Giants need to keep going to gain ground in West By Ken Gimblin and Joe Cronin July 10, 2010     SAN FRANCISCO--The Washington Nationals may not be baseball's premier team being in last in the National League East but they have a guy they can build their team around in rookie pitcher Stephen Strasburg who beat the Giants with an 8-1 win and improved his record to 3-2 last Friday night in D.C. If Strasburg stays healthy he's going to be a dominate pitcher for many years. The Giants on this road trip were looking to improve a bit but struggled against Colorado last week losing three of four but went to Milwaukee and sweep the Brew Crew at Miller Park in four games before starting the current series in Washington. As far as the game at Coors the Giants will have to watch the Rockies who might be the better team you never know you just might have to look at it that way. The Giants didn't play well at home before the trip they were horrible against Boston and they didn't look much better against the Dodgers and they did not do well with the exception of Arizona and ended up having a winning record in the N.L. West. For the Giants to win the division or get to the playoffs they're going to have to do much better against the Rockies, the Dodgers, and the Padres. Right now those teams are above the Giants and one has to wonder are those teams slightly better? Under the new ownership of the Nationals and the owners of the Braves they have vacillated on the amount of money because Scott Boras represented Strasburg and they really debated and we don't blame them it's a major investment. Obviously the scouts they called it right unless Strasburg runs into injuries you have to look at him and say this is his first year up and he's been dominant. Strasburg he looks like a pitcher that has tremendous ability that will get him Hall of Fame possibilities and he's only a rookie. The Brewers are not one of the better teams in the league also they commit a lot of errors and there are a lot of hits and runs that the Giants got against the Brewers. If they faced a good team they wouldn't have had those runs. So instead of them getting three outs an inning the Brewers allowed them four the fact the fourth out was an error which allowed the Giants to continue to bat. So the Giants have to look at some of the other teams and make that same judgment and frankly the Giants beat the Brewers four straight which they did last week and it's all because the Brewers are not a very good team. Panda's average is dipping: Giants third baseman Pablo Sandoval's average is slipping a little bit but first of all Pablo is a player you love and he loves the game and he plays hard and he's a great team player. He obviously has ability coming off last season. If there is anything that anyone would question about him is if the Giants worked on weight issues last season he would be much better if he could drop 20-25 pounds off his weight that might be a factor effecting his hitting. It's easier said than done and it's not criticizing him but you have to wonder with less weight would he be able to move a little bit more and move quicker? Would he be able to get his bat on the ball? That's what we’re really questioning and you look at him now you know he should be losing some weight so that's my only question about him. Pitcher Jonathan Sanchez: Sanchez is a pitcher that has great potential oddly enough in a couple of games he's picked up wins and he struggled in some of those games and we haven't had a chance to speak with Giants pitching coach Dave Righetti about Sanchez he had a problem with location and that is being able to control where he wants to throw the ball. We like what he can do in general we know he's capable and whether he's going to do it or not we’re not sure he pitched 3.2 innings surrendering five runs and five hits to the Nationals and was lifted in the fourth inning with the Giants trailing 5-3 at the time he was pulled on Saturday night. The Giants have not done well on the road with the exception of the Milwaukee series. They have struggled with the Nationals in the first two games and were right before the All-Star break so the question is we’re not sure how they’re going to do frankly. Ken Gimblin and Joe Cronin cover Giants baseball each week for Sportstalk Radio

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