Tim Lincecum - SF Giants.com

I’m going to keep this short and sweet this week.

• The Giants are only 5.5 games behind the Dodgers.
• Freddy Sanchez has been the man and has been a great pick up.
• Tim Lincecum won his NL leading 13th game.

Oh yes – the Giants are improving and are definitely going for it.

Honestly, I still don’t know if they can win the World Series, but if the Dodgers slip in the next month, they may make it interesting. The Dodgers need to take at least 2 of three this week in SF to push the Giants down a little.

I’m going to do a post on each game this week – so stay tuned.

Freddy Sanchez - Jed Jacobsohn - Getty Images

As you saw in my last Spy Game, the big question last week was whether the Giants would make a splash at the trade deadline.

Let’s just say they put away all questions very quickly.  First, they picked up Ryan Garko from the Indians and then Freddy Sanchez from the Pirates.  As one Giants fan I know said, he really liked this trade because they weren’t just renting players for this year, they have both of them through 2010.

Ryan Garko adds pop to first base, and Freddy Sanchez definitely upgrades offense and defense.  It was an obvious change from going all young talent, to bringing in some veterans to go for the playoffs.

Honestly, I think these were great pickups for the Giants.  I think the Giants did more to help their team this deadline than the Dodgers did.  The Giants quietly added more offense to their already good pitching.  The Dodgers added relief pitching, but they didn’t get the starting pitching they will probably need.

The only thing that Giants fans didn’t like about the Sanchez trade was the giving up of Tim Alderson from the minors.  This guy was a stud pitcher in the minors and a lot of people wondered if he would be another star in the majors.  Obviously the Giants management felt differently, but not every Giants fan agreed with the trade.  The mark of Brian Sabean, the Giants GM, is to draft pitching and then trade it.  He did it here and I think it was a good move.  Brian is trying to save his job after this year and I think he has already done it.

The Dodgers play the Giants next week in San Francisco.  The Giants already look very different than last time, so it should be a good battle.