Lincecum is Near, Best Time of Year...

According to this breaking news from the Chron, Russ Ortiz has been placed on the 15-day disabled list with neuritis in his pitching elbow and Kevin Frandsen has been called up to take his roster spot. However, they have not announced who will start in Ortiz's place in the rotation Sunday, which also happens to be ESPN's nationally televised game.

Who Else Giants Gonna Call?

But who else but Lincecum should get the call? Hennessey is settling into the setup role. Sanchez hasn't really been prepared to start. That leaves the minors and there's only one choice there: Lincecum.

And what a grand cosmic coincidence that Ortiz's spot in the rotation happened to be the ESPN game and now Lincecum's first start will be televised to the nation. Giants fans across the nation - heck world - who has access to ESPN will be able to see him pitch. Can't get a bigger stage than that for your first major league game. I assume his dad will be coming down for the game, his dad must be thrilled with this development plus it's on the weekend, so he won't have to miss work. And Tim will be facing the Phil's great young starter too, Cole Hamels, so it'll be the battle of the great young pitchers too, as a sub-text to the game.

It is hard not to be giddy about how Lincecum will do as a Giant in the majors, given all that he has done in the minors, but even Hughes did poorly in his first start for the Yankees and he was rated higher than Lincecum coming into this season. However, Hughes did no-hit his next game (no pressure Tim!).

Ortiz Probably Lost His Starting Spot

Assuming he does welll enough, it looks like Lincecum might Wally Pipp Ortiz out of the starting rotation and into the bullpen, which would probably push Sanchez back to start in AAA and become the 1st choice starter out of the minors.

And this makes a lot of sense. If Ortiz is having neuritis in his pitching elbow so soon in the season (warning, not a doctor or medical expert), it just seems logical that he should not really pitch a lot this season or it would flare up again. Putting him in the bullpen would reduce the stress on his pitching elbow and add, hopefully, a quality arm to the bullpen, not that Sanchez wasn't.

Sanchez, Not Chulk

Speaking of Sanchez, I had forgotten that Sanchez is another choice to drop out of the bullpen when I was thinking that Chulk would be the logical person to drop based on performance in my other post - he's still the logical one based on poor performance, but Sanchez is the logical one to go down since starting is where the Giants see his future as, and there is no one close to Lincecum or Sanchez in the farm system in terms of being near major league ready to start, in terms of talent and skill.

Sabean had seen the error of not having good replacements ready to step up and has populated his roster with players who can play multiple positions and could start if necessary. So he added players like Aurilia, Fransen, and Klesko to the roster/bench this season. If Lincecum is in the Giants rotation, then there's Ortiz in the bullpen as one possible replacement - however the neuritis! - and there's no clear go-to guy in the minors right now unless they send Sanchez back down to start in the minors and be ready.

Go Giants!!!