Randy Johnson's Impact on the Giants Staff

Over the weekend Randy Johnson signed a 1 year deal with the San Francisco Giants. It now seems that Brian Seaban has put together a pretty good rotation anchored by home grown talent.

#1 Starter - Tim Lincecum: 18-5 2.62 ERA 10.5 K/9 3.2 K/BB
#2 Starter - Matt Cain: 8-14 3.76 ERA 7.7 K/9 3.8 K/BB
#3 Starter - Randy Johnson: 11-10 3.91 ERA 8.5 K/9 3.9 K/BB
#4 Starter - Jonathan Sanchez: 9-12 5.01 ERA 8.9 K/9 2.1 K/BB
#5 Starter - Noah Lowry - DNP(Injured)

Tim Lincecum is the best pitcher in the NL, maybe in all of baseball. Despite being just 24, Lincecum has already won a Cy Young award and should be expected to have another successful year.

Over the past two years Matt Cain has gotten virtually no run support at all, bringing down his win totals. Make no mistake about it, Matt Cain is a stud. He should get better run support this year which hopefully will lead to more wins.

Though he is 45 years old, Randy Johnson is still an above average NL pitcher who will strike out almost a batter per inning and keep a low ERA. No longer an ace, but still very good.

Sanchez should improve on his rookie season. like Johnson he strikes out almost a batter per inning, however he struggles with his control. If he can keep his walks down, Jonathan Sanchez should be at least average this year.

Noah Lowry was injured all of last year, he is expected to be ready by opening day. His skills have started to decline, but with a healthy elbow he could have a resurgence. He and Johnson will provide excellent stopgaps until the Giants two stud pitching prospects, Tim Alderson and Madison Bumgarner, are ready.

As you can see Randy Johnson helps sure up the Giants rotation, hopefully pushing Barry Zito to middle relief (or better yet the minor leagues). At this point in his career, Johnson is no longer capable of being an ace, however he can be still be an above average innings eater for San Francisco this year and provide veteran leadership for an otherwise young rotation. Add in Jeremy Affeldt to help sure up the bullpen and you have one of the better pitching staffs in the National League. Now if they only had offense...