That's One Expensive Bench!

With the acquisition of Carlos Beltran, the San Francisco Giants have some lineup decisions to make. My personal thought is that they need to start a lineup that looks something like this:

C - Eli Whiteside/Chris Stewart *
1B - Brandon Belt
2B - Jeff Keppinger *
SS - Brandon Crawford  *
3B - Pablo Sandoval
LF - Cody Ross
CF - Nate Schierholtz
RF - Carlos Beltran

(You could of course switch Beltran and Schierholtz around, I just personally think Nate should be in center. Just me. Also worth noting that C, 2B and SS are still really weak offensively, and I'm not sure that's enough - but it's a fairly decent team on the corners of the offense. You could also put Belt in left field, get Aubrey Huff back in the lineup, and sit Cody Ross.)

That leaves these guys on the bench:

Aaron Rowand: $13,600,000
Miguel Tejada: $6,500,000
Aubrey Huff: $10,000,000 or Cody Ross $6,300,000

And no, I haven't even discussed Barry Zito yet.

All of this is according to ESPN, by the way. For those mathematically inclined, that's roughly $25-30,000,000 on the bench in three guys. The entire Kansas City Royals roster is paid $35,000,000. (The Yankees? $196,000,000. Baseball is great.)

And ... I'm okay with this spending. It stinks that the Giants offense is woeful and that there is $30,000,000 being spent on guys who aren't contributing, but to quote every reality show ever made, it is what it is.

I hate the way the Giants have thrown money after guys like Rowand and Randy Winn, and to Mark DeRosa and Tejada, but a ring is a ring is a ring. If this gets them another one, I'm sure Huff and the rest will celebrate plenty. Winning is what this is all about, and the Giants smartly understand they can't sit around and do nothing. If they lose Beltran after this year and get bounced in the first round, it won't look good. But we can't say Sabean and his team aren't trying.

Go Giants!