Its a bitter-sweet sight here in the last weeks of the baseball season for Giants fans. Sweet because fans get to see the Giants play well, they are 7-3 in their last ten games. Bitter because despite their good play they are still two games back from the Rockies for the wild-card. For Giants fans it is starting to feel, and look, like their chances at a playoff spot is more up to how the Rockies play than how they play.

Right now the Giants look like they are doing whatever they can to make sure that if the Rockies falter at the finish line they will be right there to snatch that wild-card spot. The veterans have started to step up, at least Molina, Uribe, and Renteria have, hitting clutch home runs and RBIs to power the Giants to a few Ws. The pitching has gotten a shot in the arm with the addition of Brad Penny, giving the Giants 5 starters who match up favorably against any starting 5 in the league. The pitching might get yet another shot in the arm if Randy Johnson comes back to pitch relief for the last few weeks of the season. The Giants even got Freddy Sanchez back for this series against the Padres, but it all is still not adding up to gaining games on the Rockies.

After today’s game against the Padres the Giants have 22 games left, assuming Zito and the Giants beat the Padres in the final game of the series they will most likely need to go 14-8 (.636) to make the playoffs, and this home stretch includes 6 games against the Dodgers and 3 more against the Rockies so it wont be easy. Even with that kind of record the Giants fans would have to hope to not only sweep the Rockies but that the Rockies play much closer to .500 ball than they have been these last couple months.

If the Giants make the playoffs this year they are going to be a team that will be scary to face. The Giants have the best home record in the league and the best starting pitching in the league, and in the playoffs that equals a tough team to beat. On the flip side if the Rockies make the the playoffs there wont be many people picking them to go past the first round. But that is one of the more interesting differences between baseball and most other sports, but in baseball the playoffs just play that much different than the regular season, and the fact that scoring goes down across the board in the MLB playoffs would only help a team with great pitching and hurt a team that leans on its bats.

In this way Bruce Bochy has built a team to make a playoff run and not just a run at the playoffs. As a Giants fan I would much rather a team be built that way opposed to a team that is built to win in the regular season but gets knocked out of the playoffs in the first round every year they make it. That being said I believe this team is headed in the right direction and is in place to go no where but up after this season, not that I am ruling this season out just yet.

In a season during which fans of the Giants have clamored vociferously for more offense, San Francisco’s biggest acquisition may turn out to be a pitcher.

With Freddy Sanchez languishing on the disabled list and Ryan Garko platooning with Travis Ishikawa at first base, the improvement wrought by the offensive transactions made in late July has hitherto been negligible. But by claiming former Los Angeles Dodgers’ ace Brad Penny off waivers, the Giants have bolstered their pitching staff for the stretch run, adding a starting pitcher to fill a fifth starter’s spot that has been no less than a gaping void since Randy Johnson’s injury.

Penny made his 2009 National League debut in dominating fashion, blanking the Phillies for eight innings Wednesday night in route to a 4-0 Giants’ victory. The pitching-friendly National League seems already to have restored to Penny a calmness that he lacked in Boston, where the weight of pitching in an unfamiliar league and in an atmosphere more pressure-packed than the laid-back Los Angeles air he had grown accustomed to never allowed him to find his comfort zone.

Penny is not the first pitcher to make a great first impression after switching leagues this season either. Cliff Lee, John Smoltz and Vicente Padilla have also found their happy places in the National League. And judging from Penny’s first start in a Giants’ uniform, in which he was able to retire hitters quickly by mixing all of his pitches—including a fastball that topped out at 97 mph—and locating the ball well on both sides of the plate, this marriage is going to be a good one.

If we can trust the adumbrations of future success we witnessed last night, and Penny does in fact experience a career Renaissance by the bay, San Francisco’s chances to make noise in the postseason increase appreciably. Imagine a formidable four-man rotation composed of alternating wide-eyed playoff virgins and battle-tested crafty veterans: Lincecum, Zito, Cain, and Penny. Although this would entail a move out of the rotation for Jonathan Sanchez, the young lefty’s mid-nineties fastball and plus slider seem perfectly suited for late-inning relief situations. And if Randy Johnson makes his return this season, it will only add another left-handed option to an already deep bullpen. Suffice it to say, no opponent, from the first batter through the final out, will have an easy task scoring runs against such a combination of been-there-before mentality and raw talent.

Can the San Francisco Giants, amidst all of the criticism about their lack of offensive production and the widespread belief that they’re still “one or two bats away from contending,” make a legitimate run at a World Series THIS season? Confident in the value of Brad Penny, this blogger believes the answer is a resounding “Yes.”

Perseverance is a wonderful thing. Every team goes through ups and downs in a season and has to fight through the slumps to get back on track, especially if they are going to make the playoffs. The Giants have persevered through a slow re-start after the all-star break and have climbed their way back after loosing ground the the Rockies. Thanks to a three game series sweep they are once again tied for the wild-card spot. Surprisingly they have fought their way back thanks to their bats, not something you would have expected from this Giants team. If they can continue to win games when they don’t get great pitching then they have a good chance of holding on to this wild-card spot.

The best news for Giants fans is that their team that just swept the Rockies is about to get a shot in the arm when they get Freddy Sanchez back Wednesday (according to the team’s official site report) who helps out both defensively and offensively. On top of that there is word coming out of the Giants organization that Randy Johnson might be back in time to help out the Giants’ struggling relief pitching in the home stretch of the season, although he may not be back in time for the Giants’ last series with the Rockies which starts September 14th, he will hopefully be back in time to help them get some W’s in the last few series of the season.

The key to the Giants run at the post season right now is their veterans, who started the second half of the season slow despite the strong play from the team’s younger players but have turned it back on as of late (see Edgar Renteria’s grand slam in the last game against the Rockies). If Renteria, Rowand, and Molina can keep their offensive numbers up in this last month of the season the Giants have a very good chance of holding on to their wild-card spot.

The main question mark around this team right now, however, is can their young players keep playing at this level as the pressure of the playoff race intensifies in late September. One small concern that has started to germinate in my mind has been the batting of Pablo Sandoval, although he is still hitting the ball well and has a great batting average for the month of August he seems to be swinging for the fences too often. Going back once more time to this last game against the Rockies Sandoval went up to bat in the 6th with 1 out and runners on first and third when the Giants were still down 2 runs and he strikes out trying to hit the ball into orbit. Considering there was no one on first a double play shouldn’t have been a big concern of his, just making solid contact would have most likely scored a run, but he wanted to be the hero and hit the ever loved long ball, got impatient and instead of just taking what the pitcher game him he tried to force the issue, that mentality needs to change if he is going to continue to be a big part of the Giants offense. Hopefully some of the veterans such as Sanchez, who knows what it takes to win ball games, can help him with that.

The San Francisco Giants rely on quality and consistency from their starting pitchers. Matt Cain and Tim Lincecum, who stand at 2nd and 3rd in league ERA respectively, have more than held up their share of the bargain. A Cy Young award, “Freak Fever,” and flashy high-strikeout performances speak loudly on Lincecum’s behalf, while the polished and workmanlike Matt Cain eats up innings and goes deep into games by dominating opposing hitters with runners in scoring position.

What is more, a no-hitter and the Big Unit’s endorsement have magically revived Jonathan Sanchez’s once moribund career. Now the Puerto Rican native, although not fully developed, is expected to deliver a quality start every time he takes the mound. And Barry Zito, who in the Bay Area is still the butt of 126 million jokes, has the fifth best ERA in the National League since the all-star break.

But even with superlative starting pitching, when you add ghastly offensive production, you still have a recipe for mediocrity.

However, offensive anemia doesn’t turn into an epidemic as long as one out of every five days a Cain or a Lincecum twirls a gem. And one thing this team has been able to do remarkably well is stay afloat. Until their recent debacle at Coors Field, the Giants had been at the top or within a couple of games of the Wild Card lead every day since the beginning of June. Since that time, San Francisco has not lost more than three games in a row.

The ugly and deformed obverse of that, however, is that the inability to score runs makes it difficult to string together wins. Starting pitchers can’t throw shutouts every time out, and oftentimes the bullpen has not been up to the task of polishing off a good quality start. And so in the last three months, the Giants, although seldom having lost consecutive games, have pulled off more than three consecutive victories only once—a four-game stretch from July 27th through the 30th which included a three game sweep against a Pirates team that lacked Freddy Sanchez and Jack Wilson.

Last night’s 11-0 blowout loss to the Diamondbacks meant not only that the Giants’ modest two-game winning streak was snapped, but also that their bid at a sweep was anticlimactically foiled. It got me thinking: how bad are the Giants at winning multiple games in a row? and how often have they failed to finish a team off? I did a little bit of research and discovered the following startling facts:

1. The Giants’ season-best winning streak, which came back in April, is a whopping five games. (Of those games, three were against Arizona, and two were against San Diego.)

2. The Padres (10 games in a row), the Nationals (8), and the A’s (7) have all have experienced longer runs of success.

3. Of San Francisco’s twelve opportunities to turn a series victory into a sweep, it has only converted four.

4. Three of the eight losses in this scenario have come against the lowly Diamondbacks. (So much for handling the teams you’re supposed to beat.)

5. Two of the eight losses have come in extra innings, including once after Brian Wilson blew a three-run lead in the 9th. (How’s that for false hope?)

6. Four of the last five campaigns to complete a sweep at home resulted in losses of six runs or more: a 7-1 loss to the Astros (after winning the first two games a by a combined score of 22-0), a 7-0 spanking courtesy of the Marlins, a 10-4 defeat delivered by the Padres, and last night’s embarrassment against the Diamondbacks. (Talk about losing momentum!)

I suppose this is where I’m expected to criticize the Giants for their inability to come through in the clutch, impugn their desire to win, and chastise them for not having the famous “killer instinct” that all championship-caliber teams are claimed to possess. But I’m not going to do that. At the end of the day, all the players on the field can do is play with the cards they’re dealt. San Francisco’s “ground attack” offense will never blow anybody away, and more often than not it is easily tamed and subdued; but the Giants will not capitulate as long as their tremendous pitching staff keeps them in games long enough for the offense to leg out infield hits, stretch doubles into triples, and scratch out a few runs.

Look, nobody is ignorant of this team’s limitations. However–lo and behold, the Colorado Rockies, a mere three games up in the Wild Card, are coming to town for a three game set. We’ll throw our best starters at them this weekend; Lincecum, Zito and Cain give San Francisco its best possible chance to tie up the race and accomplish what Bay Area fans so rarely have witnessed this season: a series sweep. If ever the offense were in desperate need to step it up a notch, now is the time.

We learned when we were children, when the tortoise defeated the hare, that “slow and steady wins the race.” Unfortunately for the Giants this season, a “slow and steady” pace has too often resulted from childlike play. Not that I mean to question the authority of fables, but even torpid reptiles benefit from a boost of energy every now and then.

From a personal point-of-view, as someone who absolutely lives and dies with the Giants, I feel like I ought to be ordering my coffin right now instead of drinking coffee and examining a Diamondbacks lineup set to face Matt Cain tonight.

For as painful as it was to just wear Ryan Spilborghs’ walk-off grand slam in the bottom of the 14th, I still can’t help but feel there is a lot of hope to be had here by the Bay.

But before I address hope, I should probably undress last night’s implosion. Look, it’s not like the previous two games before last nights loss were any easier to swallow, yet after Velez’ two run triple it was really hard to see coming what actually happened. And maybe that’s the toughest part. Sometimes, you can see these things coming, but not last night–not walking a bullpen pitcher to force in a bases loaded run, not using three pitchers to choke out a loss, not continuous over-managing (especially when you’re so used to under-managing).

We faithfully watch these Giants for the same reasons we get into relationships. Bare with me here.

At first you always really like the way they look, and then you find out you have a few things in common–like you both love the sac fly, and really dig “freakish” pitching. Things get better and you start to share more of your feelings, some so good it’s like watching a no-hitter. You’re just her big “panda” bear.

Then things start to go a bit south. Like all chicks, she digs the long ball, and well, one panda does not a zoo make. You want to just put your trust in her, but she wants to constantly make impulse decisions that make you scratch your head. Your major disagreements all begin with Rowand, and end with Howry. Actually, those aren’t disagreements.

The point is, we do this because we know the sun is going to come up tomorrow. We cry, bitch, moan, complain, hate, give-up, deride; then we make our way to AT&T or plant our asses on the couch and even if we watch with just one eye open we still watch in the slight hopes that this might still work, she might still be the one.

A sleepy, under-achieving “Diamond”-backs team opens the first three of six at home, and well, the only “rocks” you’ll both care about, at least for a weekend, will be the “Rockies.” And if things go really well, you’re right back in the running toward walking down that playoff aisle.

And if they don’t, you break up. It’s simple. You throw out all of the things that remind you of her, like her manager and general manager, and jettison ties to her old friends like Edgar and Randy (you know which one you don’t like) and Bengie. You never could stand those guys, anyway.

You spend the winter sulking, but then one night you go out and spend a lot of money–maybe you’re drunk, or maybe the market is just dictating how much you have to spend to get drunk. But you come home with a phone number, and come springtime, that phone number is a part of that “new-old-girl” and you’ll chase her all summer long in the hopes that she’s the one that you finally get that ring with.

Six game homestand. Six wins (maybe even five!). We’re right back in this, not that we’re really too far off of it.

With San Diego in town for just a pair of mid-week games, the Giants had a chance to improve to 4-1 on their homestand. San Francisco took both games from the Padres, but it was how they did it that is raising eyebrows.

Tuesday’s 8-3 victory was impressive in that the offensively challenged Giants managed to chase the always tough Jake Peavy. And (see the previous post) Edgar Renteria may well have found his swing and picked up his game, as he crushed a Grand Slam and made some excellent defensive plays.

Oh yeah, and Matt Cain was brilliant–again. The Giants need quality starts out of Cain and he delivered–and for the third time this season, San Francisco scored more than three runs for the guy who’s best known as a hard luck loser.

Now, I would be remiss if I didn’t preface these next statements with this: I am not at all a fan of Barry Zito, the man or the pitcher.

That being said, I cannot take anything away from Zito’s masterful performance Wednesday afternoon in throwing seven dazzling shutout innings. The only thing that didn’t go “Zeets’” way was tallying the “W.” Yet, the Giants managed to scratch out a run and win the game 1-0, sweeping the short two game set from the Friars.

What’s wild, and even crazy about the last five games is just how well the frontline-five have pitched. With so much being made about the Giants’ pitching staff headed into the season–the expectations, the pressure, the urgency–to see the performances turned in by Lincecum, Johnson, Cain, Zito, and Sanchez brings a ray of unyielding hope to The City.

It’s unrealistic to expect these types of results each and every time the Giants take the field. However, when you look around the league and see teams like the Mets, Phillies, and Brewers–all teams loaded with offensive firepower–struggling to find any kind of pitching at all, it makes you sort of wonder what may be if the Giants start finding their offensive identity.

Actually, just in looking at the NL West division, the Giants–if they can muster some offensive consistency–are poised to contend. The Padres are who we thought they were–they won’t be able to score enough, or pitch well enough (outside of Peavy and Young) to hang around. The Rockies are an enigma, but likely won’t be able to continuously produce in all three facets of the game. The Diamondbacks are built well–but they are young, and seem to be taking steps backwards and not forwards. The Dodgers, well, they’re pretty good. Yet, a lot of their pitching is young and untested. Can it sustain continued success?

And then there’s the Giants. They’re a good mix of youngsters and veterans. The bullpen is mostly solid and strong at the back end. The bats have some holes in them, but if they can patch those up, there’s a chance for some small-ball production. Speed never slumps–when it’s on base. Their defense needs some work, but overall it’s at least average.

Lest we forget, if the starting rotation shines like it has lately, then the Giants are a team few others will want to match-up against. They certainly have the arms to clash with any of the other teams within the NL West.

Not many line-ups will be salivating when the likes of Cy Young winner Tim Lincecum toes the slab. Randy Johnson is still a feared lefty arm. Matt Cain is coming into his own. Barry Zito, is well, improving. Jonathan Sanchez is working toward changing his middle name to “Dirty.”

San Francisco’s front five can go to battle with anybody. They can keep the Giants in any game, and will brawl with any line-up. There’s no doubt that the Giants have a starting rotation that’s “Five for Fighting.”

It’s funny how one series of solid pitching can make you forget about all the bad outings and get you excited for the next day.

Just as hilarious is the thought that a team can win a three game series by only scoring four runs. That’s exactly what the Giants did this past weekend against the Diamondbacks, scoring a combined four runs and allowing just two. Two wins in three games with only four runs; the Giants will take that.

Now, we’ve heard it time and again: The Giants pitching is outstanding, but their bats simply don’t have enough fire power to keep them around in the division. I wish I could totally agree with that, so as to uncomplicate my life and the verbosity of these posts, but then none of us would have any fun.

The fact is, the Giants have an inexperienced line-up for the most part. They are relying on unproven hitters such as Emmanuel Burriss, Pablo Sandoval, Fred Lewis, and Travis Ishikawa to be fire-starters and run producers. That’s just not going to be a reality so early in the season.

What seems to be getting overlooked, is that the Giants have yet to hit on all cylinders. The season is a marathon, not a sprint (because I love cliches). The month of April will likely not dictate how the Giants end up in the West. It may well be an extended Spring Training of sorts that gets this team where it needs to be when May dawns.

Now, it’s not that any team wants to use April as a time to figure out who and what it is, but the Giants have to be one of those clubs. It’s one thing to hit and pitch well in March in Scottsdale, but putting together a consistent everyday line-up, and understanding the expectations for the starting rotation and bullpen can really only be defined when playing legitimate competition.

Enter the first 12 games of the 2009 season. While posting only a 4-8 record, the Giants have managed to shore-up some roles and comprehend some realities.

Obviously, the starters have to post quality starts every time out. Though the bullpen has some power arms, the front end (pitchers not named Howry, Affeldt, or Wilson) are young and unpolished. And still, the back end has to be stanch and stout when called upon–something that has yet to materialize.

The hitters will have to manufacture runs (I hate to sound redundant, but if I can see it, one might wonder why they don’t–more on that later). There has been no consistent everyday line-up as manager Bruce Bochy has juggled positions and players looking for a good mix of hitters to combat certain pitchers. If the Giants can find a way to strikeout less, and be more aggressive on the base-paths when they do get on base, then they will start to take some pressure off of their pitchers.

Yet, there still exist some drawbacks that may be keeping the Giants from earlier success.

One of those is Bruce Bochy (yet, rather than discuss the manager in this post, I’ll wait to dedicate a full entry). Another, is the lack of an everyday line-up. Players like Travis Ishikawa–who need to develop further and grow at the Major League level–need to be in the lineup everyday. He has to be able to face left handed pitching and learn to drive the ball against them the way he does against right handed pitching.

Also, while the bullpen roles have been mostly defined–Affeldt to Howry to Wilson, 7th, 8th, and 9th–there has to be some room for a four out save, or for mixing in another arm when one of the back three struggles. Leaving a struggling arm on the mound late in the game is a recipe for disaster and fan discontent.

And still another hurdle has been the ridiculously slow start of Edgar Renteria. His career average is right around .290–and that means he can hit–but it’s not just his bat that’s been sluggish to start. His defense has been sub-par and lackadaisical (not many ML shortstops forget to cover second base on force outs). He will likely get going, and when he does he’ll be a fantasy league waiver wire gem. However, he has to take the pressure off of himself and just relax and play baseball.

With the Padres and Jake Peavy coming to town for a quick two game set, the Giants have a chance to finish the short homestand 4-1. Yes, the Padres swept the Giants earlier in San Diego, but with the recent starting pitching performances against the Diamondbacks, hopefully a spirit of competition will be bred amongst the five front-line arms. Not to mention all four Giants wins have come at home this season. And, it’s a gorgeous 83* day in San Francisco–a far cry from the rain the Padres treated the Giants to last week.

It proverbially figures that the sun will be shining on the Giants at home for the short series against the Peavy led Friars.

Far be it from me to suggest that some of these people stop calling the radio shows and offering their oh-so-astute words of wisdom, so instead I offer a chance at educating the masses by reading my GUFS posts.

First case-in-point is Randy Johnson, who at last look is a 295 game winner. Many Giants fans are broiling the signing of the future Hall of Famer as a waste of nine and half million dollars that could have been spent on a middle of the order power bat.

Truth number one: $9.5 million likely would not have even brought the likes of Ty Wigginton to cavernous AT&T Park. Truth number two: a 45 year old Randy Johnson is better than a 21 year old anybody in the Giants farm system (at least right now, today). Truth number three: It’s only his second start of the year, and though both haven’t been stellar outings, it’s no secret that Johnson has been a slow starter as he’s gotten older. Look at the numbers he put together in the second half of last season, and don’t hit the panic button yet.

Second case-in-point is the rest of the Giants starting pitching. Look, it’s no secret that this club is built around its five man rotation. Yet, through seven games only one starter, Matt Cain, has a win. Okay. Again, there’s 155 games left to find out if the starting pitching is as strong as advertised. Let’s not bury them too quickly.

If there’s any real cause for concern it lies with Tim Lincecum and Barry Zito. Lincecum has looked atrocious in two outings, and nobody wants to hang a moniker like “Mark ‘The Bird’ Fidrych” on the kid, but you heard it here first. Oh, and Barry Zito? He’s the number four starter in the hopes that it will alleviate some of the pressure on him to succeed (and I actually do see him winning 12-14 games this season), but he’s still got to pitch like he’s a Cy Young winner.

Third case-in-point is the offense. What was there to expect? Bengie Molina dropping bombs and Aaron Rowand crushing pitchers out of the seven spot in the order? This team absolutely has to manufacture runs, and in the six games since Opening Day they absolutely have not. The speed has to get on base, and Bruce Bochy has to turn his runners loose. The Giants are going to have to gamble, even when their three, four, and five hitters are at the plate.

While I want so badly to chastise General Manager Brian Sabean for myriad debacles and ridiculous decisions in trades, signings, and missed opportunities, the home-grown talent already in The Show, and the strong direction within the farm system has poised the Giants to be in a position to grow and be agressive as a franchise and be ready to contend in the future–if not immediately should all the cogs in the machine begin to work together.

And just in case you missed it: Seven games down, 155 to go. Let’s hold off on the 2009 funeral until at least mid-June.

Adenhart pitched yesterday against the A’s, and by most accounts his performance was brilliant. He was a young pitcher on the rise in the Angels organization, and had been a Baseball America darling since being drafted in 2004.

While I don’t know much about the life of Nick Adenhart, I do know about the game of baseball, and what it means to be around a group of other players and coaches who you deem a second family. His untimely death is going to send a painful shockwave through the Angels organization, not just today, but in the days to follow as the grieving process ensues.

Within this tragedy is the cause of Adenhart’s death–a supposed drunk, hit-and-run driver. The theme of drunk driving is all too prevalent, not just in tragic stories such as this, but in similar scenarios throughout America. Adenhart’s killer–and that’s what this person is, a killer–was apprehended shortly after fleeing the incident that left two other people dead, and one person seriously injured. I sincerely hope that his swift prosecution leads to multiple life incarnceration sentences.

My thoughts are with Nick Adenhart’s family, and the Los Angeles Angels organization. Hopefully, some good will rise out of this tragedy. We are all born to die, and it’s what we do inbetween those two points that truly makes a life. While Nick Adenhart’s was taken from him too soon, his life should be celebrated for all that it was, and as more than just a baseball player.

Adenhart was an Angel on the field, and now he’ll rest as an Angel for eternity.

The Giants got a good debut start from Randy Johnson, but a pair of homers (one of them a three run shot by opposing pitcher Yovani Gallardo) was his undoing in five innings of work. The bullpen was strong again, keeping Milwaukee off the scoreboard in their four innings.

However, it was the Giants’ inability to cash in on numerous scoring opportunities that led them to their first loss of the young season.

Though the Giants hitters battled at the plate, Gallardo found his curve-ball in the second inning and neutralized much of the San Francisco order, even when they managed to put runners on base.

What’s ultimately important to take away from tonight’s game is the effort of Randy Johnson. His presence on the mound seemed to inspire his teammates, and that is sure to carry on throughout the season.

Following Tim Lincecum with Randy Johnson–whose experience and competitive fire are unrivaled–cannot be understated. He pitched well tonight, and if anything, will be consistent every time he goes to the mound. That consistency should breed confidence in the rest of the Giants rotation, and also in the line-up as they should look to bring their bats to the yard everyday.

Loss number one of the year looked a lot like many of the losses last season: Good pitching, good defense, poor hitting. But, that was last year’s recipe for mediocrity. Chalk tonight up to the rising star of the Brewers’ staff–Yovani Gallardo. It was his game, through and through, as he led his club to their first win of the year.

Tomorrow’s rubber match will be another excellent test for a young Giants team. Manny Parra is another rising star in the Brewers’ rotation. Matt Cain needs to get off to a fast start as patience is growing thin for him in San Francisco. While I hasten to bite my tongue on his young age, career record, and run support woes–he has to rise to the level of a Lincecum or Johnson, or else be seen as nothing more than a middle of the road starter, perhaps destined for the back end of the bullpen on another ballclub.