The Giants came into camp with 24 pitchers on the 40-man, and asked 9 others to camp. In addition, they have had 17 other pitchers over from minor league camp to help out here and there, of course none of those have a chance at being one of the 13 active pitchers on Opening Day.
One way to narrow these 33 down is put 3 guys on the 60-day list, namely Randy Rodriguez, Rowan Wick, and Jason Foley on the 60-day list. The first two will miss the entire season due to TJ surgery, while Foley’s may return from a shoulder surgery in mid-summer. And 4 others are hurt: Riever Sanmartin suffered a high-grade hip flexor strain while fielding a grounder with Columbia’s WBC team, Joel Peguero has a grade 2 hamstring pull, Hayden Birdsong may be looking at TJ but is getting two opinions, and Sam Hentges is just throwing bullpens, after shoulder and knee surgeries. And the team has assigned 5 of the more obvious choices to minor league camp recently, namely Will Bednar, Trent Harris, Juan Sanchez (L), Wilkin Ramos, and Nick Margevicius. That leaves 13 to pick, from 21. starter candidates (sorted by innings pitched):
| IP | H | ER | BB | K | WHIP | |
| Robbie Ray (L) | 14.2 | 4 | 2 | 8 | 15 | 0.82 |
| Tyler Mahle | 10.0 | 2 | 0 | 7 | 13 | 0.90 |
| Trevor McDonald – 1 | 10.0 | 6 | 2 | 2 | 11 | 0.80 |
| Carson Whisenhunt (L) – 3 | 9.1 | 8 | 10 | 8 | 14 | 1.71 |
| Landen Roupp – 2 | 9.0 | 6 | 3 | 5 | 10 | 1.22 |
| Adrian Houser | 7.0 | 7 | 3 | 2 | 6 | 1.29 |
| Blake Tidwell – 2 | 6.2 | 9 | 7 | 6 | 13 | 2.25 |
| Logan Webb | 5.0 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 7 | 0.40 |
Webb has been named the Opening Day starter for the 5th consecutive year. Everybody knows that the initial rotation will be Webb, Ray, Houser, Mahle, and Roupp. McDonald is presently the “first man up” if one of them goes down, with Whisenhunt and Tidwell on ice at Sacramento.
long men (we switch to WHIP sorting):
| IP | H | ER | BB | K | WHIP | |
| Michael Fulmer NRI | 9.0 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 13 | 0.67 |
| Caleb Kilian NRI | 7.1 | 6 | 1 | 1 | 7 | 0.95 |
| Carson Seymour – 2 | 10.1 | 8 | 5 | 3 | 9 | 1.05 |
| Tristan Beck – 1 | 6.1 | 6 | 3 | 3 | 4 | 1.42 |
| Keaton Winn – 1 | 6.1 | 6 | 5 | 4 | 6 | 1.58 |
All 5 are righties. NRI means non-roster camp invitation. The number after the hyphens is the remaining number of years they can be sent to AAA. Free agent big names can’t be sent down, and the value is irrelevant to camp invites, unless they make the team. It is just my fancy to separate these guys out as long relief, who knows what the team thinks their role is, since Seymour and Fulmer have as much work as our list of “starters”.
bullpen:
| IP | H | ER | BB | K | WHIP | |
| Ryan Walker – 3 | 6.0 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 7 | 0.50 |
| Matt Gage (L) – 0 | 5.1 | 3 | 2 | 0 | 7 | 0.56 |
| Erik Miller (L) – 3 | 1.0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 1.00 |
| JT Brubaker | 9.0 | 5 | 3 | 7 | 9 | 1.33 |
| Jose Butto – 0 | 4.0 | 5 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 1.50 |
| Spencer Bivens – 2 | 8.1 | 12 | 4 | 4 | 7 | 1.92 |
| Gregory Santos NRI | 3.0 | 4 | 1 | 3 | 2 | 2.33 |
| Joey Lucchesi (L) NRI | 1.0 | 3 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 3.00 |
small samples, for sure. Miller has had a bad back all spring until this week, but he struck out the side in his inning! Bivens is a favorite of mine, but seems to be headed to Sacramento as well. Well, those two better have a strong week, still a chance to beat the other out. Lucchesi recently returned on a minor league contract, and seems likely to be at Sacramento, until he’s in shape and the team has a slot open up. Walker has run away with the closer job.
So here goes nothing, with the absolutely fearless and yet completely non-committal 610nm pitching roster:
• starters: Webb, Ray, Mahle, Houser, Roupp
• swingmen: McDonald, {Fulmer or Kilian}, Seymour
• late innings: Walker, Gage, Brubaker, Butto, {Bivens or Miller}
The choice from braces depends on how those guys do this coming week.
Frank Anderson (director of ML pitching), Justin Meccage (seems to be the day-to-day pitching coach), Christian Wonders, and Jesse Chavez are definitely sharpening their pencils up, as they stare at various HAL data screens. This isn’t an easy choice, so in fact we won’t know on the day the trucks head north with all the equipment.
The 13 active pitchers will change many times during the season. and we have great depth if guys like Whisenhunt, Tidwell, Winn, Beck, Santos, and Lucchesi are being sent to Sacramento.
