Edit: Just as I was posting this, it was reported that Hector Sanchez is headed for the DL and Eli Whiteside is being recalled to take his place. Looks like we may get another extended look at Belt after all. That is of course as long as Bochy doesn’t decide Whiteside is a better option.

Prior to last night’s 9-0 drubbing of the Braves in Atlanta, CSN Bay Area’s Andrew Baggarly tweeted this:

I asked Bochy if Sanchez's bat is preferable to Belt's. "Yeah, I think that's fair to say. Wouldn't you?" —

Andrew Baggarly (@CSNBaggs) July 17, 2012

I’ll admit, when I first read that I thought Baggs was having a little fun with Giants Nation and making his own little back-handed jab at Bochy for his handling of Belt and Sanchez. I quickly realized however that this was indeed a direct quote and that the joke, as it turns out, was on us.

The problem with this particular joke is that it’s not even a little bit funny. In fact, it’s pretty damn sad and I’m not the only one who thinks so.

No, Bruce. #fail RT @CSNBaggs I asked Bochy if Sanchez's bat is preferable to Belt's. "Yeah, I think that's fair to say. Wouldn't you?" —

(@keithlaw) July 17, 2012

That’s ESPN’s Keith Law spelling out in one simple hashtag just how non-funny this whole thing is. But let’s back up for a moment and try to figure out exactly why Bochy would have this seemingly asinine opinion.

The month of July has not been kind to Belt as he’s stumbled to a slash line of .179/.273/.214 after tearing it up in June. This alone is enough for the anti-Belt people out there to call him a failure and side with Bochy on this matter. But as Chris at Bay City Ball points out, we’re talking about a crazy small sample size as Belt has had exactly 33 plate appearances this month. If this is why Bochy thinks Sanchez is a better hitter than Belt, he is amazingly short-sided.

We’re now halfway through the fourth month of the season, and the only month in which Belt received more than five starts in a row (June) he tore the cover off the ball, slugging .563. He also dropped his K% significantly (18.8%) while maintaining his already high BB%, which tells me that with extended and consistent at-bats his control of the strike zone improved. In other words, he played more often, got more comfortable and performed better. This is not rocket science people.

I suppose Bochy could be looking at Belt’s team-high (among position players) K% of 24.7% which is a major black mark on his overall resume this season. The problem with this argument against him and for Sanchez is that Sanchez’s K% sits an an almost equally high 21.8% so far this season. You might be saying, ok, so they both strike out too much, what’s your point?

The point is that while it is true they are both doing too much whiffing, Belt’s team-leading 14.6% BB% means he is a productive offensive player even when he’s not hitting. Meanwhile Sanchez has a 1.5% BB% which is lower than every single position player AND four of the five starting pitchers for the Giants. What that means is that when Sanchez stops hitting for a while, and he will because everyone does at some point, he could be a bigger black hole in the Giants lineup than Barry Zito, Matt Cain, Tim Lincecum and Ryan Vogelsong.

OK, so Belt’s July performance is a small sample size and he’s a more productive player when he’s not hitting than Sanchez. But what about Belt’s lackluster performance with runners in scoring position? Bochy certainly could point to this as a reason why he prefers Sanchez over Belt, as Belt is only hitting .220 with RISP and Sanchez is hitting .333. However a closer look at the numbers reveals that while Belt is not doing a very good job driving in those runs, he is hitting in some bad luck, posting a .279 BABIP. Sanchez’s BABIP in those situations is as you might expect, a completely unsustainable .389, which means like everything else with Sanchez, as soon as the bat cools off he is worth next to nothing offensively.

Belt meanwhile has produced a .367 OBP with RISP which lends credence to my previous opinion that at this point in his career he should probably be hitting either first or second in the lineup, giving the likes of Melky Cabrera, Buster Posey and Pablo Sandoval even more chances to drive in runs. But alas, here we are with a manager who apparently can’t see any of this and instead chooses to rely on tiny samples and mostly-worthless stats like RBIs and BA to make lineup decisions.

The overarching problem here with Bochy’s logic is that he has apparently lost sight of the big picture. Baseball seasons are not decided over days or weeks of streaky performance, they are decided by sustained and consistent play over the course of months. So while I understand wanting to get a “hot” hitter like Sanchez into the lineup more often, doing it at the expense of consistent ABs for one of the five best offensive players on the team (which Belt is) is not a recipe for long-term success.

The bottom line is this, Brandon Belt is a better offensive (and defensive) player than Hector Sanchez. He gives the Giants a better chance to win the more often he plays and it has been shown already this season that the more he plays, the better he is. It’s time for Bochy and the rest of the organization to take the blinders off and free Belt once and for all.