It is no secret the Giants biggest weakness last year was at the left side of the infield. The production we got out of those levels was pretty much replacement level, possibly even below it. We were dreadful at those positions and the only debate is really just how bad we were.

Now, I realize I am probably one of most outspoken posters about believing the Giants need to continue to rebuild with an eye twoards 2011-2012 rather than 2009, but in the real world that won't happen. They want to win ASAP and will try to do so. So how would I do it? Here's my first (and hopefully only) rosterbation post of the year. And it starts with these two to shore up our infield.

1) Khalil Greene would be a target of mine at SS. The guy is coming off a horrible year with SD (.274 wOBA, injuries, and a .213/.260/.339 stat line). That being said, he's usually average or better on both the offensive and defensive side. In 2007 he hit 27 homers and posted a .339 wOBA. In fact the four years prior to 2008 he posted the following wOBA's (.339, .342, .332, .351) which shows that is pretty much his skill level with the bat. While those do account for park, I'm never 100% sold on direct park adjustment and think that with a move to a more offensively friendly park like AT & T, Greene could have a career year before hitting the FA market.

With SD seemingly poised to acquire Yunel Escobar, the Padres will certainly want to move Greene and his 6.5 million dollar salary. Greene won't be free, no, but his value is at an all time low.

CHONE projects Greene to be +5 at SS, which is quite good, considering Adam Everett (the best) sits at +19 and Omar Vizquel sits at +11. BTW, Burris sits at -2

If Khalil can bounce back to his 2004-2007 levels, as he fully should (was career high in LD%), and can live up to his defensive projection Khalil will be about 3 wins above replacement, which is quite good and has a market value of about 13 million dollars (double his actual salary). Even though he's under contract only thru 2009, if he rebounds nicely, he could work his way back up to a type B free agent.

2) Adrian Beltre - I don't need to really say much on Beltre that hasn't been said before. But by my calculations he projects to be about a 4+ WAR player next year at a market value of about 19 million dollars. Plus, in trading for him he will be a type A free agent, netting us two draft picks.

The problem with Beltre is simply price, but I will get to that later

3) Nick Swisher - I have been a big Swisher proponent as it is no secret and I will continue it here. He is going to bounce back and if we can get him at a cheap price, why not go for it?

Ideally we could trade Winn and Burris and maybe a marginal prospect for Swisher, but I don't think KW would bite on that realistically. If need be, just offer him Lewis for Swisher and I truthfully think he would bite. Lewis outperformed Swisher last year, is much cheaper, and must faster. I think KW would that deal.

If Swisher can bounce back to his 06-07 levels and can live up to CHONE's +5 LF projection defensively, Swisher would be about a 3.80 WAR player and about 2.25-2.50 Wins above out LF production last year, production I don't see Lewis and co matching in 2009.

Those are the three keys. Obviously a Juan Cruz or Bobby Howry wouldn't hurt the pen and maybe a gamble on an SP like Pavano would be nice, but that's the bulk of it. Those are the three players that could help tremendously via trade and would really like to see that get done. With those 3, we could have a legitimate shot at competing in 2009.

If we assume everyone we bring back from last year more or less equals the same production we're looking at the same 68-72 win team that was in place. But then we can add about 9-10 wins to that total from the above 3 players bringing us to a 78-82 win team.

If Josh Phelps plays everyday (or even a TI/Phelps platoon) at 1B, I think he's a safe bet for being about 1.5-2 wins better than our 1B production last year. Bringing the total to 80-84.

If Frandsen can be healthy a full year, his production at 2B would probably about a win better than last year's production, bring the total to 81-85.

Essentially from there, what would need to happen to push us over the top is the starting rotation, where Lincecum will need to repeat, and Cain, Sanchez, Zito, and 5th guy all need to get better. I don't really think those expectations are unrealistic, it's just a matter of how much better they can get. Hopefully 4 wins better collectively, but that might be a bit too optimistic. That would put us at 85-89, and now we're talking about contender territory.

Finally, the bulpen should be better as the young guys improve (Wilson, Sadler, Hinshaw, Romo) and Sabean likely brings in a proven veteran (Juan Cruz). That could equate to another win or two, putting us at potentially 87-91, which would be pretty tremendous.

Obviously all of that is a bit optimistic, but if those 3 players can be brought in, I don't think it is unreasonable to say this team could win between 85-90 games next year. The problem with this plan is it doesn't set us up particularly well for beyond 2009, but it doesn't exactly cripple us either. Which brings us to the most important factor of all: COST

The Cost:  The Giants would need to get creative, but here are the players I'd be willing to part with to acquire those 3 players: Bengie Molina, Randy Winn, Fred Lewis, Manny Burris, and any "unimportant players" (i.e. Taschner, Velez, fringe prospects, etc.). Now, the Mariners and Padres would have no interest at all in Molina or Winn, so to accomplish that, the Giants would probably need to through a third team to do so. Some examples

1) Greene Trade

SD Gets: Jonathan Niese and Joe Martinez (or Pucetas)

NYM Gets: Molina

SF Gets: Khalil Greene

2) Beltre trade

SF Gets: Beltre

ATL Gets: Randy Winn

SEA Gets: Manny Burris, Pucetas, Brent Lillibridge, Chuck James

Or we could simply keep Winn and try to package Schierholtz and Burris to SEA for Beltre.

3) Swisher Trade

Lewis for Swisher

After all that, our lineup would be

2B Kevin Frandsen

CF Rowand

LF Swisher

1B Phelps

3B Beltre

C Sandoval

SS Greene

RF Schierholtz

That's definitely a hackish lineup, but it's a pretty good defensive team, and a deep lineup. Consequently, if they chose to keep Winn and trade Nate instead, we'd certainly have a better team, although Nate is a future contributor we'd be losing out on.

Anyways, that's my $0.02, that's what I think it would take to try and win in 2009 without mortgaging the future. Thoughts?