Article:SF Giants: 40 Days and Counting.....

The Holiday season has come and gone, which means Spring training is just around the corner. The Giants official reporting date hasn't been announced, but pitchers and catchers are expected to be in Scottsdale on February 15th with the first full squad workout scheduled for February 20th. Brian Sabean has been MIA since the Aaron Rowand signing and their isn't much off-season left to make upgrades to the worst team in the division. There still are glaring holes that need to be addressed. They must decide what they are going to do at the corner infield spots and unless they have confidence in Jack Taschner and Randy Messenger miraculously turning into solid relievers, they have work to do with the bullpen as well. They also need another hitter in the middle of the lineup. If the season started right now, Bengie Molina would be the cleanup hitter by default, with Randy Winn and Aaron Rowand surrounding him. Not exactly the most intimidating 3-4-5 hitters out there. Actually, if the Giants decide to stand pat with this current squad, this could end up being the worst offensive team in all of baseball. They were bad last year with Barry Bonds playing 140 games, now they have no Barry to lean on.

There aren't exactly a bunch of options out there as far as young productive hitting corner infielders, which is the Giants biggest need at the moment. Bochy and Sabean have given a vote of confidence to Dan Ortmeier and it seems like they are willing to give him a shot at first base this year. I don't have a problem with that at all, and I'd like the Giants to also consider trying Schierholtz at first base at some point this year. However, they are going to have to go outside the organization for a 3rd basemen. Kevin Frandsen and Rich Aurilia are the current in-house options but Frandsen is way better suited for second base and it's tough to consider Aurilia a full-time starter at this point in his career. Dallas McPherson, Joe Crede, Scott Rolen, Ande Marte, Edwin Encarnacion and of course Pedro Feliz are the 3rd base candidates that have been linked to the Giants. I was hoping for some sort of Dave Roberts/Pat Misch for Joe Crede trade all offseason long, but it's doubtful the White Sox are still pursuing outfielders after acquiring Nick Swisher. Encarnacion seems like a longshot because the Reds are overvaluing him. McPhereson would be in interesting low risk, high reward type player that could fit nicely with this team. He could play first or third and even though he's been injured for much of the past 3 years, he still has more upside than any of the other mentioned candidates. I just hope Feliz's time in SF has come to an end, no matter who they decide to replace him with. The team knows what they would get in Feliz, they don't know what they'd get in a healthy McPherson, Crede or Marte which is why I would much rather take a shot on one of them over rolling with Feliz again.

The San Francisco Giants Blog-http://giantsbaseballblog.blogspot.com/