REPORT CARD TIME: HOW DID THE GIANTS DO IN THEIR THREE-GAME SERIES AGAINST THE MILWAUKEE BREWERS? NOT GOOD. NOT GOOD AT ALL.

All right, the hitting (or lack thereof) is becoming a problem.

The Giants did not play like World Series champions during their three-game stopover in Milwaukee this weekend. Heck, they barely played like major league baseball players. Ironically enough, the least experienced major leaguer on the team - Brandon Crawford, the 24-year-old rookie called up from the San Jose minor league team Thursday - was the most productive hitter. The four runs scored by Crawford’s magnificent seventh-inning grand slam on Friday accounted for two-thirds of all the Giants’ earned runs this series. Yes, you read that right - of the six times a Giant crossed home plate not due to an error, four of them were the result of a single swing of the bat, and by a rookie, no less. The rest of the Giants combined - each and every one of whom has more experience in the majors than Crawford - produced just two earned runs across these three games.

That’s sad.

It’s sad because the team has fallen a half-game out of first place (behind the Arizona Diamondbacks, if you can believe it). It’s sad because it indicates how anemic the Giants’ offense truly is - plenty of other Major League Baseball teams could give up 13 runs over the course of three games and still win all of them, or at least win the series. And it’s sad because the Giants’ ace pitching staff deserves better than this. Tim Lincecum pitched capably on Friday, but only got the win because of Crawford’s (entirely unexpected) long hit. Jonathan Sanchez, so inconsistent throughout his career, struck out seven and gave up just two hits over seven very strong innings yesterday, but his team couldn’t back him up with enough runs to win the game. (Fortunately for Sanchez, the loss was officially attributed to veteran reliever Guillermo Mota; but for the team as a whole, a loss is a loss is a loss.) Matt Cain had a bit of an off-day today; but every pitcher is going to give up five runs or more a few times in his career. Still, his batters couldn’t even muster one run of support for him. Ouch.

If this series is an indication of how the Giants are going to play without Buster Posey this season, then a World Series repeat is impossible, and even making it to the postseason seems like a long shot. Perhaps the return of Pablo Sandoval will inject some life into the offense, but even if it does, we’re in for a long couple of weeks before then. That’s valuable time during which either the Rockies or the Diamondbacks, or both, could overtake the reigning champs in the National League West. By mid-June, it’s not unlikely that the Giants could be second or even third in the division.

How badly, exactly, did they play?

The overall team batting average this weekend was a meager .206 - and nine of the team’s 20 hits came from just two players, Aubrey Huff and Freddy Sanchez. Both men have been showing significant improvement in recent days (particularly Sanchez, who notched his 1,000th career hit this afternoon), but two bats cannot carry a team. Several players were stagnant at the plate - third baseman Miguel Tejada, once the MVP of the American League (back when Barack Obama was a part-time Illinois legislator, Saddam Hussein still ruled Iraq, and Lady Gaga dressed like a normal person), couldn’t eke out a clean hit in any of his seven at-bats. Andres Torres came to the plate eight times, with the same results - though he did draw two walks that eventually became runs. Pat "The Bat" Burrell, once upon a time lauded for his ability to bat in runs in clutch situations, came to the plate nine times and struck out during four of them. Cody “The Boss” Ross, who came home to a well-deserved hero’s welcome after the 2010 postseason, had nothing to show for his five at-bats.

Extra-base hits? You could count them on one hand. Heck, you could lose a couple of fingers in an industrial accident and still count them on one hand. Across all three games, just two batters doubled (not surprisingly, they were Sanchez and Huff), and just one - the rookie “Babe” Crawford - hit a home run. Three extra-base hits in 97 at-bats. Ouch.

With regards to Buster Posey’s two replacements, offensively, let’s be fair - it’s hard to replace a solid hitter like Buster. But Eli Whiteside and Chris Stewart, the team's catching squad with Posey out, struck out three times and pulled out just a single hit in their 10 combined at-bats. One hit in ten opportunities? I'm not sure Posey couldn't hit better than that, even with his leg in a cast.

The pitching was almost certainly better than the hitting, but few of the pitchers were at their best. Among the starters, Sanchez was by far the most impressive; in yesterday’s game, he pitched seven innings and allowed just two hits, while striking out seven and issuing four walks, a low number by his standards. Lincecum started off the series with a seven-inning outing in which he gave up three earned runs and seven hits, walking none but striking out only four. I don’t have the stats from his college playing days on hand, but I’m guessing those numbers would have represented a pretty good outing for him as a student-athlete. As a two-time Cy Young Award winner, though, that’s just an average game. Cain, as I mentioned earlier, seems to have taken an off-day today. He allowed an abnormally-high 11 hits and five runs, all earned, while striking out six and walking one. There was no way this offensively braindead team was going to produce enough runs for Cain to earn a win, and even if they had, he didn't pitch like he deserved to.

The bullpen, as usual, was solid, with moments of greatness and only occasional disappointment seeping through. Collectively, Giants relief pitchers worked six innings across this series, during which they gave up three runs (two earned), six hits, and five walks, striking out seven. The best relief work, by far, came from Sergio Romo, who pitched less than two innings and struck out four, giving up no hits and one walk. Less impressive was Guillermo Mota, brought in to pitch the bottom of the ninth inning of yesterday’s game, which was tied 2-2 when he came in. Talk about having an off-day; in less than 20 pitches, Mota allowed consecutive singles by Ryan Braun and Prince Fielder, then issued a walk to Yuniesky Betancourt that loaded the bases. With only one out on the board, all Wil Nieves had to do was bunt the ball directly in front of home plate, by which time Braun was already halfway home from third base, scoring the walk-off run to win the game. Mota was credited with the loss for the game, and quite deservedly so.

Okay, maybe I’m being too harsh on my beloved Giants. In fact, I probably am. I really do love this team, and I understand that they are heavily demoralized - shocked and saddened by the loss of their two finest hitters (Sandoval and Posey), one only temporarily, one likely for the entire season. The multitude of other injuries has been tough to deal with, as well - Mike Fontenot, while mediocre as a hitter, is capable and limber at shortstop; and Darren Ford didn’t get the nickname “The Bullet” for no reason. Without all of them, this team is hurting, no doubt about that. If the 2010 Giants were a ragtag group of “castoffs and misfits,” as they became known, then the 2011 incarnation is even more so.

Still, a .206 batting average over a three-game series is simply not going to cut it. In the world of baseball, things change quickly, and teams have to adapt instantly; this isn’t football, where an injury to a player in one game means that the team has six full days after that to find a replacement player and come up with a new strategy. With Buster Posey down and out, every other hitter needs to produce more for this team to even stay competitive, let alone to win the division and make it to the postseason. Aubrey Huff and Freddy Sanchez seem like that’s just what they’re doing; now it’s time for Miguel Tejada, Cody Ross, Eli Whiteside, Pat Burrell, and all of their teammates to do the same. They all need to - well, not just to step up to the plate (literally), but to step up to the plate and remind everyone that they are the defending champions. They can't afford to wait until Sandoval is back in two (or more) weeks; they certainly can't afford to wait until midsummer trades and acquisitions are made, or until rosters expand in early September. They need to bring the bats to life, and they need to do it now.

Let’s go, Giants. Let’s go.

Wow. This team has got to start playing a little bit more like World Series champs. I was willing to look past dropping three of four to the Dodgers, one of the National League teams that improved the most this offseason, but the Padres? A loss to the Padres in the first week of the 2011 season hurts.

Ironically, the defense, which struggled so much during the opening weekend series against the Dodgers, played much better today than did the offense, which has been adequate of late but was completely lifeless today. Buster Posey, Pat Burrell, Pablo Sandoval, and Brandon Belt all played the kind of defensive baseball that might have pulled out another win or two against the Dodgers. None, however, did much of anything at the plate.

The team’s frustration is starting to show, too - Bruce Bochy made his first trip out of the dugout to argue (albeit gently) with an umpire, and Buster Posey was visibly upset with the second-base umpire’s safe call on a throw Posey made when one of the Padres stole second base. This team is, understandably, a little angry - with itself, with the calls it’s getting from umpires, and with the fact that the 2010 World Champions have blown their chance to return home with a .500 record.

Side note: I don’t know if it’s a San Diego thing, or if it had to do with the game being scheduled in the middle of the day on a weekday (which was odd in and of itself), but I definitely noticed less passion for the Padres on display at Petco Park today than I usually see for other teams. At AT&T Park or Dodger Stadium, the chants of “Let’s go [insert two-syllable name of team here]” are deafening, whether experienced on TV/radio or in person. At Petco, the chanting was quieter, and there were fewer displays of fan excitement or rowdiness. Odd.

You guys sure you're up to this?

Sloppy. That’s the best word I can think of to describe the way the Giants played tonight in Los Angeles. Someone watching tonight’s game who missed the 2010 postseason would never guess that the Giants are defending World Series champions. Is it that they had too much fun celebrating late last year and they aren’t yet back into the groove of taking baseball seriously? I doubt it; they played seriously enough during Spring Training this year and, after all, this isn’t Little League. These guys are professionals.

Still. Still. What happened to Aubrey Huff, so solid at first base last year, who seemed unable to run down almost anything hit out to right field tonight? Or Freddy Sanchez, who the Chronicle described last year as having played second base “like he invented it,” and who crucially missed a throw from Miguel Tejada tonight that would have been an easy double play? Last year’s National League Rookie of the Year, Buster Posey, allowed the Dodgers to score the game’s first run, on a wild (and unnecessary) throw to third baseman Pablo Sandoval. Tim Lincecum drilled his former teammate Juan Uribe in the elbow, a beaning that by no means looked intentional. What gives?

The most solid defensive playing tonight came from Brandon Belt, the rookie first baseman playing in his first Major League game.

But it’s far too early to worry. I once read a music critic’s review of some band or another’s debut album, in which he said something to the effect that, on a band’s first album, it doesn’t matter so much whether they play great music; they just need to sound good. A similar theory applies to baseball. For the first game of the season, it is not essential that a team plays great baseball, as long as they look good.

With that in mind, the Giants looked… pretty good tonight. In terms of potential to be a great player this year, Pablo Sandoval looks great. As in the recent Giants-A’s exhibition series, the Panda made a few defensive plays that would have been impossible with the extra 40 or so pounds of weight he was carrying last year.

By the way, I’m not yet convinced that the Dodgers have the hitters to be a major competitor in the N.L. West this year, but if Clayton Kershaw can continue to pitch as well as he did tonight, any team facing him on the mound should be in big trouble.

Side notes: Saw a few Giants fans in the stands tonight, which is to be expected for the defending World Series champs. Still, I’m not sure I’d feel brave enough to wear Giants gear to Dodgers Stadium. I saw one poor guy in line for the bathroom at a Giants home game last year, and he was taking a pretty epic heckling from his fellow bathroom-mates.

Bleeding Orange and Black

The San Francisco Giants are the reigning World Champions of Major League Baseball. This is the first time in my entire life I have been able to make that statement. I could have said it in 1989, had the crossbay rival team Oakland Athletics not swept the Giants in a ho-hum World Series whose most dramatic moment was the Loma Prieta earthquake that hit Candlestick Park just moments before the players were to take the field for Game Three. I could have also said it in 2002, had the Anaheim Angels not overcome what seemed like a safe 5-0 Giants lead in the final innings of Game Six to force a seventh game.

No, in 2010 the Giants really did win it. A hundred thousand more qualified writers than I could tell you why they won. Most of them will tell you it was because of superior pitching, which is quite a compliment when your vanquished opponents include the likes of Roy Halladay and Cliff Lee, two of the best arms the modern game has ever seen. To be fair, this analysis isn’t entirely wrong; the Giants do have some great pitchers. But the fact of the matter is, you can’t win a game unless you actually score more points than the other team does.

Game Six of the National League Championship Series between the Giants and the Philadelphia Phillies might have been tied and gone into extra innings, for example, if not for Juan Uribe’s eighth-inning solo home run. That single score, added to closing pitcher Brian Wilson’s brilliant demolition of Philadelphia’s best hitters, secured the Giants their first National League pennant since 2002. The World Series was won in a similar fashion - this time, it was Edger Renteria’s three-run homer against the Texas Rangers in Game Five, again combined with Wilson’s shut-down pitching in the game’s final inning.

Great pitching and clutch hitting - so why shouldn’t the Giants repeat in 2011, am I right? Except… well, Juan Uribe is with the hated Los Angeles Dodgers now, and Edger Renteria has found a new home with the Cincinnati Reds. As for that closer? Brian Wilson is on the Disabled List, with a back injury. Great!

In the offseason, though, the Giants made a few moves that should help out. They acquired veteran Miguel Tejada, formerly of none other than the Oakland Athletics, at shortstop, and gave a lot of work to up-and-coming minor leaguer Brandon Belt, not yet twenty-three years of age. (The work paid off; Belt, to the surprise of many, made the team’s opening-day roster, and is expected to be the team’s everyday first baseman.) Both Tejada and Belt should add some pop behind the plate, in addition to the already formidable hitting power of Buster Posey, Aubrey Huff, and Pat Burrell.

All in all, the Giants are expected to at least be competitive in the National League West Division in 2011. (For what it’s worth, living baseball legend Hank Aaron thinks they’re going to return to the World Series.) Personally, as long as they don’t sink like a stone, I expect this to be one fun baseball season.

Not that there is no reason to worry - in 1989, they won the National League pennant and made it to the World Series, then placed third in the N.L. West the following year. In 1998, the year after their only postseason appearance of the ’90s, they finished nine and a half games behind the San Diego Padres in their division. And, although they made it to the playoffs two years in a row in the 2000s (2002 and 2003), their 2004 season was a heartbreaker, as they lost the division to the hated Dodgers.

Speaking of the Dodgers, the Major League season officially begins in just half an hour or so, as the Giants visit their longtime rivals (dating back to when both teams were in New York, women couldn’t vote, and the number-one world power was the British Empire) in Los Angeles. San Francisco’s two-time Cy Young Award winning pitcher Tim Lincecum squares off against young L.A. pitcher Clayton Kershaw. It’s a shade under 80 degrees here in south Sacramento, and I’m about ready to crack open a beer, lean back, and watch the defending World Champions try to repeat. Yes, baseball season has arrived.

Full disclosure: this is approximately the third or fourth blog I’ve started, not counting the various LiveJournal/Xanga-type online “diaries” that inexplicably exploded in popularity among members of my generation in the early years of this young century. I had a few of those, too, and the juvenile expressions of wannabe frustration, anger, and self-loathing contained within are so embarrassing to even think about these days that I’m glad to be done with them.

In terms of my blogs, they’ve mostly veered toward the political, which makes sense; I’ve been a political junkie since my teens, as an undergraduate I studied what most universities call Political Science, and I’ve worked on several political campaigns, mostly in a volunteering, licking-stamps, knocking-on-doors, hi-how-are-you-have-you-heard-about-the-upcoming-State-Assembly-election sort of way. But those blogs fell by the wayside, too. Reviving any of them would probably be inappropriate at this point, since I work for the legislative office of an official entity of the California government, which requires me to at least maintain the appearance of objectivity in State political matters.

And so we come to this blog, which is to be about baseball - the national pastime, they call it, although growing up my family members only liked football, my friends seemed to all be into basketball, and all the rage in the wide world of sports these past couple of decades seemed to be about soccer (don’t ask me why; I prefer sports where teams actually, you know, score points). But baseball is my sport, for better or worse. I can’t necessarily explain it in the most eloquent of manners - although, on this blog, you will certainly see me try to do so - I just happen to like it more than any other sport. I like watching it on television, I like listening to it on the radio, I like seeing it played in person, I like talking about it with fellow baseball fans (and a few unlucky not-so-fans who happen to be within earshot when I start running my big mouth), so why not write about it?

Another tidbit I feel compelled to disclose early: I am, relatively speaking, a new fan to the world of baseball. It has probably always been my favorite sport, but for most of my life, saying that I liked baseball more than any other sport would have been like George W. Bush bragging that he was more successful at drilling oil than at any other enterprise he was involved in. I wasn’t much of a sports kid growing up - I was a Batman kid, a video games kid, a Star Trek kid, a movie buff, and a big reader. I watched sports very rarely, and played them even less often; I’m pretty sure I never even owned a bat or a baseball glove.

And yet, here I am, writing a blog about baseball, because it is what I love. Part of the reason I love baseball so much is that it doesn’t really matter when you start loving it. At the beginning of Ken Burns’s excellent documentary Baseball: The Tenth Inning, Keith Olbermann says of baseball, “If you come in at the beginning of a game, or at the start of the season, or at the start of your own fandom, you feel as if you are joining the river midstream, and all that has gone before, you can enjoy as much as if you were there.”

I agree with Keith, and with that, I begin my journey through a single season (and, if the one season is something I enjoy doing, even more) as a baseball blogger. I will be going to, watching, and listening to games all the way from the college level up to the major leagues, and putting my thoughts about them here. I’m a Giants fan, at heart, but here you will read about my musings on not just the Giants but other major league contenders (including the Orange and Black’s friendly crossbay rival, and potentially serious division contender, the Oakland Athletics), minor league baseball’s Sacramento River Cats, and much else. If you like it, stick around, and feel free to add your own comments. If you don’t like it, well, I’ve got good news for you - the internet has something for just about everyone to enjoy, so hopefully there’s something out there for you.

Coming soon (as in, within the hour): a preview of the San Francisco Giants’s opening game and 2011 season, and what the Giants mean to me.