Andy has talked so much about how badly he felt at the end of 2010 that I assumed he’d stunk up the joint. It’s true he hadn’t been very good down the stretch, winning just two of his final seven starts with a 5.45 ERA. But Pettitte has had plenty of stretches in the regular season when he was nothing special. His legacy will always be that he was at his best when the games meant the most. That was true in 2010 as well when he pitched twice in the postseason and went seven innings and allowed two runs each time. He won one of those games, 5-2, and lost the other 8-0. But both times he gave the Yankees a chance to win.

About the only thing causing doubt is that he’s 39 years old, and there will be a time when his body can’t respond. But I’m guessing Andy will know when that time is, and that there’s no way he’d make today’s start if he thought he couldn’t win. He has always had the ability to assess his pitches, performance, etc. He returns at a time when the Yankees are thrilled at the way Phil Hughes is performing, and even though there are questions about how the back of the bullpen will shakedown, they probably are the favorites to win the American League East for the 12th time in 15 years.

Elsewhere…

Justin Verlander has pitched at least six innings in 49 straight starts. That’s the longest streak of six-plus innings since Mark Buehrle did it 49 straight times in 2004-2005 for the White Sox. Steve Carlton was the last MLB pitcher with a longer streak, going six-plus 69 straight times between 1979 and 1982. Verlander’s is the longest for a Tiger since at least 1918…

James Shields has gone at least eight in 18 of his last 37 starts…

Cardinals went 9-3 and averaged 5.8 runs while Lance Berkman was healthy. They went 11-10 and averaged 5.4 runs per game while he was on DL…

The Rays, who had the fewest errors in MLB last season (73), have the fifth-most this season (28). They have twice as many as this point in 2011…

The five AL East clubs have combined for 228 HR. That’s 54 more than the next closest division, the six-team NL Central (174)…

Nationals starters have 17 quality starts in their last 19 turns and lead MLB with 26…

Vinnie Pestano has had at least one strikeout in 18 straight relief appearances. The Indians believe that has been their second-longest such streak since 1918. Paul Shuey had a strikeout in 21 straight appearances in 1999-2000.

The Red Sox are 7 1/2 games out of first place, their biggest deficit this late in the calendar year since 1997.

Daniel Bard has two strikeouts in his last 12 1/3 innings after getting 19 in his first 18 2/3 innings this season.  He has a 3.24 ERA in the first five innings of his starts versus a 12.00 ERA in the sixth inning and later.

Braves manager Fredi Gonzalez has used 23 different lineup combinations in 33 games, including 15 in the first 17 games. His most commonly used lineup (eight times): Bourn, Prado, Freeman, Mc- Cann, Uggla, Jones, Heyward, Pastornicky. That lineup is 7-1…

Twins reliever Jared Burton hasn’t allowed a run in 11 consecutive appearances, covering 11.1 innings. Opposing hitters are 0 for their last 34 with two walks and 12 strikeouts. For the season, he has held opponents to a .073 batting average, second-lowest among AL qualifiers, behind only Ryan Cook of the A’s (.060)…

The Padres are the first NL club to beat Roy Halladay twice in a season. Halladay hadn’t been beaten by one team twice in a season since the Red Sox (twice) and Rays (four times) did it in 2009…

Giants rotation has allowed three runs or less in 20 of last 23 games. It has given up three home runs in last 14 games and just 20 for the season, third-lowest in MLB. Eight of the 20 home runs have come in five games at Chase Field…

Giants lead the majors with 37 errors and are on a pace to commit 181, which would be the third-most since the franchise moved west…

Five days until the Silver Boot…

Happy 62nd, Bobby V.

But he also loved the idea of putting another veteran bat in his lineup and another veteran presence in his clubhouse. His only question about Beltran surely had to do with his health. He was about to turn 35 years old and had played just 145 games in 2009-2010. He’d roared back in a big way in 2011, hitting .300 with 22 home runs and 84 RBIs for the Mets and Giants.

If Beltran could stay healthy, he would give the Cardinals an impact offensive player in the middle of the lineup. He would not be as good as Albert Pujols, but he would be plenty good enough. Five months later, Beltran has been everything Mozeliak hoped he could be and then some. He’s among the National League’s Top 10 in an array of offensive categories, including home runs (first), RBIs (second), runs (second) and OPS (third). Beltran has three multi-homer games in the team’s last nine and has driven in a Major League-best 20 runs already this month.

Meanwhile, the Cardinals are 20-12 and leading the National League Central by 3 1/2 games over the Reds. Offensively, they’re even better than last season when they had Pujols anchoring their lineup, going from 4.7 runs per game to 5.7.

Matt Kemp is hitting 68 points higher than Beltran, but he and Beltran both have 12 home runs and Beltran has four more RBIs. Kemp’s OPS is higher. (Don’t sleep on David Wright, Ryan Braun, Adam LaRoche and Jay Bruce in a still-developing NL MVP race.) Still, the Cardinals are thrilled with what Beltran has given them. He had two homers, a double and a triple in a  wild loss to the Braves Friday night.

He hasn’t just performed on the field. He fits in a clubhouse that’s as close and as professional as any in the game. With young players like David Freese, Allen Craig and Matt Carpenter, it’s useful to have a Beltran, who works hard, says little and is a manager’s dream. If he can stay healthy, he’ll end up being one of the shrewdest moves of the off-season.

At the beginning of spring training, Lance Berkman said that even without Pujols, the Cardinals had a chance to be a better regular-season team than they’d been in 2011. So far, he’s right. After winning 90 games last season, the Cardinals are on a pace to win 101 this season. There are miles to go, and so much can change, but after losing one of the great offensive players of all-time, the Cardinals are again in the mix for a championship.

Thanks to the Elias Sports Bureau and the incomparable John Blake for the following:

• Third player ever with four home runs in a game, all with men on base, joining Gil Hodges of Brooklyn in 1950 and Mark Whiten of St. Louis in 1993. In addition to Whiten and Hodges, the only other player with as many as eight RBIs in a four-home run game was Mike Schmidt in 1976.
• Hodges and Schmidt are the only other players with four home runs, five-plus hits and eight-plus RBIs in a game.
• Third player with 18 or more total bases in a game. Others: Shawn Green (19) in 2002 and Joe Adock (18) in 1954.
• Seventh player since 1900 with five extra base hits in a game.
• First player with six extra base hits in six plate appearances since Ken Griffey jr. in 1998.
• MLB record is seven extra bases in seven plate appearances, shared by Cleveland’s Elmer Smith (1921) and White Sox’s Earl Sheely (1926).
• First player with five home runs in six plate appearances since Shawn Green in 2002.
• Hamilton is hitting .406 with 14 home runs and 36 RBIs in Rangers’ 30 games. According to Baseball Reference, only three other players have as many as 14 home runs and 36 RBIs in a team’s first 30 games: Cy Williams of the Phillies in 1923, Albert Pujols of the Cardinals in 2006 and Alex Rodriguez of the Yankees in 2007.
• Adrian Beltre was with the Dodgers when Shawn Green homered four times on May 23, 2002, at Milwaukee. The only other player to play in two games in which a teammate homered four times was reliever Gene Garber, who pitched in Mike Schmidt’s four-homer game in 1976 and Bob Horner’s in 1986.

I suspect Sandy Alderson is having the time of his life. He has used this season to fast track his best minor league players to the big leagues, and to give them the freedom to succeed and fail and go through all the phases young players typically have to go through. When he ran the Oakland A’s, he was atop a farm system that produced a bounty of talent, including three straight American League Rookie of the Years–Jose Canseco, Mark McGwire and Terry Steinbach.

Alderson believes that good organizations are built from the ground up, that a core of homegrown players is critically important before a franchise can even think of spending on big-ticket free agents. When Terry Collins turned in one recent lineup card, it included nine players drafted or signed by the Mets.

Alderson is quick to point out that the Mets will expand their payroll as these young players gain service time and close in on free agency. He’ll have the resources to keep them, but that’s a discussion for another time and place. For now, it’s about enjoying watching this group of guys go about their business.

David Wright is putting up MVP-type numbers in the middle of the lineup. Meanwhile, C Josh Thole, SS Ruben Tejada and 2B Daniel Murphy have been outstanding. CF Kirk Nieuwenhuis, 24, is off to a great start, hitting .310 in his first 100 at-bats and leading all MLB rookies in batting average and OBP.

Likewise, Alderson has infused the starting rotation with homegrown talent–Mike Pelfrey, Jonathon Niese, Dillon Gee and Chris Schwinden.

Of Collins’ most frequently used starting lineup, seven players joined the organization between 2001 (Wright) and 2008 (Ike Davis and Nieuwenhuis). Pelfrey and Niese were both drafted in 2005, followed by Gee (2007) and Schwinden (2008).

The Mets may not qualify as a great team. They’re third in the NL in runs and 13th in ERA. But they’ve won two series in Phildelphia for the first time in 2008. There’s also some magic. They’ve scored 67 runs with two outs, tops in the majors. The Mets are 11-3 in games decided by two runs or less and 13-4 when their pitcher throws a quality start.

There surely were Mets fans expecting far less from their club. Instead, they’ve got one that plays hard and is off to a great start. It could be the start of something special, but this season itself has been pretty special.

During spring training, one of the things Andrew told his players had been a hugely important season for the Rays. To lose their six highest-paid players and to go back to the playoffs for the third time in four years was a tribute, in part, to a “winning culture.” I’m not sure I can precisely define the term “winning culture,” but I believe it’s the ability of a group of people to come together and work for a common goal and to be so committed to that goal that nothing that they’re not going to be distracted by what Bill Belichick has termed the “noise.”

I hate the word synergy, but I believe that’s what they’ve got going in Tampa. From owner  Stu Sternberg to team president Matt Silverman to Friedman to manager Joe Maddon, the Rays have a leadership group that works closely together, respects one another and feeds off one another.

Friedman and Maddon are absolutely perfect for one another. Both are curious. Both are secure in their own skin. Both realize they can learn from the other. Maddon has a voracious appetite for the data supplied by Friedman and his staff, and when you see those weird lineups and shifts and all that, you’re seeing the result of hours of complex data coming together.

Friedman reshaped his roster again this off-season. He added starters at catcher (Jose Molina), first base (Carlos Pena), second base (Jeff Keppinger) and DH (Luke Scott). Those four starters cost a total of $6 million, which might be the most impressive statistic not involving Albert Pujols you’ll hear this season. Friedman also added two relievers, Fernando Rodney for $2 million and Burke Badenhop for $1 million.

His $64-million payroll is about $23 million higher than last season’s but still only 25th out of baseball’s 30 teams. That payroll will climb as those young starting pitchers gain service time and approach free agency. So far, the Rays have kept a steady flow of talent coming from the minor leagues, and that flow has masked the franchise’s limited resources.

The Rays are trying to convince Tampa Bay political leaders that they need a new stadium, which would provide them the resources to keep their best players. They’ve had no success doing that, and this post isn’t really about their stadium issue. It’s about Friedman’s ability to keep winning with limited resources.

At the moment, the Rays are 16-8 and in first place in the American League East. Maddon pieces a lineup together every game, with a platoon here, a batting order change there. The Rays are fifth in the American League in runs and home runs. They’re second in walks. That’s plenty of offense for a starting rotation that has the AL’s best ERA.

Now Maddon and Friedman are attempting to replace their single most important player, third baseman Evan Longoria, who could be sidelined a month or more with a hamstring injury. Elliott Johnson got the start on Tuesday. Meanwhile, Friedman appears to be seeking help from outside the organization.

Something probably will work out. It usually does. The Rays have let any of their other losses keep them from making the post-season, and they’ve spoiled us all. This time probably will be no different.

That’s what makes his incredible start with the Angels so tough to comprehend. He was nicknamed The Machine because he was so consistent, so productive. It’s not that he has gone 88 at-bats without a home run that’s so startling. It’s that he looks vulnerable at the plate. If you watched him during those 11 seasons with the Cardinals, you just didn’t believe that was possible. He dictated at-bats. Everything revolved around him.

His numbers dropped off last season. He also started slowly. But those could be explained away by him recovering from a wrist injury. If there were days he didn’t look like himself, it’s because he wasn’t. He still ended up with nice numbers and finished fifth in NL MVP balloting.

This season, everything has come undone. It had to start with the pressure he felt to justify that huge contract. Money impacts virtually every player one way or another. Either the player is working like crazy to earn a contract, or he’s upset he hasn’t gotten the contract he feels he deserves. Or, in Albert’s case, he’s attempting to justify the money.

From the outside, this seems silly. Albert got the money he got because he was the best player in the game. The Angels didn’t give him a pile of money because they thought he might do something more than he’d always done. They simply wanted the same guy who led the Cardinals to two championships. If this kind of thing sounds simple from the outside, it’s not.

Players are human. They work like crazy to earn a contract, and then for whatever reason, they feel the need to justify the contract. Albert is swinging at pitches, especially curveballs from right-handed pitchers, he never touched before. His OBP was down for three straight years, and now he’s way down. His walks were way down last year, too, so maybe he was feeling some of the pressure then. When he turned down a big offer from the Cardinals, he cranked up the pressure on himself.

Now he’s not drawing walks. He’s not controlling at-bats. And he’s not hitting with power. I’ve watched him for so long that I believe he’s going to break out some night soon and then go on a tear when he hits home run after home run in a short period of time. Scouts are now speculating about the heavy damp air in Anaheim, how it might curtail his home run totals. That’s just silly talk. Until Albert gets Albert straightened out, that stuff doesn’t matter.

Once he starts to hit, he’ll hit regardless of where he’s playing. I’ve seen him hit some of the most monstrous home runs ever. I’ve seen him carry teams and break hearts. Only Barry Bonds did the things Albert did. I refuse to believe that player is gone for good.

All the Royals had really done was accomplish the first phase of the job. David and Dan Glass gave him the resources to accumulate a wealth of young talent, and Moore did just that. What was it Baseball America said about the Royals? Not just one of baseball’s best farm systems, but one of the best the magazine had ever evaluated. Again, though, accumulating young talent isn’t the same as winning at the Major League level.

Other teams have done fantastic jobs with their minor league systems. Brian Cashman’s work with the Yankees has gotten overlooked, but few general managers have done better. The Rays, Braves, Cardinals, Rockies and Mariners are among the other franchises that come to mind for their work. And Jon Daniels remains the gold standard for taking over one of baseball’s worst system and transforming it into one of the best breathtakingly fast.

But I digress.

Just getting a bunch of those young guys to the Major Leagues last season was a huge accomplishment for the Royals. They’d won throughout their sprint through the minor leagues, and to watch them go 33-33 down the stretch, spurred optimism that the Royals were ready to contend.

This is where things get complicated. First, Eric Hosmer, Mike Moustakas, etc., were going to have to make adjustments as teams looked for their weaknesses. Some players can make the necessary adjustments, but many, many more are never heard from again. There’s just one way to find out, and that’s to run them out there, let ‘em play and see what happens.

Moore said last winter that as hard as it is to get minor league players to the big leagues, it’s just as challenging to keep them there, and that it’s still another two- or three-year process before they’re established as major leagues. If you looked at the Tigers or Rangers this spring, it was fairly easy to predict how many games they’d win. In Prince Fielder and Josh Hamilton and Justin Verlander and others, they have a bunch of players with long track records.

If you’re wondering why managers prefer veteran players, this is it. They like knowing what they can expect from them. To think the Royals were going to keep right on going the way they finished last season was a huge leap of faith. But the only way the Royals are going to get back to respectability is for Ned Yost to keep writing those names on his lineup card and to give them the opportunity to succeed and fail and succeed again.

This is far easier for someone like me to do than for Yost. There’s no book on when to keep challenging young players, on how long to stick with them when they’re struggling, on that fine line between setting back their careers and allowing them to learn how to swim in the deep water.

Should Yost stick with Hosmer when he’s hitting .203? Should he give him one mental day off, or several? What about sending him back to the minors for a refresher course? If you think you know the answer, it’s because you’ve never had to make these decisions. There’s no one answer, no right answer.

Moore also knew the pitching staff could have some issues. The Royals got a bunch of their position players to the big leagues last summer, but the next wave of talent is their pitching. Until that next wave arrives, the Royals aren’t going to be in a position to contend long term.

He’d hoped Aaron Crow would grab one of the sports in the rotation, but had to send him back to the bullpen after closer Joakim Soria got hurt. And Luke Hochevar, a former No. 1 pick, still is sporting a career ERA of 5.30. Moore attempted to bridge the gap by trading for Jonathan Sanchez, who has zero quality starts in three turns.

This was a bad spring for the Royals. Not only did they lose Soria for the year, but 21-year-old catcher Salvador Perez, arguably the player the franchise could least afford to lose, went down with a knee injury. Those two holes would be a challenge to overcome in the best of times, but for a team still finding its way to the mountaintop, for a team without the money to fill holes in free agency, losing Soria and Perez were punches to the gut.

Still, there’s no way to explain a 3-13 start, including an 0-10 home record. Sometimes stuff happens. The Royals have been tested enough in recent years that it seems unfair they’re being tested some more. This season was supposed to be the beginning of the good times. The 2012 All-Star Game at Kauffman Stadium was going to be a kind of coming-out party for an entire franchise.

The Royals are near the bottom of the American League in both hitting and pitching. Only the Twins and Yankees have had fewer quality starts. Their offense has scored three runs or more in an inning just three times in 16 games. Only the Angels have converted a lower percentage of save chances.

The Royals were baseball’s model franchise when I began covering the Orioles in 1984, and this season began with such optimism that good times were coming again. All that minor league talent means there’s a really good chance that good times still are ahead, but the Royals aren’t there yet.

Hosmer and Moustakas are accustomed to winning, and that winning attitude is something the Royals believed was important to the attitude of the clubhouse. Now they’re going to have to work like crazy to stay positive when there’s so much negativity swirling around them. They’re learning that nothing is guaranteed, that accomplishing one goal just means there’s another on the horizon. The thing the Royals still have is a reasonable blueprint. They have smart people making decisions and a bunch of gifted players in the system. In the end, that ought to be enough.

I was asked by a reader to write something about Frank Robinson. I’m thrilled to do it for a long list of reasons. First, he’s the player I measure every other against. We all have someone like that. Sometimes, it’s a guy we grew up watching. Other times, it’s someone we covered.

My admiration for Frank Robinson comes from another place. I moved to Baltimore in 1984 to cover the Orioles for the Baltimore Sun (and later the Washington Post), and even though Frank hadn’t played a game there in 13 years, his name was still spoken with reverence.

He played for the Orioles for just six seasons (1966-71), but those six seasons transformed an entire franchise. The Orioles won the American League pennant four times in those six seasons and won the World Series twice. No team did more with less, and it was during those six seasons they gained the reputation of being one of baseball’s smartest and most efficient franchises.

Frank was a great player, not just in terms of productivity, but in terms of leadership, setting an example, you name it. He won the Triple Crown and American League MVP in his very first season of 1966, and that obviously is where all the other stuff begins. He hit at least 30 home runs 11 times, had at least 30 doubles seven times and stolen 10 or more bases 10 times.

He was a tough guy, at times brutally tough, like the day he wrapped his huge hands around a sportswriter’s throat and shoved him against a locker. There’s no way Frank ever intended to hurt the guy because he easily could have snapped the guy’s neck into six pieces. He just wanted to get a point across.

Those Kangaroo Courts he ran got a lot of attention because there was a funny photo of Frank wearing a mop on his head. But those sessions were absolutely serious. They were Frank’s way of communicating how to play the game the right way, and of not tolerating any other way, especially not tolerating losing.

Frank was unafraid to confront teammates for their mistakes. He would challenge an opposing pitcher in a moment. Fans want players to care about as much as they care. No player I’ve ever known cared more than Frank. No player was as intolerant of players who didn’t.

My favorite story about Frank concerns a game–I’ve long since forgotten the date or place–when he had a wrist injury so severe he was unable to swing the bat. Only his teammates knew how badly Frank was hurting. Never mind that. Frank bunted for a hit, stole second and scored the winning run on a hit.

During his National League days, he had some hellish battles with Don Drysdale. Don would throw one at Frank’s head. Frank would get up and slap one off the wall.

One day, some of us in the media were asking Frank about the best pitchers ever ever faced.

Juan Marichal? “Killed him,” Frank said.

Bob Gibson? “Killed him,” Frank Said.

Don Drysdale? “Killed him,” Frank said.

Sandy Koufax? “Killed him,” Frank said. “Wait. You said Koufax? No one killed him, and if they said they did, they’re lying.”

Frank was legitimately a five-tool player because he could win games with his bat, arm, legs, glove.

My other favorite Frank story is also blurry in terms of time and place. But a pitcher in the minor leagues knocked Frank down. He grounded out a couple of pitches later, and as he crossed the infield heading back to the dugout, he punched the pitcher in the face.

There were stories about a Giants pitcher who refused to give Frank the ball when, as a manager, he went to take him out of the game. That pitcher never made that mistake a second time.

Frank finished his 21-year career, with 586 home runs. At the time, only Hank Aaron (755), Babe Ruth (714) and Willie Mays (660) had more. At the moment, he’s ninth on the home run list, 20th in RBIs, 15th in runs, 11th in total bases and 10th in intentional walks. He’s also eighth all-time in being hit by pitches. (Frank thought the inside portion of the plate was his. Others apparently disagreed.)

Frank got 89.2 percent of the vote when he appeared on the Hall of Fame ballot for the first time in 1982. That year, Hank Aaron bgot 97.8 percent of the vote. In other words, Aaron wasn’t mentioned on nine ballots, and Frank wasn’t mentioned on 45, which tells you the boys had a real high standard.

I have very few pieces of memorabilia from my nearly four decades of covering this wonderful sport. My favorite is a small framed photograph taken at an Orioles function in spring training in around 1988. It shows a smiling Frank Robinson holding my infant daughter, Katy. Watching him play with her that evening made me smile then, and thinking about it, makes me smile now.

The Rays had lost four in a row and fallen a game under .500 when James Shields walked to the mound at Fenway Park on Monday morning. During the losing streak, they’d allowed 38 runs, their most in a four-game stretch since July 22-26, 2007. They’d been outscored 38-14 and gone six for 46 with runners in scoring position since scoring fourth in the ninth of Justin Verlander last week.

On a day when temperatures soared into the 90s, Shields did what an ace is supposed to do. He took control of the game and refused to let it go. Boston’s Daniel Bard was very, very good, allowing just one run, that on a bases-loaded walk to Longoria in the seventh inning. But that was one run too many on a day when Shields did what an ace is supposed to do.

When he  walked off the mound with a 1-0 lead, I figured he was done. He’d thrown 105 pitches, and in tough conditions, he’d done his job and then some. He returned for the ninth, got one out, and then finally departed after walking Dustin Pedroia. He has pitched at least eight innings in 16 of his last 33 starts. That’s more eight-plus inning appearances than 14 teams have in that stretch.

“We absolutely needed something like that,” said Rays manager Joe Maddon, who got his 500th victory.

(When James Shields got the Opening Day start for the Rays, he broke an MLB-record streak of 764 games in which they started a pitcher under the age of 30. However, they’ve now used a starter 30 or younger in 905 straight games. The last time the Rays threw a starter at least 31 years old was Mark Hendrickson, 32, on June 25, 2006. In addition, the Rays have used a starting pitcher they drafted for 175 consecutive games, a major league record.)

The Rays began Tuesday last in the American League with a 6.04 staff ERA. Some of that is a bad start by the bullpen, but the starters have only the ninth-best ERA at 4.13.

The Rays began this season widely regarded to have one of the two or three best rotations in baseball, a rotation good enough to take some pressure off an offense that likely will not be one of the best.

Shields is coming off a terrific season in which he set club records in innings (249.1), complete games (11) and shutouts (4). He finished third in the American League Cy Young Award balloting, and his 11 complete games were the most by an MLB pitcher since Randy Johnson threw 12 for the 1999 Diamondbacks. They were the most by an AL pitcher since Scott Erickson had 11 for the Orioles in 1998. He was the first AL pitcher with 11 complete games and four shutouts since Roger Clemens in 1992. He had more complete games than 26 major league teams.

Sabean didn’t allow either of them to reach the free-agent market, and his construction of a deep, talented bullpen could be the key to the Giants’ season as Bruce Bochy searches for ninth-inning options. He also has right-handers Santiago Casilla and Sergio Romo, both of whom have terrific stuff. It’s not the way the Giants drew it up, but they’ve got some optimism that Wilson’s injury won’t deep-six their season.

“It’s always nice to have one closer, but a committee works, too,” Bochy said. “We’ve done that. We’ll probably have to make slight adjustments as we go–who’s available and who’s not, those types of things. But we’ve got experienced guys who are comfortable pitching late in the game. This is certainly a tough loss for us, but the guys that we have could soften this loss – like the great job they did filling in last year when Willie was gone.”

The Giants have jumped from 15th to fourth in runs, with Cabrera (.364), Pablo Sandoval (.333), Nate Schierholtz (.353) and especially Buster Posey (.300) all off to nice starts. Aubrey Huff’s 2011 slump has carried into 2012, and Brandon Belt hasn’t taken advantage so far.

But the Giants are still 4-4 despite the National League’s second-worst ERA. If you believe in Tim Lincecum and Madison Bumgarner, this is a part of the Giants that’ll right itself. The Dodgers appear to have changed the dynamics of the NL West race a bit, but there are miles and mores to go. Let’s all enjoy the ride.