Give 'em Some Stankeye!

The Giants hate Kevin Frandsen. That's the only reason I can find for why they just refuse to let him play second base. After rehabbing his butt off trying to come back from an Achilles injury last season, the reward Frandsen gets is losing the spring second base battle to Emmanuel Burriss. This isn't the first time he's been slighted. Instead of trying him out as a starter in 2007, the team re-signed Ray Durham, a move that blew up in their faces. In 2008, with a third base vacancy, Frandsen never seemed to be regarded as much of an option before he got hurt, then the Great Jose Castillo Fiasco ensued.

I've made the Frandsen argument before, but it seems like it's worth repeating. Look at the Giants' lineup, with either Frandsen or Burris, take your pick, at second base. It's probably not going to be good regardless of who you put there. However, when I look at Frandsen's minor league line, I see a whole lot of hitting. When I look at Burriss's minor league totals, I see a whole lot of not hitting, especially not for any kind of power. Not to mention that Frandsen never hit below .300 in AAA, while Burriss barely played above that level before getting the recall.

Granted, Burriss held his own in a decent number of major league at-bats last season, but "held his own" doesn't equate to future success at all. I'd wager that past minor league performance holds more water than brief major league success, especially since said success is based totally on a punchless .357 OBP. The Giants' number one, unmistakable problem is going to be an inability to score runs, and it would seem to me that Frandsen just adds a little more offense.

Okay, so Frandsen losing out to Burriss kind of sucks, but at least I can stomach it if Frandsen is around as a backup. Um, he is still around as a backup, right?

Ohhhh, sorry! Frandsen got demoted to AAA so that the Giants could keep Eugenio Velez and Juan Uribe on the roster. Note to the Giants' powers-that-be: Velez and Uribe are terrible! Uribe can't hit and Velez can't do anything. Crazily, they're apparently keeping Velez around as a sixth outfielder. Has the team really forgotten that Velez committed the cardinal sin last year of blowing a win for Tim Lincecum? What. The. Hell.

And here I thought the Giants were done doing stupid things. Silly me.