MOVING ON UP....????

FUTURE GIANTS STARTER - RHP TIM ALDERSON

The Giants moved future starters RHP Tim Alderson and LHP Madison Bumgarner to AA Connecticut last week, along with SS Brandon Crawford.

Alderson pitched 6 2/3 innings of no-hit ball in an early outing. Crawford is handling the bat well and Bumgarner has shown no signs of being in over his head at this level.

So for now, Giants fans can have visions of a starting rotation of Lincecum, Cain, Bumgarner, Alderson and Sanchez. You can win some titles with that. What about Mr. Zito, you ask? Beer league softball is my guess.

Ideally, all three of the prospects (along with 3B Conor Gilaspie, RF Roger Kieschnick and C Buster Posey) should spend the entire season at the AA-AAA level. All three are likely September call ups if the Gigantes are out of the playoff picture by then.

Eventually, if Crawford continues to hit, Renteria can join Zito in the BLSB circuit.

If I'm looking at the Giants hitting stats correctly, the guys at the top of the productivity scale (using OPS), are the lower paid, younger prospects like Sandoval, and Freddie Lewis. Ishakawa is the only one struggling.

The big money guys like Renteria, Winn and Rowand are abysmal. Bengie Molina is the exception to the rule. Ironic isn't it that the Giants system would produce a Molina clone in Pablo Sandoval.

And can anyone, ANYONE in the organization not see that Rich Aurilia is DONE?

At what point do some of these decisions reflect poorly on GM Brian Sabean's personnel decisions and his colossal waste of payroll dollars that has set back this franchise? In the past his poor decisions were obscured because of having a guy named Bonds who made chicken salad out of chicken poop. But the flushing of payroll dollars has been going on for over a decade.

Recently, Giant fans have seen progress in the standings only to the extent that the Rockies and Padres have been equally inept personnel-wise. The top of the division has to come down to the Giants rather than the Giants becoming good enough to compete. The recent Dodgers/Manny-as-the-Octo-Mom fiasco comes to mind.

Maybe time for a change to put the franchise on a new course. It shouldn't be good enough for this once proud franchise to be content with being the prettiest girl in the bar at last call. While that may get you some lovin', you still have to wake up in the morning and face the consequences of your choices.