I know... Bengie Molina is not the cleanup hitter for a playoff team. But let's not get caught up on that, the real question is can this team score runs.

Watching yesterday's lineup:

Rowand
Winn
Pablo
Molina
Schierholtz
Renteria
Ishikawa
Uribe

Schierholtz is the linchpin of that lineup. As a starter he is hitting 321/363/512. Nice numbers from the 5 hole. If the power continues to develop, he can be the extra bat the team needs.

Speaking of power, Uribe has not shown a lot, but he is capable. Playing 2nd and hitting in the 8 spot, he is going to get a lot of fastballs and could end up with double digit homers with regular playing time.

Ishikawa is slugging 600 in June. He won't keep that up, but if he can settle in around 500 he should provide enough offense from 1st base against righties.

The reason I am making a case for this lineup at all is that it seems to strike a nice balance between offense and defense. The defense might not be great at any one position, but very solid all the way around. As the Giants have claimed for the last few years, this is a pitching and defense team, but you gotta have some offense and with this lineup it seems like just enough.

My other reason for advocating no trades, is the farm system is stocked, and I feel like most trade partners are going to end up getting more than they give up, even if the Giants give up guys they consider expendable.

The biggest problem with this lineup (well, if you overlook Molina hitting 4, Renteria hitting 250 and Rowand still hitting leadoff) is versus lefties.

They can help themselves by either moving Sandoval to first, Uribe to third and playing Downs (or even Fransden, who has hit lefties in AAA all season) at 2nd. And starting Torres in place of Winn. Another option is bringing up Guzman and platooning him with Ishikawa, though you lose a lot of D.

Bowker is totally the odd man out because of the teams weaknesses against lefties. He would only be valuable if he could outperform either Schierholtz or Ishikawa offensively and defensively against righties (don't think Bochy would ever bench Winn in favor of Bowker).

All that said, if the team is determined to get a bat... I think the only true upgrade that could be made without mortgaging the future would be Jermaine Dye. Sox might go for a deal like Lewis and Sanchez/Pucetas for Dye and the Giants pay all of his remaining salary.

He'd play left field, start every game against lefties and about half vs. righties with an outfield rotation of Winn, Rowand, Schierholtz and Dye.

His defense wouldn't hurt too much in left and he'd move Bengie out of the cleanup spot most games.

Funny that I ended a post about not trading with a trade. Maybe it is just that they scored 10 runs last night, but the need for a bat does not seem that dire, especially if they can figure out an internal way to improve their offense against lefties.

btw, I mentioned the overall team's ability vs. lefties a couple times. I should note that they are only a little bit worse vs. lefties, but with a righty heavy lineup you would expect a little bit better performance. Winn and Aurilia (who really only plays against lefties) has drug them down.