Brian Wilson's High School Quote

Here it is, Brian Wilson in high school:

Yes, that is really him, and if you don't believe it, read his senior quotes.

There, satisfied? That is one of the strangest senior quotes I've seen. Gotta love him.

Posey Down: Fantasy Team Adjustments

Marcio Jose Sanchez / AP

Now that the Giants beloved catcher Buster Posey has a broken fibula, three torn tendons in his foot and will be out for the majority of the season, it's time to fix that void in your fantasy lineup.

Posey's absence means new young talent getting a chance in the bigs: Brandon Belt (1B/RF), Chris Stewart (C/1B) and Brandon Crawford (SS). All three guys were brought up for yesterday's game to fill in for Posey, Mike Fontenot and Mark DeRosa, who were all recently injured.

Out of the three new guys, Brandon Belt will most likely see the most playing time. Ever since he was demoted to triple-A in Fresno, he has posted a .337/.470/.525 line in just 31 games. Along with getting on base and putting contact on the ball, Belt has also proved his power is still there, hitting four home runs and driving in 21 runs.

Another good sign from Belt this year is that he has taken 27 walks in just 31 games. Averaging almost a walk per game is an incredible display of plate discipline. If he is available, pick him up and see how Bruce Bochy uses him this week before you start him.

As for Crawford and Stewart, I'd guess they start once or twice a week. As of now, the Giants have Emmanuel Burriss, Miguel Tejada and Freddy Sanchez starting in the 4, 5 and 6 spots, as well as Eli Whiteside seeing time as the primary catcher.

Crawford and Stewart will only spotted time as late-inning replacements or as pinch runners more often than starters.

In just 14 games this season for the San Jose Giants, Crawford has put up a respectable .322/.412/.593 line with three home runs and 15 RBIs. Compared to Tejada's production, Crawford looks far better at this point. However, with only two options at third (Aubrey Huff is the least likely), Tejada should see plenty of time at that position until Pablo Sandoval returns in about a week.

Crawford will essentially be competing with Burriss for the shortstop position until Mike Fontenot returns from his strained groin injury.

As for Stewart, don't expect him to affect the team. In the minors this year, he has only produced a .221/.312/.274 line with no home runs and only 10 RBIs in 33 games with Fresno. Whiteside should see most starts, but I wouldn't pick him up unless you become desperate to find a catcher with sufficient playing time.

In conclusion, the only player being brought up with significant fantasy value is Belt, who has seen most of his playing time in left field (24 games) to increase his chances of playing time. Be sure to use him with caution for about a week to see how the Giants staff will use him.

Giants-Rockies Preview

The pitcher to watch for the Giants this series will be the red-hot Tim Lincecum. Unlike last year, the new form of Lincecum is having a great start to the season, being in the mix for yet another Cy Young award. So far he has a 2.11 ERA with 66 strikeouts, a 1.03 WHIP and has been holding his opponents to a 1.97 batting average. 

The Rockies pitcher to keep an eye on is Ubaldo Jimenez. Unlike Lincecum, Jimenez has not been as impressive as he has been in the past. Coming off the DL at the start of the season, he has posted a 6.67 ERA in 29.2 innings thus far. He also owns a 1.58 WHIP while giving up twice as many home runs than Lincecum (4) in almost half the innings pitched. It'll be interesting to see if Jimenez can pitch like he did last season, this season he has yet to earn a win, when last season by this time he owned a 7-1 record. 

What the Rockies lack in pitching, they sure do make up with their hitting. With guys like Troy Tulowitzki, Todd Helton and Carlos Gonzalez in the middle of the order, the Rockies average a run more per game than the Giants. 

With this series being played at Coors Field, it will be less of who allows the fewest runs, but more of who will score the most. The Giants have had success in Colorado so far this season, going 2-1 while averaging 5.34 runs per game. This season, the Giants have a record of 5-1 against the Rockies, including a three-game sweep at home earlier this month. 

Game 1- Monday, 5:40 p.m. PST 

              Lincecum v. Mortensen

Game 2- Tuesday, 12:10 p.m. PST

              Cain v. Jimenez

The Fontenot Factor

(April 8, 2011 - Photo by Justin Sullivan/Getty Images North America)

The career of the 5-foot-8, 165-pound Mike Fontenot has been an interesting one.

First drafted at a riped age of 21 by the Baltimore Orioles with the 19th pick, Fontenot spent four long years in the minors.

The Chicago Cubs brought him up in mid-April, 2005, and since then, he has been fighting to prove his small frame can play with the big leaguers.

He has played 265 games at second base, 70 at third base and 25 at shortstop in his career in a span of six seasons. His best defensive position is second base with a career .983 fielding percentage- league average.

After joining the Giants last season, Fontenot played three fifths of his starts at second base. This year, that trend has shifted to shortstop as his primary position. This may be due to the recent injury of Pablo Sandoval, making Miguel Tejada fill in at third base.

The strange thing about this is that Fontenot has a higher career fielding percentage than Tejada at third base (.956 versus .949), and Tejada has a much higher fielding percentage at shortstop than Fontenot.

Anyway, the point of this article is simply how well Fontenot has done to fill the Giants lineup void in the infield.

In 26 games this season, Fontenot is batting .258/.358/.518 with two home runs and nine RBIs. That performance is the best out of the Giants shortstops, second and third basemen (besides the injured Sandoval).

What is most impressive is his ability to get on base while hitting in the top of the lineup. In the six games he has batted third, he had an on-base percentage of .444 with seven walks. He also had five RBIs with two stolen bases while hitting third in the lineup.

That means that when he is put in that position, he is a threat to the other team as a potential run.

Fontenot has finally proven that he can play with the big boys, and luckily for the Giants, they have him on their team. When Fontenot has started, the Giants have won nine out of the 13 games.

Obviously something is working for Fontenot, hopefully its a good sign on what's to come.

Giants 30-Game Report Card

Current Record: 15-15

Well, the San Francisco Giants have played 30 games so far this summer, and since their last report card, nothing much has changed. Last time we checked in, the Giants were hovering above .500 with an 8-7 record. Since then, the Giants have been great while taking two out of three at Colorado and in Pittsburgh, but have also been horrendous with the bat, winning just one of seven against Atlanta and Washington.

Instead of rating the Giants thus far, I thought I'd mix it up and take the Giants players averages to predict what they are "on-pace" to hit or pitch by the end of the season. For the record, these are not predictions of any kind, it's just what each player has the potential to do by the end of the season based on what they have done so far.

Batting

Burrell-28 hr, 50 RBIs, 56 runs, 162 strikeouts
Posey-23 hr, 98 RBIs, 52 runs, 17 SB, 0 CS,
Huff-16 hr, 86 RBIs, 52 runs, 27 doubles
Sanchez-11 hr, 50 RBIs, 73 runs, 34 doubles
Rowand-6 hr, 54 RBIs, 7.7 K:BB, 60 doubles
Sandoval*-34 hr, 95 RBIs, 75 runs, .904 OPS
Tejada-6 hr, 52 RBIs, 41 runs, 29 doubles
*injured 4-7 weeks

Some interesting stat lines here: Pat Burrell looking to have a powerful season, but strikeouts being an issue (leads the team), Buster Posey can have a great second year season, with the steals being highly unrealistic. Aubrey Huff will be about as good as last season, with a decrease in home runs. Sanchez has been impressive thus far, and if he continues to get regular starts, he can put together a solid season. Rowand is just weird, I dont know how one hits 60 doubles(!) strikes out almost 8 times more than he takes a walk, and still only brings in 54 RBIs. Sandoval (if he stayed healthy) could have put together a great season passing the 30-home run plateau for the first time (would have been the first Giant to do so since Barry Bonds hit 45 in 2004). Tejada is bound to have a rough season if he continues to hit like he has so far this season.

Grade: C

Pitching

Lincecum- 14-14, 2.47 ERA, 261 strikeouts, 73 walks, 9 hr allowed
Zito- 0-11, 6.23 ERA, 64 strikeouts, 85 walks, 11 hr allowed
Sanchez- 11-5, 2.73 ERA, 213 strikeouts, 107 walks, 5 hr allowed
Bumgarner- 0-27(!!!), 4.75 ERA, 123 strikeouts, 64 walks, 11 hr allowed
Cain- 11-11, 3.28 ERA, 144 strikeouts, 53 walks, 16 hr allowed

Romo- 0-5, 0.96 ERA, 75 strikeouts, 5 walks, 5 hr allowed
Wilson- 0-5, 5.84 ERA, 86 strikeouts, 48 walks, 0 hr allowed
Affeldt- 5-0, 3.55 ERA, 65 strikeouts, 38 walks, 11 hr allowed
Mota- 11-0, 2.29 ERA, 103 strikeouts, 16 walks, 11 hr allowed
Runzler- 5-11, 6.60 ERA, 70 strikeouts, 38 walks, 0 hr allowed

Grade: Affeldt, Mota, Romo, Lincecum, Sanchez and Cain = A-/B+
           Everyone else = D-/F

Fielding

Let's not make this any harder on ourselves...

Grade: Tejada = D+
           Everyone else = B+

Overall: C - not quite dominating performance, but the Giants are still .500, so could be better or worse. 

Giants Latest Scoring Drought a Concern?

The month of April has been an interesting one for the Giants.

With a record that once hovered above .500, the Giants offense has taken a turn for the worse. In the last three series, the Giants have won only three out of eleven games.

What is more concerning, is that they lost to teams like the Pittsburgh Pirates and the Washington Nationals, not to mention getting swept by Atlanta. All of those teams are .500 now, but before they played the Giants, it seemed like the Giants could use these series as a confidence boost.

In the three wins the Giants had, the credit goes to the pitching staff. By only allowing an average of 1.67 runs per game in those three wins, its pretty hard to lose those games.

Unfortunately, the Giants only averaged 1.37 runs in the games they lost, being shut out three times in that span. They also allowed an average of 3.75 runs per game in those losses. If the pitching isn't preforming, the Giants will not win.

So where did the offense go? With Andres Torres still out, as well as Mark DeRosa and now Pablo Sandoval, the offensive source will be on the shoulders of Buster Posey, Aubrey Huff, Cody Ross, Pat Burrell and Freddy Sanchez.

The bad news is that those five guys aren't preforming like their projections hold them to. In the past week, Posey hit a mere .211 with one RBI in 19 at-bats, Huff has just one hit in his last 20 at-bats (a .050 average), Ross hit .182 with no runs or RBIs in 22 at-bats, Burrell has only two singles in 21 at-bats with no offensive production, and Sanchez hit only .174.

Heres a joke: Aaron Rowand has been the most productive hitter for the Giants in the past week.

It's true. We are doomed. He hit .321 with a stolen base (ha...), three RBIs, three extra-base hits and he did it all by hitting lead-off.

It's pretty evident that the Giants are in a team slump offensively, and it'll take some hard work and a little bit of luck in order for things to turn around.