The Fontenot Factor

(April 8, 2011 - Photo by Justin Sullivan/Getty Images North America)

The career of the 5-foot-8, 165-pound Mike Fontenot has been an interesting one.

First drafted at a riped age of 21 by the Baltimore Orioles with the 19th pick, Fontenot spent four long years in the minors.

The Chicago Cubs brought him up in mid-April, 2005, and since then, he has been fighting to prove his small frame can play with the big leaguers.

He has played 265 games at second base, 70 at third base and 25 at shortstop in his career in a span of six seasons. His best defensive position is second base with a career .983 fielding percentage- league average.

After joining the Giants last season, Fontenot played three fifths of his starts at second base. This year, that trend has shifted to shortstop as his primary position. This may be due to the recent injury of Pablo Sandoval, making Miguel Tejada fill in at third base.

The strange thing about this is that Fontenot has a higher career fielding percentage than Tejada at third base (.956 versus .949), and Tejada has a much higher fielding percentage at shortstop than Fontenot.

Anyway, the point of this article is simply how well Fontenot has done to fill the Giants lineup void in the infield.

In 26 games this season, Fontenot is batting .258/.358/.518 with two home runs and nine RBIs. That performance is the best out of the Giants shortstops, second and third basemen (besides the injured Sandoval).

What is most impressive is his ability to get on base while hitting in the top of the lineup. In the six games he has batted third, he had an on-base percentage of .444 with seven walks. He also had five RBIs with two stolen bases while hitting third in the lineup.

That means that when he is put in that position, he is a threat to the other team as a potential run.

Fontenot has finally proven that he can play with the big boys, and luckily for the Giants, they have him on their team. When Fontenot has started, the Giants have won nine out of the 13 games.

Obviously something is working for Fontenot, hopefully its a good sign on what's to come.