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Spring training is nearly two months away, and the Giants have been relatively inactive on the hot stove during the offseason.

With the exception of the Miguel Tejada signing, their other signings have involved bringing back components from the 2010 World Series championship season, such as Pat Burrell and Aubrey Huff.

Although the free agent market has thinned now that Carl Crawford and Jayson Werth have joined other clubs, the Giants still have some viable options on available players, both in the free agent and trade markets.

Here are 10 potentially available players who could guarantee October baseball on the shores of McCovey Cove again in 2011.

This article was featured on the blog Talking Giants Baseball.

How many games will the Giants win in 2011? Vote here.

Follow me on Twitter @vintalkingiants.

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The free agent cycle for baseball seems to be wrapping up. The final major names are beginning to get contracts, and most teams have stopped shopping around and are just trying to get things sorted out for next season.

While some teams made moves to make a playoff push next year, other teams have gotten rid of their stars and are relying on rebuilding this year. Nonetheless, there are a few teams that are continuing to make moves, even as spring training approaches. Which teams are set, and which continue to make moves?

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It’s a known fact for all SF Giant fans: Pitching is not a weak link.

But previous to last year’s World Series plight, it was undermined by a possible lack of hitting.

Oh, how we were wrong.

The Giants put together some moves that were at the time thought of as inadequate. As we look back, such moves have proved to be of the World Series MVP quality.

What moves could possibly benefit the Gigantes? I know it’s a story often told, but let’s discuss some trade talk that could benefit the Giants’ offensive potential.

Keep in mind, exercises such as this are purely interpretive. You probably won’t agree, but just remember that sometimes moves thought of as ridiculous do pan out.

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The Phillies have been a hot topic during the offseason of 2010-11. Jayson Werth is out, Cliff Lee is in and people are talking about perhaps witnessing the best pitching rotations in baseball history.

Let’s not jump the gun, but on the same note, it may be tougher for the Giants to repeat as the NL West becomes more competitive.

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Money makes the world go ’round, even (and especially) in Major League Baseball.

If nothing else, money makes baseball’s off-season much more interesting, with teams handing out absurdly large contracts left and right, to the likes of Carl Crawford, Jayson Werth and Cliff Lee.

The teams that contend year after year–the New York Yankees, the Boston Red Sox and the Philadelphia Phillies, among others—are among the biggest spenders, while those that always struggle or only occasionally have good seasons—the Pittsburgh Pirates, the San Diego Padres and the Oakland A’s, to name a few, spend only a fraction of what the former teams do on their payrolls.

Of course, more money doesn’t necessarily result in more wins; just ask the New York Mets, the Chicago Cubs and the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim.

With that in mind, the following list is a ranking of all 30 MLB teams based on how much money each spent per win earned in 2010. Admittedly, there is much more to evaluating the success or failure of a franchise than just dividing its opening day payroll by the number of victories it earns, both in the regular season and the post-season.

That being said, there is still quite an interesting mix across the spectrum, with a remarkably large percentage of 2010’s biggest winners coming from baseball’s batch of frequently frugal spenders.

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It’s been an eerily quiet offseason for most clubs.

While teams like the Red Sox, Yankees, and Dodgers have all been among the most active thus far, most have remained rather inactive in the early part of the free agent season.

With so many long-term contracts in the past that have proven to be a burden to clubs down the road, general managers aren’t spending lavishly like in previous times.

It’s a bad time to be a remaining free agent, because the amount of money left to spend is shrinking by the day. 

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Nearly two months ago, the San Francisco Giants took care of some unfinished business, their first world championship in San Francisco. 

Now, with spring training just two months away, the Giants have little time to prepare for next season’s campaign. They brought back most of their 2010 championship team, including their pitching staff, and added Miguel Tejada to replace Juan Uribe, but is it enough?

The rest of the National League has appeared to become stronger, especially with the Phillies’ “Fantastic Four” starting pitching staff, but the Giants still have the tools to take home the Major League Baseball championship crown again in 2011.

Here are 10 reasons why the Giants just might bring home another World Series title to the city by the bay.

This article was featured on the blog Talking Giants Baseball.

How many games do you think the Giants will win next year? Click here to vote.

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As a die-hard San Francisco Giants fan at heart, let me be the first to assure you the team should not and almost certainly will not ultimately sign Adrian Beltre.

Though the slick-fielding third baseman is the best free agent left on the market by far, the fact that Beltre employs Scott Boras to do his negotiating means he will go for tippity-top dollar. It also means this is precisely the position Scotty wanted his client in i.e. the biggest and brightest name left in neon lights because it adds a heavy dose of leverage to the proceedings.

In other words, we can already see the grind for max money starting.

Furthermore, while the former Los Angeles Dodger star authored the greatest season of his career (2004) in the NL West, he’s written far more underwhelming ones in the same or similarly hostile confines for a hitter (see: entire career with the Seattle Mariners).

Then there’s the matter of the former Boston Red Sox’ age—he’ll be 32 within about a week of Opening Day in 2011. That’s not ancient by any means, but it ain’t young either and it’s on the wrong side of a major-leaguer’s prime.

When you fit all those pieces together, you get a very clear picture of a very inefficient allocation of resources. With Barry Zito (another high-profile Boras client, which is no coincidence) and Aaron Rowand already consuming more than they produce, bringing more contractual fat aboard makes absolutely zero sense.

Nevertheless, if you remove the franchise-killing agent from the portrait, a possible deal becomes a whole lot more intriguing.

Because there are definitely 10 reasons the San Francisco Giants could use Adrian Beltre…

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As 2010 winds to an end, we remember some of the greatest baseball moments of the past season. Whether it was the San Francisco Giants taking home the hardware, Roy Halladay’s postseason no-hitter, the debut of “the phenom” Stephen Strasburg or any of the several no-hitters that made 2010 the Year of the Pitcher, we are thankful for a great year of baseball and wait in anxious anticipation for the coming of the 2011 season.

The past season wasn’t all roses, however. There were some weeds in the garden as well. Mishaps that a lot of players would love to forget and turn a new leaf moving forward.

So with the new year right around the corner, what better time than now to catch up with some of the most familiar names in baseball and the resolutions that they’re making to create one of the greatest baseball years ever in 2011.

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We all know about the saga of the fifth wheel: the unnecessary adjunct that comes along for the ride without contributing much, if anything.  When talking about the San Francisco Giants, two prominent and obvious fifth wheels come immediately to mind—Barry Zito and Aaron Rowand.

Both players have struggled mightily during their years wearing the orange and black, and neither has made contributions even remotely close to what was expected given their hefty contracts. Combined, the two will draw salaries of well over $30 million in 2011—meaning that more than a quarter of the Giants‘ payroll is devoted to just two players.  

That might fly in the case of players that management can count on for All-Star performances, but given the woeful statistics of both Zito and Rowand over the past few seasons, everyone would have to agree that they’re currently two of the most overpaid players in Major League Baseball today.

So much for the negatives.  Because, in fact, once people get over the huge contracts—not an easy thing to do, admittedly—there remains a substantial amount of value that Zito and Rowand bring to the party.

Zito first.  During his tenure with the Giants, Barry has been a mere shadow of the Cy Young award-winning pitcher who was so effective for the Oakland A’s.  Only the second half of the 2009 season and the first half of 2010 can be pointed to as reasonable returns on investment, and Zito slumped considerably during the latter half of last year, making minimal contributions to the team’s stretch run and World Series victory.  

Indeed, he didn’t even make the postseason roster.

But is there a more effective fifth starter in the game today?  The fact remains that Zito is an inning-eater who has never been hurt nor missed a start in his major league career.  I’ve never been a big fan of so-called “inning eaters” who nonetheless sport shabby won-lost records at the top of the rotation.  

But for a fifth starter?  Most teams are challenged to throw out a warm body in that position, and can only hope for a win if that starter goes against another team’s fifth pitcher or benefits from an offensive explosion.  Even as a sub-.500 pitcher, Zito gives the Giants a chance to win every time he pitches.  

More important, the team can count on him to pitch enough innings to really make a difference in terms of a rested bullpen as the season wears on.  If you’re forced to go to the pen early and often in the fifth spot throughout the year, that usually spells trouble in September, when the pen has to be rested and ready for the stretch run.

One other factor matters here.  It’s not impossible to expect Zito to bounce back and regain some, if not all, of his form, and that’s because of the kind of pitcher he is.  Power pitchers tend to lose their effectiveness as they age, but Zito has never been even close to a power pitcher.  Even at his best, he couldn’t break a pane of glass with his fastball.  

We’ve all seen lefties with good breaking pitches and control who have lasted a long time and gotten a second wind late in their careers.  Perhaps this will happen to Zito: With his contract, he’ll certainly get the chance.

Now on to Rowand, another fifth wheel/fifth outfielder.  It would appear that his best days are behind him, and any fan cringes at the thought of his waving fruitlessly at another low and outside slider in the dirt.  We offer no defense for that.  But it should be noted that Rowand is an excellent center fielder with fine range, good instincts and an accurate arm.  

The defense gives away nothing with him in center, and it must be assumed that he would be more than capable filling in at any of the other two outfield spots.  Add to that the fact that he does have some power—more than is usually found in a reserve outfielder—has the ability to get hot for spurts, and does indeed contribute at times, as he did in the postseason when called upon.  

Most fifth outfielders are distinct role players who bring either speed or defense to a team, but little else.  And while Rowand may not be capable of putting up the numbers ideally associated with an everyday player, those numbers and capabilities look attractive in a bench player, giving the team added depth and flexibility.

It should also be noted that both Zito and Rowand are generally considered to be strong clubhouse presences and all-around “team” guys.  Zito took his postseason demotion with class and closed lips, while Rowand never once hung his head, despite being relegated to the bench for long periods of time during the season.  

Chemistry really mattered to the 2010 Giants, and these two players contributed to that dynamic—instead of being the whining distractions so many other players would have become had they fallen on similar fates.

Yes, the contract numbers don’t add up, and the on-the-field numbers don’t look like much for both Zito and Rowand when compared to everyday players and stars.  But when you’re talking about two valuable fifth wheels, Giant fans should count their blessings to have two such capable spare tires in the team’s trunk.  

Expensive rubber, you may say?  No doubt.  But who wouldn’t pay extra for another parade down Market Street—especially when it’s not your money.

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