The Giants made it pretty clear Thursday that they expect both Ross and Wilson to start the season on the DL, which comes to a surprise to very few. Neither are dealing with serious injuries, but both are nagging
issues that if not taken care of early, could hamper them all year long, so if it's a matter or losing them for the first few weeks of the year vs. having them try to play opening day in pain, I take option A. Ross will be sidelined for at least 3 weeks which means the earliest he returns would be mid-April. Since that seems to be the case, it looks like it will open up a roster spot for Brandon Belt to make this team, and quite possibly be in the opening day lineup. It's a matter of who Boch will feel comfortable with out in right field in place of Ross. Offensively, it would be best to place Huff in RF and move Belt into his place at 1B, but if they want defense, it will be Nate Schierholtz starting in right field. No matter what, I hope it doesn't end up with Aaron Rowand in the starting lineup and Brandon Belt down in Fresno. Another option could also be to use Mark DeRosa out in RF, a guy who went down in May last year but has looked 100% this spring. Sure, they'd rather have Ross out there, but this team is good enough and deep enough to overcome that loss for a few weeks.The decision on Ross is more clear than the one with Wilson, who is still holding out some hope to pitch on opening day, but I don't expect it and I actually hope it doesn't happen. Wilson is so key to this team's success that they cannot toy with his health. He had the similar injury during his rookie year with the Giants, tried pitching around it and ended up costing him a month of the season. Not too mention, limited his ability when he actually did return. So Sabean and Bochy cannot take any chances and should let Guillermo Mota or Felix Romero start the year in the bullpen until B-Willy is 100%.
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