The Giants have promoted their position-playing prospects aggressively this season as they try to determine if they have something in Ryan Rohlinger, Emmanuel Burriss, Pablo Sandoval and the like. Not so their starting pitchers.
Tim Alderson, a 2007 first-round draft pick, has spent all of 2008 at Class A San Jose, where he is 11-4 with a 2.99 ERA and a strikeout-to-walk ratio of better than 3-to-1. Fellow San Jose starters Jesse English, Kevin Pucetas, Clayton Tanner and Ben Snyder have looked good, too.
At lower-level Class A Augusta, Ga., Madison Bumgarner, the Giants' top pick in 2007, is posting cartoon numbers (13-3, 1.52 ERA, 20 walks, 145 strikeouts), yet he, like the San Jose pitchers, has not been promoted. Like Alderson, Bumgarner is 19.
General manager Brian Sabean said Tuesday that he has less need to rush them through the system because of the starters the Giants already have. In 2009, barring a trade, the team will go into spring training with Matt Cain, Tim Lincecum, Barry Zito, Kevin Correia and a presumably healthy Noah Lowry and Jonathan Sanchez.
If somebody struggles or gets hurt and the Giants suddenly have a need for starters, they can elevate one of the youngsters quickly next year.
"Every season everybody doesn't have to pitch at every level to get to the big leagues," Sabean said. "I think it's more important for them to have a good season where they are and build off that for next year. Whatever that brings next year, we'll see."
Right now, Sabean sees little need to acquire a starter, saying, "I think we're going to be covered from within. Guys are going to matriculate as the normal progression allows."
Olympic husband: Marlins backup catcher Matt Treanor will have a lot on his mind tonight. As his team faces the Giants, his wife, Misty May-Treanor, will be playing for a second Olympic beach-volleyball goal medal with her partner, Kerri Walsh. The match against a Chinese pair is supposed to begin around 8 p.m. PDT, but Treanor said he will not sit inside the clubhouse to follow the match's progress on the Internet.
"I don't think it would be right for my teammates, (me) coming in and checking the score," Treanor told Florida writers. "As much as I want to see it, I have a responsibility to my team and guys on the field."
And once the gold-medal match is over, Treanor said, "I'm going to cry regardless of what happens."
Briefly: An MRI exam on Sanchez's left shoulder revealed a mild rotator-cuff strain and tightness in the capsule. Neither is deemed serious, and the team said it hopes Sanchez can begin playing catch by week's end.
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