San Francisco Giants: 5 Most Glaring Holes on the Team's Roster

The 2012 Giants will be a good team.  85 percent of baseball would switch rosters with them right now.  

The pitching staff is historically good.  The lineup is anchored by two (maybe three) young homegrown stars.  Throw in a jumble of displaced veterans, and the Giants will compete for the National League.  

If you look at anything too long, the flaws begin to stick out.  If you keep staring, they become big nasty blemishes that corrupt an offseason.

The 2011 Giants had holes.  Holes in the infield, holes in the outfield, holes in their bats (unconfirmed).  

The 2012 team is far from perfect.  The roster seems to be set.  Anything could change, but given that the biggest moves right now are deciding which backup infielders and catchers are most affordable, it looks like we may have reached the bottom of the popcorn bowl.  

I know some of you will mention the outfield, and there may be a hole or two there.  But right now I can't figure out where it is.  Somewhere between Melky Cabrera and Justin Christian, a problem is bound to crop up, but your guess is as good as mine.  

Here are the five most glaring holes on the current big-league squad.

Leadoff Hitter

There is a big Andres Torres-sized hole in the leadoff spot.  Torres turned out to be a one-year mirage.  A glorious, trophy-hoisting mirage, but still a mirage.  

As such, the Giants are again on the hunt for a guy to get on base in front of the heart of the lineup. Granted, the 3-4-5 spots in the Giants' lineup isn't exactly Murderer's Row, but they need somebody to drive in.  

How it will be filled:  Angel Pagan and Melky Cabrera will compete for this spot, but neither is particularly talented at taking pitches.  Combined, they drew 79 walks last year, 31 fewer than Chone Figgins, who the Mariners are trying to give away.  

Freddy Sanchez is another candidate, but he has congealed in the two slot and I don't see Bruce Bochy thinking too far outside the box on this one.  Bochy likes speed in a leadoff hitter, so look for Pagan to get the first shot.  

Shortstop

This dead horse has been beaten enough.  The Giants are likely going to start Brandon Crawford at shortstop on Opening Day.  If they don't, they will start Orlando Cabrera, or Jose Vizcaino, or Rey Ordonez or someone else of that sort.  

Either way, whoever plays shortstop will play solid defense,  On offense, we'll pray for .250, timely flares to right field and fortuitous hops through the infield.  You say that's what we do when Lincecum comes up?  Oh well, I guess that's where we are at.   

How it will be filled:  Crawford.  Deserved or not, the guy has the chance of a lifetime in 2012 to play shortstop in the big leagues for a contender. Expectations will be low.  On the bright side, at least we know who the No. 8 hitter will be this year.  Last year, the competition for that spot was fierce.  

Power Hitting

Imagine this Opening Day Lineup:

Outfield: Schierholtz, Cabrera, Pagan

Infield: Sandoval, Crawford, Sanchez, Huff

Catcher: Posey

That lineup hit a home run once every 41 plate appearances last season.  (2010 stats for Posey/Sanchez).  That equals about two home runs every three games.  

If Belt starts, the number drops slightly to a HR every 39 PAs.  Throw in the pitchers and the bevy of slap-hitting role players coming off the bench, and this team has a severe power shortage.  

Sure, AT&T Park supposedly is not built for power-hitting teams, but you can't win the World Series by hitting singles.  Even the 2010 champion Giants found their power stroke come playoff time in the form of Cody Ross, Edgar Renteria and Juan Uribe.   

Filling the Hole:  It's going to have to come from within.  Whoever ends up playing first needs to step up and be a run-producing machine.  Another 12 HR year from Huff should have him out of town by July.  

Just cross your fingers and hope Pablo and Buster stay healthy, or this could get ugly.  

Fifth Starter

The Rockies and Dodgers have little sympathy.  Doesn't every team worry about their fifth starter?  If a starting pitcher was any good, they likely wouldn't be the fifth starter.  

Not in San Francisco, where young, healthy arms grow on trees down in Fresno.  Assuming Bruce Bochy can't pluck another one from the minors, who pitches every fifth day?  Surkamp? Mota?  Zito?  

How it will be filled:  This spot has to go to Zito.  The fifth starter won't make or break the season, and paying Zito to pitch is bad enough.  But paying Zito not to pitch is just unnecessary.  

Throw out an injury-riddled 2011 and Barry Zito was at least a league-average pitcher in 2009-2010.  He was one of the better pitchers in the National League for much of 2010, though most of us only remember his last-weekend meltdown against the Padres.  

The Giants need not over-think this decision.  The fifth-starter role is Zito's to lose.  

First Base

I'm going to use my 20/20 hindsight to say that Brian Sabean should have let Aubrey Huff walk after his World Series heroics in 2010.  It would have been a very unpopular move and a harsh stance for a guy who played such a big role in the city's first title.  No way I would have approved it. 

356 grounders to second later, Huff is still clogging the pipeline for Brandon Belt, and there's not a whole lot anyone can do.  Huff can't play outfield anymore.  Belt didn't exactly earn the spot least season.  The Giants are stuck here unless they make one of two bold moves.  

1) They could trade Brandon Belt in a package for an All-Star hitter.  2) They could bring Aubrey Huff off the bench.  

How it will be filled: Huff has one more year.  Let's just hope he regains some of that contract year magic. Huff could provide some veteran experience as a pinch-hitter, but again, that's a little too outside the box.