Disastrous Early Season May Lead SF Giants to Some Tough Decisions

After Wednesday night's 9-2 home loss to the Atlanta Braves, the San Francisco Giants have fallen to a pitiful 21-27 on the season — last place in the NL West — currently trailing the first-place LA Dodgers by 10 games.

Not much has gone right for a team that needed every break they could manage just to be competitive this season. Offensively, the Giants rank 27th or worse in five major hitting categories:

Runs Scored: 182 (27th)

Batting Average: .221 (27th)

On-Base Percentage: .284 (29th)

Slugging Percentage: .369 (27th)

OBP-plus Slugging: .653 (28th)

On the pitching front, which is usually the strong suit of every Bruce Bochy-led Giants team, this year's staff as a whole has struggled:

Earned Run Average: 4.42 (18th)

Strikeouts: 406 (t-23rd)

Walks + Hits/Innings-pitched: 1.30 (11th)

Batting Average Against: .243 (16th)

There are a couple of bright spots to speak of, thus far, in the young 2019 season. Pablo Sandoval (aka "Kung Fu Panda") has gotten off to a hot start, sharing the team lead in home runs, with seven (tied with Brandon Belt), also sporting a .292 batting average and .956 OPS. Top-pitching prospect, rookie Shaun Anderson, already has two strong outings under his belt at the big league level (2 starts: 10 IP, 4 ER, 8 K, 1.30 WHIP, .244 BAA, 3.60 ERA).

Outfielder/first baseman Tyler Austin was one of several under-the-radar moves executed by the Giants' new GM Farhan Zaidi, in his attempt to find a "diamond in the rough.: The ex-Twin has seen most of his action on Brandon Belt's rest days, as well as a few scattered outfield starts, here and there, but has largely been used as a pinch-hitter. Though he has been somewhat limited due to his role, he has been one of the team's most consistent power hitters, owning a .255 BA, 6 XBH, 3 HR, and an .840 OPS in just 55 at-bats.

The bullpen was expected to be particularly strong, coming off a stellar 2018 season and returning almost in its entirety. Six of the Giants' seven consistently-used relievers have posted ERAs under 3.00: Trevor Gott (2.01), Tony Watson (2.12), Nick Vincent (2.42), Mark Melancon (2.45), Sam Dyson (2.63), and Will Smith (2.89). Flame-throwing righty Reyes Moronta's ERA currently sits at 3.80, but that is mostly due to a couple of excessively terrible outings. That number will fall below the 3.00-mark by the end of the season.

At this point, with the National League looking to be stacked with talent, the G-Men do not appear to have the slightest chance to sneak into the postseason. It may be time to flip the team's tradable assets, load-up on prospects, and give the youngsters from the "farm" a season's-long opportunity to show what they can do at the Major League level.