The Melky Cabrera Fallout

why Melky. why.

There are a couple important Melky topics that should be addressed promptly, because apparently this is a big deal. The first is the shock of it all, and the other is what it means for the season.

There are few things in this world that can catch you completely off guard. A possum attacking me with chopsticks right now would be one. Ryan Theriot hitting something far would be another. But coming in third would be Melky Cabrera not being on the 2012 Giants. Right now, I am caught completely off guard.

I suppose this didn’t completely shock me after the brief hubbub last month about Andrew Baggarly tweeting that Cabrera had failed a drug test, then retracting that report and publicly apologizing to Cabrera for errant facts that weren’t so errant after all. There were signs. But I don’t think I was alone when I swept that under the sofa and never thought about it again. There weren’t any other reports that said that, so it wasn’t something I was concerned about.

But Melky Cabrera was such a big story this season. It’s hard to quantify just how much a part of the 2012 season he was. He was a phenomenon. Melky Cabrera could do know wrong in the eyes of Giants fans. Even if you thought he was a BABIP fluke, the fact remains he posted a .346/.390/.516 line into mid August, and he’s consistently played to that level throughout the season. All that for quite possibly the worst starting pitcher in baseball this season, who was practically released by the team Melky was traded for. Dude was second in the NL in batting average this season. The Giants basically acquired the player with the 11^th best WAR for a collection of C02 molecules. Combine that with all the off the field press he got, the All Star MVP, and it’s a complete feel good, fan favorite story.

All of the sudden, he is not a part of the 2012 Giants. This instant superstar in San Francisco is no longer here. 24 hours ago we were singing the praises of one of the best Giants lineups in recent memory . He was in the original lineup today! There was a buzz. Then along came today’s news, which placed the buzz under a guillotine then laughed as it thwacked everything the buzz believed in.

But the important thing to remember is this did happen. I’m still working on building a time machine, but for now it doesn’t work. In the words of every single Giants baseball players, it’s time to move on.  As a baseball story, it’s devastating. But as far as the notion that this is a death sentence for the 2012, Giants, well, that’s absolutely ridiculous. Who knows how good Melky Cabrera would be from this point in the season forward. Compare that with Hunter Pence’s potential and I’m not sure it’s as significant of a drop off as one might think. Sorry if I'm sounding overly optimistic but bear with me, I’m in the acceptance and hoping stage of grief, so forgive me if you find me starting to wonder if there’s a chance the Angels will do the ole’ Burris for Trout switcheroo we’ve been hoping for.

But Gregor Blanco is an interesting player. Interesting because he knows how to work a count, and can prevent a ton of runs with his defensive range. I just keep looking at that May he had, .315/.427/.457 plus a perfecto saving catch. He’s been pretty awful since those 30 days, but there’s a slim strand of desperate hope there for Giants fans to cling on. Giants Nirvana estimates that the difference between Blanco and Cabrera is maybe .5 wins. He’s a nice little player. But of course, he’s been pretty terrible for much of this season with the stick, but they say to be positive in times of grief and that is what I am doing right now.

The Giants are a worse team today than they were yesterday. Nobody's disputing that. But the idea that this is a Buster Posey like injury is utterly false. Last year that was earlier in the season, and the injury meant the Giants offense was the equivalent of Pablo Sandoval using toothpicks to defend himself against angry Pterodactyls. This season, even without Melky, there's still punch in the lineup. Buster Posey is an Presidential MVP candidate, Hunter Pence is showing signs of being a semblance of his 2011 self, Pablo Sandoval looks comftorable after coming back form the DL and Brandon Belt is swinging it beautifully. The pitching staff is still phenomenal and will win a lot of a games for the Giants as long as the offense is competent. This is still competent and potentially good offense, even minus Melky. The injury hurts, but I still believe the Giants will win the division. Why did I just say that.

*****

There was a baseball game today. Tim Lincecum was not good. I hope he gets better. That's all I got.

I can't wait for tomorrow, because that is not today.