The Great Keppinger vs. Fontenot Debate Ends Tonight

The deadline to tender a contract to players eligible for arbitration is at midnight eastern time tonight and the Giants have a few decisions left to make.

The main event for tonight revolves around the Giants choosing between infielders Jeff Keppinger and Mike Fontenot as their backup second baseman/utility infielder. To me the choice really isn't that hard, I am a fan of Fontenot who offers better defense, more power and is better suited for the utility role. Keppinger has his skills but it is hard to get past the poor speed and empty batting average for me.

Hot Stove: Giants Budget Math Looks Bleak

With the signing of Jeremy Affeldt and Javier Lopez the MLB Hot Stove season has officially kicked off for the Giants. With that in mind I think it is a good time to take a look at how much of the Giants budget will be left to spend on Free Agents this off season.

To get an idea I pulled up the Giants from Cot's Contracts and took a look at what MLB Trade Rumors projects for the Giants arbitration eligible players to get a rough estimate of where things will be for next year.

Here is the table with the 2012 salaries with an assumed $130 million budget:

Player	Salary	Budget Remaining
Lincecum, Tim	$    19.20	$  110.80
Zito, Barry	$    19.00	$    91.80
Cain, Matt	$    15.33	$    76.47
Rowand, Aaron	$    13.60	$    62.87
Huff, Aubrey	$    10.00	$    52.87
Wilson, Brian	$       8.50	$    44.37
Sanchez, Freddy	$       6.00	$    38.37
Sanchez, Jonathan	$       5.20	$    33.17
Affeldt, Jeremy	$       5.00	$    28.17
Lopez, Javier	$       4.25	$    23.92
Sandoval, Pablo	$       3.20	$    20.72
Jeff Keppinger	$       2.70	$    18.02
Torres, Andres	$       2.50	$    15.52
Ryan Vogelsong	$       2.50	$    13.02
Ramirez, Ramon S.	$       2.30	$    10.72
Casilla, Santiago	$       1.90	$       8.82
Fontenot, Mike	$       1.30	$       7.52
Romo, Sergio	$       1.30	$       6.22
Schierholtz, Nate	$       1.20	$       5.02
Whiteside, Eli	$       0.70	$       4.32
Burriss, Emmanuel	$       0.60	$       3.72
Posey, Buster	$       0.50	$       3.22
Bumgarner, Madison	$       0.45	$       2.77
Runzler, Dan	$       0.45	$       2.32
Belt, Brandon	$       0.45	$       1.87
Chris Stewart	$       0.45	$       1.42

Guys in green are arbitration eligible who I expect to come back, guys in yellow are arbitration eligible and are candidates for not having a contract tendered to them. The guys in white have a contract already for next season or are under team control still. Finally there is Aaron Rowand who was released but still owed $13 million for next season and I am pretty sure counts against the Giants budget.

If everyone comes back that leaves about $1.5 million for Free Agent Activities. If the non-tender candidates don't come back that leaves about $12 million for Free Agents. If the partners that control the team are feeling generous and don't count Rowand's money owed to him this season and the non-tender candidates don't come back the Giants have about $25 million left for Free Agents.

The last issue is what the final number will be for the budget. For this exercise I have assumed $130 million but the more realistic number is a small increase from this seasons $122 million. If that is the case the chances of getting a big free agent are nearly zero, and the chance of getting more than one mid-tier free agent seem slim as well with around $118 already committed.

We will see how Brain Sabean deals with this situation, barring a big deal that moves a high priced pitcher or a change of heart from management this off season won't be one that offers any big name quick fixes.

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