Read the opposing arguments from Loyal Homer and Babe Ruthless.
If pitching rotations were two players deep, this debate would start and stop with the Seattle Mariners. The addition of Cy Young award winner Cliff Lee and the ability to resign an already proven Felix Hernandez makes the Mariners tough in any short series.
The problem with the Mariners rotation is that it drops off so severely after those two guys up front. And while the media (and Babe Ruthless) will donate a lot of time to trumpeting the greatness of the Yankees and the Red Sox, the best rotation in baseball right now as Spring Training is about to start is a sleeping Giant in the City by the Bay.
Most rotations in the major leagues have at least two solid starters. Good rotations require depth and two solid top rotation starters. The Giants have both, and are very dangerous as a result.
The Giants rotation as of right now is:
- Tim Lincecum
- Matt Cain
- Barry Zito
- Jonathan Sanchez
- Madison Bumgarner
We all know how great Tim Lincecum is. He is a two-time Cy Young award winner, and an ERA of three or over seems like a bad season to him. After a 2.62 ERA in 2008 (where he won a Cy Young award) he lowered it to 2.48 last season in his second award winning campaign. He also added four complete games, further proving his elite pitching status. But, I do not need to devote many pixels to proving Lincecum is an elite pitcher. We all know that.
Part of the reason I believe the Giants’ pitching staff is poised to breakout out is because of the development shown by young Matt Cain. Cain has gotten progressively better in each major league campaign, culminating in an outstanding 2009 season where he finished with a sub-three ERA (2.89, to be exact), and allowed just 70 earned runs throughout his 33 starts and 217-plus innings. Cain is not a strikeout pitcher, which makes him even more impressive. Lincecum will blow the ball right by hitters. Cain will induce ground balls and be efficient with pitches, adding another four complete games last season.
Now we start to uncover the depth of the Giants pitching staff. Barry Zito was supposed to be an anchor pitcher for the staff when the Giants shelled out record cash for him two long seasons ago. Zito, too, is a former Cy Young award winner. But, injuries forced changes in his mechanics. He has not thrown 200 innings since 2006. So, why is he such an important part of this pitching staff? Because something happened late last season with Barry Zito. Whatever mechanical inconsistencies he was suffered suddenly became resolved. Zito posted a 1.93 ERA in August, and finished the second half of the season with 2.83 ERA. Now the Giants rotation is not just top heavy… now a former Cy Young winner returning to form is good enough to fill the three spot in the rotation. Scary.
Young Jonathan Sanchez, the fourth starter in the Giants rotation, does not seem to be that important when skimming the stats. He did record a career best 4.24 ERA last season, but he grew in other ways, too. First, he threw a no-hitter. As good as Lincecum is, he does not have a no-hitter. After beginning the 2009 season with a 4.69 ERA, Sanchez posted a 3.83 after the break. That is excellent for a fourth starter. More, he had a 2.61 ERA in August. Sanchez has shown tremendous growth and the capacity to be a steady contributor in the rotation.
The fifth spot in the rotation is generally interchangeable. That is the case in San Francisco, at least for now. But, a young prospect named Madison Bumgarner is showing some promise. He only made one start last season, so the 1.80 ERA is not really a stat worth anything at this point. But, Bumgarner struck out 10 in that game. While some are concerned about a sudden drop in velocity from Bumgarner at the end of last season, throwing a fastball between 88-90 miles per hour did not seem to have any negative impact on his performance. In fact, the Giants coaching staff is not alarmed at all, and Bumgarner will have the opportunity to round out an already impressive pitching staff for the Giants as they enter 2010.
Certainly it is hard to predict how well the Giants will do this season. Who knows how good the bullpen will be, the defense behind this complete pitching staff, or the team’s hitting. One thing is for sure, the team that welcomed the major’s best staff to Spring Training last week was the San Francisco Giants.
Posted by Sports Geek 
