San Francisco Bay Area

Last year was a great year for some top Giants prospects.

There is a lot of skepticism concerning Jonathan Sanchez, and for good reason. While he threw a No-Hitter last season and was re-signed to a $2.1 million extension this offseason , a lot of Giants fans still question Sanchez's ability to pitch at the next level.

Anytime the Oakland A's deficiencies are brought up, the first thing that tends to come up is "They need a shortstop."

Why?

Cliff Pennington hit .279/.342/.418 last year. Shortstops as a whole hit .271/.328/.393.

He ranked 12th among shortstops in OBP and OPS. That places him in average to above-average starter territory, and Pennington is only 25.

His UZR last season wasn't incredible (-7.3 UZR/150), but that knocks him only from a bit above average to average.

The Athletics signed Justin Duchscherer to a one-year deal earlier this week, and I praised the move.

Of course, Duchscherer's signing took up a 40-man roster spot, and someone thus had to go.

In desperate need of some offense, the San Francisco Giants added a bat last night.

According to SI.com’s Jon Heyman via Twitter , the Giants have signed Mark DeRosa to a two-year, $12 million contract. DeRosa is expected to play third base for the Giants in 2010.

I’ll get to the Giants' part of this in a second, but for DeRosa and his camp, this has to be considered a loss. I know it’s hard to fathom someone losing when they just made $12 million, but it is.

It had been a long time coming since the San Francisco Giants had a winning season.

One of the best pitching staffs around overcame major deficiencies on offense, and for the first time since 2004, the Giants found themselves above the .500 mark when the season came to an end.

The Aughts began with the San Francisco Giants on top of Major League Baseball, almost literally. They finished with the best record in baseball in 2000, came six agonizing outs away from the World Series in 2002, and made it back to the postseason in 2003.

They were strong contenders in 2001, 2004, and 2005 (although I'm being liberal with "strong" on that last one).

Then came the Darkness. Or maybe it was a Fog.

Los Gigantes slid into baseball obscurity, toiling in the cellar of the Show's weakest division.

Let me say to begin that I have long dreamed that the Oakland Athletics would move to my hometown of San Jose.

The issue has long been that the San Francisco Giants "own" the rights to the San Jose market, which in my opinion is anachronistic. 

The San Francisco ownership of the San Jose market is from a time before San Jose became the technological powerhouse of Silicone Valley, and one of the largest cities in America, larger even than San Francisco.

That's right. Few will have the courage to agree with me, but I'm sayin' it anyway.

In 2009, the San Francisco Giants' superlative right-hander, Tim Lincecum, won his second consecutive National League Cy Young award.

The East Coast establishment of Major League Baseball watched in horror as the Freak made it two-for-two—two full years in the Show, two Cy Youngs—and did so in dominating fashion:

2009: 15-7, 32 GS, 225.1 IP, 4 CG, 2 SHO, 68 BB, 261 K, 2.48 ERA, 1.05 WHIP, 6.7 H/9, 10.4 K/9, .206 BAA, .271 OBPA, .290 SLGA, .561 OPS

The San Francisco Giants, like most teams, won't find the answer to all their 2009 problems via the free agent waters. There are no magic bullets available this year—even the biggest catches aren't panaceas.

Matt Holliday and Jason Bay are wonderful Major League Baseball players, but neither is capable of singlehandedly turning around an anemic offense.

Bay was arguably surrounded by more hitting talent during his days in Pittsburgh than would accompany him in 2010 under the fog, and we all saw how ferocious those clubs were.