When Giants third baseman Pablo Sandoval went down two weeks ago with a broken bone in his left hand two things happened: San Francisco lost the heart of their offense, and the organization's lack of infield depth at the Major and upper Minor League levels was almost immediately exposed.

To replace Sandoval the front office called up Conor Gillaspie, their number one third base prospect at Triple A Fresno.

Not only was Gillaspie unable to get his bat going (6 games, 20 ABs, .150AVG), it became clear he did not have a Major League-caliber arm. Several of Gillaspie's routine plays were much closer than they should have been, and he simply didn't appear to have the afterburner arm needed to get outs when throwing off-balance or charging bunts.

Eventually extra infielder Joaquin Arias was tabbed to take over at third base until Sandoval returns. Arias has filled in very well defensively and on this team his .250 BA makes him an offensive god in the batting order.  

At second base it appears that Freddy Sanchez may be rehabbing through the rest of his contract. Ryan Theriot (.217) and Emmanuel Burriss (.221) have shown little either defensively or offensively.

So to fix second base, the Giants brought up Charlie Culberson from Triple A Fresno, who in a very small sample size is hitting .091 in 3 games, with 11 ABs and 4 SOs. But Culberson is not the long range solution at second base for San Francisco-- a guy named Joe Panik will likely fill that role.

Minor League hitting machine Joe Panik is playing shortstop at Single A Salem-Keizer and is putting up serious numbers: .346AVG/.401OBP/.868OPS. Panik is several years away from the Majors and a college injury will likely mean he joins the big team as a second baseman.

It's true that minor league shortstops Nick Noonan, 23, at Fresno (.314/.369/.768), and Ehire Adrianza, 22, at AA Richmond, have at times shown promise either at the plate (Noonan) or with the glove (Adrianza). And Chris Dominguez at AA Richmond has great potential as a third baseman with power.

But here's the 400 pound reality check in the room: there are simply no immediate upgrades available to Bruce Bochy at those three critical infield positions.

Management started the 2012 season giving shortstop Brandon Crawford a reluctant pass on his hitting in order to bring his outstanding glove to the Giants' infield. Crawford has fulfilled the hitting part of the bargain (.225 BA, .275 OBP) but hasn't found a consistent defensive groove.

Crawford clanked 8 errors in the first month and a half of the season, but my guess is he settles down and that glove starts to get consistent and routinely spectacular real soon.

[There's seems to be an epidemic of shortstop errors in the National League-- the Cubs' Starlin Castro has 8 errors, LA's Dee Gordon has 9 errors, and the otherwise incredible Troy Tulowitzki has 7 errors. Go figure.]

What the Giants' minor league system is producing is a lot of really promising outfielders (Gary Brown, Francisco Peguero, Roger Kieschnick) and catchers (Hector Sanchez, Tommy Joseph, Andrew Susac).

If the long range plan is to put Buster Posey at first base, you can start to see in the direction San Francisco will need to go to upgrade the infield: trading some number of Major League prospects, like Brandon Belt, Hector Sanchez, or maybe Brett Pill, as well as some number of the above named minor league outfielders and catchers. 
 
For now, San Francisco is a team desperately treading water. In the twelve games played since Sandoval was put on the DL San Francisco hitters have managed only a .248 BA and scored an average of 3.33 runs per game-- usually a recipe for 4-8 record. The Minnesota Twins are averaging 3.31 runs per game which has earned them 10 wins and 26 losses so far this season-- the worst record in baseball.

But the Giants are 6-6 in those twelve games, yet another example of how dominant pitching can help compensate for a batting line-up that cannot score runs. With the Panda out for another four weeks, this is a team waiting for a winning streak and trying to stay relevant in the NL West.

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San Francisco Giant fans are busy searching for just the right disaster metaphor to describe how badly the first month and a half of the 2012 season has gone for their beloved Gigantes. You can join in, and it's loads of fun!

Create your own catastrophic image of the 2012 Giants' season by using combinations of the following classic disaster elements: the arrival of Godzilla in Tokyo, the 1906 San Francisco earthquake, the Nixon presidency, or any number of zombies-roaming-the-earth scenarios. And I believe that Federal law mandates that you must throw in one gratuidous Titanic reference.
   
Don't get me wrong, I love San Francisco fans, but there is a small minority out there whose apparent enthusiastic use of medication makes them repeatedly dial sports talk radio hosts and bloviate uncontrollably about how doomed the Giants are at any given moment.

Sports talk callers frequently use those 50,000 kilowatts to display profound mid and long term memory loss combined with an inability to understand any statistics beyond batting average and how many contestants are left on "American Idol" this week.

So whenever the Giants lose a game the talkshow airwaves are once again filled with "why don't they play Brett Pill play everyday because he can really hit the ball" (.234BA); or, "Nate Schierholtz is a great ballplayer because he has a such strong arm" (Nate the Great's base running and defense has single-handedly contributed to at least two losses this season); and "why doesn't Brian Sabean just trade Steve Edlefsen and Emmanuel Burriss to the Yankees for Robinson Cano?".

The basic question out there is, as of May 14, 2012 are the Giants in fact a crunchy and frequently buttered breakfast food often enjoyed with juice or coffee?

Not hardly, pilgrim. Success, as someone should have have said, has a million sperm donors; defeat is an orphan with outstanding felony warrants and untreatable STDs. At least on sports talk radio.

Sure, the San Francisco Giants have gone through difficult times this year-- run scoring is harder to find than a spotted owl, the defense smells like it's several months past its use-by date, and the pitching seems to cough up runs at all the wrong moments. But as bad as things have been, it's not time to start elbowing the women and children off the lifeboats just yet.

Because the story so far is a lot more positive than it may appear.

After losing their best hitter, Pablo Sandoval, for 6 weeks with a broken bone in his hand; after seeing lefty bullpen mainstay Jeremy Affeldt go down with an injury for two weeks; as the wait for former NL batting champ Freddy Sanchez to return from rehab continues for months; and after the team's ace Tim Lincecum has tanked in to the tune of 2 wins 3 losses, a 1.58 WHIP and 39 hits with 19 walks in 36.2 IP...   after all that, guess what?

The Giants are 17-17 and a mere 6 games behind the hottest team in baseball-- the 23-11 Los Angeles Dodgers. San Francisco just finished a 3-3 road trip and players like Melky Cabrera, Gregor Blanco and Joaquin Arias are stoking up.

Sometimes it's best to go against Van Morrison's advice and just turn off your radio. With 128 games to go there's plenty of time to put this season into drive and start lapping the field.

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The San Francisco Giants have apparently found a cure for run scoring fever. Apparently it involves getting a lot of rest during every half inning of every game, and making more frequent visits to the medical clinic.

The numbers, as they often do, speak volumes: the first 16 games of the season saw the Giants scoring 4.44 runs per game, a full run per game higher than their disastrous 2011 offense produced.

Even San Francisco’s modest 9-7 record after game 16 put the team on a promising 91 win pace. But the last 8 games have seen the runs dribble down to 2.75 per game and a predictable 3-5 win/loss record.

At the same time injury and medical problems have turned the bullpen inside out, kept Freddy Sanchez from starting his 2012 season, and put Aubrey Huff on the shelf for at least several weeks.   

But save crossing your fingers for Pablo Sandoval’s hand injury. In last night’s 10th inning 3-2 loss to the Marlins, Sandoval left the game after the 6th inning with “severe pain” in his left hand.

One year ago today, May 3, 2011, Sandoval broke the hamate bone in his right hand and missed six weeks. Sandoval leads the Giants with 30 hits. To say this could be very bad doesn’t even scratch the surface of massive understatement.

Update: And it's a very bad update. Sandoval broke the bone in his left hand; surgery scheduled for this Friday; Pablo's out for six weeks. And that's a major blow for the team.

On another front, the Giants have played the denial card following the loss of closer Brian Wilson. Fill-in Santiago Casilla does a fairly good impression of a closer, but his former spot in the bullpen has not been filled. And Jeremy Affeldt’s latest domestic injury has left the pen in dominoes-falling disarray.

(Historic note: no team since the emergence of the modern bullpen in the late 1980s has achieved post season success with a “closer by committee” strategy. Bottom line: the Giants will have to go out and get a closer by the July trade deadline.) 

On the offensive side of this very bad nickel is former uber-god Nate Schierholtz who has found his normal offensive comfort zone with a .262 BA and a .290 OBP. Schierholtz had one good two week period in 2011, and looks like he may have used that up already in 2012.

Brandon Belt is contributing with a .273 BA and .360 OBP, but the Giants continue to treat Belt like he just got his drivers’ license, playing him in only 75% of games so far this season.

Sandoval, Buster Posey (.342 BA/.975 OPS), and Melky Cabrera (.293 BA, leads the team with 10 walks) are the mainstays of the offense so far. Lead-off hitter Angel Pagan is starting to show more plate discipline and surprising power, and he will be the key to reigniting the San Francisco offense.

Difficult times call for a simple solution: score more runs. See? Problem solved (and you're welcome).

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No one can know what professional athletes go through to achieve the highest level in any sport. It obviously has a lot to do with how they grew up, with having extraordinary talent and knowing how to develop it, and with bringing complete commitment. Squared.

And sometimes, even all that is not enough.

On Monday April 23rd, Aubrey Huff of the San Francisco Giants mysteriously left the team for what was termed a “family emergency”. From the start of the 2012 season, baseball fans and sports writers could see that Huff was having a difficult time at the plate and in the field. This after signing a large contract following the Giants 2010 Championship season, then putting up subpar numbers in 2011.

But no one knew how tough things really were.

Giants Manager Bruce Bochy announced today that Huff is on the 15 day DL and that he would be receiving treatment for an anxiety attack. The Giants are hopeful Aubrey Huff will returning to the team within a week and continue his treatment.

In February 2006, Milwaukee Brewers starting pitcher Zack Greinke, then with the Kansas City Royals, went out for the season after he was diagnosed with social anxiety disorder (SAD) and depression. Greinke was treated by a sports psychologist and received anti-depressant medication.

Since returning to baseball, Zack Greinke has excelled and reestablished his professional career.

Last Saturday in a late inning tight game against the New York Mets, Giants’ Manager Bruce Bochy ran out of infielders. Huff was moved from first base to second base—a position he had never played before. On a potential double play ball hit to shortstop Brandon Crawford, Huff failed to cover second base. The Mets rallied and eventually won the game.
  
The pressures of performing on a national stage under intense media scrutiny can be daunting. Add to that the demanding expectations players put on themselves and it is amazing that more pro athletes aren’t affected by anxiety or depression. And always in the background are the stresses inherent in everyday life.

Here’s hoping Aubrey Huff works through his stuff and gets on the other side of a serious and difficult medical condition. I’m rooting for him even harder now than I ever did watching him play baseball.

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Look What’s Happened
The San Francisco Giants have won five of their first six series to start the 2012 season, culminating in physically muscling 3 out of 4 games against the New York Mets in delightful Citi Field this past weekend.

Three developments early on in the current campaign bode extremely well for San Francisco, and not so good for the rest of the National League.

1. This team has consistently hit and scored runs from jump. The Giants even scored 14 runs in their three straight losses to the Arizona Diamondbacks at the start of the 2012 season. It was clear even in the middle of that mess that something was different this year.

They are plating an average of 4.44 runs per game and are currently 15th of 30 MLB team in run scoring with 71. The uptick in runs scored has already provided huge support to the starting pitchers, who were quietly grinding their teeth the past three years while going through endless 1-0, 3-2, and 4-3 losses.

2. After a shaky start the starting pitching has gotten its act together.  

The opening series with Arizona was a bizarro world nightmare in which Tim Lincecum and Madison Bumgarner lost the first two games against the Snakes, and Matt Cain gave up 5 earned runs in 6 innings, allowing Arizona to complete the sweep. Plus, fourth starter Ryan Vogelsong was still rehabbing and not yet in the rotation.

Now all that seems like it happened two years ago.

Barry Zito followed the grateful getaway from Arizona with a stunning complete game shutout of the Colorado Rockies in Denver. Since Zito’s masterpiece the Giants have gone 9-4. And after two starts, Ryan Vogelsong has a 3.38 ERA and a 1.05 WHIP. The ship is righted and steaming forward at high speed.

3. The defense has settled down.

Through the first two series with Arizona and Colorado, the Giants made 9 errors-- 8 of those in the infield. Brandon Crawford and Buster Posey, who were expected to bring defensive excellence, led the anti-webgem parade.

The Giants are still tied with Baltimore and San Diego the most MLB errors (19), but the defense is getting its footing back.

Nothing brought this home better than the double play pulled off by second baseman Emmanuel Burriss and shortstop Brandon Crawford against the Mets in the 5th inning of Tim Lincecum’s first win of 2012.

With the bases loaded and one out, the Mets’ Ike Davis hit a streaking ground ball up the middle that Burriss somehow got to and backhanded as he lunged for the ball. He flipped the ball up with his glove to Brandon Crawford, who picked it out of the air with his bare hand on the bag at second, then fired to first base to complete the double play.

The real amazing part of that play for me was that Burriss' throw was a little high, and when Crawford reached up to catch it the ball actually hit his wrist. In a heartbeat, Crawford calmly let the ball slide up to his hand and into throwing position. An incredible no way double play.

Nate Schierholtz
I have long been a strong advocate of Nate Schierholtz, and I have to take credit for discovering him several years ago. [Just kidding, of course.]

I have actually been critical of the Giants for sticking with Schierholtz if that in any way keeps Brandon Belt from playing. The so-called Aubrey Huff-Belt controversy is a mcguffin—the Giants planned to stick with Huff for a while because of his $11.5m contract. Which means either Belt or Schierholtz plays.

I continue to believe the Giants are tip-toeing around Belt’s development too carefully—Belt needs at-bats and the Giants need him to get at-bat experience.

Having said that, Nate Schierholtz has caught fire in a way he has never done in his career. Schierholtz had a nice two week period last season, but this is something different.

So far in 2012, Schierholtz has a .372 AVG, a .404 OBP and a 1.148 OPS. He has 7 extra base hits (XBH), including 3 triples, and 9 RBI. Stunning.

I bow to the god that is Nate Schierholtz and present a burnt offering of rare John Bowker baseball cards.

Panda
This has all the appearances of the season Pablo Sandoval breaks out into the offensive upper stratosphere.

To watch his at-bats is the definition of excitement. The approach at the plate, the powerful swing, the ability to excel with two strikes, and the ability to create runs is breathtaking this season.

Some numbers: .545 SLG, .333 AVG, 13 RBI, tied for 9th in MLB with 22 hits. Sandoval is hitting .421 when he’s ahead in the count, .286 when he’s behind in the count. And has a .398 RISP.

In the 1st inning of the second game with the Mets yesterday, Sandoval hit an upper deck two run home run. His swing was powerful and majestic, arms extended, hips and legs turned, a moment of pure baseball joy.

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Of course it's early, but so far the numbers are stark and they are not pleasant: ten games played, four wins and six losses, 45 runs scored, 48 runs against. Tied for third place in the National League West with the Colorado Rockies. Oh, and just for the record the Los Angeles Dodgers are 9-1 with a 17 run differential (50 RS, 33 RA).

We might as well throw in the other bad news: closer Brian Wilson is out for the season facing his second Tommy John surgery to repair his injured elbow. And Giants ace starter Tim Lincecum is now 0-2 with 22 hits and 16 runs allowed in 13.2 IP; that's a 1.90 WHIP and a 10.54 ERA. Lincecum has given up 9 first inning runs in his three starts this year; last year he gave up only 8 first inning runs in 33 starts. 

Last but not least, the San Francisco Giants lead the Majors with 14 errors so far in 2012 (14 teams have 5 or less errors).

Even a casual observer from northern Canada would note that several wheels have come off the bus. But let’s not start selling our garlic fry stock portfolios just yet: the bus hasn't even approached on on-ramp to the freeway that is the 2012 season, so there’s plenty of time to make repairs.

The San Francisco Giants are a smart organization with money to spend (more on that later), so the bus will be jacked up, new wheels will be attached and all the passengers will be served delicious snacks. [OK, I'll stop with the bus metaphors. But be forewarned I fully intend to use bus metaphors throughout the 2012 season in these pages. And I further plan to excessively use a variety of bus metaphors in many other areas of my personal life.]

This is the part of the blog where you would expect a list all the positive stuff that’s happened so far. You know, to create that sense of balance and perspective that would hopefully disassociate me from the “Brett-Pill-needs-to-play-everyday” angry crowd with their Nate Schierholtz signs and dim torches.

But things are better than that: this team is going to do very well in 2012 once they get their footing. There’s no way to rationalize Brian Wilson (36 saves, 6-4, 54 SO in 55 IP in 2011) being out for the season—until the Giants solve the closer problem it will threaten to disrupt what might be baseball’s best bullpen. Put Santiago Casilla in the closer role and you now need to replace him, and so on and so on.

Minor league pitching monster Heath Hembree is at Triple A Fresno (4 games, 4 IP, 2 saves, 1-0, 0.75 WHIP), but it would be out of character for the front office to bring him up to replace Wilson. The Giants tread very softly around player development and probably for good reason. Bring Hembree up too soon, have him crash and burn, and you could do serious damage to his confidence.

That doesn't mean Hembree couldn’t join the bullpen and replace, say, Casilla-- but it’s unlikely. The Giants need to get a new closer and they will have to work on a trade to get that done. And it needs get done sooner than later.

For a team that needed to score more runs in 2012, Giants’ hitters have come through spectacularly so far: 4.5 runs per game this season. Contrast that with 2011, 3.51 runs per game; 2010, 4.30 runs; 2009, 4.05 runs; and 2008, 3.95 runs.

Although 2012 is too small a sample to make any serious predictions, if San Francisco hitters happen to maintain that .99 increase above 2011 it would equal 160 more runs scored in 2012. Which will win a lot of baseball games.

This team is hitting and scoring runs. But what they are not doing so far in 2012 is driving in runners in scoring position (RISP). The Toronto Blue Jays lead the Majors with a .362 RISP average; the Giants are 23rd overall with a .202 RISP.

But early on, San Francisco is 12^th in MLB run scoring with 45; St. Louis leads the Majors with 57 RS. If the line-up can sustain their RS totals anywhere from 15th-20th overall it would be more than enough to support the starting staff and bullpen the rest of the way. Eventually the RISP numbers should begin to increase along the way.

The other huge impact on this team early in 2012 is ownership’s bold moves to wrap up key players in medium-term and long-term contracts. Lincecum is locked in for 2012-13; which will give him plenty of time to work out his mechanics and demonstrate his value for a longer term deal. Starter Ryan Vogelsong was signed for 2012-13 at $8.3m, and Pablo Sandoval took a three year deal 2012-14 for $17.5m.

Matt Cain’s monster deal keeps him pitching at AT&T Park through at least 2017, and the Giants recently secured 22-year-old starter Madison Bumgarner’s services through 2017 by agreeing to a $35m deal. The San Francisco Chronicle’s John Shea reported the front office has contacted agents for both Buster Posey and Tim Lincecum concerning contract extensions.

The critical core of the team that won the 2010 World Series is being preserved by GM Brian Sabean and President Larry Baer, which means this team will be in post season contention now and for years to come. That puts the Giants’ 4-6 start into a much better perspective. I mean, doesn't it?

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The San Francisco Giants finished Spring Training 2012 with a real sense of needing to get some unfinished business done. With a year's retrospect, it's clear last year's follow-up season to winning the World Championship in 2010 was poorly designed and directed. But coming out of the Cactus League this year, it appears the front office has improved the 25 man roster in several critical offensive categories. 

And for the umpteenth time, last year's debacle was not caused by Buster Posey's injury in May-- after Buster went down the Giants spent the next two plus months in first place. They ended up hitting a large wall in early August because the line-up simply couldn't produce runs, because they were again hobbled by signing a number of over-the-hill veterans on the verge of retirement, and because the up-the-middle defense was astoundingly poor. August? It's amazing they held on that long.      
    
Now it's time to get back into the thick of attacking the National League with baseball's best pitching staff and stomping boldly into the post season. The primary goal will be to send the rest of the League back to their expensively-designed living rooms to watch the 2012 World Series on a 60" high def TV.

The off-season extensions of Tim Lincecum, Matt Cain and Ryan Vogelsong sent a clear message that San Francisco's pitching dominance has only just begun. When Madison Bumgarner starts to reach his potential in 2012 and 2013, he could pass them all up. And that pitching dominance no longer has to depend solely on developing talent in the minors. The Giants' front office moved into the big market-big money category several years ago and is now more than capable of diving into free agency to pick up just about any available starter in the coming years.

Thanks to a serious attempt to add some offensive punch, 2012 should be all about extra base hits and scoring runs in bunches. Melky Cabrera, Brandon Belt, Pablo Sandoval, and a full year of Buster Posey can make that happen. And if the front office gets out of his way, Belt could be a run manufacturing machine for the next ten years.

Other additions to the final 2012 roster show that GM Brian Sabean is all in with offense: newcomers Gregor Blanco and Angel Pagan, minor league star Brett Pill, and back-up catcher Hector Sanchez are all expected to yank San Francisco from the bottom of the run scoring pile to the middle of the pack.

The front office inexplicably decided to hold on to back-up outfielder Nate Schierholtz, who appears completely at odds with the new make-up of this team. A right fielder with little power and a near sub-average career OPS, Schierholtz should be moved off the active roster one way or the other once Freddy Sanchez is activated. With starting left fielder Aubrey Huff listed as an infielder, the team would have been better served taking Joaquin Arias and his excellent infield glove north instead of Schierholtz.       

In the next two months we will have an idea if this Giants team will score runs. If San Francisco can move from 29th in MLB runs scored last season to somewhere near 15th overall in 2012, they will dominate again.

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As reported by Ken Rosenthal of FOX Sports and Henry Schulman of the San Francisco Chronicle, the Giants just inked starting pitcher Matt Cain to a $127.5 million contract extension through 2017. Cain's contract set an all time record for right-handed pitchers signing a multi-year deal; he will average $21.25 million a year throughout the term of the contract.

Matt Cain was scheduled to finish a three year $27.25m contract extension in 2012, earning $15m this season. Both sides agreed to drop the final year on that contract so that a $5m signing bonus could be added to the $15m base salary, which actually makes this a six year deal from 2012-2017. 

Matt Cain will get a $15m salary in 2012 plus the $5m signing bonus, and then receive $20m a year from 2013 through 2017. There is a club option in 2018 for $21m if specific inning numbers are met in 2016-17, or a $7.5m contract buyout.

As noted in a number of news stories on Cain's signing he has put up excellent, workman-like numbers in his seven year career as a Giant starter. Cain sports a 1.196 career WHIP and posted five consecutive 200 inning seasons from 2007 through 2011. Since 2005, his first year in the big leagues, opposing hitters have averaged .227 with a .660 OPS in Cain's starts and his ERA stands at 3.35.  

During the Giants World Championship run in 2010, Matt Cain had three starts, pitched 21.1 innings, gave up no earned runs (1 unearned run) and posted a victory over the Phillies in the NLCS and a win over the Texas Rangers in the World Series.

What is less universally highlighted is that Cain has a sub-.500 career win-loss record: 69 wins and 73 losses. Credit the Giants' lack of offense for that anomaly. As recently as ten years ago, before advanced statistical analysis of actual player performance was recognized by the MLB establishment, a losing record alone would have likely been a disqualifier for any pitcher seeking a multi-year high end contract.

Matt Cain's performance numbers would have made him a prime free agent target after the 2012 season for teams like the New York Yankees, the LA Dodgers, and the Chicago Cubs.

Two comparisons: 1) Contract structures-- Matt Cain vs. Barry Zito; and, 2) Matt Cain's numbers compared to Cole Hamels of the Philadelphia Phillies. Cain's high loss total is a direct result of the poor offensive support he has received throughout his Giants' career.

Hamels received a one year contract extension in 2012 for $15 and is expecting a multi-year contract offer similar to Cain's from Philadelphia. If the Phillies don't sign him, Hamels becomes a free agent at the end of this season. No doubt the Yankees, Dodgers, and Cubs are hoping that deal will not get done.
 
                           

	Contract term	Total salary	Highest salary year	Extension/buy out year	Career win-loss at signing
Barry Zito	7 years 2007-2013	$126m	2013 $20m	2014   $18m or $7m buyout	102-63
Matt Cain	6 years 2012-2017	$127.5m	2013-17 $20m	2018   $21m or $7.5m buyout	69-73
	Career W/L	Career WHIP	Career IP	Career SO/BB	Post season win-loss WHIP
Cole Hamels	74-54	1.141	1,161.1	1,091 / 292	7-4  1.053
Matt Cain	69-73	1.196	1,317.1	1,085 / 473	2-0   .938

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The final player picks to make the San Francisco Giants' roster out of Spring Training just shifted into sharper focus. 

Jayson Stark of ESPN, via MLB Trade Rumors, reported that the San Francisco Giants are openly shopping infielders Ryan Theriot and Mike Fontenot to potential buyers. Theriot was signed for $1.32m in the off-season and Fontenot was extended to the tune of $1.05m for 2012. The Giants have five days to trade the veteran infielders before the team faces the prospect of having to cut both players in order to save paying 75% of their salaries.

It is no secret that the Philadelphia Phillies' infield situation has dramatically deteriorated with chronic injuries sidelining second baseman Chase Utley, first baseman Ryan Howard and third baseman Placido Polanco. Fontenot and/or Theriot could be valuable placeholders for Philadelphia through the first month of the season as they attempt to sort out, and maybe rebuild, their crumbling infield.

For the Giants, this almost certainly means Emmanuel Burriss and Brad Pill will make the team out of Scottsdale. Pill, who can play at first, third and in the outfield, has a .915 OPS in 18 Spring games and will add right handed pop from the bench. Burriss, who plays short and second, is batting .436 in 17 games and his fielding has markedly improved over last year.

By moving Theriot and Fontenot, the Giants will demonstrate their total commitment to Brandon Crawford as the starting shortstop-- for the first time in over fifteen years, there are no high priced veteran shortstops padding the roster.

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On another note:
As of today, Giants' starting right fielder Nate Schierholtz is batting .216 (8 for 37) in 13 Spring games. In the Friday March 23rd game against Texas, Aubrey Huff started in left field. To date, Brandon Belt is batting .333 after 16 games in the desert.

Let’s hope San Francisco's front office has actually moved on from the absurdity of making Schierholtz the starting right fielder and sending Brandon Belt to Fresno. If Huff is going to produce at the plate, let's find that out by starting him in left field, moving Melky Cabrera to right and playing Belt every day at first base.

As I said in a blog about a month ago: this was never a question about Huff vs. Belt in the line-up. It's always been about Schierholtz vs. Belt. And that's an easy one to answer.

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In the fifteen years from 1993 to 2007, the San Francisco Giants front office slowly developed and carved into stone a draft strategy that focused on pitching. The organization was all in with a philosophy that assigned extreme value to pitching through a series of risk-reward formulas and assumptions which would bring the Giants success but also result in years of deferred minor league position player development.

The core idea was smart and it was based on several foundational principals: first, pitching wins ballgames. There's a reason the cliche "you can't have enough pitching" is one of the smartest things anyone can say about the game. Player injuries and endless issues with mechanics mean the assembly line has to produce arms.

Last and hardly least, nothing brings value to even a routine trade with another team than the addition of pitching. It is the frosting on any MLB transactional cake.   

The Giants could concentrate on pitching because they had locked up an elite offensive chip no other baseball team could match: Barry Bonds. For years the idea was to construct a series of teams with a viable supporting cast of hitters around Bonds. Jeff Kent (1997), Ellis Burks (2000), Reggie Sanders (2002), Marquis Grissom and Jose Cruz (2003) were among the many veteran players General Manager Brian Sabean cherry picked in support of the Bonds offense.

Placing an emphasis on drafting pitchers allowed the Giants to both develop their own starters (Russ Ortiz, Shawn Estes), and trade cheap young pitching for more expensive veteran pitchers (Ryan Vogelsong for Pittsburgh's Jason Schmidt, Mark Leiter for the Expos' Kirk Rueter, etc.).

As the Bonds era came to a close, the Giants were still picking pitchers in the draft-- including Tim Lincecum (2006), Madison Bumgarner and Tim Alderson (2007), and eight of the first twelve picks in the 2008 draft. 

But there were virtually no position players of value being developed in the minors with lasting Major League skills. The team attempted to sell Giant fans on a series of subpar home grown hitters (Pedro Feliz, John Bowker, Travis Ishikawa, Fred Lewis among others) and peppered batting line-ups with veteran castoffs (Ray Durham, Ryan Klesko, Edgardo Alfonso, Dave Roberts to name a few).

Finally the San Francisco front office made a huge shift in philosophy and began to address the need to develop position players in their system. In particular, the last three player drafts were seminal moments for the franchise as a slew of position players with legitimate offensive tools began populating the minor league system (C Tommy Joseph, 3B Chris Dominguez, and 1B Brandon Belt in 2009; CF Gary Brown, CF Jarrett Parker, and SS Carter Jurica, 2010; 2B Joe Panik and C Andrew Susac in 2011).

Which bring us to:

2012 Question #2: The Giants' front office has proven they can identify, quickly develop, and pull the trigger on bringing quality pitching up to the big club. Can they do the same with a crop of promising young position players?

Don't hold your breath. Recent history points to Giants management being overly cautious and slow to turn over spots in the batting order to rookie hitters, no matter how much potential they've shown.

It may be that the front office can't fully shake their pitchers-first focus, or it may simply be that Giants GM Brian Sabean and his brain trust have been in their jobs longer than any other front office team and they are just a very deliberate group.

Sabean will likely move up to an executive position with the Giants' organization in the future, but until that time the longest tenured GM in baseball sets the time table for when young hitters finally arrive at AT&T Park. And those trains run slow.

The reason this question comes up in the 2012 season is that 2013 could potentially see two or three rookie position players ready for permanent lockers in San Francisco. It will be critical to bring them up before September to experience a pennant drive and get the one thing Triple A can't provide: Major League at-bats.

All eyes are on the speedy Gary Brown who appears to be the Giants' long-term solution at lead-off and in center field. But even if newly-signed outfielder/lead-off man Angel Pagan totally tanks in the first half of 2012 the Giants will look to solve that problem with a trade rather than bring Brown up.

It's much smarter to leave Brown in Triple A Fresno to get a full year of minor league at-bats at the highest level. At the end of the season the front office will have a much better idea if Gary Brown is ready to open 2013 as San Francisco's starting center fielder.

A better promotion would be slugging outfielder Francisco Peguero, who has a .779 OPS (.312 BA) in six minor league seasons and brings something to the show that Gary Brown does not: a potential power bat. If Brandon Belt takes over at first base, if Aubrey Huff continues his offensive decline, and if Nate Schierholtz continues to be just a great fourth outfielder, expect to see Peguero in the Giants outfield somewhere around the All Star break.

This is a great time for the Giants' organization and Giants fans. A sea change is just around the corner which will bring a whole new look to San Francisco's infield and outfield and give the front office some legitimate trading chips over the next several years.

Let's hope the Giants' organization is bold enough to proactively manage the upcoming talent surge and not be left standing indecisively behind it.

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