Spring Training plods along. The Giants are currently in first place in the Cactus League, and they even have a better record than the first place team of the Grapefruit League. Woohoo. It's hard to get excited about anything positive happening in leagues with names that make a preschooler giggle.
It's also hard to get excited about any standout individual performances. Buster Posey will have a great 2011, I'm sure, but will probably not hit .625. I'm just sayin'. Spring Training is mostly about conditioning and not getting hurt. It's the same rules as grade school P.E. How can we rely on any outcomes to predict performance?
Regardless of how little we can take from it, when Spring Training ends, so will the party for some players. Bochy just announced that the roster might get whittled down from 40 to 25 as soon as this weekend.
Most of the starting position players are locks, and most of the invitees will not advance. Wedged in between we have Aaron Rowand, Travis Ishikawa and Nate Schierholtz as the ones that can be described as on the bubble. One of these men, all of whom contributed to the Giants' playoff run, will be left off the roster or traded. Ishikawa and Schierholtz seem most likely just because of Rowand's Brontosaurus-sized contract.
Between the two there are more reasons to keep Schierholtz. While Ishikawa had a better season at the plate and was a highly regarded pinch hitter, both guys are basically late inning defensive replacements, and that's how it seems they will be judged.
Schierholtz' defense is not only better in general that Ishikawa's, but he plays all three outfield positions. Late in the game the Giants will value defensive skill there more than they will at first base, Ishikawa's position. Starter Aubrey Huff may be old, but he's not exactly helpless at first base, and I would have no problem with him staying on the field in the late innings.
The Giants will be happy having Schierholtz around to spell the outfielders. Mark DeRosa can fill that role, too, but he also has skills in the infield and might be busy at second base if Freddy Sanchez' shoulder turns out to be made of paper mache. Ishikawa's value as a first baseman just seems to be dwindling, especially with Brandon Belt waiting in the wings. If Belt is half as productive as he is hyped up to be, when he gets called up we may forget all about Ishi.