--C Buster Posey, who has been invited to spring training as a non-roster player but won't open the season in the majors, will stick around long enough to appear in Cactus League games, said manager Bruce Bochy, who added that the No. 6 overall pick in the 2008 draft needs seasoning in the minors. "It's more for a learning experience," Bochy said of the spring training opportunity.

--INF Jesus Guzman was selected MVP of the Venezuelan winter league after he hit .349 with 13 homers and 67 RBIs in 61 games. Guzman, 24, received 42 of 45 first-place votes. He played in the A's organization in 2008 and signed with the Giants as a free agent. He was invited to spring training as a non-roster player.

--SS Ivan Ochoa had been listed by the Giants among 16 non-roster players invited to spring training, but Ochoa has been taken off the list, having exercised his right to refuse an outright assignment to the minors. Ochoa, 26, hit .200 with three errors in 47 games for the Giants last year. He's now a free agent.

--Former Giants RHP Frank Williams, who pitched three seasons in San Francisco, died after a heart attack at age 50, according to the Times Colonist of Victoria, British Columbia. The newspaper reported Williams was living in the streets and lost the money he earned in baseball. The Giants drafted Williams in 1979, and he reached the majors in 1984, when he went 9-4 in relief. He played six seasons overall and had stops in Cincinnati and Detroit.

BY THE NUMBERS: 31-21 -- The Giants' record in one-run games last year. They were especially solid in one-run games late in the season, winning 14 of their final 19.

QUOTE TO NOTE: "Manny's a great player. My job is to manage this club with the players we have. If this is who we have, we're much better off than we were at this point last year." -- Manager Bruce Bochy, on the possibility of the Giants signing LF Manny Ramirez.