The San Francisco Giants will close their first half of the season by visiting one of the

highest cities in the country and then

one of the lowest.

Amaury Pi-Gonzalez gives a complete rundown on the Giants’ chances in the second half of the season in his well reasoned article. You may be surprised when learning his predictions for the Bay Area teams.

Click “read more” and see what he thinks.By today’s standards, most contending teams like to finish by the All Star break with at

least 50 victories.

The San Francisco Giants (the only team to beat the Oakland A’S in interleague play

this season) are in Denver to play the

Rockies in the “Humidifier” for a three game

series then travel to the lowest of the desert

to visit the World Champion Arizona

Diamondbacks for a four-game series.

Then Barry Bonds and Benito Santiago

will go to the All Star game in Milwaukee,

and the rest of the players will take a

needed break.

With Jeff Kent hitting around .500 since

manager Dusty Baker inserted him in

the third spot in the line-up, the Giants

have a tough 7-game roadtrip. A trip

that could find them almost out of

the race, or back in the thick of things.

With 45 victories the Giants will try to

get 5 more in those 7 games to then

finish the first half with 50 victories.

General Manager Brian Sabean refered

to June of the 2000 season when

the Giants -at the end of the month of

June- had a 38-38 record. “We finished

that season with 97 wins” said Sabean.

The Giants are the prototypical veteran

ballclub. A club that knows what they

can do, they have been there before and

they expect to be there at the end.

There is nobody pushing the “panic

botton”in the Giants organization.

And, why should they ?

The Arizona Diamondbacks might not

be on first place at the All Star break, the

Los Angeles Dodgers with closer

Greg Gagne on a pace to break

Chicago White Sox Bobby Thigpen

Major League record of 57 saves

in 1990. And with Odalis Pérez

who has proven to be a great addition

to the Dodgers starting rotation, not

to mention Japanese lefty Kazuhisa

Ishii. The Dodgers are not the same

team that finished third last season

with 86-76. But it is hard to believe

the Dodgers can play better in the

second half.

It looks like the champion Diamondbacks

would have to get close to 50 victories

between Schilling and Johnson to

be able to win this division again with

at least 90 wins. To refresh your

memory; last season the Arizona

Diamondbacks won 92 games, the

San Francicso Giants won 90 and

finsihed 2 games behind the champions.

The Giants pitching staff doesn’t have

anybody with 10 wins at the All Star

break, and the starting pitching that

was very solid for the first 2 months

of the season is starting to show some

“wear and tear”. Specially Liván Hernández

and Russ Ortis.

Liván has not been throwing inside in

recent outings and this has cost him

and his team. Ortiz has returned to

his 1999 form, when he won 18 but walked

125 batters(only hurler in SF Giants

history to win 18 and walk that many

in a season). If these two mainstays

of the Giants starting rotation cannot

do better in the second half, then

guys like Kirk Rueter (who is having

a very good first have)but has never

won more than 15 games in a season,

or young Ryan Jensen who nobody

was expecting of him to win more than

maybe…10 games, are going to have

ro share the burden and the going will

get tougher for Dusty’s boys.

Right now, Jason Schmidt is the

Giants best starter.

Of the three players that came to

the Giants this season; David Bell,

Tsuhoshi Shinjo and Reggie Sanders,

only Bell has done very well in this

pre All-Star Break part of the season.

Look for the Giants to make a bid to

get Tampa Bay leadoff hitter Randy Winn

one of the stars on that cellar dwelling

team. Scott Rolen the National League

started at thirdbase is out of the question

for the Giants because of the prize tag

and Jim Thome, whose days are

numbered in Cleveland is also not

in Sabean shopping list.

Attention Giant fans ! Breaking News!

The second half might have the same

talent as the first half, with the organization

praying for more production from guys

like Shinjo and Sanders, another 25

homeruns or so from Bonds and

close to 100 runs batted in again from

Jeff Kent. If Kent accomplishes that,

he will be the first ever secondbaseman

in the history of the Major Leagues to

have six consecutive 100 RBI seasons.

Not too bad for a guy that will not be

in the Hall of Fame, but have some

incredible offensive stats for a second

baseman, even better than Roberto

Alomar, who will be someday in Cooperstown.

At the conclusion of Interleague play

when the A’S beat the Giants 2 out of

3 games at the Net in Oakland, these

two teams have many things in common.

Both the A’S and Giants have used close

to half dozen players as leadoff, none

of these Bay Area teams has a “real”

leadoff hitter. Both teams depend on

their pitching and Homerun power

to win their respective divisions..

The Giants and the A’S are two of the

slowest teams in baseball, with few

guys capable of stealing.

The greatest difference is that the A’S

are basically (except Velarde and

Justice) a bunch of guys that made it

to the Big Leagues almost together,

they have known each other since they

were playing in the minors and they’re

around the same age. While the Giants,

a much veteran team, were put together

via trades and came from different

places. The reason the A’S players

“hang out”together and the Giants

players do not is attributed to the

above. The A’S have grown together

into the Major Leagues, while the

Giants are like a “foreign legion”they

came from both leagues and many

organizations.

Having said that. The A’S migh have a more

difficult time gaining ground on Seattle

than the Giants gaining on the Dodgers.

But this roadtrip for the Giants is one of

the crucial ones this season. They could

fly high, or die in Mile High and dry up

or rose like the Phoenix….in Phoenix !

Hasta la vista !

————————————————————–

Amaury Pi-González is the Spanish Radio

Play by Play Announcer for the SF Giants

since 1995. Previoulsy for 17 seasons the

Spanish Play by Play Announcer for the

Oakland Athletics.