Brandon Belt Taking First Train to Fresno?

Brandon Belt's had a rough start to the 2011 season, batting just .196/.305/.275 with one home run, four RBI and 12 strikeouts in his first 16 games.

It's such a rough start, in fact, that it's believed Belt -- a surprise Opening-Day roster addition -- will be sent back to Triple-A Fresno on Tuesday when Cody Ross is recalled to the big-league roster.

Spurring that belief is manager Bruce Bochy's statement that it "would not be the worst thing" to see Belt get some more seasoning in the minors. Oh, and the fact that this has been the elephant in the room for a week or so now and Belt's statistics haven't improved that much.

"This kid's ahead of schedule," Bochy said, per Andrew Baggarly of the San Jose Mercury-News. "He's been in our system one year and being honest, without a lot of success at [Triple-A]. "... We haven't made that decision. Good chance we have to make it [Tuesday]."

These are particularly strong words coming from Bochy, who was the biggest defender of Belt's preseason promotion.

So will the kid get sent back for a bit? It seems pretty likely -- the only other candidate for demotion could be Darren Ford, but he'll probably be sent packing when Andres Torres comes off the disabled list in about a week.

And no, fans, sending a first baseman down to the minors does not mean that Travis Ishikawa will end up on the big-league team again.

And more importantly, does he deserve to be sent back?

Well, that's the thing. It's a "demotion," sure, but this doesn't mean that Belt isn't a talented ballplayer and it doesn't mean that he's not going to contribute later this year.

He also got a little unlucky thus far in the season (though, as Julian Levine at Smashing Pumpkins point out, perhaps not as unlucky as we might want to believe)

It means the Giants are admitting they made a mistake by bringing him along too quickly, and that they should have handled Belt the way they handled Buster Posey last year. (We saw how that worked out.)

As my colleague Eric Rich wrote before the season, it actually made more sense not to have Belt on the Opening-Day roster. Turns out, he was right.

And the Giants were wrong, at least about Belt's ability to adjust immediately to major-league pitching.

But that doesn't mean they won't benefit from this deal in a number of ways: First of all, there's the likely possibility that San Fran now gets an additional year of control over Belt's future, since he's unlikely -- unless injury strikes again -- to meet his service-time requirements in 2011.

Secondly, the defense is going to be very improved, very quickly, as Aubrey Huff will depart the outfield for first base with Ross sliding into his spot. When Torres returns, things will get even more crowded, and it's likely that Pat Burrell and Aaron Rowand will form a pricey platoon.

Finally, Belt will get better by spending some time hammering Triple-A pitching. The kid is obviously talented -- witness his patience as a rookie -- and while the notion of demotion stings a bit, he's going to eventually be an impact hitter in the bigs.

Perhaps it's a bit hasty to say that he could still be the best first baseman in the NL West, but don't forget that Posey won the NL Rookie of the Year award in 2010, and he wasn't on the Giants' roster to start the season.

Baseball's a marathon, not a sprint, and it's wise for both Belt and the Giants to remember if he is indeed headed to the minors.

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