Oh, what could have been? –

Angel Pagan – CF

Marco Scutaro – SS

Melky Cabrera – LF

Buster Posey – C

Pablo Sandoval – 3B

Hunter Pence – RF

Brandon Belt – 1B

Brandon Crawford – SS

Starting Pitcher

This was the lineup that all Giants' fans have been waiting to see.  A perfect balance of power, contact hitting, and speed.  Not since 2002 and the Aurilla, Kent, Bonds, Sanders, Snow lineup or maybe even 1993 and the Thompson, Clark, Williams, Bonds team has a Giants lineup been so potent.  This was supposed to be the lineup that would lead the Giants into the playoffs and possibly another World Series run.  This lineup, lasted only one game. 

Today, Major League Baseball announced that Giants left fielder Melky Cabrera will be suspended 50 games for testing positive for PED’s (Performing Enhancing Drugs), more specifically testosterone.  And unlike the Ryan Braun situation, there will be no appeal process, no technically, no arbitrator to intervene.  Melky Cabrera is done for the year; and along with Melky, possibly the Giants playoff hopes. 

In all likelihood, Melky has played his last game in a San Francisco Giants uniform.  A free agent after this season, talks of a possible extension had made its way into the news headlines, but was quickly tabled by both the Giants and Melky.  They were supposed to resume the talks in the offseason, but those talks will unlikely occur now.  Before the suspension, Melky was batting .346 (AVG) with 11HR, 60 RBI, and a .906 OBS, an MVP type season, and most likely on his way to a lucrative pay-day from the Giants.  After today, I don’t see any way the Giants resign him after this incident.  Just as the Giants were finally ridding themselves of the alleged Barry Bonds scandal, the last thing they need to do is get involved with another player associated with PED’s.

So where do the Giants go from here?  They will most likely finish out the season with a platoon in left field of Gregor Blanco, Brett Pill, or some other minor-leaguer, and hopefully the team can rally around each other and still make a strong push for the division title and a playoff berth.  But the odds are greatly stacked against them.  They’ll need Buster to stay hot and keep hitting at the rate he has been since the All-Star break.  They’ll need Pablo to return from his injury and continue to hit like he does.  They’ll need Hunter Pence to get on a roll and help pick up the slack.  And hopefully Brandon Belt can build on his recent hot-hitting streak, where he is nearly batting .500 (AVG).  All the chips have to fall the right way, all the breaks need to break in their favor, and the baseball Gods will need to shine down upon them.  Is it impossible?  No, not with their starting pitching and bullpen; but it’s going to be tough. 

If worse comes to worse and the Giants do fail to make the playoffs, at the very least from all this, they will have money to spend in the offseason to go out and find Melky’s replacement, and I have no doubt in my mind that they will.  The Giants will have money to spend and the one name that comes to my mind - and I would do cartwheels if this were to happen (not pretty, but I would do them) – is Michael Bourn.  Currently on the Atlanta Braves, he is the perfect center fielder and leadoff man for the Giants.  He has a .292 AVG, with 9 HRs, 50 RBIs, 31 SBs, and a .353 OBP.  Having him at the top of the lineup would be ideal.  The Giants can still resign current centerfielder Angel Pagan, who is also a free agent after this season, and move him to left and maybe bat him second in the order.  A lineup featuring Bourn, Pagan, Panda, Buster, Pence, Belt, Scutaro, Crawford, is a very solid lineup.  But whether it’s Bourn or another outfielder, the Giants will be able to use the money supposedly set aside for Melky on a very capable replacement; so in the long term, I think the Giants will survive this fallout.           

To his credit, I’m glad to see that Melky admitted his fault and took full responsibility for his actions.  He let the Giants organization, his teammates, the fans, the Melkmen (and Melkwomen), and most importantly his family and himself down, and he owned up to it.  I’m sure Melky will move on and find another team to sign with, but I'm confident it won’t be with the Giants, and it won’t be for nearly the type of pay-out he was expecting.  I like what ESPN's Buster Olney tweeted out on his twitter page, “Melky was like a bank robber who did everything right in his plan to steal million – right up until the moment his getaway car ran out of gas.”

Angel Pagan – CF

Marco Scutaro – SS

Melky Cabrera – LF

Buster Posey – C

Pablo Sandoval – 3B

Hunter Pence – RF

Brandon Belt – 1B

Brandon Crawford – SS

Starting Pitcher

I would’ve liked to have seen this lineup play together.  Oh, what could have been…?    

Mr. Armchair Speaking –