Giants of 2011 Versus the Giants of 2010- First Base

*I will be creating these 2010 v. 2011 position comparisons throughout the month of July. Starting with catcher, I will make my way through all nine position as well as relievers and closers.

Sigh... we need that thong again.

The greatest first basmen in Giants history is easily Willie McCovey. The greatest since him?


J.T. Snow? Will Clark?


The point I'm trying to make is that the Giants have had few great first basemen. Last year, the Giants had the most productive player at that position since J.T. Snow hit 24 home runs with 98 RBIs in 1999. 


But how good has he been since last season? About as good as Shea Hillenbrand (yeah, remember him?). 


Let us compare the entire position from last season(opening to July 7th) to this years productivity:


2010 Team Record (through July 7th): 44-40
2011 Team Record (through July 7th): 50-39


First Base

	2010	2011
Batting Average	.290	.242
On Base %	.362	.303
Home runs	10	9
RBIs	49	38
Stolen Bases	1	4
Hits	121	84
Runs	46	34
Walks	34	36
Strikeouts	50	65

Well it appears that last seasons production at first base was much better than this year's so far. When the Giants started Brandon Belt at the position at the start of the season, we fans had high hopes for the kid to preform much like Buster Posey did as a rookie in 2010. 

Instead, Belt batted .192 with one home run and four RBIs in 16 games.

"That's fine!" said the Giants. "We have Aubrey Huff, he will hit like he did last year." Sure, a first baseman who hit .293 with 12 home runs and 45 RBIs in the 100 games he played at first last season would do just fine.

Instead, we get a .241 hitter with seven home runs and 32 RBIs in the 69 games he has played at first this year. Huff is not the same. 

The other first basemen to play for the Giants last year were Posey and Travis Ishikawa. Both played pretty well, but never held the main job at first. Aubrey Huff just had a career year and he is not having one this year. Big surprise. 

I guess bottom line is: the Giants first base position is a lot weaker than it should be, and all we can hope for is Aubrey Huff can succeed once again, or we hope Belt can be Posey 2.0 sometime soon.