San Francisco Giants: A Look at the Starting Pitching Through 2 Starts

Most of the San Francisco Giants starting pitchers have received two starts already this spring, so we’ll look at their early work.

As we know, Madison Bumgarner, Johnny Cueto and Jeff Samardzija are safe atop the rotation. That’s actually a good thing for them because they are the ones off to a slow, which of course veterans with guaranteed spots don’t really care about spring training stats.

Bumgarner has given up 3 runs (2 earned) on 4 hits through 4.2 innings pitched, but he has struck out 9 batters.

Through one official start, Cueto gave up 2 runs on 3 hits and a walk over 2 innings.

Samardzija has been the most alarming giving up 5 runs (3 earned) on 6 hits and 4 walks over just 3.1 innings pitched with 3 strikeouts.

Maybe the most concerning thing is all of the unearned runs. What is our defense doing out there?

But no matter what happens over the next several weeks, those guys are safe.

Tyler Beede and Ty Blach don’t have that luxury right now. These are meaningful innings for them in spring training, and they need to produce good results.

That has not been the case for Beede as he’s given up 4 earned runs on 5 hits and 2 walks over 5 innings pitched with 3 strikeouts.

His last outing was much better as he gave up just one hit — a solo home run — and walked one over 3 innings with a pair of strikeouts.

I’m really hoping Beede continues to get better as spring training progresses and he becomes a huge surprise for the San Francisco Giants in 2018.

Blach has been outstanding in his first two starts giving up just 1 run — unearned, shocker — on 3 hits and zero walks over 5 innings with 7 strikeouts.

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We’ve seen enough of Blach at the major league level to know what he’s capable of. I’m certainly comfortable with him being a back-of-the-rotation starting pitcher for us in 2018.

The next two up appear to be Derek Holland and Chris Stratton.

Holland has looked washed up thus far giving up 4 runs (3 earned) on 7 hits and 3 walks over 4.2 innings pitched thus far. However, he has picked up 8 punchouts.

Stratton has looked really good; although pitching later in games against lesser competition. He’s yet to give up a run and has allowed 4 hits and 2 walks through 5 innings pitched with 5 strikeouts.

I would not be surprised if Stratton gets a start here pretty soon to see how he does against a team’s major league lineup.

Next: San Francisco Giants: Steven Duggar playing his way to Opening Day

If I had to guess right now, Blach and Stratton are the leaders for the fourth and fifth spot. We’ll see how this thing plays out through the rest of spring training.