(UPDATE: With his silver sombrero today, it's 21 k's in 50 pa's, so now it's a strikeout every 2.4 plate appearances in May, or 42% of the time. C'mon, Bruce Bochy, sit this guy.)
That, ladies and gents, is smelly. The only issue in replacing him? Pat Burrell isn't exactly lighting it up offensively, although he's found ways to contribute via the longball and walks...and then, of course, there's his water-buffalo-ness in left field to worry about.
There is, however, one option the Giants have -- one only spoken of in dark whispers in dark alleys on the darkest of nights when the city lights are dark and everyone is in the dark eating dark chocolate and looking at Alvin Dark's stats...
Bring back Brandon Belt. It's not only a cool idea, it's alliterative, too.
This is why they're having him play the outfield in Fresno, right? Brian Sabean made a smart move -- he's seen Aubrey Huff play the outfield like Mike Tyson plays the role of Bobby Brown (badly, in case you're too scared to click that link...and I wouldn't blame you, either). He knows Rowand would be a very good choice in LF if only the NL would hurry up and create the Designated Fielder position. He wouldn't mind Burrell if it weren't for him being so likely to whiff on both breaking balls and line drives hit to either side of him...
Hence, Sabean's clever move in grooming Belt to play a corner outfield position of some sort so that he can come back and immediately have a spot to play every day. At least, that's what I assume the plan was. But when would that happen?
Belt's slashline in Fresno is currently .388/.533./.567 -- maybe Sabean isn't impressed and wants Belt to duplicate Eric Hosmer's .439/.525/.583 before recalling him? C'mon, Brandon...just a few more singles, you slacker.
One would also wonder what the subsequent move would be in regards to the outfielders currently on the big league roster -- Rowand would be a candidate to be waived, although there'd be the small matter of the Giants eating $20+ million in salary. Nate Schierholtz is always brought up in trade discussions, but although he's having a very good year in limited duty, there would be the obstacle of him not being worth much in a trade.
And then there's Darren Ford -- as great of a story as he is, to me this seems like the move the Giants would make. It would allow them to disillusion themselves into thinking that Rowand can still contribute (although sadly, Rowand can still easily outhit Ford), and to keep Schierholtz, even though it would mean that his appearances would mostly be limited to left-handed pinch-hitting duty and late-inning defensive replacements in RF...again.
And while we're lamenting over Rowand's contract, we may as well lament some more over Miguel Tejada's and...Mark DeRosa's.
We are still basking in the 2010 World Series victory, sure, and a ton of that credit goes to Sabean for the roster moves/tweaks he made last season, but that doesn't mean we have to ignore the fact that he's paying about $44 million to those three and Barry Zito in 2011 -- or roughly around 36% of the team's total payroll.
Yowzah.
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