UPDATE: Baggs checks in from the press conference:

Sabean and Groeschner defended the due diligence of the medical department, saying they'd taken four MRIs of Sanchez's shoulder prior to the club signing the second baseman to a two-year, $12 million extension early in the offseason. Groeschner said much of diagnostic medicine is interpretation. "It's sports medicine. It's not black and white all the time." Sanchez hadn't tested the shoulder until mid-December because he was rehabbing from knee surgery. But when he began swinging a bat, the discomfort recurred. In an exploratory scope, the damage was discovered and repaired. Sabean said he doesn't have "any doubt (Sanchez) will be back on the field in due order and be the guy who we traded for."

Hank adds a bit more color:

Sabean was asked if he would have done anything different with the contract.

"Not at all," he said. "The degree of due diligence was done on the medical side. It shows the medical profession isn't perfect. . . . Nothing more could've been done. We checked out every medical question."

If Sanchez is late out of the gate, Bochy says Juan Uribe will be the starting 2B, though there's another option: Put DeRosa at second. That could free up another outfield slot, which could benefit John Bowker if he's on the bubble. Or Ishikawa could play first against right-handers, and Huff can play LF.

Final tidbit for today: Jesus Guzman is odd man out. If he'd shown a bit more prowess on defense, they might have kept him around longer to see if his bat was MLB caliber. still young and should get another shot, probably in the AL.  

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I just caught this. More surgery for Freddy Sanchez. Don't be surprised if the "might miss Opening Day" turns into "hopes to return by All-Star Break."

I said my piece here about the Giants' evaluation of damaged goods (Renteria and Sanchez), and that was before the Giants signed Sanchez to a two-year contract extension:

Then in July, the docs signed off on Freddy Sanchez, who admitted recently he knew before the trade he would need off-season knee surgery. And he didn't even have a rubber mallet and stethoscope. Presumably the Giant medical staff had all this, and more -- they even had Sanchez in town while the deal was going down -- and they still gave Sabes the green light. Or maybe not. We dwell in speculation land here. Perhaps they gave Sabes the flashing yellow, and Sabes floored it anyway. If the docs said Sanchez was good to go, they were embarrassingly wrong, and if they said proceed with caution, Sabean showed no signs of doing so when he probably could have at least extracted some cash from the Pirates to help defray the costs of Sanchez's contract. 

Whatever the case, the Giants bought high twice on damaged goods, and it would serve Bill Neukom well to figure out who knew what and when before his general manager, whoever it might be, starts wheeling and dealing as the hot stove heats up.

Let's hope the beat writers ask some of those questions at the press conference this afternoon.

SMALL PRINT UPDATE: Molina officially back on the 40-man roster, but no word yet who's getting the boot. As of 1:30pm the Giants were sporting a 41-man roster.