Todd Wellemeyer DFA'd. Emmanuel Burriss up from Fresno.

Todd Wellemeyer was designated for assignment (one day after my post about how he is terrible) in order to make room for Emmanuel Burriss. One day after my post disparaging Bautista, he's DFA'd. One day after my post disparaging Wellemeyer, he's DFA'd. Magical stuff going on here....

MLB Trade Rumors: The 31-year-old has a season ERA of 5.68 with 6.3 K/9 and 5.4 BB/9 in 58.2 innings. Wellemeyer was a fixture in the Giants rotation before a quadriceps injury sidelined him for much of June and all of July. He makes $1MM this year and hits free agency after the season. Last night's performance and his quad injury will likely limit interest in Wellemeyer.

About Burriss: He's batting .295 this year with 6 stolen bases in 183 AB. He was also caught stealing 5 times though. He projects to be a .258 hitter without much power but his speed will be very useful, as the Giants have only one other player who can steal bases (Torres). Hopefully, Bochy will no longer pinch hit using Matt Cain, now that he has another player on the bench.

Giants Lose Opener in Atlanta

An Eric Hinske home run was the difference in a Giants' 3-2 loss, as the Braves improved to a phenomenal home record of 37-14. After giving up two runs in the first two innings, Jair Jurrjens shut them down for the next 4 innings. The Giants failed to captialize, as evidenced by the 17 left on base. Their offense was not quiet, though. Sanchez, Sandoval, Torres, Uribe, and Huff all had doubles, and the Giants did not go in the ninth without a fight. Aaron Rowand battled against Wagner, then flied out to right near the warning track. Then, Renteria, who had homered against Wagner earlier this season to tie up a game, hit a fast line drive back at Wagner who quickly snagged it. Torres promptly came up and hit the first pitch for a grounder through the hole between short and third. With Torres at first, Freddy Sanchez battled against Wagner, crushing an inside pitch just a few feet foul of a home run, but eventually struck out. Buster Posey's bat was silent in the game, 0 for 4 with a strikeout. Meanwhile, Pablo Sandoval appears to be quietly making a return to the .330-25 Home Run guy that he was last year. He went 2 for 4 with a single and a double.

Lincecum's outing was not bad, but it wasn't particularly great. It was just barely above the bare minimum for a quality start, 3 ER in 6.1 IP. With the exception of the two home runs, he pitched quite well, but gave up 3 walks, one of which scored on a 2-run home run.

MLB.com: "Lincecum had gone 67 starts without allowing multiple homers, a lapse he last endured on July 20, 2008, when Milwaukee's Ryan Braun and Corey Hart victimized him."

However, Lincecum did manage to retake the National League lead in strikeouts.

Tomorrow, the Giants will square off against Tommy Hanson. They are hitting a collective .188 against him with 9 strikeouts in 16 at-bats.

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In other news...

Media is making this SF-ATL series out to be a competition: Posey vs. Heyward:

ESPN: "Heyward and Posey were on opposite teams during a 2005 state championship game in Georgia and could battle again for NL rookie of the year."

Lastly, a day after my post disparaging Bautista, he has been designated for assignment to make room for Todd Wellemeyer.

Official Giants' Twitter Page: "Today's SF transaction: Denny Bautista has been designated for assignment. Todd Wellemeyer has been reinstated from disabled list #SFGiants"

To be honest, as bad as Wellemeyer is, I can't see any harm in this. It's clearly only a temporary move, as Runzler and Affeldt will be back soon. If a Giants starter happens to have a bad start, Wellemeyer can be used to eat up innings. Within 2 weeks, hopefully, we'll cut all ties with him.

Giants Suffer 6-1 Loss to Rockies

Well, the Giants tried, but were only able to put one run up on the board against Ubaldo, the run coming off of back-to-back doubles by Huff and Posey. The Giants only managed three other hits in the game, as Ubaldo pitched 7 innings of 1-run ball with 9 strikeouts. There is one important lesson to be learned from this game though:

Denny Bautista should not be with the Giants right now.

The acquisitions of 2 relievers before the trade deadline eliminates the Giants' need for Bautista. And he has two eminent weaknesses: his high BB rate, and his high flyball rate.

In just 32 innings of work this year, Bautista has walked 26 for an incredibly high 7.31 BB/9. He is an inconsistent pitcher who can come in and strike out the side, but more often, will come in and walk the first two batters he faces. He walked 1 in 1.2 innings today.

In Bautista's 1.2 innings pitched, he also gave up 3 hits, 2 of which were home runs. This should come as no surprise given Bautista's high flyball rate: 57% of contact made against him comes via the flyball. For comparison's sake, Trevor Hoffman, who has given up 8 home runs in 34 innings of work, has a similar flyball rate, 56%.

If Bautista is just being used to eat up innings, then he should be replaced with Casilla, who is slightly better.

The Giants have their righty specialist, Ramon Ramirez, and lefty specialist, Javier Lopez. Romo is a good setup man for now, Brian Wilson a great closer. Chris Ray can come in anywhere else, and occasionally Mota and Casilla can be trusted to get the job done. There's really no need for Denny Bautista, though, especially once Affeldt and Runzler return, and if Dontrelle Willis is called up to the majors. The Giants have no use for a right-handed reliever who lacks control.
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The Giants will now start a 4-game series at Atlanta, a team that has a 36-14 record at home. This will prove challenging, as they face Jurrjens, Hanson, Hudson, and Lowe. It should be an interesting series as the Giants could potentially face the Braves in the playoffs. They'll send Lincecum, Zito, Cain and Sanchez to the mound.

Probable Pitchers