The Clemens - Pettitte Lovefest Pitcher Preview: San Francisco Giants

The Bonds-less San Francisco Giants era has begun.

Finally, no more steroid interrogations in the Giants clubhouse. No more playing baseball around arguably the best baseball player in history. No more sitting in the shadow of a living legend, or not. No more waiting for Barry to hit the long ball and win the game. It's time to play small ball, and have some fun.

This season, the new Giants squad will focus their entire team around their starting rotation, one of the best in the majors, surrounded by a group of youngsters aged 29 or younger.

Barry Zito, Matt Cain, Noah Lowry, Tim Lincecum, Kevin Correia

Led by Zito, this starting core looks very promising. Working with the major pitching deal on his back, Zito will look to bounce back this season and prove that last season was a fluke. Cain and Lincecum (Caincecum) are one of the up and coming power pitchers who will dominate the league for years to come. Lowry is a solid contributor for the team, who led the team in wins last season. Giving up too many walks is his only problem, and with trade talks flying around him this winter, he will look forward to proving everyone wrong in a month or so. The 5th starter was the only gap in the rotation, but it seems like Correia will occupy that spot, finishing last season with a 3-1 record, a 2.54 ERA, and a .222 opponents batting average after being put in the rotation for the final 6 weeks of the season.


Remember Zito's Big Three days with Oakland with Tim Hudson and Mark Mulder? (You can even say they had a Big Four if you add in Rich Harden.) Well, the Giants will be looking to match it with their own version of the Big Three (Zitocaincecum), and possibly a Big Four as well with Noah Lowry.

Baseball world, beware...these young boys are going to come out shooting rockets when the season starts, as long as Zito doesn't play ball dressed as Paula Abdul or sleeps during a game.



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