SF Giants Rumors – Lineup, Starting Rotation
Posted on February 16th, 2010 by admin in SF Giants Rumors
Andrew Baggarly of the San Jose Mercury News says the Giants have been saying since the end of the Barry Bonds era that the team was going to get younger, faster, healthier and homegrown. 
A glance at the everyday lineup shows none of that is happening. Six of the eight position players are in their 30′s and were acquired via free agency or trade.
Baggarly asks the questions. Will an older, slower lineup score more runs?
I think they can,” Giants manager Bruce Bochy said.”
King of Cali thoughts: This lineup is definitely a slow one. You won’t see many straight steals, or anyone really burning up the base paths. I do however think this team will be more capable of scoring more runs on a consistent basis. The lineup is much more balanced throughout the lineup. I’m sure a couple players will have some bounce back years as well.
I do get tired of hearing the Giants over achieved last year. How is it over achieving if your pitching staff is really just that damn good? You have an ace in Tim Lincecum who can pretty much win every time out if he can get some decent run support. Matt Cain is capable of being a 20 game winner as well. Barry Zito has his ups and downs, but he had a stretch where he looked like the Zito of old. Jonathan Sanchez got his confidence back when he tossed a no-hitter, and he can possible take a big step this year as a more elite pitcher. Now you’re even throwing Madison Bumgarner in the mix at the end of the rotation. This guy can flat out pitch, and in time will be a front of the rotation kind of a guy.
The Giants are starting out with another great starting rotation in 2010, so if you can get a few more runs here and there. Then you would be able to get a few more wins than you did last year. Let me guess Giants critics… This will be considered another year of over achieving?
~King of Cali
Good stuff, but I think the “overachieving” talk is more about tempering expectations. We can’t expect to be the rotation as good as they were last year. Things happen. The Giants didn’t have many injury issues w/ their best pitchers last year. Plus, they were just ridiculous. If we count on them to perform like that all the time, we are setting ourselves up for a letdown.
Will so are you saying Lincecum and Cain are one year wonders? why shouldn’t we expect the pitching to be as good as last year I actually expect it to be better
Lincecum is gonna be Lincecum the guy has won two straight Cy Young Awards
Matt Cain is younger than Lincecum and is only getting better, he had an All-Star year last season
Sanchez was pitching great after the no hitter last year so I expect him to have a better year
Zito can be counted on to have a healthy season and is always good for about 10-12 wins
Bumgarner (who I expect to win the 5th spot) had a 1.80 ERA when he was called up last year and dominated the Minors, I don’t expect him to put up Lincecum numbers right away but I think he could pitch as well as Brett Anderson and Rick Porcello did last year as rookies
I’m choosing to go with the glass half full attitude as well. I get tired of all the pessimism that floats around a lot of the other blogs. They may not make the playoffs, but who knows…maybe they’ll surprise the baseball world and do something great! We’ll just have to wait and see.
King of cali no worries my friend everyone has the over achieving award with one team every yr. I think the reason they are pretty much perparing us for is a yr like the rays. Remember when they went to playoffs and everyone expected them to challange every yr and look they missed the playoffs . So I think that’s what they want us to feel. All ive been hearing latley is how we got slower. Yes we have gotten slower but whne have got more hrs and rbis in this lineup. Look at our replacements ex: lf fred lewis-mark derosa 1st base ryan garko-Aubrey Huff 2nd Burriss-Sanchez rf randy winn-nate scherihotlz .Yea we took velez out of our daily lineup and took torres out but common you get 10 hrs and 45 to 60 rbis put together with those guys a yr you get at least 30 hrs and 100 rbis between derosa and huff even more just an ex so we did get slower but our run support should be better. One more thing why is everyone giving up on edgar do people not understand he had bone spurts in his elbow he threw side amred for 75% of the season and hit all season with that problem let him be healthy and I see him maybe being a 8 hr 60 rbi guy in case you forgot when bonds had bone spurts he hit 24 hrs and only around 90 rbis and thats a guy who hit about 30 to 35 hrs a yr so those hurt. Madison should win the 5 unless he has the worst spring ever he is no randy johnson but if he can get us 10 to 12 wins ill be happy. in 02 our starting 5 had 12 wins or more and made it to the world series and if you were lookin for speed we didnt have it then either. so no worries giants fans. now i dont have to turn off my tv in the bottom of the ninth when we are down a run and say great we have no hitters in our lineup. Go giants hopefully we can make the playoffs i doubt colorado has a yr like that again believe me
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