Wednesday’s Lineup and Pre-Gamer: The 2011 Trade Has Arrived

Carlos Beltran for Zack Wheeler, straight up. There were rumors at the time it was either Wheeler or Gary Brown as the Giants were working to replace Buster Posey‘s production and get back to the playoffs, and even though Beltran produced, he couldn’t do everything. Beltran signed with the Cardinals on a two-year $26MM deal, and has been surprisingly healthy for them. Wheeler through the years has climbed the ranks, and has earned his promotion to the big leagues. Mets fans may want him to be another Matt Harvey, but Wheeler’s not there yet. I did a GIFPost of his first start, which you can check out here. I am sure he’ll be plenty excited to pitch against the organization that drafted him. Here’s who he’ll be relying on to plate the runs today:

Each game in this series I’ve hoped David Wright will take a game off, but that’s never been a reality. Guess I’ll just have to settle for watching a really good ballplayer play baseball. The Giants lineup looks like this, with the GIF-able Kensuke Tanaka batting second and Buster Posey back in the lineup. Marco Scutaro gets a day off, and Tony Abreu gets a start.

July 5, 2013; San Francisco, CA, USA; San Francisco Giants starting pitcher Matt Cain (18) prepares to deliver a pitch during the first inning against the Los Angeles Dodgers at AT

Do you remember Matt Cain‘s last start? I do. It was awful, and it was against the Dodgers, which made it even worse. Eight earned runs in a game isn’t even Cain’s most runs allowed in a game this season, which gives a glimpse into how disgusting the numbers have been for the guy that inspires people to wear horse heads to Giants games. Cain has five pitches he’ll use, though you will see the fourseam fastball and the slider the most. You’ll notice that his fastball is the pitch that is getting hit around the most while the slider also has had its times of ineffectiveness. Sixteen homers allowed for Matt Cain this year, five less than the twenty one he allowed in 2012.

Wheeler will be making only his fifth start of his MLB career, so the numbers for him are going to be a little lower left of the batting average against and the slugging percentage. He loves the fastball he has, and it looks like hitters are waiting on it. It could help explain his 4.29 ERA.

Look for everybody to expect Wheeler to have the game of his life this afternoon.

Other news and notes:

The Giants were running an awful idea of a promotion:

That’s right, your phone number out there on the internet for everybody to see. Don’t see how mean people could steal those phone numbers and inconvenience those peoples lives. Nope.

12th rounder Ty Ross from Louisiana State University is getting the promotion to Salem-Kaiser where he’ll also be with 2013 Draft pick Geno Escalante (15th rounder):

40-man roster guy Edwin Escobar also earns a promotion up the ladder:

For me, this leaves me to wonder if Martin Agosta or Chris Stratton gets moved up to high-A San Jose. Agosta has posted more dominant numbers this year, but we’ll see what the Giants do. Bruce Bochy had an interview on KNBR and they talked about Brandon Belt, and it was kinda funny:

That would be pretty entertaining to watch someone in a sombrero take hacks at AT&T. Boch talked about Santiago Casilla, who will be with the team in San Diego:

Good thing I checked the schedule, I thought the Giants have a day off tomorrow. They don’t. That will be four games against the Padres (in San Diego), starting on Thursday night.

The Giants will look to avoid the sweep beginning at 12:45PM PST.