Skip to main content

Giants Rotation As Strong As Ever

I know it's only late May, and there is still about 2/3 of the season left to play, but I think it's safe to say that we are witnessing the best, most complete Giants' rotation since at least 1993. In '93 they had two 20 game winners in John Burkett and Bill Swift. While it's likely this staff won't have a single 20 game winner this season, the Giants' quantity and quality of starting pitching is second to none in all of baseball. Tim Lincecum as a 5th starter is just unfair. He's already out dulled Roy Oswalt twice in the last week alone, and seems like he is getting better and better each time out. Then there's Noah Lowry, who is having possibly the best season out of all of the Giants starters. I think Lowry has benefited the most from having Barry Zito around. His curveball has caught up with his changeup to give him 2, very good off-speed pitches. Matt Morris has rebounded beautifully from last year, and has looked like the second coming of Greg Maddux on the mound in his 9 starts this year.

The Giants have been having this success without two of their better arms pitching up to their capability. While Matt Cain certainly hasn't been bad, I think he will be the first to tell you that his record and era could and should be even better. He has been victimized by a sketchy bullpen and disappearing offense on more than one occasion this year, but he still has some room for improvement. The only questionable arm in the rotation so far has been Zito. The Giants are still waiting for Zito to get going. He has always been a better second half pitcher throughout his career, and I think we will see better starts from him as we hit June-July-August. Remember, he is still adjusting to the NL, and I don't think it's time for Giants' fans to get into a frenzy because he's 3-5. When August rolls around, and Zito is still below .500, then we worry. Right now, sit back and enjoy, because the Giants starting pitching is giving them a chance to win every single game they play, and they are doing it with dominance.

Comments

Anonymous said…
I agree - The Giants may have the best starting rotation in baseball. And that includes Zito! If Lincecum is anywhere near as good as he is "supposed" to be and Matt Morris can contribute consistently this is a rotation to be reckoned with, despite Zito. BTW - he won't "get going" - he's not a very good pitcher. The entire league has figured him out.
Anonymous said…
Their pitching rotation is almost as strong as the staff rotation in the official Giants steroids store.

Ooh, did I really say that?!
Anonymous said…
It was flaxseed oil...geex alex...
Anonymous said…
Taytay 24

Wasn't Zito tinkering with his delivery or something in spring training? Is that his problem?
Trevor Cole said…
Zito was doing something different early on in the spring, but it was a temporary change in order to work on some kind of mechanical issue. I don't know if that's having an effect, but his location is what his given him his problems this year.
Anonymous said…
Staff is great... Other than that, the rest of the team is well below average.

Popular posts from this blog

WORLD SERIES: Giants Move Up 2-0 on Texas

PreGame After taking game one in a surprising slug-fest , the Giants look to go up 2-0 on the Rangers in the World Series on Thursday night. The Giants are sending out Matt Cain, a guy who I'm sure every Giants' fan is pretty confident in. He'll be a opposed by C.J. Wilson, who's in his first year as a full-time starter, but has been brilliant in the role. He did struggle his last time out though, so hopefully the Giants can get to him early and get into his head a bit. I'm going to do something I've never done here on this unique occasion, and sort of do an in-game post. updating this post every time I feel I have something to add. So go Giants, and be sure to check back throughout the game, and after, to vent or whatever! As long as Matt Cain keeps rolling, and the Giants keep coming up with those clutch 2-out hits, we should be OK. Texas has that high-powered offense that can score in a hurry, as we saw last night, so the Giants cannot let down and have to t

Giants Notes: Lincecum Signs, Ross to Boston

Well, even though I touched on it a little bit in our last post, I haven't really had a chance to get my thoughts out on the new Lincecum deal since he and the Giants agreed earlier in the week. Also, on the other end of things, the Giants missed out on shoring up their outfield by letting Cody Ross sign in Boston for only $3 million in 2012. First off, obviously, wanted to talk a bit about Lincecum. I've already said here that I didn't expect him to sign a long-term deal that takes him through free agency, but it doesn't mean he wants to leave San Francisco like everyone is suspecting. I mean, if I were Lincecum, I'd probably do the same thing, even if I planned on eventually signing with the Giants long-term. Why take a chance at mitigating your value to just sign a deal? Granted, a 5 year, $100 million deal isn't anything to sneeze at, in this market, if he were a free agent, Lincecum could probably easily command a 8 year, $200 million deal. If he could get

Giants Still Need Infield Help

On Saturday, the Giants finalized a 2 year contract extension with Freddy Sanchez, who they acquired in July for Tim Alderson. The new deal for Sanchez will pay him 12 million over the next 2 seasons instead of 8.5 million for just 2010, which was his option for 2010. I've voiced my disappointment in Sanchez a few times here since the Giants dealt for him over the summer. He wasn't able to stay on the field full time to help this club with their run at the NL Wild Card, and even when he was in there, he didn't seem to make much of an impact in th e lineup. Now, I wasn't necessarily hoping the Giants would cut ties with Sanchez (they probably would have had to pay 4 million or so to buy him out), just didn't think he was worth upwards of 10 million dollars, and would have liked to see the Giants pursue someone like Orlando Hudson with that money. The Giants already have an infielder who's being paid about 3-4 times what his play over the last 2 seasons would indi