On the same day longtime San Francisco Giants slugger Barry Bonds’ received a sentence for 30 days house arrest and other minor charges for obstructing justice during a steroids investigation, Bonds’ former team made a small-scale move to bring back a player from the team’s 25-man roster. After non-tendering him earlier this week, the Giants re-signed catcher Eli Whiteside to a minor-league contract on Friday, Dec. 16.

San Francisco Giants C Eli Whiteside
Wikimedia Commons

After the season-ending injury to Buster Posey during the 2011 season, the 32-year old was thrust into a shared starting role with Chris Stewart. With Posey expected to fully return from injury for 2012, the backup catcher position will still be an interesting battle to watch. Unless the team signs another free agent catcher, the three men who are most likely backing up Posey next season are Whiteside, Stewart, and Hector Sanchez.

Signing Whiteside to a minor-league deal just days after not offering him arbitration was a best-case scenario for the team. Even though Whiteside only hit .197 in a career-high 236 plate appearances, the team still does not know who will win the backup catcher spot next season. By having Whiteside sign the minor-league contract, he will either serve as insurance in Triple-A Fresno or win the roster spot in Spring Training, thus earning close to the league minimum of $480,000 instead of the approximately $750,000 paycheck he would earn had he received arbitration from the Giants.

Despite going through his own elbow problems during the season, Whiteside could be a reliable backup for the Giants in 2012. When healthy, Whiteside has proven to be a good game caller and a solid defender behind the plate. That being said, Whiteside, Stewart, and Sanchez will compete for the roster spot.

Stewart had a career-high 162 at bats last season, only hitting .204 with three home runs. However, Stewart’s great defense in regards to throwing base runners out at second base put him into a platoon with Whiteside. Sanchez, at only 21 years of age for his MLB debut, hit .302 with Single-A San Jose and .261 with Triple-A Fresno before being promoted at the end of the season.

While the backup catcher will hopefully not matter too much in 2012, manager Bruce Bochy did announce at the Winter Meetings that Posey would play some time at first base to help him rest his ankle. With this news, the Giants backup catcher will see some starts during the season. All that’s left is to figure out which player will hold that spot during 2012 Spring Training.

Sources:

After sentencing, Bonds free to tell the truth, Yahoo! Sports

Giants re-sign Eli Whiteside to minor-league contract, HardballTalk, NBC Sports

Report: Giants re-sign Whiteside to minor-league contract, CSN Bay Area

More from this contributor:

Giants Re-Sign Guillermo Mota for One-year, $1 Million Contract: Fan’s Take

Giants Trade Torres and Ramirez to Mets for Pagan: Fan’s Take

San Francisco Giants Avoiding Long-term Contracts This Offseason: Fan’s Take

San Francisco Giants Designate Darren Ford for Assignment: Fan’s Take

Giants Trading Jonathan Sanchez for Melky Cabrera a Great Offseason Start: Fan’s Reaction

Austin Chang is a lifelong San Francisco Bay Area native, baseball fan, and supporter of the San Francisco Giants. Follow him on Twitter @_austinchang.

Note: This article was written by a Yahoo! contributor. Sign up here to start publishing your own sports content.

SAN FRANCISCO — The San Francisco Giants fan nearly beaten to death on opening day has spoken on camera for the first time since the attack.

In the video clip aired on San Francisco’s NBC affiliate, Dr. Nancy Snyderman of the NBC news magazine show Rock Center introduces herself to Bryan Stow, who is sitting on a bed.

Stow asks Snyderman “How are you?” after she introduces herself. She says she’s doing well, and Stow replies, “That’s good.”

Rock Center released the video to preview its full report on Stow’s recovery at an undisclosed rehab center scheduled to air Monday.

The paramedic and father of two spent months in a medically induced coma after being beaten outside Dodger Stadium last year.

He was moved from the hospital to the rehab center in October as he continues to recover from a traumatic brain injury.

Stow’s family has chronicled his recovery on their blog. Last month, they reported Stow was still showing signs of confusion and frustration as he works to regain his ability to move and speak. They say he does recognize friends and family, whom he joined last month for Thanksgiving.

Louie Sanchez, 29, and Marvin Norwood, 30, were arrested and charged in the attack following a Los Angeles police investigation. Investigators describe the assault as the culmination of a string of confrontations they had with randomly selected Giants fans at the stadium.

Sanchez and Norwood both have pleaded not guilty to mayhem, assault by means likely to produce great bodily injury, and battery with serious bodily injury.

SAN FRANCISCO — The San Francisco Giants fan nearly beaten to death on opening day has spoken on camera for the first time since the attack.

In the video clip aired on San Francisco’s NBC affiliate, Dr. Nancy Snyderman of the NBC news magazine show “Rock Center” introduces herself to Bryan Stow, who is sitting on a bed.

Stow asks Snyderman “How are you?” after she introduces herself. She says she’s doing well, and Stow replies, “That’s good.”

“Rock Center” released the video to preview its full report on Stow’s recovery at an undisclosed rehab center scheduled to air Monday.

The paramedic and father of two spent months in a medically induced coma after being beaten outside Dodger Stadium last year.

He was moved from the hospital to the rehab center in October.

Former San Francisco Giants slugger Barry Bonds is scheduled to be sentenced Friday for giving false testimony in a federal steroid investigation.

U.S. District Judge Susan Illston, who presided over Bonds’ perjury trial earlier this year, has sentenced other athletes convicted of lying during the steroid investigation to probation and home confinement. Distributors of steroids and other performance-enhancing drugs have received prison sentences of three to four months.

The judge will decide whether Bonds should be confined to his home, imprisoned for 15 months or placed on probation when he is sentenced Friday for giving evasive testimony to a federal grand jury investigating sports doping.

Bonds, baseball’s home run record holder, was tried for lying to a federal grand jury in 2003 that was investigating a Bay Area laboratory that was selling banned substances to athletes. A jury last April deadlocked on all the charges except one — a federal obstruction-of-justice count.

Authorities first became interested in Bonds in the early 2000s after learning that the Giants superstar had appeared in an advertisement for the Bay Area Laboratory Co-Operative, which was authorities said was selling designer steroids and other drugs to professional athletes.

Bonds was one of 30 athletes summoned before the grand jury that was investigating the lab. Although given immunity in connection with testimony concerning illegal drug use, Bonds insisted that his trainer told him the two steroids he was taking were flaxseed oil and arthritis cream.

Prosecutors presented evidence that Bonds tested positive for a steroid and a fertility drug in a urine sample taken several months before his grand jury evidence. They also gave the jury a surreptitious recording of Greg Anderson, his former trainer, discussing how he injected steroids, in response to a question about Bonds.

Anderson refused to testify in the trial and was jailed for its duration. He has spent nearly two years behind bars, mostly because he would not cooperate with the investigation of Bonds.

Jurors heard three key prosecution witnesses: Steve Hoskins, a childhood friend who was close to Bonds for 10 years until the two had a falling-out in early 2003; Kimberly Bell, Bonds’ girlfriend of nine years; and Kathy Hoskins, Steve’s younger sister, who said she was packing Bonds’ clothes for a road trip when she saw Anderson inject the ballplayer.

Prosecutors also presented four former major-league baseball players who testified that Anderson supplied them with drugs that they said they knew were designed to boost performance and escape detection.

ALSO:

Tanker fire: Portions of 60 Freeway reopen

Atheists “hijack” Nativity display in Santa Monica, critics say

Paris Jackson living ‘normal’ life since father’s death, doctor’s trial

– Maura Dolan in San Francisco

Photo: Barry Bonds leaves federal court in San Francisco in April. Credit: Noah Berger / Associated Press

SAN FRANCISCO (AP)—The San Francisco Giants were working Wednesday to
finalize a $1 million, one-year contract with free agent reliever Guillermo Mota
to bring him back for a third season.

The sides had agreed to terms and were waiting to complete a physical and
final paperwork. Giants general manager Brian Sabean is committed to keeping his
talented pitching staff intact—and not just aces Tim Lincecum and Matt Cain,
who he hopes to lock up in long-term deals.

Mota, a 38-year-old right-hander, has become a reliable option for manager
Bruce Bochy. He went 2-2 with a 3.81 ERA in 52 outings last season for the NL
West runners-up.

Mota’s 80 1-3 innings last season were his third highest in 13 big league
seasons and most since 2004, when he pitched for the Los Angeles Dodgers and the
Marlins.

Mota made one appearance against Texas during the 2010 World Series, when
the Giants wrapped up the franchise’s first championship since moving West in
1958.

With Mota returning, Bochy has much of his bullpen intact. In late October,
San Francisco gave left-handed reliever Javier Lopez an $8.5 million, two-year
contract and also picked up the $5 million contract option for fellow lefty
reliever Jeremy Affeldt.

On Monday night, the Giants tendered contracts to two-time NL Cy Young Award
winner Lincecum, fellow starting pitcher Ryan Vogelsong and relievers Sergio
Romo and Santiago Casilla.