With the Padres heading up to San Francisco to take on the Giants, I hit up Grant of McCoveyChronicles.com to find out the latest with the defending champs.

With Buster Posey out for the season, who do you think can step up and help the Giants offense?

Knowing Bochy's preferences, it's going to have to be a veteran who did it last year. Aubrey Huff, Andres Torres, Cody Ross ... one of those guys is going to have to be the same player they were last year and soon.

The Giants have been hit hard with injuries, do you expect the team to get back on track once a few key players return?

Maybe when Carlos Beltran comes back, things will be different, but its not like he was lighting the world on fire when he was in there. If the Giants could get Posey and Freddy Sanchez back at the same time, well that's a different story, but just Beltran and maybe Torres? Eh, that's pretty close to what they're throwing out there.

Is it just a matter of time until the DBacks fade or do they have what it takes to stay with the defending champs?

It would be the height of arrogance to suggest that a team currently starting Rowand, Cabrera, Tejada, Stewart or Whiteside, etc ... have the division in a stranglehold even when they're a couple of games back. The Giants are flawed. The Diamondbacks aren't perfect either, but they're a legitimately good team. I thought they'd be good last year, so I overcorrected and predicted they'd be awful this year. But Hudson and Kennedy go a long ways towards a good rotation, and Justin Upton is one of the best players in the game. Wish they'd traded him last year.