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Starting Pitching Continues to Shine

I can't even began to think where this team would be if they hadn't gotten gotten such solid starting pitching through the first 2 weeks of the season. After another solid performance from Noah Lowry Thursday afternoon, the teams' starting pitchers combined era fell to 2.77. Luckily for Lowry, the offense decided to show up after getting down early, and the team provided solid run support with a lineup that did not include Barry Bonds. The Giants predicted strength coming in was the starting pitching, and they have lived up to the billing. They have bailed out a slow starting Giants' offense that as a team has less home runs than Alex Rodriguez does himself through April 20th. Something the team is going to be challenged with, is coming up with enough runs to be competitive on nights when Bonds is not in the lineup. Another thing this team is going to be challenged with, is coming back in games, as they are not an offensive power house. When they do both of those things in the same game, it's almost like 2 wins in 1, and they did it Thursday. This came a day after they battled back nicely to win the game in extra innings after getting down 4-1 early. The offense is finally starting to show some signs of life. This weekends series is going to be a big one for the Giants. They are in a position to get back to .500, and they have a chance to really improve there status in the division with the D-Backs rolling into town. Keep on eye on Russ Ortiz's start on Friday night, the Diamondbacks are still paying the Ortiz a nice amount of money. They could lose to someone on their own payroll.

Brian Sabean told the KNBR this week that Tim Lincecum could be up with the big league squad sooner than anyone expected. Lincecum has flat out dominated the Pacific Coast League hitters through his first 3 starts of the year. He has allowed no runs, 9 hits and 5 walks on his way to striking out 28 batters in 18 2/3 innings. You think he's ready for the bigs yet? Even Matt Cain didn't baffle AAA level hitters like Lincecum has, and look how easy his transition has been to the major leagues. I don't think there is any question that he's ready, but I would like to see him stay in Fresno keep starting rather then rush him up to try and help out a struggling bullpen. I know the talent levels are not comparable, but the situation I fear is the Giants using Lincecum like they did Merkin Valdez. They couldn't decide whether they wanted to start him or use him to close, and they ended up getting neither. Wherever Lincecum is, keep him in the rotation.

Comments

Anonymous said…
I don't think the Giants are that stupid. No chance Linecum goes to the bullpen.
6:46 PM
Trevor Cole said…
Lets hope not. Sabean has been known to do some pretty unconventional things.
1:12 PM
JLee said…
While Cain is pitching great now, before he threw that one-hitter against Oakland, his ERA was above 7. I don't think Cain had THAT easy a transition to the majors.
6:34 PM
Trevor Cole said…
Cain has had a very smooth transition to the major leagues. The kid is 22 years old and the league us hitting .125 off of him. For his career, hitters are hitting .205 off of him. He hasn't been up quite 2 full years yet. If thats not a good transition, what is?
3:04 AM
JLee said…
You must have forgotten when his ERA was over 7 last June. I agree that he looks great now, but there was a time when he was getting consistently crushed by big league hitting. He turned it around literally overnight, and now he's ace material.

If Lincecum comes up and gets whacked around in his first ten starts, just don't compare him unfavorably to Cain.
9:13 PM
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