How safe is Sabes?

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Sabean scarcely made a bad trade for 10 years, a remarkable run that's responsible for him having a .550 winning percentage while general managing the Giants. However, in a blatant case of what have you done for me lately, Giants owner Peter Magowan -- who happens to be one of baseball's better owners -- declined to offer any public assurances regarding Sabean's situation before this season.

The heat does indeed appear to be on Sabean, as the Giants have fallen into last place at 33-42, the only team in the tight NL West that isn't in the race. Of his schizophrenic team, Sabean notes that it's both "good enough to win eight in a row but bad enough to lose eight in a row."

The Giants' starting rotation has a chance to be as good as anyone's, yet a realistic evaluation of the team isn't a positive one. The problem is that, beyond Bonds, the offense is painfully weak. "It's going to be an uphill battle," Sabean concedes.

It's still hard to believe that Magowan would consider a change at the top of his baseball department after so many great years and only a few bad ones. Yet I ran into a partner of Magowan's recently, and he expressed great dismay at the Giants' recent fortunes, both on the field and at the gate. It seems they have extremely high standards in San Francisco. If they do decide to change GMs, the smart money says Sabean won't take long to find another job.

Is a trade in the Cards for Buehrle?

Several contenders have been connected to trade talks involving Mark Buehrle, but one team that hasn't been mentioned much and still may make the most sense is the Cardinals, who are seen as the favorites to sign him longterm, anyway. It appears that Buehrle won't insist on a Barry Zito-like seven-year contract, and the bet here is that St. Louis saved its money last winter for a five-year deal for the lefty.

Around the Majors

• Anyone else notice that there isn't a hint of controversy when an All-Star and world champion Chauncey Billups opts out of his contract, yet when J.D. Drew did the very same thing last winter, it was like the world was ending?

• Give Milton Bradley this: There's been no report of an incident since he was designated for assignment.

• This just in: The Braves scored last night (and harder to believe, they actually won, 4-1, over the Nats).

• Announcers nightmare: The Nats' Jason Simontacchi pitching to the Braves' Jarrod Saltalamacchia.

• How good a year is Alex Rodriguez having? His 28 home runs are more than David Ortiz (13) and Manny Ramirez (12) combined, and the next four Yankees leaders in home runs (Jorge Posada, Hideki Matsui, Jason Giambi and Derek Jeter) have combined to hit 29.

• Paul Lo Duca certainly deserved the two-game suspension he received for acting like a deranged lunatic after receiving the bad news of a borderline call. Sometimes I think frivolous appeals should result in an extra game being added.

• For those who complain that interleague play is just about money, it's about the fans, too. Interleague games averaged 34,905 fans this year, which is 15 percent higher than in-league games (30,257). Interleague games have averaged 13 percent more fans since they started playing them in 1997.

• Happy 33rd birthday to Jeter. Longtime reader Al from Long Island, a Yankee supporter, suggests that Jeter "accept no fishing rods or hunting rifles,'' and predicts Jeter will be busy in October. I still think Jeter will have free time in October. But I doubt he's all that big on fishing and hunting, anyway.

• Bonds has fallen into fourth place among NL outfielders in All-Star fan balloting , but he's still likely to win one of three reserve outfield spots that are picked by players. If not, NL manager Tony La Russa and the league will have an interesting choice. Bonds' 1.076 OPS (on base plus slugging) is the best in the NL, so the view from here is that he clearly deserves to be on the team.