Too Soon?

It's been 23 games. The Giants are currently just a game under .500 (11-12) and only 5 games behind the NL West first place Rockies. Also, it's only April 27. Is it too soon to worry?

Maybe, but maybe we should anyway.

Today, I heard someone say that, despite their recent offensive struggles, the Giants will turn it around because everyone expects this year's team to be better offensively than last years. My immediate response was...What? Really? Followed quickly by...Why?

Looking at this Giants line-up of Rowand, F. Sanchez, Huff, Posey, Sandoval, Burrell, Ross, and Tejada does not exactly inspire confidence in the offense. It's the same group as last year, and now each player is a year older. The only big change came at shortstop, where Uribe was switched out for Tejada. The average age of this team is 31. Not exactly a team for the future.

Are the averages troubling? Yes. Even this early? Yes. Sandoval is currently the only Giants batting over .300 (.329). Freddy Sanchez is second in average with .283, and Rowand is third at .278. Ten days ago, Rowand was batting an amazing .359. For those of you counting at home, that's a difference of .081. Considering Rowand ended the 2010 season batting .230, his recent slide in average doesn't really bode well for the rest of his 2011.

The rest of the team, with the exception of Buster Posey, is visibly floundering. Posey hasn't had a hit on the road trip so far, which has knocked is average from .280 to .259 in the last two days, but nothing that's too worrisome. Yet. However, the same can't be said for Huff, Burrell, Tejada, and Ross. Tejada is batting .200 with one HR, Huff is batting .218 with two HR, Burrell is batting .261 with five HR (four of them coming in the first two weeks of the season), and Ross has come back from the DL with a rousing .227 average with 0 HR (so far). Ross can get a little leeway because he's only been back for a few days, but the other three guys are key for this team. Burrell helped propel the Giants into the playoffs last year, Tejada was the Giants big, off-season signing, and Huff was the heart and soul of the 2010 Giants team. If Bochy continues to start these three (which he will), and they continue to struggle, the Giants might not finish better than .500 (they still have that amazing pitching).

All in all, it's still a little too soon to panic, but the Giants should be too hesitant to possibly sit a struggle veteran (or two or three) for a younger player, just to switch things up and see what the young guys can do.

After all, the 2010 Giants were a .500 team with Molina until they traded him and brought up a certain young Rookie of the Year catcher....