Giants will go as far as Buster Posey carries them

The last time Brian Sabean’s Giants were in the top half of the National League in runs was 2004, when Barry Bonds won his seventh and last MVP award.

Since, their rank among the 16 NL teams has gone like this: 15, 11, 15, 15, 13, 9 and, in 2011, 16.

Yeah, yeah, AT&T Park. Well, in the past seven years the Giants averaged 12th in scoring on the road and, believe me, AT&T’s coverage ain’t that good.

As you can see, the one time they threatened the top half of the league in runs scored – 2010 – they held a parade.

Of concern recently (and, granted, it’s a moving target) was the outfield, where the Giants received almost no production in 2011. Indeed, their right fielders OPS’d 14th in the league, despite 44 games of a .323 batting average and .920 OPS fromCarlos Beltran.

So in a winter in which they wisely endeavored to lock up starting pitchersTim Lincecum and Matt Cain on long-term deals (succeeding with neither), the Giants also acquired outfielders Melky Cabrera andAngel Pagan, who will mix in with Brandon Belt andNate Schierholtz, at least until Belt replaces Aubrey Huff at first base. If Huff plans on producing anything like he did last season, that won’t come soon enough.

Sabean had the right idea, of course. But, in trading starterJonathan Sanchez to Kansas City, he sold low in order to acquire an outfielder who just had a career year for the Royals, but the season before carried a .671 OPS. Pagan, from the New York Met for Ramon Ramirezand Andres Torres, will provide speed, but only if he cracks the Belt-Cabrera-Schierholtz outfield and hits well enough to play every day.

Bottom line: The Giants passed on the biggest bats of winter. In fact, they passed on most of the mediocre bats as well. - http://sports.yahoo.com/