Marty, One should always welcome sage advise and, since you are among the wisest, I will wrestle with the questions you ask.

Fans I posed questions in Tuesday’s Daily Dish about what to look for in analyzing the strngth of your team as we get ready for the long summer months ahead.

Ed Stern answers my questions and tells you why or why not the Giants meet the test.
Click below for more!From the point of view of a Giants observer, here goes. Is the rotation solid? If Ainsworth is healthy the answer is “yes”. Moss looked much better in his most recent start, getting the ball over for a strike on the first pitch far more frequently than has been the case most of this year. Ainsworth and Foppert are rookies with a limited track record but what we have seen of them this year is encouraging. Foppert may be a great one in the making. He goes against Brown tonight. This may be a decisive moment for him. Is the defense set? The Giants are a very good defensive club. They lead the league in fielding, having made the fewest errors. No fault can be found with their fielding. Is the bullpen reliable or shaky? This is a team without a traditional closer. When you think of Smoltz or Gagne you realize that the Giants have a great deal to overcome with a set-up pitcher playing the role, even tho Worrell has done more than could have been asked of him so far. There is no one on the present roster who can make one forget Nen at his best. Nathan gave great promise the beginning of the year but has lately been ineffective too often. They need a 7th inning pitcher as well as a setup man in the 8th. For a short while recently, Rodriguez gave promise of pitching back to his glory days when he was the best setup man in the league. Don’t count on it. The hope is that they will make a move for a free agent but there aren’t too many good ones available and those that are have a number of teams in the running to sign them. “Shaky” is a good description. Is the offense clicking? Are they hitting in the clutch? The team scores runs, they are hitting fourth in the averages and they don’t rely on only one or two men for their offense. Despite this, they have an abominable record hitting in the clutch. This sounds much like a contradiction in terms but it happens to be the case. Alfonzo and Cruz have been pitiful with men on base and Aurilia isn’t far behind. And yet, there is always Bonds and a variety of lesser lights who manage to come up with hits at the opportune time. Santiago, Snow, Durham for instance. Bonds adds a dimension to their hitting which is difficult to overexaggerate. He is always on base. This creates a major problem for the opposition. There is diversification up and down the lineup and I didn’t mean to overlook Grissom. This means that there is a built in safety factor. One or two hitters in a slump doesn’t necessarily mean they won’t score. What does this add up to? The bullpen is the critical area. They have to strengthen it and the strength doesn’t seem to be coming from those presently on the staff. The left handed pitching is just passible, with no consideration being given at the moment to Christiansen as a savior. The period starting tonight until July 4th may not be crucial; after all, the season will only be half over at that point. It could very well give one the opportunity, however, to make some reasonable predictions about the balance of the year. On the other hand, it might not. On July 4th we may not know much more than we know now concerning what the rest of the year holds. Ed