Aaron Rowand

When the San Francisco Giants acquired Hunter Pence just before this year's trade deadline, they took the first step toward repeating a horrible mistake. The second step of that process is already looking likely: there's talk of signing Pence to a long-term deal.

Though it's still too early to determine who will take the field in Phoenix for the 2011 MLB All-Star Game, it's always worth a look back at who has played well in the first month of the new season.

The San Francisco Giants are looking forward to having their manager, Bruce Bochy, lead the National League All-Stars and to having the most All-Stars from San Francisco in nearly a decade.

Here's a look at the Giants All-Stars from the month of April, ranked in order of their impact for the club.

Aaron Rowand has been a certified pariah since his first season in San Francisco.

His performance at the plate has not endeared him to the fans or management, and it showed with his reduced role in the latter half of the 2010 season.

The San Francisco Giants are going to have many decisions to make in the outfield. Cody Ross will return from a torn calf injury in less than two weeks. The biggest decision of all may be what to do with outfielder Aaron Rowand. 

Aaron Rowand hits game-winning single in the bottom of the 12th inning and goes 2-for-3 in Giants' 5-4 win.

Looks like things have not changed much since last year.

The San Francisco Giants continued their victorious but torturous ways, as a sellout crowd at AT&T Park witnessed one of the greatest, yet weirdest games baseball fans will ever see.

By now we've seen why keeping Barry Zito despite his hefty pricetag makes sense. But the Giants have another monster on their hands, and that's Aaron Rowand.

Unfortunately, while there are a lot of teams that would love to have a fourth or fifth starter that had an ERA around 4.00, and that could log 200 innings of solid pitching, there aren't that many that are looking for an outfielder that can only play center who doesn't really hit for power or average all that consistently.

It's not a bad problem to have, but Bruce Bochy has admitted it, the San Francisco Giants have a competition for the starting spot in left field.

This is something the Giants haven't experienced in some time, what with Barry Bonds being the left fielder in the past.

But the Giants should be happy with this. Bonds is gone and they have three viable contenders to start in left field with each bringing their own unique pros and cons to the lineup.

For the sake of the argument, I am going to eliminate the Brandon Belt possibility from the equation.

In 2007, Bruce Bochy became the Giants' manager.  In that season, the team won 71 games and finished last in their division.  In each season since then, the Giants have improved their win-loss record while finishing higher in the division. 

Four years ago the Giants were a mess.  They were old, they were brittle, and they were overshadowed by Barry Bonds’ tainted journey to a record nobody outside of the bay really wanted to see broken.

Jayson Werth became a fan favorite in his four seasons with the Phillies, be it because of his great production on the field, his blue-collar attitude and hard work, or his beard.

Werth his 95 home runs, batted in 300 runs, and stole 60 bases. He was the power right-handed bat that balanced a lefty-dominated middle of the lineup. He also was very good defensively, both with his fielding and his arm.

He was very productive for the Phillies. So productive, in fact, he became too pricey to keep.