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.