Theriot In So Who's Out? - Lineup Possibilities

So Fontenot gets his old LSU/Cubs buddy back and the Giants now have another offensive option at Shortstop besides putting Brandon Crawford in as an obvious hole at the 8th spot in this lineup.

But what does Ryan Theriot really do for this team right now? With what we've heard Burriss, Theriot and Fontenot are now in race for 2 spots on the team with the added possibility that Pill may be the odd man out as well.

Last year on the World Champion St. Louis Cardinals (ooooh that hurts to type..) Ryan Theriot finished with a .271 average with 47 RBI. That's about all you're gonna get with him. Not a spectacular statistical season, but nothing out of the ordinary for what Ryan can bring to a team.

We know what Fontenot and Burriss bring to the team, Fontenot can play shortstop, second or third making him very versatile as a backup. Burriss is mostly a 2nd base backup, but has played outfield and first base as well. Burriss also gives you value in his speed on the basepaths as a pinch runner. Of all the guys on the bubble Pill is the most intriguing offensive tool, but being that he can only play 1st base at this point, it hurts his ability to stay on this club unless there are injuries.

With all this said I realized after I put down my probable starting lineup that I missed a few things:

#1 Bochy makes out the most lineups of any major league manager

#2 Posey and Sanchez may not be ready by opening day and even if they are, may not be up to speed in order to start at their usual batting spots.

So with these things in mind I made out a few different lineups for these situations and contingencies:

Bochy's Anti-Righty Lineup

Angel Pagan CF
Freddy Sanchez 2B
Pablo Sandoval 3B
Buster Posey C
Melky Cabrera LF
Aubrey Huff 1B
Nate Shierholtz RF
Brandon Crawford SS

In this lineup you have Pagan, Sandoval and Cabrera who will be in any game because they are switch hitters, but the lineup against a Righty is L/R/L/R/L/L/L/L

Bochy's Anti-Lefty Lineup

Angel Pagan CF
Freddy Sanchez 2B
Pablo Sandoval 3B
Buster Posey C
Melky Cabrera LF
Brandon Belt 1B
Ryan Theriot SS
Nate Schierholtz RF

R/R/R/R/R/L/R/L

This lineup I decided to put in Brandon Belt over Aubrey Huff because of his very strange ownage over left handed hitters despite being a left handed batter himself. Also I put in Ryan Theriot as our new right handed shortstop to help out Brandon Crawford who was absolutely dismal facing lefties last year. Nate Schierholtz is in because I don't care who's playing Nate and his arm need to be in the lineup everyday.

Since Bochy has the tendency to stick with his vets, I see him going with Huff against lefties as well and putting in Belt only sparingly when he needs rest.

Left Field Laws

Brandon Belt's small sample size against Right handed batters? 46 at bats but a whopping .348 avg and 2 home runs... play the kid Boch!