The San Francisco Giants have placed righty starter Kevin Correia on the 15-day disabled list with a left oblique strain. That is a shame for Correia as he was pitching pretty well this season. He has started 5 games for the Giants this season and he is 1-3 with a 4.50 ERA and a 1.38 WHIP. Correia will be replaced in the rotation by lefty Patrick Misch. Misch has pitched in 1 game this season for the Giants out of the bullpen. In that game Misch worked 6 innings and allowed 2 earned runs (3.00 ERA, 1.00 WHIP). Misch is not likely to make anyone forget about Correia.

The Giants have decided to remove Barry Zito from the starting rotation after his awful start to the 2008 season. He will try to fix things working out of the bullpen for a while. Zito has pitched in 6 games (all starts) so far this season and he is 0-6 with a 7.53 ERA and a 1.95 WHIP. Zito has been pretty bad since inking a long and expensive contract before the 2007 season. Zito has pitched in 40 games (39 starts) so far in his career with the Giants and he is 11-19 with a 4.91 ERA and a 1.42 WHIP. Signing Barry Zito is beginning to look like a huge mistake for the Giants.

The Giants have signed 27-year old righty reliever Josh Sharpless to a minor league contract. Sharpless pitched in 6 games for the Pirates last season and he was 0-1 with a 12.46 ERA and a 1.85 WHIP. He has now pitched in 20 games in his major league career and he is 0-1 with a 4.41 ERA and a 1.59 WHIP. Sharpless might get a chance at some point this season for the Giants who need all of the help they can get.

The Giants have placed starting left fielder Dave Roberts on the 15-day disabled list with an injured left knee that could require surgery. Roberts was off to a slow start this season as he was 2 for 17 (.118 avg, .285 OPS) with 1 RBI in his first six games. The Giants have recalled 25-year old lefty swinging outfielder Clay Timpner to replace Roberts on the roster. Timpner has played in 4 games in AAA ball so far this season and he was 5 for 20 (.250 avg, .550 OPS) with 2 runs scored and 6 RBIs. Look for Rajai Davis and Fred Lewis to pick up most of Roberts playing time in LF as Timpner is not one of the more highly thought of prospects in the Giants’ minor league system.

When Kevin Frandsen went down to injury the Giants decided to claim Jose Castillo off waivers and he is now the starting 3B for the Giants. Castillo has played in 5 games for the Giants this season and he is 5 for 19 (.263 avg, .684 OPS) with 1 run scored and 1 RBI. Prior to this season the 27-year old righty swinging Castillo had played in 465 games in his major league career and he was 382 for 1,492 (.256 avg, .677 OPS) with 165 runs scored, 33 homers and 181 RBIs. Castillo should play great defense at 3B as he was primarily a 2B in his career with the Pirates. But, don’t expect the power that most teams expect from their starting 3B as Castillo is not that type of hitter.