A vote for the other Orange and Black starters

Nothing shows confidence in the 4 starting pitchers -- Tim Lincecum, Matt Cain, Madison Bumgarner and Ryan Vogelsong -- than trading away Jonathan Sanchez. Those four may not be quite as good as the Phillies four but they're better than anyone else's.

The Giants have a pretty good record of developing pitchers and it seems that they've finally reached the conclusion that Sanchez is never going to figure it out. He's the guy who seemed to have more headcase issues than the rest of the starters put together. Lefty Malo is OK with the trade, which is a good sign.

Sanchez drove us all a little nuts, as he was so damn inconsistent. John Perricone at Only Baseball Matters dislikes the trade -- contending that Sanchez is one of the better pitchers out there while Melky is fairly ordinary.

I'm a bit more hopeful, in that Melky's only 26 and just put up a pretty good year.

Eric, one of the commenters at OBM had a pretty good take -- Maybe I’m wrong and Sanchez turns out to be great, but if he isn’t showing some modicum of consistency by 28, time is not on his side to suddenly start throwing strikes more often.