San Francisco Giants: All-Decade Team of the 2010s

Middle Infield

Second Baseman: Joe Panik

This is one of the closer calls on any of these All-Decade lists. It comes down to two obvious choices: Joe Panik and Marco Scutaro.

From a primarily sentimental standpoint, Scutaro makes for a fantastic case.

He was traded from the Rockies halfway through his age-36 season, and there was no looking back. In just under 200 games with the Giants, Scutaro batted .315/.363/.762 and earned his only All-Star appearance at the age of 37.

It’s hard not to fall victim to that resume. But the truth is that it was such a small sample size that it’s hard to give him the outright honor of Second Baseman of the decade.

Panik, meanwhile, matched Scutaro’s lone All-Star appearance with his own in his age-24 season. He’d also add a Gold Glove for his stellar defense in his 2016 campaign.

What separates Panik from Scutaro is that he was able to play for six seasons with the Orange and Black. He had a tough time establishing his own consistency at the plate, but he became the regular at second for years.

Where Scutaro made fans excited for the moment, Panik made fans excited for the future.

Of course, Panik would not become the second baseman that everyone hoped he might become, but he still showed flashes of that brilliance for a longer period of time.

For that reason, Panik gets the nod for second baseman of the decade.

Honorable Mention: Marco Scutaro

Shortstop: Brandon Crawford

Back to the easy choices.

Brandon Crawford played nine different seasons with the San Francisco Giants in the 2010’s, and he racked up all kinds of accolades.

Crawford was immediately recognized for his fantastic defense — defense that made him one of the top defensive infielders of the decade overall. He earned three Gold Gloves in nine of those seasons, and regularly found himself in the conversation.

Still, there were originally questions about Crawford’s ability to get it done at the plate.

But that didn’t last very long.

Crawford took major strides in 2015, when he belted a career-best 21 home runs for the season and earned his first All-Star nod and Silver Slugger award.

He followed up that campaign by leading the league in triples and continuing to solidify himself as consistent hitter from the left side. That year, he finished in the top-12 of MVP voting.

Crawford, who grew up in Northern California, has been embraced by the San Francisco fanbase for his willingness to continue challenging and improving his own game.

In spite of any setbacks, Crawford continually works on being a defensive leader on the infield.