San Francisco ? J.T. Snow might want to start thinking about where he’d like to spend the second half of the season.

He’s considered one of the few Giants with good trade potential – thanks to ability, contract status and professionalism – which means his name will be in play before the July 31 trade deadline.

After Sunday, the Giants might have other reasons to think about trading the popular player. They might want to move him just to keep his mouth shut.

Why? Because J.T. Snow has spoken the truth. And that’s probably not what the Giants want to hear.

Snow – a player who always speaks carefully, engaging in some actual thought before he opens his mouth – told the Sacramento Bee on Sunday that he doubted Barry Bonds would play again this year.

“Frankly, I don’t think he’ll be back this season, and you can quote me on that,” Snow said. “It’s not based on any information, just a gut feeling. . . I’m always realistic. He has to play a position, and it’s going to be tough.”

That goes against the far more optimistic report Monday on ESPN.com that a “high-ranking member of the Giants organization” said the team was targeting mid-August for Bonds’ return.

So now it’s mid-August, as opposed to mid-May or mid-July. Maybe.

What Snow said Sunday is the same thing I’ve been hearing from others who have similar gut feelings: from athletes who have suffered comparable knee injuries and from orthopedic surgeons, who haven’t worked on Bonds but are quite familiar with the kind of setbacks he’s suffered.

At this point, it is very hard to imagine Bonds returning to play left field for the Giants this season. Right now, he’s in Beverly Hills, far from the eyes of the team, though general manager Brian Sabean hopes to check on him later this week.

It is mid-July, and Bonds hasn’t done any baseball-related activities. He’s even cut down on his Web site postings, with just one report in the past several weeks – though it did have a new highlighted link feature to expedite memorabilia purchases.

His last comments to MLB.com were about playing in 2007, which at this point seems as possible as playing in 2005. As Snow indicated, let’s be realistic.

But the Giants aren’t good at realistic. They need to sell tickets, and they know from experience that their one proven ticket attraction is Bonds. They’ve been selling tickets based on No. 25 for 10 years, and they’re not about to let some bothersome knee surgery get in their way.

The Giants – who just posted their worst first-half record since 1996 – have continued to maintain the illusion that things will be better “when Barry gets back.”

There’s nothing wrong with hoping that Bonds returns. But there is something wrong with behaving as though he will return to save the day. The Giants need to – finally – start thinking about the future and revamping the team.

Which means that in the next two weeks some players could be leaving. One of them might be Snow, accompanied by his honest opinion.