What Austin Slater's midweek revenge says of Giants

Remember the rage? The apoplectic, apocalyptic slurry of fury in response the Giants' demotion of Luis Matos in favor of Austin Slater?

Those complaints are much quieter, at least for the moment. Slater has now won the Giants two games and a series against the Houston Astros at the plate. The Astros are down this year, to be sure. But they're still the confirmed cheater, very talented Astros.

Slater walked it off in extras for the Giants Monday night and went 3-for-5 with 2 RBIs Wednesday afternoon. Matos was 5-for-40 before being sent down. He's hitting well for Sacramento, batting .300 since being sent down and coming off a 3-for-4, 6-RBI game with a homer. He's still just 22, and will be back.

But this is the reality of Slater being back and Matos being down. Slater is a known commodity. He's solid. A very good hitter of lefties. He's going to hover around a .750 OPS, .400 slugging percentage and get on base about a third of the time, despite his woeful start to the season. Bob Melvin has pointed to his injuries and lack of at-bats as the source of that struggle.

Matos is, to... reference Family Guy, the mystery box.

You can take the boat (though it's more like a used Toyota). Or you can take the mystery box.

And the sentiment from quite a few Giants fans is, or was, to take the mystery box.

This is the reaction, and I think the sympathetic one, when you miss out on top-tier free agents every season after being told again and again that, "This one might actually, happen!" Instead, you're left wandering the desert of mediocrity, in search of a feeling: in search of someone(s) to make you think the Giants are capable of something worth spending six months thinking about.

Does Slater inject that feeling? No.

But for a moment, the rush of Heliot Ramos, Luis Matos, Marco Luciano, a little bit of Casey Schmitt and Brett Wisely, the inconsistent-but-promising-and-really-really-needs-a-second-pitch Kyle Harrison and some young bullpen arms gave fans a hope that the future might be now. It was the possibility that the long lusted for homegrown talent was arriving. And to an extent, that talent is arriving, or is at least close.

But much of that talent clearly isn't superseding the Giants' veteran ranks.

So where that leaves you is with players like Slater, who have proven themselves solid. But it's June. And the Slaters of the world do not inspire the imagination. They do not a imbue fans with a sense of wonder, of boundless possibility at a time in the season when, as a fan, you need that.

Slater is not an up-and-coming prospect. He is not an elite player. He is solid. So are Nick Ahmed and Wilmer Flores and Michael Conforto and Mike Yastrzemski.

And if Slater and a group of solid players are enough to keep the Giants in the playoff picture, then, in a few months, fans won't be calling for Matos and Luciano and other unproven players to take center stage. But to get the buy-in the Giants are asking for with the loss of Jung Hoo Lee done and without prospects requires stacking series.

San Francisco now has two in a row against two tough teams from Texas. If they want to keep fans interested for the next month, until the hope of their elite, expensive starting arms can return, they need their solid players to do more things like this. It's that, and/or pretend you're actually a big boy club and make a trade for someone who can.