When Buster Posey was lost for the season following a collision at home plate with Marlins’ outfielder Scott Cousins back in May, one could have pointed to that moment as a low point in the San Francisco Giants’ 2011 season. But oh how things have gotten much worse.

On Monday night, the Cubs’ Randy Wells threw his first career shutout while limiting San Fran’s hopeless offense to just two hits in a 7-0 victory. (For those wondering, yes, that’s 5.00-plus ERA Randy Wells I’m referring to.) The losing pitcher for the Giants was none other than ace Tim Lincecum, who received zero run support for the 10th time in his last 28 starts.

The economy has looked more efficient in the past two weeks than the Giants’ offense has, which is frustrating when you consider how GM Brian Sabean gave away the organization’s best prospect to acquire Carlos Beltran from the Mets. Beltran was supposed to provide the team with just enough offense to get them to the postseason where their pitching could (hopefully) dominate like it did in 2010. Instead, Beltran has been sucked into the same black hole as the rest of the Giants’ hitters (save for Pablo Sandoval) and once again Sabean has been had in a trade (which is nothing new).

Of course, as infuriating as Sabean can be in his decision-making at times (Miguel Tejada or Orlando Cabrera anyone?), it’s not his fault that seemingly every night the Giants send a new player to the infirmary. Posey and second baseman Freddy Sanchez (one of Sabean’s better trade acquisitions) are out for the season while Beltran, Sandoval, Brian Wilson, Sergio Romo, Jonathan Sanchez, Barry Zito, Mark DeRosa, Cody Ross, Andres Torres, Pat Burrell, and Nate Schierholtz are either on the disabled list now or have at least spent some time on it this season. It appears as though the baseball gods have returned to wreak havoc on the Giants following their magical run in 2010.

Now if you’re among the many people who felt that last year’s World Series title was a fluke, then you’re certainty entitled to your opinion. I think your opinion is pure horse dung, but you’re entitled to your opinion nonetheless.

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In Wednesday’s Quick-Hits, I rant about Donovan McNabb’s feelings, the steep price that the Giants are willing to pay for Carlos Beltran, the Jets’ desire to build the best cornerback duo in the history of mankind, and much more.

– I’ll have more once the deal becomes official, but I’m rather surprised by the reports that the Giants are willing to give up top prospect Zack Wheeler in order to acquire Carlos Beltran. Yes the Giants need offense and yes Beltran provides said offense. But if Beltran walks at the end of the year when he becomes a free agent, then the Giants just gave away one of the top pitching prospects in baseball for a rental (albeit a very good rental, but a rental nonetheless). I guess it all comes down to philosophy. I wouldn’t give up a top prospect for a rental unless I had a good feeling that the rental would re-sign with me at the end of the year. And at this point, the Giants can’t possibly know if they can re-sign Beltran. Granted, if he helps them win another World Series then it was worth the price of Wheeler. A lot of people didn’t like the Tim Alderson-for-Freddy Sanchez trade a couple of years ago, or the deal that netted Javier Lopez from the Pirates last July. But without Sanchez or Lopez, the Giants wouldn’t have won last year, so maybe this is what GM Brian Sabean had to do in order to take another shot at a World Series title. (And really, isn’t that the point?) But assuming this deal comes to fruition, I like it a lot better from the Mets’ point of view. They didn’t care about Beltran’s contract – they wanted a prospect, and got one. The Giants seemingly didn’t want to give up a good prospect…so they gave up their best one. Beltran better have been worth it.

– Apparently Donovan McNabb had his feelings hurt when he learned that the Vikings tried pursuing Tyler Thigpen before calling the Redskins about a trade for him. If this is true, somebody should remind McNabb that he’s about to be traded for a sixth round pick and, perhaps more importantly, was a team’s backup plan when they couldn’t acquire Tyler freaking Thigpen. If that doesn’t paint a clear picture of your worth as a quarterback, nothing will. Considering he gets to stay in a West Coast Offense and will have Adrian Peterson and Percy Harvin (and Sidney Rice?) to play with, McNabb has nothing to sulk about.

– NFL Network’s Michael Lombardi is reporting that the Jets are prepared to pay free agent Nnamdi Asomugha $12 million per year. Could you imagine being an opposing quarterback playing the Jets next year? I would check to a run or dump the ball off to my tight end damn near every play. Offensive Coordinator: “What happened on that audible, Anthony? That’s the 17th time you checked off to a run.” Me: “Ha! You want me to take a trip to Revis Island while flying Asomugha Airlines? Go f&$k yourself. I’ll be over here if you need me – I’d keep our running backs fresh if I were you.”

– If you got sick of hearing about Rex Ryan and the Jets last year then grab a brown paper bag and some TUMS because it’s only going to get worse this season. Re-signing Santonio Holmes was huge for Mark Sanchez and the offense, but wait until they sign Asomugha and Randy Moss. All of Bristol, Connecticut will explode due to ESPN trying to figure out how to cram one hour of Yankees and Red Sox highlights and Jets training camp coverage into SportsCenter.

-Depending on what the compensation winds up being, I think the Dolphins are about to make the most underrated move of free agency when they acquire Kyle Orton from the Broncos. Orton will never win a Super Bowl by himself a la Tom Brady (who had little marquee offensive talent around him when he won his three rings), but he’s a smart, competitive quarterback who can prosper if he has enough talent around him. Reuniting him with Brandon Marshall is incredibly smart on Miami’s part.

– Speaking of Orton, how pissed were the Eagles when they found out the Broncos made him available? The Eagles know they have a suitor for Kevin Kolb in the Cardinals, but the Broncos essentially just gave Arizona another option at quarterback. The Cardinals can now say to Philadelphia, ‘Why should we give up a first round pick for Kolb when we could have Orton, another guy we like, for less?’ Granted, it looks like Orton is a slam-dunk to land in Miami and Kolb is still a shoe-in for Arizona, but Philadelphia couldn’t have been too pleased when the quarterback market became more crowded.

– I’m not wild about the Colby Rasmus trade for the Cardinals. Edwin Jackson should pitch well under Dave Duncan in St. Louis this season, but he’s a free agent at the end of the year. If he doesn’t re-sign with the Cardinals, they essentially traded Rasmus (plus Brian Tallett and P.J. Walters) for Octavio Dotel, Marc Rzepcynzki and Corey Patterson. I know the Cardinals had grown tired of Rasmus (and possibly his too-involved father), but that’s not enough compensation for a 24-year-old outfielder that is under team control through 2014. It’s not like Rasmus has cashed in on his potential yet, but St. Louis could have done better than this, right? What am I missing here?