Given the numerous health risks associated with chewing tobacco — or “dip” — it’s no surprise users would seek even outlandish treatments to help quit using. Just ask Giants manager Bruce Bochy, who is the third member of the Giants to use hypnotherapy to kick the habit, Associated Press baseball writer Janice McCauley wrote Monday.

Bochy saw hypnotherapist AlVera Paxson on April 15 and hasn’t dipped since. Bullpen catcher Bill Hayes has been clean since Jan. 26. Equipment manager Mike Murphy hasn’t dipped in over two years.

“I’m a believer,”  Murphy said.

Bochy said that while he hasn’t dipped since one $300 session with Paxson — less than Bochy said he would have spent on dip by this point in the season — the urge has not gone away.

“It was really strange,” Bochy said. “There are so many triggers that you have that make you want to put a dip in.” Bochy also said that despite the urge, made worse by the stress of the Giants being defending World Series champions, he hasn’t broken down yet.

Paxson said her system is strong enough that she doesn’t think Bochy will backslide.

“People were not born chewing tobacco,” she said in a telephone interview from Arizona. “Your mind knows how to not do something more than you know how to do something.”

Not all members of the Giants have bought into hypnotherapy: Bench coach Ron Wotus mocks the system, and reliever Jeremy Affeldt said he doesn’t trust it enough to try it himself.

“I’d like to keep control of my own thoughts,” Affeldt said.

WebMD lists oral cancer and gum disease as diseases that can result from using chewing tobacco. Because chewing tobacco’s nicotine levels are just as high as they are in cigarettes, it is also highly addictive.

In a story first reported Sunday by Scott Weber of NBCLosAngeles.com, Giovanni Ramirez – the main suspect in the beating of Giants fan Bryan Stow on Opening Day – has been sentenced to 10 months in prison for gun possession violating in violation of his parole.

The sentence is unrelated to the Stow beating, which Los Angeles Police Chief Charlie Beck says still requires further investigation before Ramirez can be charged.

Ramirez’s attorney Jose Romero has said that 11 friends and family members have provided an alibi for Ramirez on March 31, the day when Stow was severely beaten in the parking lot of the Dodgers’ stadium.

Doctors at San Francisco General Hospital upgraded Stow’s condition from critical to serious on Wednesday. He can now breathe on his own and follow basic commands.

The Giants’ primary focus this offseason is to find a shortstop to replace World Series MVP Edgar Renteria, the San Francisco Chronicle reports. Senior Vice President and General Manager Brian Sabean said that the team would like to bring back Juan Uribe, who could play the position, but that the team and the player are “not talking the same language yet.”

The article suggests that the Giants could explore the trade market to address its opening, with Red Sox shortstop Marco Scutaro and the Rays’ Jason Bartlett “thought to be available,” and Jose Reyes described as a possibility given the Mets’ interest in shedding payroll. The team, according to the story, lusts after Arizona shortstop Stephen Drew, but he is viewed as unavailable.

Now that the World Series is over, the champions can focus on the beginning of the 2010-11 season and a potential two game series against the Diamondbacks in Taiwan. The Giants met with MLB International representatives throughout the World Series and said that there could be a decision soon.

“We have to have this done in the next couple of weeks, that’s my understanding,” Giants president Larry Baer said. “We’re trying to work it out and I think it’s somewhat close to happening. We’ve had conversations and there aren’t any big disagreements.”

While there are still logistics to be worked out,t he D-backs have agreed to make the trip and will sacrifice two of their home games in Arizona to serve as host, if it does occur. The season opening series would be the first time MLB has opened in Taiwan, and first season-opener abroad since the A’s and Red Sox started the 2008 season in Tokyo.

So far this postseason, Giants outfielder Jose Guillen has been left off the playoff roster for all three series. San Francisco’s decision to exclude him was originally linked to a neck injury. Recent reports, however, suggest that there may be more to the story.

In a story first reported by the New York Times, Guillen is being linked to a federal investigation into shipments of performance-enhancing drugs, specifically HGH. The drug was reportedly shipped to Guillen’s wife in the Bay Area.

“I don’t know anything about it and right now I don’t have a comment,” manager Bruce Bochy said.

The search began right as the postseason began and is still ongoing, which makes Guillen’s curious roster absence even more intriguing. The Times reported that the Giants “had been directed” to keep the outfielder off their roster, but MSNBC.com is reporting that Major League Baseball never issued such a directive.

This is not the first time Guillen has been linked to performance-enhancing drugs. The San Francisco Chronicle reported in 2007 that he allegedly purchased more than $19,000 worth of HGH, steroids and other drugs from the Palm Beach Rejuvenation Center between May 2002 and June 2005.

Guillen was acquired by the Giants in a trade with the Kansas City Royals, and batted .266 with three homers and 15 RBIs in 42 games with the team.

According to a tweet from Sports Illustrated’s Jon Heyman, the Giants and the Blue Jays are in serious discussion over starting pitching. Heyman has reported that the Giants are interested in either Jason Frasor or Scott Downs, whose name has come up several times in the Red Sox deadline plans.

FOX Sports’ Ken Rosenthal countered with a tweet of his own just seven minutes later, saying that the Giants don’t have interest in Frasor and that the sides can’t agree on Downs.

Downs is having his best year since 2008 with a 2.34 ERA and a 1.016 WHIP, despite a 4-5 record. Frasor has fallen off the horse a bit as he’s sporting a 4.62 ERA and a 1.590 WHIP after having a career year in 2009 (2.50 ERA, 1.023 WHIP).