We're back; but who the heck are these guys?

Jeez, we take a week off (Twitter excluded, of course) and we come back to a team we don’t even recognize. Of course, the team that had played since the All-Star Break was totally unlike the pre-break team so what’s the difference? Didn’t recognize half those guys anyway, and we were actually at the ball park to witness the confusion.

So let’s get this straight:

• Hunter Pence and Joe Panik are back.

• Matt Duffy is finally ready to go, but he’ll be wearing someone else’s uniform.

• Josh Osich’s arm fell off, but some guy from Milwaukee is gonna take his place.

• Tampa Bay parted with an enigmatic hurler, whom the Giants will use to replace an enigmatic hurler.

• A 29-year-old shortstop having a career year is the Giants' new third baseman.

• Oh, and a farm system that was supposed to be thin just got a whole lot thinner. 

I desperately need another stop at The Buena Vista. That guy who coined the phrase “You can’t tell the players without a scorecard” did so right after the trading deadline, didn’t he?

The Giants are trying to shoot the moon. We get it. They’ve won three titles since 2010 and the window doesn’t stay open forever. While you can think they overpaid, and we certainly won’t argue if you do, we’d contend that when you have a chance to win you do whatever it takes. With that said, we do feel like they went hunting with a half-full quiver.

In reading the net, the biggest shock seems to be that the Duff-man gets to spend the rest of his summer fighting the bad lighting and stale smell of Ben Gay at Tropicana Field. We like the guy; he was a fan favorite and (with Skeeter, the ottoman-shaped cat) was a social media darling as well. He was a feel-good story – a guy from no-where who was young and cheap and good to the fans.

Will "Not That One" Smith.

He was expendable. His 2016 hadn’t come close to the numbers he put up last year when he got robbed (we said it) of Rookie of the Year honors.  That gave enough pause to wonder if he was really that good or had a great season. The Giants could get burned on this one, but the 2016 run was done largely without him. As soon as the Eduardo Nunez deal was announced, despite management statements to the contrary, you knew either he or Christian Arroyo was done.

Bringing in Nunez was the surprise. He’s had a break-out season with the Twins but comes with the same issue as Duffy, which is no one knows if this is the real Nunez. The difference is that Nunez is hot now, which is when the Giants are trying to win. They gave up a top pitching prospect to get him so the price was steep, but again, this is about winning in 2016. Nunez is also under team control through next year, by which time Arroyo is expected to be ready. Thinking ahead while trying to improve now? We like that.

The Giants did have a wealth of infielders. Along with Duff-man, Grant Green and Ruben Tejada got some parting gifts and a nice fruit basket while San Francisco still has to figure out where Conor Gillaspie, Ehire Adrianza, Ramiro Pena and Kelby Tomlinson fit, or whether they fit at all.

Eduardo Nunez kicked off the slate of acquisitions.

Giving up minor league arms Mejia and Bickford (last year’s top pick) in the two deals was a bit harder to swallow. Pitching hasn’t exactly been a strong suit this year;  Giants’ hurlers have been responsible for more rocket launches than NASA to be honest. You’d have thought that given that price they’d have found a closer somewhere, and that’s our criticism.

The next Mariano Rivera wasn’t going to be on the list, the Giants are notorious for kicking the tires on big names only to bail, but we’d have been happy with the next not-Santiago Casilla. Captain Calamity enters every game carrying an Acme dynamite kit and it does occasionally go off. With LA now just two games back, wouldn’t you love to change the outcome of his five (and counting) blown saves?

Will Smith will serve a set-up role and looks to, finally, be the left arm who takes over the far-too-overlooked role Jeremy Affeldt filled (and surely the Giants will stock up on sunscreen). Again, there’s going to be some wailing and gnashing of teeth as the Giants figure out how to fill out the 25-man when Cory Gearrin and Josh Osich (theoretically) are healthy so there are more bus tickets awaiting, but Smith fills a need this year and will probably be needed to shoulder even more responsibility moving forward (yep, another guy the Giants can keep) as it seems Javier Lopez’s run is about over.

Matt Moore, the real prize.

By the way, Will Smith comes in and Lucious Fox (a pricey international signing) goes out? We’ll dispense with the “getting jiggy” and “Dark Knight” jokes, but I didn’t know whether to look these guys up on MLB.com or IMDB.

And finally we get to newly-acquired starting pitcher Matt Moore. We liked this one a lot. The Giants clearly have issues with the rotation. Jake Peavy had a nice run but isn’t getting the job done, and he’s gone at year’s end. Matt Cain can’t stay healthy and can’t decide if he’s awesome or awful when he does pitch. Samardzija is inked for another four seasons and he’s alternately a great addition or the next Barry Zito, and we doubt he was signed for his pinch-running skills.

The list of high-end pitchers likely to be on the market in the next couple of years is both thin and pricey. Moore is signed through 2019 at $26m -- total. What? Yeah, the Giants can hold him for 3 1/2 years for what Zach Greinke spends on a Sunday morning at Starbucks. To put in better perspective, that would pay Samardzija for less than a season and a half. 

Moore is 15-months removed from Tommy John surgery and is starting to look like the potential ace he was touted to be. It’s a low-risk gamble, and just imagine if he’s just a solid number three (pushing Samardzija to four). Isn’t that worth $8+million a year? In today’s market, that’s a bargain.

Before we get totally lost in the business side, and this was good business, keep this in mind. The rotation was decidedly right-handed. The Giants desperately needed a lefty to compliment Bumgarner, and this one brings gas. 

Prospects are what they are. A lot can happen in the way to the Major Leagues and there are a lot more Todd Van Poppels than Madison Bumgarners. Anyone heard from Zach Walker or Kurt Ainsworth lately? Regardless, the guys givien up (Fox, Bickford, Mejia, etc.,) weren’t in a position to help the Giants win in 2016 – except they just did.

Thanks, Duff-man.