Giants Bench Predictions 2010

I really, really want Velez to not make the Opening Day roster.

I voted Posey, because he shouldn’t be sitting on the bench- he should be getting ample playing time no matter what level he’s at.

Crap, I misread the poll question. Please ignore the John Bowker vote.

who says a 6 man bench? They always talk about carrying 11 pitchers in April, then chicken out and carry 12. And Burriss is in a cast for 4 weeks.
So I expect Whiteside, Velez, Torres, plus [Lewis or Bowker, not both], and [Frandsen or Downs or Rohlinger]
That is a lot of OFs. And de Rosa as the platoon 1B.

OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

Though Posey is NOT a bench player

I wish there was an acceptable combination where Bowker started and Schierholtz rode the bench. I believe Nate will never be better than a backup outfielder while Johnny has the potential to be very productive offensively.

Bowker LF +

Derosa RF
Lewis RF, Derosa 2B, Uribe Bench
Nate RF, Derosa 1B, Huff Bench

or Bowker 1B, Huff Bench. (is Huff really going to be that much better defensively than Bowker?)

I was going to make a fanpost saying this, but I didn’t know if it would be long enough, and this seems like a good enough place to put it.

Assuming the starting 8 are: Molina, Huff, Sanchez (Uribe until Sanchez returns from the DL), Renteria, Sandoval, DeRosa, Rowand, and Schierholtz, I’d say it’s a good idea to have a five-man bench of Uribe, Bowker, Lewis, Torres, and Whiteside. Yup, one backup INF and three backup OFs.

Whiteside is Molina’s backup because Posey needs to be playing daily, and so he should be in AAA.

The glut of outfielders is where it gets interesting. Since DeRosa can play every infield position except shortstop, he and Uribe can be our backup infielders. Instead of carrying Frandsen/Burriss/Rohlinger/Downs to be a second backup INF, when one of Pablo/Sanchez/Huff needs an off day, DeRosa can slide into their position and one of the backup OFs takes LF. This gives us considerable depth at every position, with the possible exception of shortstop:

C: Molina, Whiteside, Sandoval
1B: Huff, Sandoval, DeRosa
2B: Sanchez, Uribe, DeRosa
3B: Sandoval, Uribe, DeRosa
SS: Renteria, Uribe
LF: DeRosa, Bowker, Lewis
CF: Rowand, Torres, Schierholtz
RF: Schierholtz, Torres, Lewis

That’s a lineup that’s at least three deep at every position, probably more, except SS (where DeRosa could probably play horribly if necessary). Even better, assuming regular rest, a “3.5th OF”, ideally Bowker IMO, could get regular ABs while DeRosa plays the infield. I don’t think it’s out of the question for the 3.5th OF to see 400 plate appearances if he’s the go-to guy when DeRosa moves to the infield.

However, this really does call the Uribe signing into question; was it worth dropping $3M on what amounts to a backup backup infielder, when Kevin Frandsen, Ryan Rohlinger, and Matt Downs are all probably as good as Uribe and significantly cheaper? The only place where Uribe provides depth over DeRosa is SS, which all three of those guys can play. I think with DeRosa able to back up the infield starters and a plethora of outfielders available to back him up while he backs them up, the Uribe signing was rather unnecessary in conjunction with the DeRosa acquisition; now, if DeRosa hadn’t signed, there’s much more of an argument to be made for Uribe, but I wonder if they were both necessary.

Given the positional versatiliy of Uribe and DeRosa and our multitude of acceptable backups, I think we can safely carry only one backup infielder in Uribe and be pretty unconcerned about rest and injury; if one of our OFs goes down, we have plenty of guys to cover for them; if one Huff, Sanchez, or Sandoval goes down, DeRosa can cover them while a backup OF takes his spot; if Renteria goes down, Uribe or one of the Frandsen/Downs/Rohlinger contingent can take his spot while DeRosa becomes the backup infielder on days it’s necessary and a backup OF again takes his spot, and Molina’s got Whiteside (and Sandoval…) and Posey in AAA to back him up. I think the last thing this team needs to be concerned about is injury; we can replace all our mediocre bats with slightly worse than mediocre bats.

Rohlinger and Downs have to be considered live options to make the team as backup infielders while Sanchez is hurt.

So I guess people are saying he makes the roster as a pure defensive replacement for Huff. A defensive 1B specialist seems like a waste of a roster spot like carryinv a backup punter. If that’s all he’s good for, I’d rather have more bats in the lineup.

If you need a defensive replacement at 1B, Sandoval can always slide over there with Derosa or Uribe taking over at the hot sack.

I’m not anti-Ishi, but if not carrying him allowed us to carry Lewis and Bowker, I wouldn’t carry him.

Holm
Frandsen (stepping in for Freddy, hahaha ahh….)
Fred Lewis (starting in LF, hahaha …)
Bowker competing for RF/1B (…)
Ishi
Torres or Whiteside, idk

Bowker 1B/OF
Lewis OF
Torres OF
Whiteside C
Frandsen IF (until F.Sanchez returns)