Huff and Puff the Giants to a Pennant Chase

Aubrey Huff, a 2008 silver slugger, ended his 2009 season hitting .241 after being traded from the faltering Baltimore Orioles to the Detroit Tigers.  He was abysmal with the Tigers where he hit below the Mendoza line (.189 ). Seeming to be all but done with baseball, the Giants signed Huff in January to a 1 year deal with hopes that they would get the 2008 Huff and not the 2009 Puff.  Now the 2008 silver slugger winner is appearing to have recoveredfrom whatever plagued him in his terrible 2009.  Currently, Huff is hitting .304, which is tops on the Giants (qualified players for this stat are averaging 3.1 AB per team game) and is ranked 6th in the NL in OBP (.394), 9 th in the NL in OPS (.931), and 10 th in the NL in SLG (.538). 

Huff is on pace to be a .300/90 player.  If Freddy Sanchez can stay healthy and continue to hit above .300 and Andres Torres can limit his strike outs (17/23, BB to K ratio) and still continue to hit .285, Huff just may hit the 100 RBI mark.  The Giants have a good chance of making a run for the pennant in the NL West, but that will also depend on whether they can continue to hit .260 as a team.  If they continue their fall at the plate that we have seen over the past week where they have only hit .214 as a team (Huff has hit .333 over the same span), their pennant hopes could quickly diminish.  The Giants are relying on the resurgence of Pablo Sandoval and the continued production of recent contract purchase Pat Burrell who is hitting .319 for the Giants since being picked up.



(mlbcenter.com)

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