The San Francisco Giants need pitching and they apparently don't have any young guys in the farm system they trust enough to make a start in the majors. Remember 2011? The New York Mets were trying to get rid of Carlos Beltran and the Giants jumped all over that trade and wound up moving their top prospect and one of baseball's best young arms, Zack Wheeler. How good do the Giants feel about that now?
The defending champs will see their 2009 1st round pick (6th overall), make his MLB debut about a week from now as the Mets are expected to call up Wheeler from AAA as New York hosts their division rival, Atlanta Braves. There has been a lot of hype surrounding Wheeler ever since he was with the Giants. When the Mets picked him up, it was a huge move for the team.
Now, the Mets have one of the top guns in baseball as Matt Harvey has impressed beyond expectations. He's 5-0 with a 2.10 ERA in 13 starts in 2013. What the Giants did was trade for Beltran, who practically did nothing. The St. Louis Cardinals won the 2011 Wild Card and the Giants were on the outside looking in. They were the defending 2010 World Series champions, but they couldn't make another run into the playoffs the following year.
Now, the Giants are in desperate need for pitching and the Mets have set themselves up pretty well in the future. We don't know what Wheeler is going to bring, but his Minor League numbers are looking prosperous. He's a strikeout guy, something all defenses love to hear. The lowest K/9 Wheeler has posted in the minors is 8.5. Right now, Las Vegas, Wheeler is 4-1 with 4.14 ERA. Though the ERA isn't impressing, Wheeler has pitched 63 innings and recorded 66 strikeouts for a 9.4 K/9 ratio.
The Giants, on the other hand, have only one pitcher whose ERA is below 4.00 and that's Madison Bumgarner. The other guys, the true veterans, Barry Zito, Matt Cain and Tim Lincecum are all having rough seasons combining for a 12-12 record and 4.63 ERA through 37 starts in 2013.
There's only so much the Giants' offense can do. They are currently trailing the Arizona D'Backs by just two games in the division. It's not bad, but as things heat up and the All-Star Game nears, it will be time for the Giants to analyze their state as they try to repeat as World Series winners in 2013. They are looking to make moves, but currently, had they analyzed the Beltran situation a little closer, maybe the Giants wouldn't have to worry about dipping into their pool of young talent to make a deal had they kept Wheeler in their system.
