Decisions Aplenty As the San Francisco Giants Get Healthy

San Francisco Giants' manager Bruce Bochy will have some decisions to make in the coming days and extending for the next several weeks.

The Giants are finally getting healthy again.

The injuries started back on Opening Night when Andres Torres got injured and ended (knock on wood) with Pablo Sandoval's injury two weeks ago.

On Tuesday, both Torres and Mark DeRosa were activated off the DL and available to play the field. But where?

Torres will be starting in the outfield somewhere, but that is as much as we know for now.

The return of Torres means one of the starting outfielders must sit the bench. We can easily assume that the last outfield spot belongs to either Pat Burrell or Aaron Rowand, and Bochy has said that both players will get their fair share of appearances in the line-up in the weeks to come.

For now, Rowand seems like the logical choice.

But that may be Bochy's easiest decision.

With Mark DeRosa coming off the DL on Tuesday night, where does he play, if at all?

Third baseman Miguel Tejada is batting under .200, and the Giants are slowly losing patience with him both at the plate and in the field.

Is it between DeRosa and Tejada for the third base spot right now?

The next decision after that will need to be made when Barry Zito comes off the DL.

Ryan Vogelsong or Zito in the starting rotation?

Time will tell if Vogelsong can continue his excellence on the mound, and his next two starts will be crucial to the outcome of Bochy's decision. The player on the short end of Bochy's future decision will most likely assume the long reliever role, and we know how often that player is used with the Giants' starting rotation...

Looking forward to the coming weeks, we will see Sandoval come back from his injury, although there is no telling what the timetable for his return is yet.

When he does come back, he will play. He has been the Giants best hitter this season.

When that day comes, Sandoval will take over third base duties again, which would make a competition at shortstop with Tejada and the resurgent Mike Fontenot.

It all depends how both play in the coming weeks, but how can you argue with what Fontenot is doing both in the field and at the plate right now?

I'd say he is the leader in the clubhouse for the shortstop position, which would put Tejada on the bench when that decision needs to be made.

The twist comes when Brandon Belt gets called up, which can occur anytime between tomorrow and the end of July, although I would bank more on the end of July.

It hurts my head to even think about the roster decisions, who bats where and who plays where when that happens.

Bochy has some thinking to do and some planning to do starting now.

The good thing is that the Giants are getting their health back at the right time, now just 1.5 games back of the Colorado Rockies. But health bears a double-edged sword when there are only nine positions in the field and too many players with the same talent level.