Saturday Infographic: We need better shortstop(s)

"Signing the best free agent hitters they can afford for their line-up needs" means taking a systematic approach to free-agent signing. A very reasonable systematic approach would be to see how much production each position is yielding and compare that amount to what can be gained on the market at those same positions. Simply signing the "best" hitter, regardless of position, will simply result in redundancies or players playing out of position. One can argue that trading for Carlos Beltran this season was an example of the Giants going for the best bat regardless of the target player's position. While Beltran certainly added a boost to the Giants' RF production, the Giants could have gotten a bigger boost had they simply acquired a competent SS. The Giants' RFs, although certainly wanting, were not the teams worst producers--SS, 1B, and C (this off the top of my head) owned that distinction. I'm not criticizing the Beltran trade, but simply illuminating an example where a position-targeted approach at acquiring hitters could have, had it been successful, been much more fruitful than simply signing the biggest stick.

I mean FA signing.

Torres should be the CF, instead of whatever marginal-upgrade-at-best they decide to throw money at.