I first got the news at work yesterday via text from my friend Rodger.

“Melk Man suspended, your thoughts?”

“Why for?,” I asked (That’s my playful way of asking why or what via text).

“PEDs,” he responds.

Melky Cabrera was sentenced to a 50 game suspension on Wednesday for violating Major League Baseball’s substance abuse policy. Giants fans everywhere are bummed,shocked, and pissed all at once. How could a guy that fans were falling in love with who was doing so well do this? 

At the same time Rodger was texting me, my friend Josh also texted me, “Melky pisses me off right now”.

 “There goes Cabrera’s season, there goes the Giants’ playoff hopes,” I said to both of them.

Cabrera was having an MVP-type season for the Giants in 2012, leading the National League with 159 hits and hitting .346 for the season. He helped lead the National League to an 8-0 victory in this year’s All-Star game was named MVP of the game. Cabrera will miss the rest of this regular season and should the Giants make the postseason, five games of that as well.

This no doubt jeopardizes the Giants’ playoff hopes. Their month long reign at the top of the National League West ended when the Dodgers beat the Pirates Wednesday to grab the full game lead in the division. They are also a half game back in the Wild Card standings.

Cabrera has been the difference maker this year for the Giants. He has been the “big bat” that the Giants and their fans have longed for for a long time. No longer are they the team that ekes out wins like they did in 2010. This team can mash now and win games by more than one or two runs. I feel that Cabrera is one of the main reasons why and with him out of the line-up it leaves a big hole for the Giants that they now need to try and fill and possibly save their season as well as any postseason hopes.

Personally I’m stunned that Cabrera would do this. He’s already a good player in his own right, he didn’t need to resort to using performance enhancers. He knew that it was wrong and he knew the consequences. As a fan who thought this team had what it took to win another championship and even more talent than the 2010 team had when it went all the way, I’m left to wonder how they can get it done without Cabrera there. But then again, I wondered how they would survive without Brian Wilson earlier this year and they’ve managed to do fine. I’m just not sure that losing a guy like Cabrera is that easy.