Lincecum Looking For A Win

After two rough outings to start the season, Tim Lincecum has posted a 2.76 ERA in his last seven starts. Tonight the Giants ace will be looking to add to his win total after three straight no decisions.

He will face rookie Kris Medlen, who will be starting in only his second game at the big league level. The young right-hander only lasted three innings and gave up five earned runs in his control plagued debut, but believes he has fixed the mechanical problems that led to his wildness.

While this looks like a clear mismatch, Medlen showed a lot of potential during his four year stay in the minor leagues. He owns a 2.46 ERA in 227 innings pitched, and a 1.08 WHIP. He struck out 10.4 batters per nine innings, while only allowing two walks per game.

Medlen will come at the Giants with a fastball, a curveball, and a change up. He does not have dominating stuff so he will have to locate his pitches if he hopes to upset the reigning National League Cy Young. However, don't be fooled by yesterday's eight run outburst, San Francisco's lineup stinks and given Medlen's strong minor league track record it is very possible that he will keep Atlanta in the game.

San Jose Giants Top Performers

Since the Giants have an off day on Thursday, I decided to take a look at how some of their top young prospects are doing with the class-A San Jose Giants. I came up with a list of four top performers.

Keep in mind that we are dealing with a small sample size here, so these statistics alone are not a true representation of the player's talent. However, all logic and reason aside the San Jose fans have seen some truly remarkable performances thus far and it bodes well for the future of the big league club. Onward with the list!

1. C Buster Posey - Not much of a surprise here. Last years fifth overall pick has looked impressive in 50 at bats with the San Jose Giants. So far he has displayed above average power, hitting three home runs and four doubles while driving in twelve runs and leading the team with 20 hits. He has shown a good command of the strike zone, as evidenced by his ten walks. Strike outs have not been a problem, Buster only has nine after 13 games. Posey's slash line is .4oo/.500/.660. That's an OPS of 1.160, very impressive indeed! The young Giant was named the CAL Player of the Week for 4/20/09.

2. 1B Angel Villalona - The 18 year old Villalona finished the season strong last year. He batted .308 while hitting five home runs and driving in twenty during the month of August for the Salem-Keizer Volcanoes. He has turned that good finish into a good start for the San Jose Giants. His rate statistics are solid, .375/.404/.583. In 48 at bats he has hit three home runs and driven in ten runs. He could improve on his walk rate, Angel has just three walks compared to seven strikeouts.

3. SS Brandon Crawford - Although less heralded than Buster Posey and Angel Villalona, Brandon Crawford has gotten off to a hot start with the San Jose Giants. He is leading the team with four home runs and 35 total bases (Buster Posey is second in total bases with 33). Crawford's slash line looks like this, .373/.467/.686. After 51 at bats he is second on the team with a mind blowing 1.153 OPS! One area of relative weakness has been Brandon's strikeouts. So far he has struck out 17 times and has only drawn six walks.

4. SP Madison Bumgarner - The Giant's prized lefty has certainly lived up to the hype in San Jose. In three starts he has been downright filthy. Opposing lineups have combined for just 11 hits against Bumgarner, who is off to a 3-0 start. He has allowed only one earned run in 16 innings pitched, that's a 0.56 ERA! Bumgarner's K/BB ratio is even better. After 16 innings Madison has 14 strikeouts and has only given up two bases on balls, for an unheard of K/BB ratio of 7/1. All of this leads one to believe that San Francisco's young prodigy has not had many runners on base, and his microscopic 0.81 WHIP confirms it.

Other players off to good starts with San Jose include Nick Noonan and Tim Alderson.

On May 9th I will be going to see the San Jose Giants play the Modesto Nuts in Modesto. Hopefully most of the top prospects will still be with the San Jose club and I will be able to give some first hand impressions.