Giants sputter into the All-Star break

Giants continue to cruise into the All-Star break with a sputtering engine, primarily because of the revolving door that is the Giants training room.  

If you told me PRIOR to the season that the G-men would only be 0.5 games behind the Dodgers @ 49-37-.557 at this point in the season, I would have taken that. 

According to Fan Graphs Playoff Odds the Gigantes have:

• 32.1% chance of winning the division
• 38.2% chance of securing a wild-card spot
• 70.3% chance of making the playoffs 

I would have taken that at the beginning of the season. I may have thought THOSE odds were overly optimistic. So why the angst? Flashbacks to the 2013 melt down that was the Giants season? That's fair enough given the injuries and the Jekkyl - Hyde look of the Giants offense. 

Still a 24.6% odds of making the NLDS, 11.5% chance of making the NLCS and 4.6% Word Series odds still leaves Giants fans with  a lot to look forward to in the second half. 

What would help turn the Giants fans frowns upside down? In no particular order:

• The return of Angel Pagan
• The return of Sergio Romo's MIA slider
• The return of Marco Scutaro
• The return to dominance of Matt Cain 

Give me Bumgarner, Cain and Hudson firing on all cylinders in August and September and I'll take my chances with even the Giants offense, which I believe one announcer watching the Giants - Padres slugfest likened it to pre-DH baseball ie: boring to the point of torture. 

On of the most surprising stats so far has been the Giants home - road splits.

The Giants are currently 25-23 @ Home versus 24-16 Road record which could actually give the Giants some cause for hope moving forward, as the schedule puts the Giants on the road for large sections of the second half of the season. If they can get their acts together away from AT&T, a final four game set at AT&T versus the Padres -- who should be eliminated by then -- could leave the Giants in pretty good shape for the final weekend. 

Right now, the Giants have slipped from best record in the N.L. (majors at one point) to tied for third with the Braves based on Win_Pct.

Win_Pct.

• Brewers .584
• Dodgers .560
• Braves - Giants .557
• Nats .552
• Pirates .534
• Cardinals .528 
• Reds .517 

Of these teams, the one that seems most likely to drop off the pace based on Run_Differential, would be the Pirates and I would always beware of the Cardinals lurking just a bit behind the playoff pace. 

Run_Differential

1. Dodgers +62
2. Nats +59 
3. Brewers +31
4. Giants +28
5. Cardinals +16
6. Reds +15
7. Braves +12
8. Pirates -7

So all is not lost. But it sure could be given injuries and a continuation of a lineup that features too much of Gregor Blanco .235 / 170 AB's, Tyler Colvin .234 / 107 AB's, Hector Sanchez (as Timmy's caddy) .206 / .141 AB's Joaquin Arias .176 / 102 AB's, Brandon Hicks .164 / 201 AB's.  

I get that some of the guys are more in the lineup for their glove as for their bats. I get that you want to keep the bench fresh. I don't get how you can sacrifice AB's from a league MVP in Buster Posey to feed some of these other guys. Unless Posey is more injured than the Giants want to let on, that is horrible lineup juggling.