Major League Baseball

Giants trying to keep it together

Published Jun. 10, 2011 1:00 a.m. ET

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The San Francisco Giants are in survival mode right now.

It’s not what they had in mind.

As defending world champions, the Giants had great expectations for 2011. They had visions of becoming the first NL team to claim back-to-back world championships since the 1975-76 Cincinnati Reds.

The vision has been blurred.

It’s been slightly more than two weeks now since the face of the franchise’s future, Buster Posey, saw his season come to an end thanks to a broken leg and torn ankle ligaments that required surgery and could well wind up forcing Posey to give up catching.

That’s a question that won’t be answered for some time.

In the meantime, the Giants are looking for answers to questions that will allow them to maintain their spot atop the NL West — which they have been able to hang onto despite recent challenges — thanks to a rotation capable of carrying an abnormal share of the load and the shrewd moves of manager Bruce Bochy.

The Giants, however, haven't closed their eyes to reality. They know that everything is not fine. They know they have to figure out their catching situation, both for now and beyond. Losing Freddy Sanchez to a shoulder injury Friday didn't help. They know they have to deal with the uncertainty of an offense that has kept the Giants from running away from the rest of the NL West. And they know they have to deal with the annual teeth-gnashing concern over a blip on the Tim Lincecum radar screen.

Lincecum, who proved skeptics wrong last August with an overpowering September and a dominating postseason, gets his chance to silence this year’s doubters Saturday afternoon when the Giants host the Cincinnati Reds (FOX, 4 p.m. ET).

Here’s a tip: Don’t worry about Lincecum. He’s fine, and the season-ending stats will bear that out.

Posey’s successor is a different story. That’s something even the Giants are showing they aren’t sure how to deal with. They would love to make a trade, but there is no impact catcher sitting around, looking for playing time. Never has catching talent been so scarce.

It’s why Posey is so special and undoubtedly a big part of the Giants’ emotional overreaction to losing him for the season. He is, after all, a young, middle of the lineup bat who is a quality defensive receiver.

They won’t replace him. They can only hope to tread water.

If there was a viable alternative out there, would the Giants be trying to force an excessive workload on Eli Whiteside, a 31-year-old top quality backup? After all, in 10 previous pro seasons he has never once caught 100 games at the minor league or major league level, and has averaged just 75 appearances a season behind the plate. He started 11 of the first 14 games after Posey went down, hitting .150 along the way.

Ditto for Chris Stewart, who answered the SOS call when Posey went down and the Giants were looking for a second catcher to fill in on occasion for Whiteside. He’s in his 10th pro season, has caught in a total of only 32 big-league games, starting just 16 of them. And he’s still hitless in the big leagues this season.

What choice do they have? The past offseason underscored just how slim the catching pickings are. Think about it. The Dodgers cut ties with Russell Martin, two years ago considered the core of that team, and are willing to turn to career backup Rod Barajas, who is able to command a $3.25 million salary, just $750,000 less than the desperate New York Yankees shell out for Martin, who should assume the No. 1 catching role in the Bronx.

Look at the deals that were handed out during the offseason to journeymen such as Miguel Olivo (2 years, $7 million by Seattle), John Buck (3 years, $18 million by Florida) and Yorvit Torrealba (2 years, $6.25 million by Texas).

How worried are the Giants? Plenty. They aren’t going to admit it, but read between the lines.

On Thursday, they promoted Hector Sanchez, a 21-year-old catcher, from High-A San Jose to Triple-A Fresno, skipping Double-A altogether. The Fresno manager is Steve Decker, the former catcher, whose teaching skills were credited a year ago with allowing Posey to jump to the big leagues after only 32 games at Triple-A.

And Posey wasn’t the first time the Giants created a fast track for the big-league arrival of a prospect. In 2008, Pablo Sandoval opened his season at the Single-A level, and then, after a promotion to Double-A, he was brought directly to the big leagues in August of that year.

Translation: Sanchez is knocking on the big-league door.

Now, if Lincecum can just knock off the Reds, the Giants can short-circuit the Lincecum watch that got so carried away last August.

Remember that? Lincecum hit the skids, and questions about whether he had a baseball future were hot topics in corner pubs. Lincecum wasn’t just winless in five August decisions. He had a 7.82 earned-run average.

So what happened? Lincecum went 5-1 with a 1.94 ERA in September, helping the Giants hold off San Diego in an NL West race that went down to the regular-season finale between the two contenders at AT&T Park.

This year, Lincecum has stubbed his toe earlier. He’s given up 12 earned runs in 18-1/3 innings his last three starts, including a Monday fiasco against Washington — when at least he struck out five batters the first two innings, allowing him to become the ninth pitcher to reach 1,000 strikeouts in his first five seasons.

But he also walked Washington pitcher John Lannan, hitless for 2011, and even though he was facing the most offensively challenged team in baseball, Lincecum failed to pitch into the sixth inning for the first time this year.

Lincecum, however, is just one start away from putting all those concerns to rest.

The Giants can only wish that things were so simple with their catching dilemma.

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