During the roundtable discussion portion of the first day of the 2011 MLB Winter Meetings, San Francisco Giants manager Bruce Bochy spoke about a lot of things, one of those being veteran Aubrey Huff, and his re-commitment to his physical atributes for the 2012.
According to Andrew Baggarly, Bochy and Huff had a running joke in which Huff was titled "Nanu, the world's greatest athlete" in reference to the movie from the 70's, but it was obvious that Huff was not pulling his weight on the field or at the plate, and now will have to shed some of it to hopefully be productive once more.
"He sent me a text the other day: `Nanu will be back,'" Bochy said.
Bochy noted that Huff will likely have to be playing a lot more outfield this season, and that Huff is preparing as such:
"He is aware (left field) is a place where he could be getting a lot of playing time. ... He's been working out every day and putting in the time like he did the first year he played for us. He told me he feels a lot better with where he's at mentally and he knows it's important that he be the player we need.
"And I'll say this about Aubrey: He took ownership of his struggles and how they were our struggles. He probably took too much of it."
Huff beat himself up pretty good over his struggles, hopefully he can return the favor to some baseball's again next season.