And finally!

Alright, here it is, finally, my take on the 2010 Giants infield:

Third base:
Let's state the obvious: Pablo Sandoval is awesome. He's more comfortable defensively at 3rd (moving him to 1st would be terrible) and, if he can be slightly more selective in what he swings at this season, he can hit 30-35 HRs. He'll be incredibly fun to watch and an All-Star contender. Backing him up, I believe, will be Ryan Rohlinger. Ryan had some time in the majors last season (only 26 At-bats) and, at 26, needs to prove he can make it as a big leaguer.

Shortstop:
SS is one of the most important positions on the field. Defensively, offensively, the SS should anchor the team. The Giants lack a really great shortstop. Edgar Renteria, coming off a career-low in average and a .970 fielding percentage, needs to be vastly improved if he wants to anchor the infield and, at age 35, this seems unlikely. The good news for the Giants is that they have the versatile Juan Uribe to back up Renteria (or to possibly take over starting, should Edgar struggle like he did this past year). Uribe will be 31 on Opening Day and is coming off his best average since his rookie season and he was 3rd on the team with 16 HRs last year, providing some much-needed power. Uribe should be starting shortstop this year, but expect him to take over down the stretch.

Second base:
Freddy Sanchez will be missed to start the season (when he's healthy, he provides excellent offensive pop). However, expect either Uribe or a youngster to start at 2nd for the start of 2010. This can be good news for Giants fans as Uribe is quite capable (See above) and it's fun to watch young kids get a shot at the big leagues. My money is on Kevin Frandsen to make the starting roster for 2nd base. While Frandsen has failed to impressive in his limited time in the big leagues (1 at-bats in 2008, 50 in 2009), he is a solid infielder who, I believe, will really thrive with some consistency. He's quick, has smooth hands defensively (he can turn a double play like it's poetry), and brings some pop to the plate. Whether he gets the chance to prove himself this season, however, remains to be seen. But he's a local kid and people like him, so let's hope for the best.

First base:
This is the infield position that is the most frustrating (for now). The Giants acquired Aubrey Huff to play first base (pushing DeRosa into unknown territory in left field, and going a little overboard on the infielders), thus pushing Travis Ishikawa onto the bench and possibly ending his career as a starter. Now, Huff does intrigue me offensively, but defensively he is a train wreck. Exhibit A: his first spring training game this season. He hits a HR and then proceeds to make an error later that same game. This is Huff's game in a nutshell. He may provide more power than Ishi (he hit 15 last year, but only 2 after the all-star break), but he also hit in a better ballpark then Ishikawa (who hit 9 HRs last year, 7 of them coming at the difficult AT&T park). Ishikawa also had 210 fewer at-bats and bested Huff in average, slugging percentage, and on-base percentage in 2009. Defensively, Ishikawa wins a Gold Glove at 1st if he plays every day, while Huff is a liability. In the latest way to measure a player's value, the Ultimate Zone Rating (The number of runs above or below average a fielder is in both range runs and error runs combined) (http://www.fangraphs.com/blogs/index.php/uzr-on-fangraphs/), Ishikawa blows Huff away. Huff has a -6.8 rating, which Ishi stays in the positive at +8.1. (to compare, San Diego's Adrian Gonzalez has a rating of +3.8).

Just something to think about, next time Ishikawa is getting bashed.

Catcher:
There's not a lot to say on the position of catcher. Molina is an ok guy to have behind the plate for April-May, when his production will be good. However, after that, he'll start to break down, similar to last year. (He batted .300 in march-april and then struggled to get above .275 the rest of the season, finishing with a .265 average for the year). The biggest hope is that he will gracefully step aside when it's time for Posey to take over as the starting catcher (which will be mid-season, Posey does not need another full year in the minors). Defensively, Posey is ready now and will be a vast improvement on Molina when he takes over (watching Molina trying to throw out a stealing base-runner from July on last year was painful). All in all, nothing we can do about it. Molina will play probably through June, and then it'll be time to usher in the Posey era (thank goodness)!


There you have it, the final pieces of the 2010 San Francisco Giants.

Ishikawa at first base, that's all I'm saying...

Jen