 3B Garret Atkins: I’ve been advocating that the Rockies trade Atkins for two years now, while there was still some perception that he was a good player, but they waited too long, and now he’s basically untradeable. Few players have benefited more from Coors Field than Atkins, and Atkins also had the benefit of his personal peak coinciding with the Rockies high profile Series run in 2007. But he was always an extremely inadequate defender at third, and now his bat has disappeared as well, even at home.

Padres – 2B David Eckstein: GM Kevin Towers calls David Eckstein the MVP of the team so far this year. He couldn’t be more wrong. Eckstein was only barely adequate defensively and offensively when he was at his peak about 5 or 6 years ago, and now at age 34, he’s pretty much got nothing left.

Cardinals – SP Todd Wellemeyer: Todd Wellemeyer shows that maybe there are limits to what pitching coach Dave Duncan can do. Kind of. Actually, it’s pretty amazing that the Cardinals have gotten as much out of Wellemeyer as they have, considering he was nobody’s idea of good starting pitcher material. But with Mitchell Boggs waiting in the wings, there’s really no reason to keep Wellemeyer around.

Brewers – 3B Bill Hall: Bill Hall couldn’t hit his way out of a paper bag right now. Sure, he hit 35 homers back in 2006, but he’s done nothing at all since then, and he still has no real position defensively. For some reason, Hall still has the image of a youngster who is still developing, but when you actually go look at his age you find out he is already 29 years old, and what you see, which right now is total suckage, is probably what he really is.

Cubs – RP Aaron Heilman: Heilman was once a highly touted prospect, and did manage to throw up a few good seasons, but it’s becoming more and more clear that he’s just not all that good. Nothing about his peripherals suggests that anything is particularly wrong. His velocity is the same as ever, as are his FB/GB rates, his home run rate, his K/9 rate etc., and his BABIP is a very modest .299. Heilman simply walks too many batters, posting an unsightly 6.26 BB/9, and until that changes (if ever), he needs to be in AAA somewhere until he can learn better control.

Reds – SS Alex Gonzalez: Gonzalez was once an elite defender at shortstop, which meant that his extremely weak bat could be somewhat justified, but now he is no longer anywhere near that class, and his bat seems weaker than ever at .209/.250/.302. He needs to be cut.

Erstad is still playing?

Astros – OF Darin Erstad: Yeah, I know, Erstad is supposed to be this super-gritty former football player (except he was only a kicker), but we are a decade removed now from his last actually good season in 2000, and I’m almost surprised to see that he is actually still on a major league roster. He’s hitting .137/.211/.196.  Why is this man still anywhere near a baseball diamond?

Pirates – OF Brandon Moss: Lots of people have mentioned how one good side of trading away Nate McLouth was that it has “cleared playing time for blocked prospect Andrew McCutchen.”  But hardly anyone mentions that one of the players who was allegedly “blocking” McCutchen is Brandon Moss, a corner outfielder who has been playing every day this season despite posting a .310 OBP and only a single home run.

Marlins – 3B Emilio Bonifacio: The fact that Emilio Bonifacio, who has no business being in a major league lineup at all, is actually batting leadoff for the Marlins, despite his .294 OBP, is an indictment of the entire Marlins coaching staff and front office.

Bonifacio whiffs again

Mets – C Omir Santos: It’s a joke that the Mets actually traded away Ramon Castro to clear a spot on the roster for this guy. It’s going to be fun watching as the numbers left over from his fluky hot start rapidly sink toward the Mendoza line.

Braves – OF Garrett Anderson: I laughed out loud when I heard that the Braves signed Anderson in the offseason, and I pretty much haven’t stopped laughing since.  The poor old guy has a .289 OBP to go along with a -15 UZR/150 in left field. At this point you could probably drag Bernie Williams out of the recording studio and run him out there for better production.

Nationals – CL Joel Hanrahan: You can anoint a guy your closer, sing the praises of his “live arm,” and run him out there in save situations as much as you want, but that doesn’t mean he is going to pitch like a closer, just because you really really want him to. In what may be the worst bullpen of all time, no reliever has done more damage in more high leverage situations than Hanrahan. His 1.90 WHIP (for an alleged closer!) pretty much says it all.

Phillies – P Chan Ho Park: Park has looked finished for years now, at least when you look at his peripherals. He managed to reinvent himself as a serviceable reliever in the pitcher-friendly NL West last season, fooling the Phillies into taking him on, but it’s kind of an understatement to say that his game does not play well in Citizen’s Bank Ballpark. The Park-as-starter experiment was basically doomed from the get-go, but ironically, Park has pitched even more poorly this year as a reliever than he did as a starter. This man should be enjoying his retirement somewhere, not getting thrown to the wolves every other night.

On Wednesday we asked readers to guess how many people would show up to watch Randy Johnson try to win number 300, despite the rain, the fact that the game was in Washington D.C., and that the Big Unit is kind of a jerk.

But the game got postponed.

On Thursday we tried again, and Johnson pitched a gem, and now the results are finally in.

How many people were there to watch Johnson win 300?

According to Baseball Reference, zero.

Now, clearly that’s not an accurate number. As Keith Law points out on his Twitter feed, there were at least a handful of fans in the seats.

It looks like the Nats let Randy Johnson bring a few close friends to the game … and didn’t let anyone else in the park

The Washington Post estimated the attendance at about 1,000.

We’ll continue to monitor this situation to see if we can get a more accurate attendance number. But for now, you all lose.

UPDATE: We’re going to go ahead and call this thing. Last night’s game was a single-admission doubleheader and the attendance was 16,787. The winner is Joe, who guessed 16,030. Congrats, Joe. You’re the lucky winner of a copy of Ron Darling’s book “The Complete Game.” Thanks for playing.

Yesterday, we asked readers to guess how many people would show up to watch Randy Johnson attempt to win his 300th game.

At stake was a copy of Ron Darling’s new book, “The Complete Game.”

But the game got rained out.

So here’s what we’re going to do. We’ve got four hours before Johnson tries for a second time to win his 300th game. If you already guessed yesterday and you don’t want to change your guess, that’s cool. The old guesses will still count. If you want to change your guess, leave a new one in the comments. If you didn’t guess before but you want to join the fun, now’s your chance. Again, just leave your answer in the comments section.

I’ll close the comments a few minutes before game time, so get your guesses in now. And remember, it’s “The Price is Right” rules. The person who is the closest without going over wins.

On Wednesday, Randy Johnson goes for his 300th win against the Nationals in D.C. The big question: how many people will show up to watch?

Umpbump is giving away a free copy of Ron Darling’s book “The Complete Game” to the person who can come the closest to guessing tomorrow night’s paid attendance without going over.

Some things to consider:

1. There is a 60% chance of thunderstorms.

2. The Nationals are on pace to lose 99 games.

3. Randy Johnson plays for the Giants, who are pretty bad themselves.

Leave your guesses in the comments section. And remember folks, “The Price is Right” rules are in effect.

UPDATE: I’ve closed the comments on the post, because we’re now T-minus 30 minutes to game time. For what it’s worth, I can’t believe nobody guessed 1 person.