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Carney Lansford wasn't the problem with the Giants' hitting. It was a grim kaleidoscope of bad habits, poor judgment and, in some cases, just plain incompetence. I doubt if any hitting coach could have turned that lineup into a run-producing machine.

There was a line in Henry Schulman's story, however, that leaped off the page: That Lansford is a Walt Hriniak disciple, and that Bruce Bochy isn't fond of that method. Lansford is a local guy, a class act and someone who would add quality to any organization, but as good as Lansford was -- twice hitting .336, the first of which won him a batting title in Boston -- he wasn't the type of hitter the Giants' players need to be.

At its most extreme, the Hriniak method is a complete joke. His disciples don't just "hit down" on the ball, they follow through with their head way down near the ground -- as if to inspect the area around home plate for ants -- and the extended bat pointing to the sky. It's flat-out the most absurd follow-through in the history of batsmanship. It looked pretty good in the hands of Dwight Evans, one of Hriniak's early proteges with the Red Sox in the 1980s, but that's the point: It takes a smart, disciplined, veteran hitter to perfect that style. It definitely works, but it asks too much of someone struggling to find a hitting identity. It's effective only as pure refinement for a .300 hitter trying to perfect the art of contact.

Ted Williams used to hang around the Red Sox' camp, and he simply laughed at Hriniak. Couldn't believe he had a job anywhere in baseball. Ted was right, too -- as he always was about hitting. The basic approach is a slight uppercut, without all the absurd gyrations. It's interesting to note that the best work done by Hensley (Bam-Bam) Meulens, the Giants' Triple-A hitting coach, was the marked improvement of Eugenio Velez. If you recall Velez' best instances of driving the ball, it was done with a distinct uppercut, from both sides of the plate.

Perhaps it's the right call for the Giants to hire Meulens, as rumored. Just as long as you drop the Bam-Bam. This isn't going to become a juggernaut offense overnight, and there's nothing worse than a guy named Bam-Bam presiding over a bunch of third strikes on the outside corner.

I'm surprised the Giants have essentially dismissed Rudy Jaramillo as a candidate. Maybe they figure he's bound for the Cubs, as suggested by rumors in the Chicago papers. He has worked in the past with Lou Piniella and would have a number of intriguing projects there, including Alfonso Soriano, Kosuke Fukudome and Geovany Soto. Life wouldn't get much better than orchestrating a batting revival that leads the Cubs into the World Series.

Somebody's going to sweep this guy up, though, and they won't regret it. Over the years (the last 15 with Texas), Jaramillo has noticeably improved the batting technique of Sammy Sosa, Juan Gonzalez, Ivan Rodriguez, Craig Biggio, Jeff Bagwell, Mark Teixeira, Ian Kinsler and Michael Young. "Rudy is unbelievably good," former Ranger Alex Rodriguez told the Chicago Tribune. "He understands hitting, how to work with all kinds of hitters, and he busts his butt to get the best from hitters. He helped me get better. I've seen him do it with other guys, too."