Did a roundtable with the lovely folks of the Giants blogosphere today, here are the cliff notes (full transcript can be found here).

One of our topics, the Big-Head himself.

On the Pirates Series

• Productive Outs: I wouldn’t put that much importance on it, frankly. It would suck, but they’re a decent team that’s had the tar kicked out of em the past coupla weeks. The real issue to me is the DBacks at this point.  If SFG were to drop 2 of 3 to PIT and AZ were to sweep or take 2 of 3, THAT would be an issue.  No shame in losing to the Buccos I don’t think. They’re big-league ballplayers.
• Croix De Candlestick: That seems to be the only criteria for shutting down the Giants offense nowadays
• PO: Live humanoids with pulses.
• Crazy Crabbers: If the Giants score 4 or more runs for a week I will know what heaven feels like.

On Aubrey Huff

• Productive Outs: I’m no pollyanna, but it does seem like Huff is squaring up some balls of late.  I’m a tiny bit more hopeful.
• Croix De Candlestick: At the very least he’s walking a little more.  But right now he has a career low 15% LD%, so he hasn’t squared up much this year.
• Giants Nirvana: For what it’s worth, line drive rate is prone to luck…similar to BABIP in that respect.  ”The moral of the story is that, like BABIP, line drive rate is prone to swings in luck. While some players are better line drive hitters than others and can post above average rates more often than not (see: Michael Young), hitters in general don’t have a ton of control over this stat — or, at least, it takes several seasons to get a really good read on their ability.” (per Hardball Times).

On Bochy-Ball/Team Chemistry

• Productive Outs: Baseball mgrs are inherently conservative. They want guys who’ve “been there before,” hence the O-Cab deal.  It was interesting, on the last Up and In podcast Dan Evans was a guest (ex-Dodgers GM).  He’s kind of an old-school guy–he talked at length about how you never want to bring a guy w/o experience into a pennant chase and mentioned OCab specifically; veteran presence and all that jazz.  But here’s the thing: all that stuff about chemistry and experience is real. Managers and GMs put real weight behind that (expletive).
• Crazy Crabbers: I think chemistry comes with winning, and talent is most important for winning. For the most part guys are good and can get along just fine. It is only the bad apples that are truly cause for concern.
• Giants Nirvana: It’s funny…I hadn’t looked at his stats, and was assuming OCab was doing OK…and he’s not. At all. Hitting .233/.226/.300.

Are the Giants a “playoff team”?

• GiantsPod: Absolutely they are. In short (and the obvious), if everyone (or even just a couple) players play at their average levels, we’re solid. If everyone’s bad, we lose. Just depends if they can get their (expletive) together in time.  I suppose that’s obvious, but it’s the Bonds’ honest truth.
• Giants Nirvana: I subscribe to the theory that the playoffs are enough of a crapshoot that anything can happen.  I think this team is perfectly capable of getting hot and winning 11 important games in the playoffs.  I think a core of Beltran/Sandoval supplemented by Torres/Huff/Ross/Schierh​oltz/Keppinger is solid enough to support this elite pitching staff.
• Croix De Candlestick: We just feel too much like the 2010 Padres to me.  Of course a healthy Beltran/Sandoval hitting 3-4 certainly helps.  Meaning we have twice as many competent hitters as the 2010 Padres. I still have my doubts that any semblance of 2010 Huff is going to show up this year though.