San Francisco Giants 2019 Spring Training Preview: Starting Pitchers

The Challengers

Drew Pomeranz

Pomeranz is the Giants prized offseason acquisition to date. He was hurt a lot in his final year in Boston, and he’ll very likely jump into either the rotation or bullpen on opening day. Pomeranz is familiar with Zaidi, from his time in Oakland together, and he’s known the NL West pretty well thanks to his time in San Diego as well. Pomeranz seems to fit the mold of a Derek Holland, someone who can be solid through 5 or 6 innings and could easily be paired with either an opener, or sandwiched with another long reliever or starter to help the bullpen out.

Moving to AT&T Park, you’ll likely see his numbers look nice again, especially considering he’ll be leaving the little league parks that they play in up in the AL East. Pomeranz will be a solid acquisition and addition for the Giants. The only reason we put him in the “challengers” position is because he is a newcomer to the team, and it’s still yet to be determined what his total role with the squad will be.

Tyler Beede

I almost stuck Beede into the long-shots, but he’s long been a top prospect in the organization, and the gamble they took on him with the pick and price, he’ll be given his fair shot. After all, his stuff is electric, he just has almost no command.

Beede’s command has gotten worse over time with the Giants, and it’s the main reason he was never able to stick in the big leagues after being handed his debut last year. In only seven innings last year, his K/9 was a solid 10.57. But that BB9 was nearly equal to that number.

A 1/1 Walk/strikeout ratio won’t ever be good enough for the big leagues. He clearly has some mechanical and delivery issues to work on in AAA and that’s very likely where we’ll see him in 2019. Unless something changed in the offseason? But that’s for Spring Training to show us.

Ty Blach

Blach is included in the starters role just because that’s where he’s been his best, however he’ll likely end up in the bullpen if he’s on a big league roster in 2019. Not as much to say here with him.

Jose Lopez

A late addition to my list thanks to the DFA of Josh Osich and the claiming of this man. Lopez is intriguing because he had a really solid year in 2017, moving very quickly and successfully through AA ball, where he averaged a strikeout an inning, had very little walk issues, and posted an ERA under 2.50. But in making the jump from High-A to triple-a in one year, his numbers suffered just a bit.

His ERA ballooned up above 4 and his WHIP to a 1.30. His strikeout rate went down over that period of time. With a lot of the additions the Reds have made this offseason, he was DFA’d leaving the Giants to claim him. He’ll automatically report to their camp thanks to staying on the 40 man roster. He’ll likely start the year in AAA, but could be one to watch this year.