The Giants' front office seriously needs to rethink whether Huff is an everyday player. In 5 of his 12 big league seasons, he's had a NEGATIVE WAR. That means worse than a replacement player. Some years, like 2010, he's been a good enough hitter to make up for his poor defense. Other years, he's been a Brett Pill. He's 35 years old and coming off one of his worst big league seasons. A rational assessment of this player at this stage in his career is that he's a bench player-pinch hitter type who can play first or left a few days a week to relieve REAL big league starters. Brandon Belt doesn't even turn 24 until April and, as a rookie who was bounced between the big club and Fresno, was a more effective offensive player than Huff was last year!(That's a fact. Look at OPS, slugging, the rate at which he produced RBI and runs). He's probably not going to be an Eric Hosme;, but, sadly, he's going to be one of the Giants' best hitters in the coming years. If he doesn't get close to 500 ABs this season, it's going to be a long summer with no fall.

Looks like Justin Christian won't be on the opening day roster http://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2012/02/giants-desi... In terms of the final spots I believe Belt will make the opening day roster Between Fontenot, Theriot, Pill and Blanco, three of them will be on the opening day roster, and the other one will open the season on the DL with a phantom injury and once someone else gets injured, that one will be activated and put on the 25 man roster.

sabean must have read this post and decided to screw with you by designating Christian for assignment.

The SF Giants will have a very challenging year as they didn't pick up a power hitter to replace Carlos Beltran. I like the starting 4 pitchers, and the bull-pen is tops in the majors. The offense needs some work.. I think that Brandon Crawford will be heading to Fresno and that Ryan Theriot will be our starting shortstop. As for 1st Base it looks like Aubrey Huff will man 1st base and Brandon Belt will play Left-field, Center-Field will be Angel Pagan or Melky Cabrera. In Right Field, Nate Schierholz. Catching will be shared by Buster Posey/ Hector Sanchez.

All y'all crazy for thinking of putting Belt in Fresno. Are you anticipating struggles in the desert? Belt is in the opening day lineup. Depending on how Huff looks in left, Belt will be at first or in LF. Belt's 20 or so homerun potential is essential to the lineup. Bochy would be a fool for not playing him. We'll see who plays the fool. Nate is going to get plenty of at-bats rotating in, doing his .320ish on-base thing with only occasional power. Pill will probably be a necessary addition as a RH bat off the bench. You've got your four infielders with the le Tigres, Sanchez and Crawford. Stewart sure seems a lot more capable than Whiteside. Sanchez needs some AAA seasoning before he assumes back up duties. Everything else seems cut and dry, boring as toast. But watch out for Francisco Peguero. If one of the outfielders starts of the year lame, and Frankie Pegs does his thing with the bat, there's your guy.

If the Giants' repeated marketing of Brandon Belt as the "Baby Giraffe" is any indication, I have a hard time believing he starts in AAA unless he gets hurt or totally bombs in spring training. I say he competes with Nate, the loser of the two becoming the 4th OF type guy. Prediction: 11 pitchers, Belt is LF, last 4 spots = Nate (LF/RF), Theriot (SS/2B), Pill(1B/2B/LF), Blanco (LF/CF/RF).

The Giants would be a lot better off with Belt on the team instead of a career 5th OF like Christian. As someone noted above, even when he's struggling, Belt is easily one of our top 8 hitters (and probably more like top 5 or 6), and he's our best defender at 1B. Between the three OF positions and 1B, that is 5 guys for 4 starting positions, which means you could rotate all 5 at near-starting AB levels without too much trouble (if all 5 merit the PT), or you can just bench whichever one is struggling the most. Christian won't hit better than Huff or Belt, and his defense isn't better than Nate/Melky/Angel, so what is he bringing to the table? If they want to add one more OF to the roster, I'd much rather see a specialist like Ford who can really excel in one specific area of need. It's like having a lights-out LOOGY instead of a mediocre lefty reliever. With all the 1-run games the Giants play, a base-running specialist will come in handy practically every game, and he's no slouch on defense either. So give me Theriot, Ford, and Belt, and add Pill if the Giants go with 11 pitchers, or if Huff plays his way off the team.

Catcher - If Hector Sanchez continues his VWL hitting, he will make the 25. The backup catcher situation is a 3 way race but its more than that, its about having a good pinch hitter off the bench. He has the advantage of switch hitting, actually being able to hit his way out of a paper bag, and the disadvantage of youth. 60-40, and Stewie gets first crack if Pablito doesn't cut it. If they are serious about resting Posey, they'll give Sanchez every chance to win out. Backup IF - unless The Riot steps in it, he's good to go. Burriss will be waived off the 40 man and in a shocking move will not be claimed by anybody. I'm 95% sure on that one. Nice guy Handy Manny, but you can't steal 1st base. Fontenot's contract isn't locked either, but I agree that he'll make the 25 no problem. Belt V Huff V Pill. Huff will be given every chance to grab 1B as his comfort zone. If Belt hits well in spring training, he might force a Huffy LF scenario. The Giants need Pill's power off the bench, but he doesn't walk much and pinch hitting is hard enough for proven vets. No idea how this plays out. Belt down to Fresno to be the cavalry isn't the worst idea because he'll get consistent playing time. I hope he rakes and forces their hand, but the Giants are old school as hell on this one. It's telling they are hedging about it, and not raving the way they did last spring. I think they know they screwed up, but their method of dealing with it is just to go old school "prove out rookie". The 4th OF is completely dependent on Belt. Blanco is pretty interesting though. The ability to hit a little, draw a walk and some voom will be a natural fit if they want to Fresno Belt or Pill. Christian is the natural cut if they 40-man Blanco. Even if Belt, Blanco and Sanchez all end up in Fresno, they might not stay there for long. I'm trying to think of another MLB team that has spring training competition like the Gigantes. I am drawing a blank. On the pitching front, Zito will win the PR battle over Surkamp. I assume they are trying Runzler one more time as a starter in Fresno with the Hensley signing, unless things go haywire somewhere. Nate Schierholz is in a weird position of being declared the starting RF but I don't think anybody really believes that. The Belt/Huff will effect him in some way.

I don't think Belt needs Fresno. It's not like spending years in Fresno will make you better - you reach a cap when facing minor league pitching (think Willy Mo Pena) and I think Belt is there. I think he's at the point where his only room for improvement comes from facing big league pitching. Playing in Fresno and batting .340 with an .880 slugging isn't gonna make him learn big league pitching, it just makes him Willy Mo Pena. And even how bad Belt was last year, statistically he was still one of their best hitters, as sad as that is. The Giants outfield is down right disgusting. I mean, really. If they all stay healthy, combined they MIGHT hit 35 homers. And that's a big MIGHT. Does anybody realize Cabrera's lifetime OPS is 10 points less than Mike Fontenot's? Yet Bork said he might bat him third while moving Sandoval to the 5 spot. How is taking away 36 plate appearances over the course of the year from Sandoval a good idea?

Man I'd be so pissed off if Belt started in Fresno; it seemed from the interview on sfgiantsnirvana that upper management is going to try to get Belt in the lineup everyday and producing as soon as they think that's possible, even saying that, "it really might not depend on what kind of spring he has at all as much as what the team looks like, or could look like, let's say with him as the first basemen cuz we all admit that that's his future, that's his best position, that could be in the best interest of the team... what complicates that is where does Huff fit into this, can Huff play left field?". That seems hopeful, right? The way Sabean was talking about him, at least you get a sense of how much Sabean values Belt's development to the franchise, which was definitely not the impression last year. The only concern is that it seems he wouldn't be able to make it on as another outfielder, should Huff show promise, because originally I envisioned him starting off in left field (Cabrera in right, Schierholtz taking backup, but still getting a good amount of playing time as he would play whenever Huff, Belt, Pagan, or Cabrera sat) and slowly transitioning him to first ala Buster Posey 2010. This is definitely not the ideal way to do things (that would be Belt is our everyday first basemen, Huff is competing with Schierholtz for playing time), but it seemed like a "Giants" strategy (they did it last year) and at least Belt would get a chance to show what he can do with the bat at the major league level, so if/when he does figure it out, he'll be in a position where we're using that offense because as it stands I really don't know what more raking can do in the minors can do for his development at this point. If that's the situation though, and the option is starting first basemen in the majors or in the minors, and it comes down to Belt vs Huff, Huff just joined up with Zito and Rowand as the most hated Giants (at least on my list)... he better learn to play the outfield or he best be prepared to look both ways twice before crossing the street because if I or another equally passionate Giants fan is waiting at that light, it's gonna be some Pulp Fiction sh*t on 3rd and King. ps sorry for taking that a little far, but this is what I get like whenever the idea of Belt getting benched/optioned to Fresno comes up.

I think it'll be Theriot, Belt, Blanco or Christian. Really can't see the Giants overestimating Pill's value to the club over Belt. And they'll rotate players in and out of first base and LF that Belt will get his at-bats. He's really got nothing left to prove in the minor leagues.

Gimme Blanco, Theriot and Pill. I hope that if Belt isn't starting in SF, he's starting in Fresno.

Chris....You have to be jerking our cords....Christian ???? Only if Huff is dumped and Belt is the starting first baseman...one year of a fair bat does not make a 25 man roster player. Their seems to be a breakdown between Bochy and Belt {maybe Bochy doesn't like the kind of car wax Belt uses or Belt doesn't want to be another Huff on Bochys team}

My hope is that Huff becomes the most expensive pinch-hitter in baseball, as unless he pulls out another bounce-back he's worse than all of the outfield options (defensively AND offensively) and definitely worse than Brandon Belt at first.