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A huge factor in the success of the San Francisco Giants over the last four seasons has been their ability to turn minor league free agents in to key contributors.

During spring training in 2009, the Giants struck gold with three minor league free agents who would help them win their first World Series in San Francisco one season later in Juan Uribe, Andres Torres and Santiago Casilla. Two years later, they found an All-Star starting pitcher in journeyman Ryan Vogelsong. Last year, they turned up two more contributors in Joaquin Arias and Gregor Blanco, who is now the team’s starting left fielder.

This spring there are plenty of candidates in camp to be the next Uribe, Torres, Casilla, Blanco or Arias. However, the one candidate that has arguably the best chance to make an impact on this year’s team is outfielder Cole Gillespie.

The 28-year-old left fielder has only received 120 career plate appearances in the big leagues, and he’s hit only .236 in his limited opportunities. However, in seven minor league seasons, he’s hit .290. Last year at Triple-A Reno in the Diamondbacks system, he hit .308/.390/.494 with 35 doubles and 13 home runs.

Gillespie brings several things to the table that the Giants can use this year. The Giants’ left field combination of Blanco and Torres offers plenty of speed and defense, but neither guy is much of a threat with the bat.

Enter Gillespie, who is a lifetime .290 hitter in the minor leagues with an outstanding .393 on-base percentage boosted by his 13.5 percent walk rate. Gillespie has also shown better contact skills and more power in the minor leagues than the strikeout prone, powerless duo of Blanco and Torres. 

The Giants also don’t have much offense coming off of the bench. Last year, they finished just 12th in the National League with a .218 batting average in pinch-hitting situations. Torres, Arias and backup catcher Hector Sanchez are basically assured of roster spots, leaving two openings on the bench for another outfielder and infielder. Thus, the opportunity is there for Gillespie to earn a job and boost the Giants’ late-inning options off of the bench. 

Early in spring training, Gillespie is taking advantage of his opportunities. He’s gone 3-for-5 with two doubles and two runs scored, while also playing good defense in the outfield to make himself an early front-runner for a bench spot. Gillespie will have to continue his hot start to hold off Brett Pill, Roger Kieschnick and Francisco Peguero for the fifth outfielder job.

Last spring, Blanco entered camp as just a lifetime .258 hitter over parts of three seasons in the big leagues. He was also coming off of a disappointing season at Triple-A in which he hit just .201 and didn’t earn a promotion back to the big leagues. Usually, 27-year-old outfielders that can barely crack the Mendoza Line in the minor leagues are on their way out of the game rather than headed for a starting gig on the World Series champs.

However, the Giants scouts saw things they liked in Blanco that led them to believe he was worth a gamble. Pro scouting director Jeremy Shelley told Baseball America that the Giants looked past Blanco‘s poor batting average at Triple-A to see a player who could eventually start for them:

Our scouts liked him and thought he could compete for a starting role. We saw a guy with a .360 career OBP, who could defend up the middle, who could run and swing the bat. We also had followed him in Venezuela in winter ball, and [big league hitting coach] Hensley Meulens and our minor league infield rover, Jose Alguacil, helped recruit him to sign with us.

We also saw that he hadn’t had much luck; his average on balls in play was low, and we thought that played a part in his low average last year. Even when he didn’t hit, he still had a .350 OBP. So he was at the top of our list last offseason. There’s no question it was a group effort with a lot of people involved in acquiring him.

Blanco still had to produce during spring training to earn a job with the Giants, and he did just that by hitting .333/.395/.423 with 13 stolen bases. As with Blanco, Gillespie has been overlooked, despite having the aforementioned qualities that can help a big league team.

The Giants have had four straight winning seasons, and they’ve won two of the last three World Series titles. Stars like Matt Cain, Buster Posey, Tim Lincecum, Madison Bumgarner and Pablo Sandoval are obvious players to credit.

However, all 25 roster spots are important, even if they aren’t all created equally. Minor league free agency has been a key roster-building route for the Giants, and that trend will continue this spring.

Early in camp, Gillespie looks like the best candidate to be the next minor league free agent to make an impact for the Giants.

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Heading into the 2011 trading deadline, the San Francisco Giants were 60-44 and clinging to a three game lead over the surprising Arizona Diamondbacks in the NL West.

Despite losing star catcher and clean-up hitter Buster Posey as well as second baseman and No. 2 hitter Freddy Sanchez to season-ending injuries, the Giants were keeping their heads above water with excellent pitching and defense. Only the Phillies had prevented runs at a better clip than the Giants on the fateful day general manager Brian Sabean pulled the trigger on a deal that sent top pitching prospect Zack Wheeler to the Mets for right fielder Carlos Beltran.

Beltran was supposed to replicate Posey’s production in the middle of the lineup over the final two months of the season to give the Giants a chance to defend their World Series title. When he was healthy enough to play, Beltran held up his end of the bargain by hitting .323/.369/.551 down the stretch. Unfortunately, injuries derailed the season for Beltran and the rest of the team.

As if losing Posey and Sanchez wasn’t enough, Beltran then went on the shelf for 13 games with a wrist strain. Pablo Sandoval battled a shoulder injury that prevented him from hitting right-handed late in the year after missing 41 games earlier in the year with a broken hamate bone.

Closer Brian Wilson threw only five innings over the final two months due to an elbow problem. Set-up man Sergio Romo missed 16 games with elbow inflammation. Finally, to add insult to a series of injuries, Jeremy Affeldt suffered a season-ending injury trying to separate frozen hamburger patties.

The injuries—combined with poor performances from several able-bodied players including 2010 heroes Aubrey Huff, Cody Ross and Andres Torres—led to a two-month collapse directly after the Beltran trade. The Giants were swept in a three-game road series in Cincinnati to close out July—sending them into a tailspin from which they would never recover.

After winning their first game with Beltran in the fold, the Giants went 25-32 the rest of the way to finish eight games behind the Diamondbacks in the NL West. Beltran bolted in free agency and the Giants couldn’t even get draft pick compensation due to a provision in his contract that prevented him from being offered arbitration.

Meanwhile, Wheeler is now rated as one of the best prospects in the game with a fastball that reaches 97 MPH, a nasty curve and a developing changeup. He looked dominant in his first outing of the spring on Saturday, and he could make his professional debut this season. With Tim Lincecum and Barry Zito set to hit free agency after this season, Wheeler would be set to take over a rotation spot next season if the Giants hadn’t dealt him.

However, the now infamous trade wasn’t a failure just because Wheeler is now developing into a frontline arm and Beltran didn‘t carry the Giants into the postseason in 2011. The Giants were desperate for offense and Beltran was the best bat available. They had a title to defend and acquiring an All-Star caliber middle-of-the-order bat like Beltran was their best shot to make up for the loss of Posey.

The one possible quibble with the trade that doesn’t get mentioned very often is that the Giants appeared to choose to insert Wheeler into the deal instead of a top position player prospect like Gary Brown. Sabean said at the time of the trade (via Henry Schulman of the San Francisco Chronicle),

We didn’t think [Zack] Wheeler was going to impact our situation in the immediate future. Quite frankly, it’s our job to find another Wheeler or develop another Wheeler. Once we decided we weren’t going to part with position players, we decided to go down this path.

While he didn‘t come out and say that the Giants decided to deal Wheeler over Brown, he implied it somewhat by saying that the organization had concluded not to deal any position players, and Brown was the top position player in the system at that point. However, it’s also possible that the Mets wouldn’t have made the deal with Brown inserted for Wheeler.

It’s also important to note that Brown’s stock was much higher at the time of the deal than it is now. He finished 2011 with a .336/.407/.519 batting line, 53 steals and the reputation of being a potentially elite defensive center fielder. He entered last season as Baseball America’s 38th best prospect, only three spots behind Wheeler.

Brown’s stock has dropped significantly after a down year at Double-A Richmond, while Wheeler’s star has risen drastically after a big year in the upper levels of the minor leagues. Yet prospects are unpredictable, and next year at this time the Giants might be happy to have Brown over Wheeler depending on how both prospects perform this season. 

In the end, it’s not fair to evaluate the trade in hindsight. At the time of the deal, there was no way to predict that Beltran and the rest of the roster would be besieged by injuries. There was no way to know that Wheeler would take a leap forward while Brown would drop off in 2012.

The cost of trying to defend a championship was high in parting with Wheeler. Yet if the Giants had stood pat and then collapsed down the stretch, pundits would have been hollering at Sabean for not doing everything in his power to get the Giants back into the postseason.

The 2011 season started to collapse with a three-game sweep in Cincinnati. Thus, it was only fitting that the 2012 season took off with a three-game sweep in the NLDS over the Reds back in Cincinnati to propel the Giants to their second World Series championship in three years. It was even more fitting that Beltran’s new team, the St. Louis Cardinals, were the opponent the Giants knocked off next to advance to the World Series.

The Beltran trade didn‘t help the Giants defend their title in 2011. However, two years later, the Giants are back on top of the world anyway.

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Baseball games aren’t played on paper or inside those newer, fancier computer projection systems that are in vogue today. However, with another month and a half to go until opening day, projections are all fans have to go on right now.

The Las Vegas sports books are beginning to release their over/under win totals for each Major League Baseball team in 2013. The first Vegas sports book to release its projected totals set the defending champion San Francisco Giants over/under total at 86 wins, four games behind the rival Los Angeles Dodgers.

The Vegas over/under figures isn’t the only projection system down on the defending champs. Baseball Prospectus is currently projecting the Giants to finish at 85-77, eight games behind the free-spending Dodgers.

The Baseball Prospectus projected standings, which rely upon the Player Empirical Comparison and Optimization Test Algorithm (PECOTA) created by current New York Times writer Nate Silver, set off some derisive ribbing on Twitter.

On the other end of the spectrum, the CAIRO projection system available at the Replacement Level Yankees Weblog has the Giants winning 89 games and edging out the Dodgers by one game to win the NL West.

All three projections have the Giants winning between 85 and 89 games, which is where they were when they missed out on the playoffs in 2009 (88-74) and 2011 (86-76). When the Giants won the World Series two years ago, they won 92 regular-season games; last year, on their way to another championship, they won 94.

Will the Giants hold off the Dodgers and the rest of the NL West to get back into the postseason and make a run at a third championship in four seasons? Or will the Dodgers and their $213 million payroll be too much to overcome?

The projections by Vegas and other systems fall in line with the industry-wide view of the Giants. Jayson Stark of ESPN wrote a column previewing each division using Dan Szymborski’s projection system. The Dodgers project to finish ahead of the Giants and be the only 90-win team in the division. Stark wrote this about the lack of love for the Giants within the industry:

And then there were the Giants, who attract surprisingly little love for a team that has won two of the past three World Series. While one exec praised their “combination of talent and team,” two others adamantly refused to even include them on a list of teams that could win the World Series.

“They’re not going to win two in a row,” said one NL executive. “Those days are over.”

Manager Bruce Bochy thinks that his club isn’t getting enough respect. He told Alex Pavlovic of the San Jose Mercury News, “I heard the word ‘lucky’ a lot. I mean, they won 94 games last year.”

The defending World Series champions aren’t even projected to win their division by most of the prognostications available. In some ways, that makes sense. While the Giants won 94 games last year, they outscored their opponents by just 69 runs—which is more suggestive of an 88-win team.

The Dodgers added free-agent pitchers Zack Greinke and Hyun-Jin Ryu this offseason after trading for Hanley Ramirez, Adrian Gonzalez, Josh Beckett, Carl Crawford and Brandon League last year. They’ve increased their payroll by more than $100 million since opening day of last season, when the team was still owned by Frank McCourt.

Yet, as Giants first baseman Brandon Belt said, the Dodgers can’t buy chemistry.

The Dodgers can’t buy chemistry, and the projection systems can’t measure it because it’s an intangible and therefore unquantifiable. On paper, the Dodgers appear to be the more talented team. They also appeared to be the more talented team last year after acquiring Ramirez, Gonzalez, Beckett and League, yet it was the Giants who prevailed in the end. 

They’ll have to actually play the games to see if history will repeat itself this year.

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Clayton Blackburn, Kyle Crick and Chris Stratton—the San Francisco Giants’ top three prospects according to Marc Hulet of FanGraphs—won’t be in big league camp this spring. None of those three pitching prospects have pitched above A-ball yet, so Giants fans will have to remain patient on that front.

However, just about everyone else in the organization’s top 15 prospects will be at spring training with the Giants. The most exciting prospects to look out for this spring are outfielder Gary Brown, infielder Joe Panik, reliever Heath Hembree and starting pitcher Chris Heston. Brown and Panik need at least another year of minor league experience, but Hembree and Heston are just about ready for the show.

Let’s take a look at what each of these prospects brings to the table.

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The small-market Cleveland Indians have been one of the most active teams in Major League Baseball this winter.

On Monday, they completed their busy winter with the surprise signing of Michael Bourn to a four-year, $48 million deal. In addition to signing Bourn this offseason, the Indians have signed Nick Swisher (four-year, $56 million), Mark Reynolds (one-year, $6 million) and Brett Myers (one-year, $7 million). They also traded for Trevor Bauer, Drew Stubbs, Mike Aviles, Matt Albers and Bryan Shaw.

The Indians flurry of activity will boost their opening day payroll from $65 million last season to approximately $81 million this year. That’s a big jump for a team that lost 94 games and finished second-to-last in attendance in 2012.

The additions of Bourn, Swisher and Reynolds will improve the Indians offense even with the loss of Shin-Soo Choo in the three-team trade that netted Bauer, Stubbs, Albers and Shaw. The Indians finished second-to-last in the American League with a .705 OPS last year, but the lineup projects to be much deeper this season.

The addition of Bourn will likely move Stubbs out of a starting spot and possibly onto the trade market. The Indians are going to be tough to pitch to next year because they have eight projected starters who put up an on-base percentage above the league average of .319 last season.

Here is how the Indians lineup could look on opening day with each player’s 2012 on-base percentage in parenthesis:

CF Bourn (.348)

2B Kipnis (.335)

SS Cabrera (.338)

RF Swisher (.364)

C  Santana (.365)

LF Brantley (.348)

1B Reynolds (.335)

DH Giambi (.372)

3B Chisenhall (.311)

The thing that jumps out about the Indians is how strong they are on defense with Bourn, Kipnis, Cabrera and Santana. Very few teams in baseball have that type of offensive talent at each of the premium defensive positions.

The Indians also have good depth behind their starters. Giambi, who they signed to a minor league deal, is 42 years old and hasn’t been a fulltime player since 2008. Thus, the DH spot will likely be used as a place to get him some at-bats and to get some rest for the regular position players. 

With Stubbs, infielder Mike Aviles and catcher Lou Marson on the bench, the Indians will have the depth to give their regulars a breather in the DH spot.

Unfortunately for Cleveland, their busy offseason isn’t going to be enough for them to overtake the Detroit Tigers in the American League Central this season. Cleveland’s lineup is outstanding on paper, but their rotation just doesn’t measure up with that of the Tigers.

The additions of Bauer and Myers to the staff are not enough for a team that finished with a 5.25 rotation ERA in 2012—second worst in the American League.

Bourn, who ranked as one of the best defenders in baseball last season, will help improve a defense that finished near the bottom of the league in defensive efficiency last year. Yet that move alone won’t turn Cleveland into a run preventing dynamo.

Cleveland is certainly better than they were last season. However, the Royals are also much improved in the AL Central and the Tigers remain a powerhouse. For the Indians to make the postseason, a lot is going to have to go right for them and wrong for the rest of the league. A wild card spot isn’t out of the question, but it’s not something to bet on.

The Indians lineup looks exceptionally deep, but they’ll need better starting pitching to make a run at the postseason. Unless Justin Masterson and Ubaldo Jimenez make drastic improvements, it’s hard to envision that happening.

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The Oakland A’s had a busy winter stocking up on talent in order to defend their AL West title. They acquired outfielder Chris Young, shortstop Hiroyuki Nakajima, catcher John Jaso and infielder Jed Lowrie to bolster the squad.

The A’s did lose shortstops Stephen Drew and Cliff Pennington, outfielder/desginated hitter Jonny Gomes, first baseman Chris Carter, starting pitcher Brandon McCarthy and catcher George Kottaras. Time will tell if the new additions can provide more value this year than the departures did last season.

Regardless of how well Young, Nakajima, Jaso and Lowrie perform, the biggest source of improvement from last season is likely to come from within.

Brett Anderson should more than make up for the loss of McCarthy in the rotation this year after making six impressive starts down the stretch last season to complete his recovery from Tommy John surgery. Anderson’s rotation mates Jarrod Parker and Tommy Milone should continue to improve upon their stellar rookie seasons from last year as well.

Offensively, Josh Reddick showed what he was capable of in the first half when he hit .268/.348/.532—which should have earned him All-Star honors—before slumping to .215/.256/.391 in the second half. A full season at his first-half pace would go a long way to helping the A’s defend their crown this season.

Yet no Oakland player—and very few players in all of baseball—have the tools that Yoenis Cespedes possesses. Cespedes has the natural talent to take a giant leap forward in 2013 and contend for the AL MVP award.

He can hit for average, hit for power, run and throw—giving him four of the five tools scouts look for. The fifth tool, his defense, improved after he moved from center field over to left.

Cespedes improved drastically as the season wore on.

When I saw him in spring training, he was hacking at every breaking ball in sight. Then, he got off to a slow start in April—hitting only .244. He continued to struggle in May—hitting only .227 with a .534 on-base plus slugging percentage (OPS).

He took off from there. His OPS improved to 1.016 in June, .961 in July, .788 in August and .874 in September. In the postseason, he hit .316 with a .381 on-base percentage.

The adjustments that he made throughout the season at the plate were impressive.

He became a more patient hitter as the season went along, which allowed him to get better pitches to hit and unleash his impressive power. He improved from a .465 slugging percentage with nine home runs in the first half to a .533 slugging percentage and 14 home runs in the second half.

All the more impressive is that he did this while transitioning to the United States from Cuba, learning a new position and battling through injuries. He missed 31 games with hand and hamstring injuries.

His at-bats became must-see events last year.

At 5’10”, 210 pounds, he’s built more like an NFL running back than a baseball player. He has tremendous bat speed, and he doesn’t get cheated at the plate—taking controlled but vicious hacks. He does an outstanding job of getting his stout lower half into his swing via his quick-twitch weight transfer and hip rotation. 

He’s a physical specimen with four plus tools. His natural power is right up their with the best sluggers in the game. 

He finished his rookie year with 23 home runs, 25 doubles, five triples, 16 steals and an .861 OPS despite playing in a pitcher’s park and skipping the minor leagues entirely. His tools and physique, combined with his ability to adjust to major league pitching, are going to lead to an even bigger breakout this year.

With a year to adjust to a new culture and a new position under his belt, Cespedes is ready to become an MVP candidate in 2013.

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Tim Lincecum met with the media Friday for the first time this offseason and he sounds like a man on a mission. Lincecum is going to bounce back in a big way for the San Francisco Giants in 2013. 

Lincecum not only has a spiffy new haircut, but his body has changed as well. After dropping 30 pounds last winter, he’s back up to 170 pounds via a new offseason strength training regimen. 

Time will tell if the offseason conditioning has had any effect on his declining fastball velocity. The increased weight Lincecum carried in 2011 helped him bump his fastball up to 92.3 mmph from an average of 91.3 mph the season before. After shedding weight last winter, his fastball averaged only 90.4 mph in 2012.

Yet velocity is not the most significant factor for Lincecum. Even with the velocity drop last season, he still managed to induce hitters to swing and miss over 11 percent of the time, which is right in line with where he was during his two Cy Young campaigns. He has a deceptive delivery and good enough off-speed stuff to get strikeouts without needing to rely on top-of-the-line velocity.

The biggest problem facing Lincecum is not velocity, but command. When Lincecum got ahead in the count with a first pitch strike last season, opponents hit only .220/.270/.373 off of him. When he fell behind in the count, opponents blasted him, hitting .298/.428/.493. Despite throwing a full-season career low of 186 innings last year, Lincecum walked a career-high 90 batters. 

The key for Lincecum in commanding the ball and throwing quality strikes within the zone to set up his disappearing changeup is in the delivery.

General manager Brian Sabean summed up the main issue with Lincecum last October. He told John Shea of the San Francisco Chronicle:

This is more of a function of willing to accept the delivery he’s going to use to be a successful pitcher…A lot of it is the delivery. The better the delivery, the better the arm action, the better the ability to make quality pitches with pitch to pitch control.

Lincecum spoke about the improvements he’s made to his delivery on Friday (via Andrew Baggarly, CSNBayArea.com):

Just trying to get my body into more of a explosive and dynamic motion, that I had before, where I was getting down the mound, following through over that front leg…I feel like mechanics were a big issue with it and I feel like my lack of strength led to that…Last year I didn’t feel like I was landing on my front foot very well, and I felt like I wasn’t even following through well. With that, the more stable my body is, the more I’ll be able to uphold my mechanics…I feel like my lower half is below me now and I’m not trying to create too much with my upper half, which is not creating an out-of-whack motion. It’s more just in sync and on time.

Will Carroll wrote an excellent article about Lincecum’s mechanical issues last month. In that article, Carroll quoted Baltimore Orioles pitching coordinator Rick Peterson on some of the same issues Lincecum discussed on Friday, notably sync and timing. Carroll wrote:

According to Rick Peterson…the sync between landing with the front foot and having the ball in the ‘high ready position’ is imperative. “If there is one thing I can explain, it’s that this is black or white, proper or improper,” said Peterson, in an interview with Bleacher Report. “Even an amateur can see this once they know what to look for. The arm needs to be up at the time the front foot lands.”

From watching Lincecum last season, it appeared that he had a hard time getting the ball in that high and ready position when his front foot landed. His late timing with his arm prevented him from driving the ball downhill, so he continually made mistakes up in the zone.

Hitters were certainly able to take advantage of Lincecum’s mistakes last year. After hitting only .222/.302/.344 with 15 home runs off of him in 2011, they hit .257/.341/.426 with 23 home runs against him last year.

His regular season was a disappointment, but he managed to salvage his season by converting into a dominant reliever during the postseason to help propel the Giants to another championship.

That wasn’t the first time that he overcame adversity to help the Giants win it all. In August of 2010, he went 0-5 with a 7.82 ERA. He bounced back to put up a 1.94 ERA in September to help the Giants win the NL West, and then he went 4-1 with a 2.43 ERA in the postseason to carry the Giants to the World Series title.

Lincecum has bounced back from his struggles before, and he’s going to bounce back again in 2013 as long as he can find a consistent delivery. Lincecum sounds confident that he’s going to get back to being one of the game’s elite pitchers (via Baggarly of CSNBayArea.com):

My perspective is, I want to be a starter and I want to get back to that elite status that I was at…Last year I had a lot of questions. I was trying to change a lot things at once. Getting my mind back to a stable point where I know what I’m doing and I know why I’m doing it, I feel like my confidence is back.

That’s good news for the Giants, and bad news for the rest of the league.

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The San Francisco Giants‘ offseason tour down memory lane continued on Tuesday when the team reportedly re-acquired free agent reliever Ramon Ramirez on a minor league contract (h/t Andrew Baggarly).

Ramirez was a key contributor on the 2010 Giants team that brought the organization its first championship since moving west to San Francisco in 1958. General manager Brian Sabean swung a deal for Ramirez at the deadline that year, and he delivered with a 0.67 ERA over the final two months of the season.

In 2011, he remained an outstanding contributor as part of manager Bruce Bochy’s setup corpse. He put a 2.62 ERA with 66 strikeouts over 68.2 innings that year. Sabean then dealt Ramirez and Andres Torres to the Mets for Angel Pagan last winter in a deal that helped propel the Giants to a second World Series title in three years.

This offseason Sabean has brought back all three of the pieces in that trade by re-signing Pagan, Torres and now Ramirez. Given Pagan’s success last season and the struggles of Ramirez and Torres with the Mets, it’s safe to declare that trade a total victory for Sabean—especially now that he has all three components of the deal back under his employ.

Ramirez had a tough go of it in his lone season with the Mets last year—putting up a 4.24 ERA while also going on the disabled list due to a hamstring injury suffered during the celebration of Johan Santana’s no-hitter.

Sabean has spent the offseason bringing back free agents who contributed to past championship teams. In addition to bringing back Pagan, Torres and Ramirez, he re-signed Marco Scutaro and Jeremy Affeldt—who was with the Giants for both title runs.

Unlike Pagan, Torres, Scutaro and Affeldt—who all have guaranteed big league deals—Ramirez is going to have to battle to make the team out of spring training. He’ll likely compete with waiver claim Sandy Rosario and minor league free agents Chad Gaudin and Scott Proctor for the final spot in the bullpen.

The Giants could conceivably decide to re-sign another blast from the past in free agent reliever Brian Wilson. However, he likely won’t be ready for opening day given that he’s recovering from a second Tommy John surgery. Thus, even if Wilson does come back, Ramirez will have a solid chance to reclaim his former spot with the Giants. Also, the latest reports on Wilson indicated that he likely wouldn’t be returning to San Francisco.

Ramirez has a solid 3.32 career ERA and a 3.67 FIP (Fielding Independent Pitching). He throws a fastball in the low 90s, a sharp slider and a change-up.

The biggest difference between his success with the Giants in 2010-2011 and his struggles with the Mets last year was his results against left-handed hitters. He held lefties to a .161/.231/.250 batting line with the Giants in 2010 and they hit just .250/.346/.265 off of him in 2011.  Last year lefties blasted him, slashing .273/.380/.409 over 111 at-bats.

The Giants’ nostalgic offseason of re-signing players who contributed to past glories continued with the signing of Ramirez, who should have an excellent chance of making the team this spring if he can get back to his old ways against lefties.

Time will tell if the Giants cap off the winter by bringing back their former bearded closer.

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Gregor Blanco—the San Francisco Giants projected starting left fielder—hit just .244/.333/.344 with five home runs last year.

Andres Torres—the free agent the Giants brought in to compete with Blanco—hit just .230/.327/.337 with three home runs last year.

For comparison, the average major league team received a .260/.325/.431 batting line with 22 home runs from their left fielders last season.

Based on those numbers, left field appears to be a position of weakness for the Giants heading into spring training. Chris Quick of the website Bay City Ball summed up the general sentiment well by writing:

The best way the Giants can upgrade their team is fixing [left field] LF, but that’s almost surely something that won’t be handled until the trading deadline…And stuff like LF should be easily fixable, in a way, since there’s a chance that because the baseline is so low, any upgrade should be, theoretically, easy to attain.

While Torres and Blanco don’t have the power bats typically associated with a corner outfield position, they both provide value in less obvious ways that should make the left field situation a strength for the Giants next season.

First, Blanco (.333 on-base percentage) and Torres (.327) got on base in 2012 above the overall league average (.319) and the league average for left fielders (.325). Torres walked in 12 percent of his plate appearances and Blanco walked in over 11 percent of his plate appearances. Thus, while they both hit for low averages in large part because of their high strikeout rates, their excellent walk rates propelled them to have acceptable on-base percentages.

Secondly, Blanco and Torres are excellent defensive outfielders, and a run saved on defense is just as important and valuable as a run created on offense. According to the defensive metric ultimate zone rating (UZR), Blanco was the 15th best defensive outfielder last year and Torres was 33rd.

With Blanco and Torres, the Giants are deploying two players with enough range to play center field in left. While defensive performance is harder to measure than offense given the limitations of the metrics available, both the numbers and the eye test show them to be well above average in the outfield.

Finally, both players create additional value once they get on base. Blanco was 26 for 32 in stolen base attempts and he was credited with being worth nearly four runs with his legs last year. Torres was 13 for 18 on stolen base attempts and was credited with being worth nearly two runs with his baserunning last year.

In 141 total games including 89 starts, Blanco was worth 2.4 wins above replacement (WAR). In 132 games including 101 starts, Torres was worth 1.7 WAR. Thus, they combined for 190 starts and over four wins last season. If the Giants get the same overall production from their tandem of left fielders this season, they won’t need to scour the market for an upgrade at the trade deadline.

Blanco and Torres both strike out a lot and don’t hit for much average or power. However, they both walk enough to keep their on-base percentages above the league average, play excellent defense and provide value with their speed on the bases. 

If you just look at their traditional hitting statistics, you would assume the Giants need to upgrade in left field. However, when you take into account the complete package that both players offer, you can see why the Giants are comfortable heading into spring training with Blanco and Torres competing for playing time in left field and as backups for Angel Pagan in center and Hunter Pence in right.

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The Oakland A’s shocked the baseball world last year by winning 94 games and sweeping the Texas Rangers during the final weekend of the season to win the AL West. Have they done enough this winter to give themselves a legitimate shot to repeat as division champs in 2013?

This offseason, general manager Billy Beane traded for outfielder Chris Young, catcher John Jaso and reliever Chris Resop. He also signed shortstop Hiroyuki Nakajima and re-signed starting pitcher Bartolo Colon.

Stephen Drew, Brandon McCarthy and Jonny Gomes departed via free agency. Cliff Pennington was dealt for Young and George Kottaras was lost on waivers.

With Brett Anderson, Dan Straily and A.J. Griffin returning, the A’s have plenty of young pitching depth to replace the departed McCarthy.

 After coming back from Tommy John surgery, Anderson had a 2.57 ERA in his six starts last season. Griffin had a 3.06 ERA in his first 15 starts, and Straily had a 3.89 ERA in his seven rookie starts.  Anderson not only has the ability to be the ace of the staff, but he could be a Cy Young candidate if he stays healthy over the full season.

The A’s also return the veteran Colon (3.43 ERA), Travis Blackley (3.86) and second-year starters Tommy Milone (3.74) and Jarrod Parker (3.47). Among those seven starters, they should be able to find a way to duplicate or improve their 3.80 rotation ERA from last season, which was the eighth lowest in the majors.

The A’s have added Resop to a bullpen that was fourth in the league with a 2.94 ERA in 2012. They’ll also be returning Grant Balfour (2.53 ERA), Ryan Cook (2.09), Sean Doolittle (3.04), Jerry Blevins (2.48) and Jordan Norberto (2.77).

The A’s have depth, youth and talent up and down the pitching staff. They also have a deep group of outfield and designated hitter candidates among Young and incumbents Coco Crisp, Yoenis Cespedes, Josh Reddick and Seth Smith.

Cespedes, who will turn 27 next year, hit .292/.356/.505 with 23 home runs in his rookie season last year. Reddick, who will turn 26 next year, blasted 32 home runs to go with a slash line of .242/.305/.463. Given their youth, both outfielders should continue to improve as they enter their primes.

One area where the A’s could see some regression is at first base where Brandon Moss and Chris Carter combined to hit 37 home runs in just 556 plate appearances last season. Manager Bob Melvin’s platoon got the most out of both players, but Moss is a 29-year-old journeyman who may not be able to sustain his torrid .291/.358/.596 batting line from last season.

The rest of the A’s infield could be offensively challenged as well. Nakajima hit .311/.382/.451 in Japan last season, but the ZIPS projection system used at FanGraphs projects a pessimistic .271/.316/.366 batting line for him in his first season stateside. But all projections are just estimates, and Nakajima has a chance to top that batting line, based on his outstanding professional career in Japan. 

Josh Donaldson returns at the hot corner after hitting just .241/.289/.398 last season. Scott Sizemore will return to his original position at second base after missing all of last season due to injury. He’ll battle the incumbent Jemile Weeks, who hit just .221/.305/.304 before losing his job to Pennington late last year. Sizemore also has experience at third base, so he could become an option there if Donaldson falters.

Jaso and Derek Norris will handle catching duties next season, though Jaso could also see time at DH. Jaso, who hit.276/.394/.456 last season, should upgrade the offense behind the dish for the A’s, who finished dead last in the American League with a .587 OPS from the catcher position in 2012.

The A’s appear to have the pitching depth and talent to carry them into contention again in 2013. The Texas Rangers, Seattle Mariners and Houston Astros have had quiet winters, and while the Los Angeles Angels added Josh Hamilton to an already potent offense, their starting pitching doesn’t match up with the A’s rotation on paper. 

For the A’s to repeat as AL West champs, they’ll likely need to improve on their .238/.310/.404 team batting line from last season. The additions of Young, Jaso, Nakajima and a healthy Sizemore, combined with continued improvements from Cespedes and Reddick should provide the A’s with enough offense to sneak back into the postseason.

The Angels and Rangers have larger payrolls and more well-known players, but Oakland heads into 2013 with the best roster from top to bottom in the division.

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