The Giants had a rotation battle throughout Spring Training. Logan Webb, Robbie Ray and Justin Verlander were locked into the top three spots. President of baseball operations Buster Posey said in December that the team remained committed to Jordan Hicks as a starter. The final job would go to one of three younger arms: Kyle Harrison, Hayden Birdsong or Landen Roupp.
Harrison seemed like the frontrunner entering camp. If that had been the case, he quickly pitched his way out of it. The lefty allowed eight runs in 6 2/3 spring innings. The Giants optioned him before Opening Day. (He's since made four starts at Triple-A Sacramento, allowing nine earned runs despite recording 21 strikeouts over 15 innings.) It came down to Birdsong and Roupp, with the latter getting the nod. Birdsong broke camp as a long reliever.
The decision came as a surprise. Birdsong started 16 all of his major league appearances last year. He turned in a 4.75 ERA over 72 innings as a rookie. He'd been lights out during Spring Training, firing 12 innings of one-run ball with 18 strikeouts and no walks. Roupp had a good but less impressive camp, giving up five runs with 14 strikeouts and one walk across 12 frames. He also had more experience working out of the bullpen, as he'd started just four of 23 appearances during his debut season last year.
San Francisco probably feels good about their decision to give Roupp a rotation job. The 26-year-old righty carries a 4.09 earned run average with an excellent 31.2% strikeout rate through the first four turns. He has recorded a pair of quality starts and reached seven innings for the first time in his MLB career on Saturday, when he held the Angels to two runs while striking out nine.
While Roupp has earned continued starting looks, the rest of the rotation beyond Webb has struggled. The Giants have raced to a 15-9 record despite their rotation having the seventh-worst ERA in MLB, entering play Wednesday. They should already consider making a change.
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That group has performed terribly and i think many are surprised at how good the Giants have been so far. That said, expectations should be tempered a bit regarding Verlander due to age and injuries last year and Ray coming back from TJ surgery
Give it to the GreenWave kid.
Carmouche?
Birdsong.
I was hoping Birdsong was going to be the 5th starter too. Roupp has pitched pretty good too. I’d say give Hicks 1 more start and then make some tough decisions.
Put Hicks in the ‘pen where he belongs, call up Harrison to be the 5 and Option somebody (pick one!)
Just my humble opinion as a baseball fan, but the Padre fan I also am says disregard everything I just said because it *should* help the Giants.
Cheers and good luck!
Baseball Blog Rule #234: Thou shalt not give rival teams in your division good advice. Gwynny that is one demerit for you!
Guilty as charged! I’ll skip dinner as punishment as long as I can have one more .394 Pale Ale…
one more .394 Pale Ale
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I just read up on that, not knowing what the .394 meant. I forgot that was his average. It seems almost impossible, from today’s perspective, that anyone could hit .394.
RIP Coach Gwynn! Great beer JB, highly recommended if that’s your thing.
Hey Joe Mariners have a tall order in front of them today to try to take that Series with Crochet on the mound. The little hope I have is that our lineup has been pretty good against lefties. You guys must be pumped about Casas 3 run bombs, he’s been a pain in our bullpen’s neck. Glad to see him get going even though I was hoping it wouldn’t be until we left the friendly confines of Fenway lol…
That reminds me of another baseball blog rule…wondering if anyone agrees…if your team has been eliminated from the postseason you are then to root for your favorite team who is left alive in your division. If there’s no team left in your division, you are then to root for your favorite team left alive in your league.
I know some people have problems with this rule because they could never root for a rival team within their own division once their favorite team is eliminated. But I think it’s the honorable and gentlemanly thing to do, no?
I agree 100% Iggy. Maybe it’s a side effect of being raised by Dodger parents (I know… *barf*!) but inevitably I always end up rooting for the NL West when my Pads are eliminated. I pulled for the Dbacks and Giants to win their chips when they did, too… and that one Rockie season where they got blistering hot at the end! If we cant have nice things, well, I want the Division to end up as the best.
Sidenote: the subreddit r/NLBest might be my favorite website besides this one haha… funny ish!
Yes! Being a Mariners fan, I have friends who look at me as a no good traitor when I have to switch to the (ugh barf) Astros or (not as horrible but still rancid) Rangers in the postseason. Hopefully this year I won’t have to, but who knows. (Hey Gwynny, we’re still on for a Padres/Mariners World Series, neither team has been mathematicaly eliminated yet!!!)
Ignorant SOB, Agree. Though I’m a staunch Giants’ fan, I’d love to see the Padres win their first WS title, if the Giants are out of it. And last year, I rooted for the Dodgers, though that one had a lot to do with whom they were playing. I’d have a hard time rooting for the Dodgers over someone like the M’s, or Rays, or one of the other underdog type AL teams.
Giants fan here. I root for any team in the west division to make the World Series. If it’s not the Giants then root for the west division team(s) that make the playoffs. I think most of us are diehard fans of baseball and I don’t have a problem rooting for San Diego or anyone else.
Gwynning
I agree with you 50%. Put Hicks in the one where he belongs and let Birdsong start. True that.
Harrison. Has not impressed in his last two minor league starts. Ray has completely fooled batters and just needs to work through his wildness.
Rotation should be Webb, Birdsong, Ray, Roupp, and Verlander. Maybe in a month or two one of the kids will justify replacing Verlander, but not yet.
Copy that Topper, you would know better than I! Your post makes more sense than my outside observation. Cheers
Almost exactly what I was thinking also. I also feel Ray will be fine if he mixes in his fastball. He can blow it by hitters if he finds the strike zone soon. I think Verlander needs to do the same. Got to quit trying to finesse. Throw the fastball for strikes.
Thanks for saving me from writing exactly what you just did!
Hicks’ pitched stupidly in NY. He gave up 4 straight hits, every one on a FB challenge. It almost seemed like an ego thing, where he was determined to get Judge, Bellinger, and Goldschmidt, by striking them out, with his heater. His velo is fine, but something is definitely off this season. After the promising early season last year, he’s been a disappointment.
Hey Jean! Checking Hicks’ peripheral stats and his velo is outstanding (93rd percentile), sinker seems to be great at inducing grounders (91st percentile) and Barrel % is good at 69th percentile. The weird thing is even with a good Barrel rate, hitters are teeing off with a 16th percentile Hard Hit rate (very bad). So Hicks has been good at avoiding barrels, but gets hammered hard when a hitter barrels it. Sounds circular, I know. This is probably all side results of his 9th percentile Fastball Run. He throws straight arrows that hitters eventually time up. Chase % of 9th percentile is laughably bad, too. He’s not fooling anyone. Probably see better results out of the ‘pen if only by limiting his exposure. Cheers buddy
Thanks for finding those stats. It is frustrating when his stuff is so good, but he gets beat by poor pitch selection. MLB hitters are too good that even an upper-90s FB gets hit hard when their looking for it.
Trade Verlander to the O’s for Charlie Morton!
Please?
Hard to tell if you’re a Giants fan or an Orioles fan…
O’s?
Harrison to the Orioles for one of their kids.
You might be making a fire, I can see some smoke here. Nice proposal, or at least the foundation of one! This could happen.
Good to see baseball people in charge again with the Giants.
Can’t have too much pitching, or too many starters.
It’s been decades since an MLB team had the pitching rotation that opened the season start all the games.
Silly article. Again.
Necessary Hayden Birdsong article
Hicks to the BP. Harrison and Roupp to the rotation.
Harrison has been dogmeat in AAA – he should not jump over Mason Black or Tristan Beck at this point.
Hicks gets one more, if it goes south let Birdsong take over. Tristan Beck seems to be doing pretty good in AAA
Can we revisit the Robbie Ray trade? It was sooooo good.
Despite the Giants Starters 4.28 ERA, their actual SIERA is 3.78, so whatever changes should be helping to bring down that SIERA, where it’s already below league average.
From where I’m at, the Sierras aren’t budging.
Verlander’s last start was great plus he hit 97mph.
Hicks has to go to the bullpen. Hicks hit 101.7mph 2 starts ago so he still has the gas in the tank. In one inning outings he doesn’t have to worry holding back to last 7 innings.
Birdsong has been a huge X-factor so far, it would be tough to lose that.
Harrison has had 2 good starts in a row in Sacramento including yesterday when he was outstanding. 2 hits, 2 walks, 8 K’s in 6 innings with no earnies. His ERA is now 3.86 which is pretty good in the PCL.
Beck and Hjelle have both been great but solely in relief.
As starters Whisenhunt has been lights out, so has Seymour. But Harrison and Seymour might have the edge over Whisenhunt because they are already on the 40 man roster,
Left field is not the issue for the Giants it’s LaMonte Wade Jr. He made 2 huge misplays in the field yesterday to compound the fact that he is horrible at the plate. He has lost all confidence. He needs to accept a minor league assignment or go on the IL for a fantom injury or get DFA’d. Somehow the Giants are winning without any production at first base.
Wade has been a talented player up until this year and I’m sure he’ll get it back but enough is enough.
Brandon Belt, where are you?