Anna Kendrick or Mick Jagger?

It’s baseball for real in just two weeks, and there’s still absolutely no indicator of what kind of Giants team we’ll see on the field come Opening Day.

Manager Bruce Bochy, about whom all have forfeited their right to second guess (and we’ll second-guess that statement), has continued to slow play the regulars while saying nice things about a pitching rotation that looks like it has a spot for Tatum O’Neil. Hope springs eternal, but time is starting to run out.

Rotation potential?

No question the Giants have to look at the NL West as imminently winnable and a post-season spot theirs to lose thanks to the significant number of bottom-feeders expected to take the field.  However, the weekend didn’t exactly make one believe San Francisco can just flip a switch and become the team that, on paper, we think they can be.

There continues to be a nice side show regarding the final outfield and utility roles but as we found out, the tried and true adage remains unchallenged: pitching wins. The Giants, despite numerous injuries, actually had one of the NL’s better attacks in 2015. On the hill it was Bumgarner and a prayer.

Prayers haven’t been answered yet. Matt Cain’s outing on Friday wasn’t unexpected given that it was his first real action. But Madison Bumgarner was ineffective on Saturday, and Clayton Blackburn was mediocre on Sunday before the announcement he was headed back to Sacramento. Monday it’s Jeff Samardzija’s turn to prove he’s the pitcher was saw in his second spring outing and not the stiff who appeared in starts one, three and four.

 

Cain looked a bit lost, but it's early (?)

Friday was notable in that the projected Opening Day line-up appeared for the first time. Cain pitched into the third, giving up three runs including a homer to Matt Kemp. But the Giants erupted for 18 safeties in a 15-6 win. Buster Posey had three hits and drove in three; while Hunter Pence, Brandon Crawford and Denard Span all homered for the Giants. Span drove in four runs and managed not to hurt himself, so it’s all good and Cain gets his injury mulligan.

Then Bumgarner got lit. Apparently those rib and foot injuries either still bothered him or they left some rust behind because he was just flat awful, and that almost sacrilegious to even think.  But there it was, five runs in 2 2/3 frames in a 9-1 loss to those green-clad goblins from across The Bay.

Yeah, it’s a meaningless game but it’s troubling to see Bumgarner struggle, and it’s one of those sharp-item-to-the-temple feelings when it comes against Oakland. At least that guy in “Basic Instinct” got some alone time with Sharon Stone before the ice pick came down. The Giants reportedly were pleased with the outing and its true there were some seeing-eye hits mixed among the harder thwacks, but it was still an ugly line score.

There was but a murmur of protest from the offense, and run on six hits with Pence driving in the lone run. No Giants had more than one hit, and Pence was the only projected regular to hit safely. Oy vey!

The sticks came alive Sunday versus Colorado.  The Giants put up runs in six of the nine frames, including a four-run seventh, in thumping Colorado 10-4. Blackburn had his issues, allowing three runs and six hits over four innings including a Charlie Blackmon solo homer.

Brandon Belt went nuts, driving in four. Posey, Matt Duffy and Brandon Crawford added RBIs in a good day for the regulars.  Meanwhile, over on Bob Uecker’s Diamond Two, Johnny Cueto threw 74 pitches, 50 for strikes, against the kids. He reportedly felt no ill effects from last week’s comebacker off his dome, shimmying to a run on six hits.

It’s been a train wreck so far for the expected starters, who know going into those outings that work trumps results (I said Trump. Argh!  What is this, Fox News?)  Going into Monday the unit of Bumgarner, Cueto, Samardzija, Cain and Jake “Is he still here?” Peavy has pitched 40 and 1/3 innings over 14 appearances, allowing 83 hits and 44 earned runs. Don’t bother with the math, that’s translates to a shade over two hits a frame and a 9.82 staff ERA.

Anna say our pitchers be all like ....

That’s ugly. Since it’s spring its more David Schwimmer ugly as opposed to Mick Jagger or Donatella Versace, but the Giants fans were hoping for more Ryan Gosling or Anna Kendrick by now. But seasons are long. For now we'd settle for someone without arm fat or moles.

Going largely unnoticed in the fray is the solid spring turned in by closer-in-waiting Hunter Strickland. Sure, he still sometimes looks like a thrower more than a pitcher but when that gas is high 90s, you’re willing to give him a little leeway.  Last season was his first full campaign (although he did vulture a ring in 2014) and the experience is starting to show. Six hits in eight frames may not sound like much, but given Santiago Casilla’s perennial high-wire act there isn’t much of a bar to clear, and a clean ninth against the As showed what he’s capable of contributing.

The outfield logjam got a bit less congested this weekend when oft-injured Kyle Blanks was reassigned to minor league camp. With the starters all but assured (sorry, Larry Krueger) and Gregor Blanco a no-brainer, it’s down to Jarrett Parker, Mac Williamson and Gorkys Hernendez for the fifth (and presumably last) roster spot. We’re going to predict it’s the journeyman, Hernendez.

The Giants have shown a proclivity for keeping marginal vets (see Justin Maxwell, Ryan Theriot, et al) in the name of “experience”. Truthfully, these kinds of guys come relatively cheap, contain few surprises, and are happy just to be getting paid to come to the ball park; they don’t whine about being the fifth guy. Meanwhile, the guys who still have options get reps in the minors rather than ride the pine.

And in the greatest illogical ending since Matthew McConaughey babbled through the last 15 minutes of “Interstellar”, Tim Lincecum remains unsigned and Trevor Brown is still good. Just sayin’.