If Bruce Bochy's locker-room comments were stars, and we, my fellow nerdish baseball travelers, had only their light to travel by, we would seem nearly certain to find ourselves on April 7 in a land where Juan Uribe and Rich Aurilia both frolicked on the Giants opening day roster. Henri De Schulman explains in detail here.
Now wait a bloomin' second. Aren't Uribe and Aurilia redundant? Do the Giants really need two guys to back up third base and/or pinch-hit against lefties? As Napoleon once said, Attends! Vive la difference! Aurilia is only a corner infielder, while Uribe, despite the scouting reports this winter that his shortstop days were behind him, is spry and energetic and, uh-oh Edgar, perhaps the best defensive shortstop in camp, according to at least one observer.
Both can hit for power, though most of it was left behind like shredded tires in the breakdown lane of the middle years of our ignominious decade. If the tilt to one or the other favors defense, it's Uribe. If offense, especially for the occasional crucial late-inning at-bat against a lefty specialist, it's Aurilia. If the team insists on both Aurilia and Uribe and won't take no for an answer, I guess it's best for Kevin Frandsen to be the starting 2B and Emmanuel Burriss to start the year at Fresno and play shortstop every day.
But what if, through some trick of the roster that not only transmogrifies Pablo Sandoval into starting third baseman and backup catcher but also turns Brandon Medders into both long reliever and assistant to the regional general manager, the Giants decide to keep Uribe and Aurilia and Burriss and Frandsen?
We would have no choice but to come up with a new group name. A murder of crows; an exaltation of larks; a pride of lions....but what do you call an abbondanza of uninspiring infielders?
