2008 MLB Preview: NL West

San Francisco Giants (2007 Results: 71-91, fifth in NL West): The Giants took the first steps on the road to becoming a real team and not just a sideshow in ditching Barry Bonds. Gone will be Bonds’ locker room recliner, his plasma TV, and his three lockers, and in his place will be a team looking to rebound from a historic, yet catastrophic era.

The Giants are one of three NL West teams with a new Centerfielder—Aaron Rowand. Granted Rowand’s bat isn’t as devastating as Bonds’ in his prime (steroids or not), but with the slide in Bonds’ 2007 numbers (.276, 28 homers, 66 RBI, 54 strikeouts), Rowand should provide someone who can hit consistently (.309, 27 homers, 89 RBI, 119 strikeouts), a gold glove presence in centerfield, and a personality who isn’t a completely distasteful lunatic—two of those things Bonds wasn’t providing.

Now before the season, you’d believe that Dave Roberts and Randy Winn would occupy left and right field respectively. However, despite the experience these two bring to the lineup Rajai Davis, Fred Lewis, and Nate Schierholtz could all see significant time in the outfield this season in a platoon, or even a starter’s role.

It’ll be interesting to see who out of those three can end up with a Major League job, but whomever does, the answer as to where they’ll play seems to be splitting time in left field with Dave Roberts. However, a platoon of Davis (.282 average, 17 steals) and Lewis (.287, 3 homers, 19 RBI) might be better than an aging Dave Roberts altogether.
 
We touched a little bit on the ineptitude of the infield during the NL East preview but we’ll give it a second going-over.

At third base, barring any further acquisitions, the job will be given to either Rich Aurilia or Kevin Frandsen. Aurilia is a 36-year-old utility-man coming off an injury-shortened season, while he’s a year removed from his .300/23/70 2006, which (given his track record) seems to more of an aberration than anything, while Frandsen has had success defensively at third in the past, he’ll have to hit like every month is September (.370 average in September last season) if he has any hopes of earning a starting role.

Over at first, Dan Ortmeier—a veteran of 22 whole Major League games at first—will be expected to reproduce his 2007 season of .287/6/16 in 62 games. Unfortunately, there’s going to be a lot of pressure on Ortmeier to produce, unless the Giants pick up a veteran presence to help him out, so the kid will have to be up to proving himself the entire season.

Up the middle it’s all about…experience. Sure, that’s what we’ll call it. Ray Durham (36) and Omar Vizquel (40) make up the tandem, and offensively you shouldn’t expect too much from these guys. Durham took a long fall from grace, as there was almost an 80-point difference between his 2006 and 2007 averages, while in 2007 his run production was essentially non-existent. That’s not even considering that he could lose his job to Frandsen, who seems to be a threat all over the infield.

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