Thank you for pointing out Andrus. I'm not sure why I included his name, I must have heard his name on the TV at that moment and typed it. Looking back on that list, I think I meant to type Furcal, who is another "Shudder"-type of player.

"A medical truism." I'm already scared by your choice of words. As much as of a "truism" your position maybe, I think you'll have a hard time supporting the position that one injury "always makes future injuries more likely" with evidence. If supporting your truism was easy, the NFL players' union wouldn't have had such a difficult time getting the NFL to admit that concussions had an aggregate affect, even though some injuries, like concussions, certainly make the the same or related injuries more likely. That's because there are many other injuries that do not work in this way. For instance many Tommy John Surgery patients have reported coming back stronger than they were before the original injury. Whether the anecdotal evidence is correct or not, there seems to be no significant increase in repeat Tommy John Surgeries among those who have undergone the surgery when compared to the population of those who have not had the surgery. In the case of broken bones, according this NYT article (arguing that broken bones do not heal faster ironically) Dr. Terry D. Amaral, director of pediatric orthopedic surgery at Montefiore Medical Center in the Bronx, states that "the fracture site is no more or less likely to break again." (http://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/19/health/19really.html) You are correct that Betancourt is a bum. But he's 29, and at the low price he'll fetch, I'd be willing to bet he'll still be better than Tejada/Cabrera, especially if platooned with Crawford. Betancourt sports a 113 tOPS, so he's at least not as much of a bum when facing lefties. Crawford is still terrible against righties, but the glove will make him tolerable.

No that's a sports medical truism with lots and lots of stats to back it up. As for the SS, I like the idea of Jamey Carroll, although he'll probably be in some demand this offseason so I don't know what kind of contract he'll take. Scutaro's option is going to be picked up, and if you saw Chris' SS chart last week the Brewers were one of the few teams that could match the Giants lack of production from the position, so I don't see how Betancourt would be a huge upgrade. Nick Punto and Ronny Cedeno actually probably would be slight upgrades which is horrible to conceive. Elvis Andrus is a first year arb eligible player, so obviously he won't be on the FA market. In general, there'll be more teams looking than finding. Maybe Crawford really is the best we can do. Shudder.

By competent, I only mean league average at a given position, so by definition there has to be someone that fits that profile. By remotely, I mean someone closer to league average than Miguel Tejada--again another easy threshold. Even a Jamey Carroll-type of player would have turned the Giants' season around. According to Cot's Ronny Cedeno, Elvis Andrus, and Nick Punto will all be free agents this season; Scutaro and Betancourt have team options with cheap buy-outs. Any of those players would be a huge upgrade from Tejada. As for "injury always makes future injuries more likely", I pretty sure that you just made that up.

There are a couple of caution points there: 1) first injury always makes future injuries more likely so expectations of Poseys comeback have to be tempered; 2) remotely competent SS are in pretty short supply. Frankly it seems like a longshot for us to end up with such a character.

For 2012, Posey should have a disproportionately positive affect on sOPS+ since Catcher is typically a weak offensive position. The same goes for SS, so if the Giants can bring in a remotely competent SS, I think we'll can expect dramatic overall improvement for the offense. I think the two areas of concern would CF and 1B, which are typically strong offensive positions, but at which the Giants have no reliable/proven solutions.Giants fans need to cross their fingers and hope the Huff/Belt/Pill combination figures things out and that Torres can recapture some of that 2010 magic.

Uribe was really good on offense (well, for the position) when playing short (393 PA, .245/.303/.451, 116 sOPS+) but the Giants also got good work from Renteria (263 PA, .280/.337/.381, 108 sOPS+) which kind of surprised me.

No. Seems sort of reasonable, too. But it could always turn into a pretty crummy contract if he ends up being hurt the entire time, which I have to believe is a risk with his age/history.