Giants Blog Interviewed By Razzball

With spring training quickly approaching, we were approached by Razzball.com to do a short Giants interview with questions about the upcoming season. The full interview will be posted in the next day or two, but I figured I'd go ahead and give a sneak peek here:

"Q1: For Tim Lincecum, last year the percentage of pitches a batter hit outside the strike zone was 56%, compared to 48.8% the year before. He also lost a mile on his fastball, threw his slider a lot more and his curveball a lot less. Are these causes for concern? Blips on the radar?

A: I would be lying if I said it wasn't a little bit alarming. Lincecum went through a real rough stretch in August last season, before really turning it on for the stretch run and the playoffs, and the big reason for that was because he was learning how to pitch without the 95 mph fastball for the first time in his career. The reason for the drop in velocity, in my opinion, has to do with his large workload over the last 3 seasons. However, he really alleviated that concern after watching his performances in October, and although Giants fans will be watching his velocity and control very closely this spring, they are all pretty confident in their ace. A big reason for the drop in curveball and slider ratio was because of his evolving change-up, which is a pitch that really helped him out of his funk.

Q2: After the struggles of 2010, if Panda starts off slow in 2011, how long will his leash be?

A: That really all depends on the health of the guys around him, mainly Miguel Tejada and Mark DeRosa...."

Again, I'll have a link to the actual interview page as well as a recap posting here once they've put it up.

Giants add Jeff Suppan: The Giants made official their signing of Jeff Suppan Monday, as he'll be reporting to camp with the rest of the pitchers and catchers in about 3 weeks from now. It's not a huge move or earth shattering news whatsoever, but I actually kinda like this move. The reason being is that the Giants are pretty thin after their starting five of Tim Lincecum, Matt Cain, Jonathan Sanchez, Barry Zito and Madison Bumgarner. Prior to the Suppan signing, the next guys in line for starts if one of them were to go down were guys like Todd Wellemeyer and Henry Sosa (who has nice upside still, but hasn't had much experience as a starter above A ball). Suppan is coming off an up-and-down year with the Cardinals and Brewers last year. He started off in Milwaukee, where he never pitched up to his standards during his 3+ year run there, then moved back to St. Louis towards mid-season, and had a very Suppan-like 2nd half. He gave up some hits and baserunners, but kept his era at 3.84 in 70 innings for the Cardinals, and I think that's what the Giants are hoping to get out of him. He very well could start out in AAA Fresno, but I expect him to make the opening day roster as a long-man, or a #5 starter if one of the other guys start the year on the DL.