Giants Add Brad Penny

We talked about it in our last post on Friday, and it came to fruition on Monday evening. The Giants had been looking for another starting pitcher to help for the stretch run for the last couple of weeks, and signed Brad Penny on Monday, giving the team another veteran presence in the rotation as they try and push for a playoff birth.

Penny didn't have the best year in Boston, his first season in the American League, but he feels good and he did scatter a few decent outings in there over his last 5-6 starts. Regardless of what he did in Boston, the Giants are hoping a return to the National League West, where he had tremendous success as a Dodger, will re-focus the big fella and get him back on track. It looks like Penny will likely take the fifth spot in the rotation behind Tim Lincecum, Matt Cain, the new Barry Zito and Jonathan Sanchez. I am not expecting too much out of Penny, but I really do think he has the chance to make a big impact on the Giants chances if he can revert back to his 2007 form. Another positive coming from this move is that it was completed on August 31st, just before the post-season roster deadline. If the Giants had waited until today (September 1st) to make the deal, Penny wouldn't have been able to qualify for a postseason roster spot if the Giants end up making it. On the less positive side, this does mean that the Giants aren't expecting anything from Randy Johnson the rest of the way, or if they are, they aren't expecting it until the very end of the month. Overall though, I like this low-risk, potentially high-reward move, and I'm stoked to see what Penny does in his Giants' debut tomorrow night in Philadelphia.

The Penny signing comes in light of the Giants sweeping the Wild Card leading Rockies at home, and putting themselves back atop the NL Wild Card standings, so it really was a successfull weekend all around for the orange and black. The game on Sunday really had a playoff kind of feel to it and when Edgar Renteria hit that grand slam in the 7th inning of that game, it almost felt as if the Giants had clinched the wild card right then and there. The offense showed up this weekend and provided more than enough run support for the Giants starters. Renteria had himself a very solid series, collecting 4 hits, driving in 5 runs over the weekend. Pablo Sandoval also contributed a couple of homers along with 4 hits of his own in the three game set. On the mound, Tim Lincecum won his first game since August 1st on Friday night, dominating the Rockies to the tune of 8 IP, 4 hits, 0 runs and 8 k's. Barry Zito followed Lincecum's effort and continued his second half dominance with an 8 1/3 inning, 7 strikeout, 1 run performance of his own. Zito's numbers for the second half continue to get better and better with each outing he has. He's now 4-2 with a 1.92 era and .225 BAA in 56 innings since the all-star break. He's looking like a front-end of the rotation starter for the first time in his Giants' tenure and has his era below 4 for the first time since 2006.

Up Next for the Giants will be a potential playoff preview, as they travel into Philadelphia for a 3-game set with the NL East leaders. If the season ended today, It would be the Giants and the Phillies squaring off in round one of the playoffs, so it will be interesting to see how SF will match-up with Philly. The Giants will send Jonathan Sanchez to the hill Tuesday night, followed by Brad Penny Wednesday and then Tim Lincecum will face Pedro Martinez in Thursday's finale!