Welcome to the 2011 National League West Pre-Season Preview, hosted by RJs Fro. Each day this week a different NL West team will be poked, probed, and otherwise analyzed by asking five generic questions, and five questions submitted by fellow NL West bloggers. So, let the probing begin...

Check out How the West Was Won from Bloguin's outstanding NL West blogmeisters:
San Francisco Giants Preview  The Giants Cove
San Diego Padres Preview  RJs Fro
Colorado Rockies Preview  The Rockie Mountain Way
Los Angeles Dodgers Preview  TetreaultVision
Arizona Diamondbacks Preview  D'Backs Venom







SAN FRANCISCO GIANTS
1. 2010 record
92-70 1st NL West (and, as you may have heard, 2010 MLB World Champions).

2. Player additions
On July 4, 2010 the Giants were 41-40, wallowed in 4th place in the NL West. During the 2010 season, the Giants' roster underwent several tsunami-like changes, and Bruce Bochy was still recreating his line-up almost on a daily basis right through September. Everything came together in the post-season and will again in 2011.
Key team rebuilding moves in 2010:
> outfielder Pat Burrell was picked up in June;
> Andres Torres became the lead-off hitter and center fielder a month before mid-season; 
> relievers Javier Lopez and Ramon Ramirez were picked up at the trading deadline in July;
>catcher Buster Posey and starter Madison Bumgarner were brought up from the minors at mid-season.
>outfielder Cody Ross was added from waivers in August.

For the 2011 season, only one player has been added who was not on the team last year: shortstop Miguel Tejada, signed to a 1 year deal for $6.5 million.

3. Player Losses
Five players who were on the roster in September have left the Giants: infielders Juan Uribe and Edgar Renteria, outfielders Jose Guillen and Eugenio Velez, and reliever Chris Ray.

4. Strengths going into 2011
The Giants will start 2011 with a set line-up that can produce runs, arguably the best starting staff in franchise history, and a bullpen with the second best pen ERA in the Majors last year.
There are eight significant differences between Opening Day 2010 and Opening Day 2011 that make the Giants a powerhouse:
1) Buster Posey is the starting catcher instead of Bengie Molina.
2) Cody Ross is the starting right fielder instead of John Bowker (and later, Nate Schierholtz and Jose Guillen).
3) Madison Bumgarner is the #5 starter instead of Cardinals cast-off Todd Wellemeyer.
4) Relievers Lopez and Ramirez start the year in the bullpen.
5) Pat Burrell will play some left field and add his power bat to the Giants' bench.
6) Andres Torres is the starting center fielder instead of Aaron Rowand.
7) Mark DeRosa will be an everyday starter in left field or third base (he was injured and out of the line-up for almost all of 2010). 
8) Miguel Tejada is the starting shortstop instead of Edgar Renteria.

5. Weaknesses going into 2011
Again this year the Giants' batting order does not have a 100+ RBI, 30+ home run, high OBP power hitter. They will have to score runs the way they did in 2010: hitting a lot of team extra base hits (476, 7th in the NL tied with Atlanta) and home runs (162, 6th in the NL). San Francisco was 9th in NL runs scored (697), and the revamped line-up needs to improve on that number in 2011 to succeed.

While the Giants made only 73 errors in the field (4th best in the Majors), their infield defense featured a distinct lack of range in 2010. But even Miguel Tejada's sub par range factor was better than the RFs put up by Edgar Renteria and Juan Uribe. The infield defense takes another hit if Pablo Sandoval wins the third base job over DeRosa.

Currently, veteran pitcher Jeff Supan is a very shaky plan B if one of the five starters goes down. Top minor league prospect RHP Zack Wheeler appears to be a year away from a possible call-up, and up and coming hurlers RHP Jose Casilla and RHPJorge Bucardo are a couple of years away.

6. Is there any indication from the Giants' organization that Tim Lincecum's struggles in 2010 were a fluke, or has Lincecum become more hittable? (RJ's Fro)
Lincecum's 2010 problems occurred in August, when he went 0-5 with a 7.82 ERA. The rest of the year he was 16-5 with a 2.94 ERA. As you might expect, there was intense speculation among fans, the media and (especially) sports talk radio during Lincecum's troubles. Everyone had a theory, and for a minute it seemed like Tim Lincecum's superman days were over. The Giants front office never publicly discussed what happened, but one local TV/radio sports commentator, F. P. Santangelo, apparently identified Lincecum's lack of ongoing conditioning as the cause for the stumble.

Lincecum reportedly went back to his normal workout and conditioning routines and he rebounded in the month of September, going 5-1 with a 1.94 ERA and 52 strikeouts in 41.2 innings. Of course, the two-time Cy Young winner followed that up with an incredible post season: 4-1, 2.43 ERA, .92 WHIP, and 43 strikeouts in 37 innings.

7. Will the Giants' reality TV program deal with Showtime, in which cameras follow the team up close throughout the year, be a distraction? (RJ's Fro)
Maybe a little, but that's not the issue. As San Francisco Chronicle sports writer Bruce Jenkins pointed out, Giants President Larry Baer is on a mission to spread and sell the Giants brand on a national scale, the way the Yankees and Boston have done. The team sees the exponential revenue generated by other franchises who aggressively pursue the media, territorial expansion, and outside business opportunities and they want to play. Shockingly, it's all about the money. As far as the players, they'll have fun-- and who knows what individual commercial endorsement opportunities could come their way as a result of the project.

8. Offensively, do the Giants have enough to carry the team to the 2011 post-season? (The Rockie Mountain Way) 
See #4 above. The personnel changes the team made the second half of 2010 dramatically improved its extra base hitting and run scoring--  and all the elements of that improvement are in place for 2011. Buster Posey will be in the everyday line-up starting Opening Day, a year after winning NL Rookie of the Year.

9. 2010 was a bounceback year for Aubrey Huff and Pat Burrell. Can they keep it up? And what about Pablo Sandoval? (D'Backs Venom)
Aubrey Huff is for real-- an extra base hitter who drives in runs and provides leadership in the clubhouse. Huff had 86, 85, and 108 RBI the last three years, and signing with the Giants re-energized his career and brought out his innate leadership skills. Huff agreed to a two year, $22 million contract three weeks after the World Series; he will play 155+ games at first base or left field in 2011.

Pat Burrell's best contribution in 2011 would be to come off the bench with his great plate discipline and power. The Giants need an everyday left fielder with better speed and range, and either Aubrey Huff or Mark DeRosa can provide that.

Pablo Sandoval is the biggest wild card in the organization. If he can continue to walk past the buffet table, and sticks to a conditioning program throughout the season, he could be a big contributor. If not, the Giants front office has publicly stated they will by-pass him quickly and Mark DeRosa will be the everyday third baseman.

10. Brandon Belt tore through the Giants' minor league system in his pro debut last year, hitting well at all levels. Is Belt ready to make a contribution at the Major League level in 2011? (D'Backs Venom)
Every local sports writer, TV commentator, sports talk radio guy, and Giants blogger has Belt as their number one can't-miss prospect-- and with good reason. Belt was recently ranked 26th on MLB.com's Top 50 Prospects. If Brandon Belt wins the first base job out of Spring Training this year, Aubrey Huff would move to left field and the Giants' line-up would start to get seriously lethal.

Blocking that field of dreams is the fact that the Giants are more conservative than most clubs when it comes to bringing young talent up to the big leagues. Brian Sabean's philosophy has been to season the hell out of young prospects in the minors, and bring them up slowly. After Buster Posey hit .315 in Spring Training 2010, he didn't make the team because the Giants needed to keep Posey in the minors through the month of June to make him ineligible to be Super Two arbitration eligible in 2013. But catcher Bengie Molina's hitting and leadership skills went dramatically south in May, and Sabean was forced to bring Posey up earlier than he planned (which will cost the team a bundle in 2013).

Brandon Belt will have to put on a tremendous performance in Spring Training to prove to the Giants' front office he is ready. Two other young prospects who could make an impact in the upcoming year are outfielder Thomas Neal, who hit .291 with 40 doubles in AA Richmond last year, and slick fielding shortstop Brandon Crawford.

Giants' Projected 2011 Starting Line-up
1. Andres Torres CF
2. Freddy Sanchez 2B
3. Buster Posey C
4. Aubrey Huff 1B
5. Miguel Tejada SS
6. Mark DeRosa LF
7. Pablo Sandoval 3B
8. Cody Ross RF
SP: RHP Tim Lincecum, RHP Matt Cain, LHP Jonathan  Sanchez, LHP Barry Zito, LHP Madison Bumgarner
Closer: RHP Brian Wilson

Projected final 2011 NL West standings
1. San Francisco Giants - 96 wins
2. Colorado Rockies - 91 wins
3. San Diego Padres - 86 wins
4. Los Angeles Dodgers - 78 wins
5. Arizona Diamondbacks - 67 wins no comments

Ever get tired of hearing about how the Giants have all that outstanding starting and bullpen pitching? If you're like me, and the low WHIPs and high strikeouts to innings pitched are getting tedious, there's good news: San Francisco has signed starter Jeff Suppan to a minor league contract. And if the apocalypse strikes earth, or the Mayan calendar ends a year earlier, or if Richard Nixon finally rises from his grave to deal with the rest of the names on his enemies' list, Jeff Suppan will join the 40 man roster and make $1 million.

How poorly has Jeff Suppan pitched, both recently and throughout his career? That's a tough one. Apparently a company called Sabermetrics International is working on a radically new mathematical formula to fully comprehend how badly Suppan has performed. You know, dozens of guys in plaid short sleeve shirts, drinking cans of Bladder Stomp Power Soda, and fussing over logarithmic spirals and  EAN-13 encoding. Best of luck to them, but until their work breaks this important new ground we'll have to try and understand Suppan old school.

Signed to a $40 million four year contract by the Brewers in 2007, Jeff Suppan managed to go 32-49 before they simply released him in 2010, whereupon he caught on with the St. Louis Cardinals. Don't ask me why. Suppan finished 2010 3-8 with a 5.06 ERA and a 1.65 WHIP. In his 16 year career, Suppan has a 4.69 ERA and a 1.46 WHIP. On the good side, he has started 411 career games, so the Giants figured he pretty much knows how to walk out to the mound and do that.

The concept of a "sixth starter" is hardly new. In some cases it's an older veteran pitcher who is not doing so well and is inexpensively picked up and stashed in triple A. If one of the big team's five starters gets injured, there's an arm immediately available to bring up. But a large number of teams use that scenario to give an up and coming young pitcher in their system the chance to show off his stuff. Cause you never know.

That the Giants signed Suppan for this role says a lot about how far away the Giants believe the young pitchers in their system are from ready. 

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The Giants fulfilled one of the franchise's most hallowed commandments by swiftly wrapping up their arbitration-eligible players in record time. With lefty specialist Javier Lopez back in the fold on a $2.38 million contract (up from $775,000 in 2010), and center fielder Andres Torres inked in at a reported $2.1 million (up from $426,000 in 2010), the team is essentially fully rearmed for an assault on the 2011 season.

Interesting to note that all but two players from the 2010 Championship team (Juan Uribe and Edgar Renteria) are back on board. The difference-makers on Opening Day 2011 compared to 2010 are beyond huge:

> Buster Posey poised for a full season behind the plate (instead of Bengie Molina);
> Cody Ross full time in right field (and even though right field was an offensive black hole last year, I hope Nate Schierholtz and his magic glove make the team);
> Madison Bumgarner claiming the #5 starter slot (will you miss Todd Wellemeyer's 3-5/5.88/1.56 WHIP?);
> Andres Torres starting from bump in center field. (Hard to imagine the Giants won't make a huge effort to trade Aaron Rowand, put some steak sauce on his contract, hold their noses and eat it.);
> Miguel Tejada may bring a very familiar lack of range to the Giants' infield, but he's a rare sight for Giants fans: a shortstop with a live bat. Remember-- the plan for Juan Uribe the past two years was to be an infield super-sub behind Freddie Sanchez, Edgar Renteria, and Pablo Sandoval. That Uribe stepped up and produced so many clutch hits was a sweet bonus. Buena suerte, amigo! no comments

MLB.com has reported the San Francisco Giants signed four arbitration-eligible players from their 2010 roster, including National League Championship Series MVP Cody Ross. Also signed were starting pitcher Jonathan Sanchez, and relievers Ramon Ramirez and Santiago Casilla. The final two arbitration-eligible players on the Giants' active roster are center fielder Andres Torres and lefty reliever Javier Lopez. 

Cody Ross received a one year $6.3 million contract and will be ticketed to start in right field for the Giants in 2011. Ross batted .269 with 14 home runs and 69 RBI in 2009 as a member of the Florida Marlins and the Giants. San Francisco claimed Ross off waivers from Florida on August 22nd and he proceeded to lead the team in their drive to the playoffs the final four weeks of the season. Dominating throughout the playoffs, Cody Ross batted .294, powered five home runs and five doubles, drove in 10 runs and scored 15 as the Giants became World Champions for the first time since 1954.

Jonathan Sanchez signed a one year $4.8 million deal for 2011, with a $50,000 bonus if he reaches 200 innings pitched. Sanchez was part of the best starting staff in the Majors last year, going 13-9 with a 3.07 ERA, and was 8th among National League pitchers in strikeouts, fanning 205 batters. Sanchez also held all hitters to a .204 batting average-- the lowest of any pitcher in the Majors. The left-handed starter earned $2.1 million in 2010.

Righty reliever Ramon Ramirez, acquired from the Boston Red Sox at the trade deadline last year, earned $1.55 million in 2010. In 25 games with San Francisco, he put up outstanding numbers: 1-0 with a 1.67 ERA. Ramirez avoided arbitration by agreeing to a $1.65 contract for 2011.

Santiago Casilla was a right-handed strikeout monster for the Giants in 2011: 56 strikeouts in 55 1/3 innings, going 7-2 with a 1.95 ERA. According to ESPN Deportes, the 30 year old Casilla, who made $400,000 in 2010, was re-signed by the Giants for $1.3 million with a $50,000 incentive package.

Cody Ross brings a great glove and serious run production to a position that contributed very little to the team's offense in 2010. Before Ross took over last season, Nate Schierholtz played 137 games in right, batting .242 with 17 RBI. At the same time, the Giants' front office is carefully reassembling the bullpen that led the team to the 2010 playoffs and a World Series Championship ring. San Francisco's bullpen posted a 2.99 ERA in 2010, second best in the Majors after San Diego's 2.81 ERA. no comments

First let me thank the Cincinnati Reds organization, Manager Dusty Baker, and GM Walt Jocketty for removing that stale pile of Edgar Renteria from the sidewalk in front of AT&T Park. The Reds, as you may have heard, signed the chunky 34 year old Renteria to a one year contract for $2.1 million with $900,000 in incentives. This was after the Giants apparently made a $1 million one year offer to the plodding Renteria that he publicly stated showed him "a lack of respect".

Renteria was just coming off a two year $18.5 million contract with the Giants during which his lack of run production was dramatic and his range at shortstop could only be likened to watching an elderly man pretending to move fast with a 60 pound weight tied to his ass. And I mean no disrespect to the elderly, or to those whose lifestyle includes tying heavy weights to their posteriors.

Don't get me wrong. Renteria was a terrible pickup by the Giants in 2009, but he hit the game winning home run in Game 5 of the 2010 World Series to make the Giants World Champions. So tell me, you're asking, did the Series win make Renteria's $18.5 million contract and two years of poor fielding worth it? You're damn right it did-- that one electrifying moment was worth the entire two year contract. But the idea of resigning Renteria to come off the bench behind newly acquired shortstop Miguel Tejada was a loser in so many ways, much like the New Orleans Saints' playbook.

A tenative thank you goes out to the Giants front office for apparently leaving the door, and their minds, open to top Giants' prospect Brandon Belt making the team out of Spring Training this year. For the past 15+ years, Brian Sabean's default for young players with potential is to keep them in the minor leagues long after most other MLB organizations would have brought them up to the big club. The spectacular emergence of Buster Posey and Madison Bumgarner may be the tipping point for the franchise to rethink that automatic approach.

While some amount of traditional minor league "seasoning" is essential, after a certain point players who should be producing at the Major League level are scoring runs and winning games for a minor league team. That's exactly what happened with Buster Posey last year; the Giants were forced to bring Posey up a couple of months earlier than they planned when Bengie Molina's bat and leadership skills went completely south. In reality, Posey should have been in the starting line-up on Opening Day.

There is room for Belt to seamlessly take over at first base (with Aubrey Huff moving to left field and Pat Burrell's potent bat coming off the bench). If the Giants' front office is actually giving Brandon Belt the opportunity to prove he is MLB-ready this Spring in Scottsdale, that will jumpstart the magic all over again in 2011. no comments

We are adrift in that troubling time between the last out of the last inning of the World Series and the first tentative Spring Training tosses between some raw rookie pitcher and the second string catcher. The tragically baseball-afflicted might measure this dark interlude in months or days, but there is no doubting its physical make-up: a vast nothingness colored in shades of dull gray with a soundtrack not unlike most German electronic music from the 1980s.

Sure, there are apparently several important holidays celebrated during this time, and this is when Major League Baseball teams sign free agents and trade players, but all in all I'd rather be watching a regular season game between the Pittsburgh Pirates and the Arizona Diamondbacks. (Note: this is the only time of year I will make such a completely ridiculous statement like that.)

For every sexy Carl Crawford and Cliff Lee multi-million dollar signing, there are tedious, endless stories on MLB Trade Rumors, ESPN.com, and SI.com that go on like this for weeks and months:

"Washington Nationals Closing In On Bartolo Colon"

"Carl Pavano is Getting Interest from Several Teams"

"Octavio Dotel May Fill a Number of Teams' Needs"

"Possible Suitors for Troy Glaus"

It's enough to make you turn to hockey or indoor arena horse racing. Or even drive you to think up a brand new sport, maybe combining race horses and an iced arena. I realize there is much legitimate off-season MLB information to be passed on, and these sites have endless space to fill with words (any words), but for the love of god please make it stop.  

The only thing that should happen if Carl Pavano receives an offer from any team is that Carl Pavano should immediately go to the nearest church, get on his knees, and thank the god therein. The only need Octavio Dotel can fill at this point is to be an additional reference of hopelessness in your off-season suicide note. As to what I would do if I saw Bartolo Colon come in from the bullpen for my team during an actual MLB game, I believe any jury in America would buy my temporary insanity defense.

And possible suitors for Troy Glaus? At this point, that would be those guys in the woods from the movie "Deliverance" ("Come on now, squeal like a third baseman...").

No, I will be extremely happy to get to mid-February, when I, too, will be reporting with the pitchers and catchers to begin the 2011 season. By then I will have lost whatever money I'm going to lose on the NFL playoffs and Superbowl, and I can finally relax knowing that Bartolo Colon has found yet another in a series of new baseball homes.  

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When the Boston Red Sox signed free agent outfielder Carl Crawford to a seven year $142 million contract at the Baseball Winter meetings in Florida this week, it capped a series of off-season moves that could trigger a historic year of offense for the Red Sox. The additions of Crawford and former Padres slugger Adrian Gonzalez are the final pieces of what should be a phenomenal offensive machine that, if all the parts remain healthy, is set to savage American League pitching throughout the 2011 MLB season.

When I think of devastating modern era line-ups, I always recall the 1982 Milwaukee Brewers, who were 3 RBIs short of having five 100+ RBI hitters in their everyday batting order; 1st baseman Cecil Cooper had 121 RBI, shortstop Robin Yount knocked in 114 runners, center fielder Gorman Thomas drove in 112 RBI, and left fielder Ben Oglivie finished with 102 RBI. Catcher Ted Simmons came close, knocking in 97 runners of his own.

That 1982 Brewers team scored 891 total runs, but they pale in comparison to a couple of recent Yankee teams, and the powerhouse Yankees of the late 1920s and early 1930s.

The 2007 Yankees scored 968 runs, and featured 3 hitters with 100+ RBI (Alex Rodriguez 156, Hideki Matsui 103, and Bobby Abreu 101; plus Robinson Cano had 97 RBI and Jorge Posada finished with 90). The year prior New York scored 930 runs, but take a look at these spectacular run crunching Yankee teams from the infamous murderer's row and beyond:

1927 - 975 runs (Lou Gehrig had 174 RBI).
1930 - 1,062 runs
1931 - 1,067 runs
1932 - 1,002 runs
1933 - 927 runs
1936 - 1,065 runs (with five 100+ RBI hitters: Lou Gehrig 152; Joe DiMaggio 125; Tony Lazzeri 109; Bill Dickey 107; George Selkirk 107) 
1937 - 979 runs
1938 - 966 runs
1939 - 967 runs

While the 2011 Boston Red Sox offense could score a boatload of runs and still not touch those 1930s Yankee juggernauts, they have the ability to challenge them. The top three run producing teams in 2010 were New York at 859, Boston at 818, and Tampa at 802. The Red Sox had a number of key hitters injured or out of the line-up for long periods of time last season and still couldn't be stopped at the plate.

To score runs at that level, three elements have to be present in a team's everyday batting order: 1) run scorers--outstanding extra base hitters who also hit for average; 2) run producers--outstanding hitters who hit with power; and 3) high on base percentages from every hitter in the line-up. In 2010, the Sox finished second among all MLB teams with 591 extra base hits, they were tied in 5th place with 587 walks, 2nd place with a .339 OBP, and 2nd in baseball with 211 home runs.

To compare, home runs were a key component of the San Francisco Giants' and Texas Rangers' attacks, and both teams hit 162 homers in 2010.

Here's what Boston's everyday line-up will be featuring in 2011:

Adrian Gonzalez (1B) had three 100+ RBI seasons, and one 99 RBI season with San Diego in one of the worst hitters' parks in baseball. Carl Crawford (LF) scored 100+ runs three times, and also produced 96 and 93 run seasons. David Oritz (DH) produced six 100+ RBI seasons, and one 99 RBI season; Ortiz knocked in 101 runs in 2010. Kevin Youkilis (3B) and J. D. Drew (RF) have both put up 100+ RBI years, and Dustin Pedroia (2B) was the American League's Most Valuable Player in 2008; he scored 118 runs and 115 runs in consecutive seasons, and had 213 hits in 2008. In the last three years, shortstop Marco Scutaro scored 76, 100, and 92 runs respectively, with an average of 70 RBI a year during the same period. 

Will the Boston Red Sox score over 900 runs in 2011, or perhaps make a run at 1,000 runs scored? As of this week, all the pieces are in place for a wild and historic 2011 season from the newly rearmed powerhouse of the American League East.

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The weather outside may be frightful, but the fire inside the San Francisco Giants organization remains delightful. The unspeakable high of dismantling three of the best teams in baseball-- the Atlanta Braves, the Philadelphia Phillies and the Texas Rangers-- en route to capturing the 2010 World Series surrounds this team like a warm glow as they go about fine tuning the roster in preparation for the 2011 campaign.

It must be extremely enjoyable for General Manager Brian Sabean at the MLB Winter Meetings this week in Lake Buena Vista, Florida; to know that the toys you really want are already wrapped and under the Christmas tree, and it's now all about tidying up loose ends and doing some tweaking.

Not to say there aren't several major bits of unfinished business yet to be done: Andres Torres, Cody Ross, and several key relievers need to be packaged up. And Sabean is a determined disciple of the church of starting-pitching-depth-can-never-be-deep-enough. So expect a Major League-capable starter or two to be deposited in Triple A Fresno just in case. 

Other than that, Sabean and Manager Bruce Bochy can enjoy sitting in the hotel's plush leather chairs, sipping single malt scotch and Shafer Hillside Select Cab, watching from a distance as frantic GMs from other teams scramble to see who gets Carl Pavano, George Sherrill, and Jay Gibbons. Or Jack Cust.

"My god," Bochy might casually remark to Sabean, "look at those poor bastards running around the lobby...".

On another front, it is disappointing the organization feels it needs to go outside for a back-up shortstop behind the newly signed, but somewhat elderly, Miguel Tejada. The Giants have a number of great looking prospects in the mix, but there are issues.

Soon to be twenty-six year-old Emmanuel Burriss, recovered from two foot fractures, is hitting poorly in the 2010 Dominican Winter League, posting a .244 average as of a week ago. Burriss is probably the best defensive option the team has a short, but great range and a slick glove is not enough at the big league level; if a back-up shortstop has to replace Tejada for any reason, the Giants also expect an offensive contribution.

Brandon Crawford, who will turn 24 in 2011, is one of two up and coming shortstops currently playing in the Giants' minor league system. Crawford batted .241 in 79 games at Double A Richmond with a .712 OPS. The lefty hitting Crawford was a star at UCLA and by all accounts his glove and arm are at the big league level now. So far, his hitting is not.

The other top shortstop prospect in the minors is twenty-one year old switch-hitter Ehire Adrianza, who scored 70 runs in 124 games for the Single A San Jose Giants in 2010. Adrianza batted .256, had a 69% stolen base success rate (33-15), and has tremendous range and a strong arm. I expect the Giants feel Adrianza is still a couple of years away, but I think he could emerge as an October surprise in 2011.

Who will the team sign to back up Tejada? Several names have been out there a while: Orlando Cabrera, 36, played in 123 games and batted .263 for Cincinnati in 2010; thirty-one year old Ramon Santiago got into 112 games for Detroit and also hit .263; and World Series MVP Edgar Renteria is apparently still somewhere in the mix.

In a perfect world, Brandon Crawford would step in and be mentored by Miguel Tejada for a year before taking over the position in 2012, but now that appears unlikely. And while it may be inaccurate to describe the Giants current world as "perfect", it's still a damn pleasant place to be.     

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The San Francisco Giants continued a longstanding tradition of reserving the shortstop position in their infield for men of a certain age by signing 36 year old Miguel Tejada to a one year contract at $6.5 million. Tejada, who knocked in 150 RBI in 2004 for the Baltimore Orioles, now becomes the starting shortstop for the Giants as they prepare to defend their World Championship title in 2011.

Tejada split 2010 between two teams, playing 97 games for the Baltimore Orioles and 59 games for the San Diego Padres. Overall, he hit .269 in 2010, with 171 hits, 26 doubles, 15 home runs, 71 runs scored, and 71 RBI. Tejada had a .312 OBP and a .692 OPS; he played third base and some DH for Baltimore and shortstop for the Padres.

San Francisco has made a point of providing an early bird special spot on the left side of their infield for older shortstops the past eight years:

2003 - Rich Aurilia, 32;
2004 - Deivi Cruz, 32;
2005-2008 - Omar Vizquel, 41;
2009-2010 - Edgar Renteria, 34.

2011 will see San Francisco once again trading range and speed at shortstop for veteran experience and a proven bat. The Giants paid Edgar Renteria over $9 million a year the past two years, so Tejada's contract puts the Giants' budget $3 million to the better as they deal with signing a slew of arbitration-eligible players.

Essentially, San Francisco has exchanged Juan Uribe and Edgar Renteria for Miguel Tejada. The tasks remaining to get done are critical:

1. Who will play third base? There is little doubt the Giants have decided at this point not to depend on Pablo Sandoval's ability to walk quickly past the buffet line. But if Sandoval can tame the beast, get in shape and somehow discover the joys of non-fat yogurt smoothies, his presence will be welcome on the 2011 Giants. Otherwise, a healthy Mark DeRosa is being paid $6 million next year and needs to finally join this team and contribute.

Offensive production, range and fielding at third base would be greatly improved with Mark DeRosa holding down the hot corner.

2. Do the Giants get a new left fielder or a new first baseman? Either way, Aubrey Huff is the other starter at one position or another.

3. For golly gosh sakes, get Cody Ross, Javier Lopez, Santiago Casilla, and Andres Torres signed and assigned permanent lockers as soon as humanly possible.

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As the New York Yankees and their free agent shortstop Derek Jeter arm wrestle over Jeter's next contract, no one in baseball seriously thinks there is a chance that Jeter will shed his pin stripes and grab the next flight out of JFK. After 16 years as a Yankee, seven trips to the World Series, 11 All Star appearances, and confirmed reservations as a member of the Baseball Hall of Fame after he retires, Derek Jeter is as iconic to the Bronx Bombers as all those other monuments planted beyond the center field wall in Yankee Stadium.

The Yankees have apparently put a three year $45 million offer on the table for Jeter's agent Casey Close. But it seems that particular table needs to get a little larger to hold the amount of cash Close believes his client is worth. And what is Jeter's recent worth, as established by the same Yankee front office that is currently playing cat to his mouse?

Derek Jeter just completed a 10 year $189 million contract to patrol the left side of New York's infield, including a $21 million paycheck in 2010. That would be why the Yankees' offer of $15 million a year (for three years) might seem insulting to the Jeter camp. (To put it into better perspective, if I were to be given a $6 million pay cut I would first have to immediately go to hundreds of job interviews, be quickly hired to several dozen full time jobs, then take massive salary cuts from all of them. Even then, I would owe an additional $5.2 million.)

Then out of nowhere, in the middle of these delicate negotiations, the Wall Street Journal's Brian Costa reported that San Francisco Giants General Manager Brian Sabean had "contacted" Casey Close about Jeter. It is well-known in the baseball world that San Francisco is in need of a shortstop, and that was true even before the Giants' beloved free agent infielder Juan Uribe jumped ship and put his DNA on the dotted line to become a Los Angeles Dodger. What, the Taliban didn't have an opening in their infield so Uribe resorted to this?

The Giants contacting Jeter is extremely interesting, and not because there is any chance they might actually sign the wayward Jeter. San Francisco couldn't begin to pay half the $45 million offer Derek Jeter and Casey Close blew their noses on and carefully inserted into the nearest shredder. No, the Giants were not shopping; Brian Sabean was giving a professional nod to his early baseball roots and to a player he originally helped scout and sign.

Sabean made his bones with the Yankee organization in the 1980s and early 1990s, first as scouting director, then as vice president of player development. He was instrumental in drafting a high school player from Kalamazoo, Michigan in 1992 named Derek Jeter. It was the find of a lifetime, and solidified his resume as an up an coming general manager. But before the Yankees gave him that opportunity the Giants grabbed Sabean in 1993; he became Giants GM in 1996.

Sabean's call to Casey Close? The last thing most GMs want is for the sports media to get any inside information about who is calling whom about what, especially the hyper-secretive Sabean. So when the media found out about the call to Casey Close, it was certainly no accident. It has all the earmarks of a professional gesture to Derek Jeter, to show the aging shortstop he is not forgotten as he struggles with the most difficult contract negotiations of his career. A rare show of support from a GM on one team to a player on another, recalling and honoring a time when they were both just starting out on a very tough road.

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