If there's one silver lining to the cloud of recent Giant injuries, it has to be the playing time for Brandon Belt. Before the injuries to Carlos Beltran, Nate Shierholtz, Pat Burrell, and Andres Torres, it probably would have taken a Constitutional Amendment to get Belt regular starts. But as it is, Belt has been allowed to fill a hole in the outfield, and what do you know? To the surprise of few people outside of the Giants brass, he's hitting. I do believe his reputation of having a good eye may have gone to his head a bit, as he seems to be watching more called strike 3's than one would like, but his at bats are generally fun to watch. In a line-up filled with at bats that are downright unbearable, this is a welcome addition, to say the least.
If Belt continues to hit, but the Giants still fall short in the NL West, one of the first things I will point to is the amount of time it took for Belt to get starts on the regular. I'm of the opinion that he should have gotten about a full month in July/August as sort of a "try-out" to see if he could snatch the first base job from Aubrey Huff outright. Instead, Bochy suffocated him on the bench and in the minors while continuing to watch Huff roll over ground balls to second base. And let's not forget the defensive upgrade Belt would be providing at first.
Now, with Beltran back, and Huff approaching a .250 batting average, Belt will have to continue to keep a gun at Bochy's head in the form of 3-run jimmy-jacks and balls smoked into Triples Alley. I believe he will. I just pray it's not too late.
-Mike the Menace
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