With Alex Wood and Ross Stripling both currently on the injured list, the Giants have three traditional starters in their rotation.

Sean Manaea, who was moved to the bullpen earlier in the year due to poor performance, has made numerous appearances for relief. The Giants have resorted to multiple bullpen games and have two games next weekend with a starter listed as a TBA.

Speaking regularly at Tolbert & Copes, Giants president of baseball operations Farhan Zaidi said “we have the resources” to help the team when needed.

“Obviously Webb and Cobb did a great job for us at the head of the rotation,” Zaidi said. “DeSclafani was solid. He’s had a few crooked numbers for us lately, but we love the fact that he’s coming in and throwing strikes. The way we play defensively with his skills, we assume he will continue throwing the ball well. But yeah, with Wood and Stripling in the IL, fourth and fifth were more up in the air. Manaea really acts as a starter. He gave us four or five innings every time he got up there. We started opening for him to take the pressure off a bit. Sometimes guys actually get into the swing of things better and are better able to work their way into a game after an opening game. And that’s one of those things that you can’t fix unless it’s broken.”

Since moving to the bullpen, Manaea has a 2.93 ERA in 15.1 innings in five games. He made three consecutive goalless appearances before conceding four earned runs at Coors Field on Wednesday night.

“Maybe we’ll keep him in that role, maybe we’ll bring him back into the starting XI,” said Zaidi. “Then to your point: Kyle Harrison, Tristan Beck – who’s just on the pitching team and did a good job for us – Sean Hjelle and Keaton Winn also in Sacramento. So we have other options if Alex Wood and Ross Stripling need a little more time to come back.”

The biggest name Zaidi mentions in this series is Harrison. The top left-handed pitcher in baseball currently has a 3.55 ERA in 12 starts at triple-A. Of all the River Cats’ pitchers, he’s the longest pitcher measured by pitch count, but he still hasn’t pitched in the fifth inning.

Zaidi has said in the past that Harrison needs to demonstrate better attacking zone proficiency before being considered. This season, Harrison has rushed 34 batters in 38 innings while struggling with a tighter zone imposed by the automated ball and strike system.

Still a strikeout machine at 15.6K/9, Harrison is working on a new slider that he can place in the zone more often.

“We’d definitely like someone like Kyle Harrison to come up and grab one of those spots and throw more front of the rotation than middle or back,” Zaidi said. “But we just have to see how he starts. There are many reasons to be optimistic, but we still think he needs to work on a few things.”

Aside from the pitching team, the Giants are as healthy as they have been all season. With a full batting order, San Francisco secured a three-game win over the Rockies at Coors Field.

But with clean health, the Giants have the good problem of a full roster. Catcher Joey Bart, who is serving rehab at Sacramento, may not have a clear path to returning to the Giants roster if everyone stays healthy. Neither does Luis Matos, the midfielder destroyed the triple-A pitch.

Matos bats .375 and has 11 multi-hit games in 19 games with the River Cats. When asked about the Giants’ intentions for the Aug. 1 close, Zaidi mentioned Matos — not as a trade chip, but as a piece the Giants may need to clear to make room.

“We’re at a point now where we really want the engine of this team to come from our own house,” concluded Zaidi. “Luis Matos is playing really well in Triple-A. We really don’t have room for him at the moment. If he keeps producing, maybe we’ll try to create one. We have a pretty strong team and a strong squad.”

Listen to the full interview above. You can listen to any KNBR interview on our podcasts page at knbr.com/podcasts or wherever you listen to podcasts.

Catch Tolbert & Copes weekdays from 2pm to 6pm on KNBR 104.5/680 and live stream on KNBR.com.

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An Astros rotation already lacking significant depth and entering the year 2023 has received two major blows in the past few days.

Starting pitcher Jose Urquidy was placed on Monday’s 15-day injured list with a shoulder complaint, and Monday night brought more troubling news. Starting mate Luis Garcia left his start against San Francisco in the first inning with an elbow injury, and Astros manager Dusty Baker noted that Garcia will be out indefinitely after the game with an MRI scheduled for Tuesday.

It’s unclear how long each pitcher will be out of Houston’s rotation. But in the short term, Baker now faces a serious problem.

The two injuries further complicate a difficult dance for Baker. Starting the season with Justin Verlander, now in Queens, and Lance McCullers Jr. on the injured list, he took what is perhaps the team’s greatest strength and placed a legitimate question mark outside of Staff aces Framber Valdez and Cristian Javier. Now where exactly will Baker turn to with a pair of keys out of his arms? Let’s go through some options:

Internal Candidates

This remains the most likely path for Astros right now, with exploration for access via trading likely closer to the July 31st deadline. There are some relatively attractive opportunities within the organization at the moment.

Brandon Bielak is almost guaranteed a rotation spot after a strong showing on Monday, which included six strikeouts in four innings to relieve Garcia. Bielak isn’t the strongest arm, although his experience – with eight career starts under his belt – and performance should give him the upper hand.

Twitter

– PitchingNinja Twitter

Who could take last place behind Bielak? The most likely candidate is right-hander JP France, who was protected by the Astros in the Rule 5 draft this offseason. Although there may be other possibilities at play. Right-hander Ronel Blanco dominated Spring Training competition with just one earned run in 17 innings, and Forrest Whitley has some upside potential following the hype. Given his past struggles at Triple-A Sugar Land, I’d be cautious about calling up Whitley. Although Baker could try to give Whitley a one-start trial in a pinch.

External options?

Astros CEO Dana Brown isn’t afraid to be aggressive considering he’s proposing a slew of potential contract extensions this summer, and perhaps the same logic will apply in the trading market. Where might the Astros look for guns? Let’s take a look at the bottom of the league table. Perhaps the NL East bottom-feeder in Washington — a phrase that was frankly unthinkable in October 2019 — will part ways with a low-cost veteran arm in Trevor Williams or Chad Kuhl, and a similar path could be taken in Oakland, though the A as (theoretical) divisional rival. The most appealing option could be in Kansas City, where Zack Grienke’s less-than-stellar homecoming could see him returning to a contender.

None of the above options are particularly attractive, but as May approaches, it’s hard to imagine anyone other than the league’s worst-performing teams wanting to sell. Instead, Brown will likely need to keep his proverbial prospect powder dry, hoping to get enough production through internal replacements before we really hit the dog days of summer.

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An Astros rotation already lacking significant depth and entering the year 2023 has received two major blows in the past few days.

Starting pitcher Jose Urquidy was placed on Monday’s 15-day injured list with a shoulder complaint, and Monday night brought more troubling news. Starting mate Luis Garcia left his start against San Francisco in the first inning with an elbow injury, and Astros manager Dusty Baker noted that Garcia will be out indefinitely after the game with an MRI scheduled for Tuesday.

It’s unclear how long each pitcher will be out of Houston’s rotation. But in the short term, Baker now faces a serious problem.

The two injuries further complicate a difficult dance for Baker. Starting the season with Justin Verlander, now in Queens, and Lance McCullers Jr. on the injured list, he took what is perhaps the team’s greatest strength and placed a legitimate question mark outside of Staff aces Framber Valdez and Cristian Javier. Now where exactly will Baker turn to with a pair of keys out of his arms? Let’s go through some options:

Internal Candidates

This remains the most likely path for Astros right now, with exploration for access via trading likely closer to the July 31st deadline. There are some relatively attractive opportunities within the organization at the moment.

Brandon Bielak is almost guaranteed a rotation spot after a strong showing on Monday, which included six strikeouts in four innings to relieve Garcia. Bielak isn’t the strongest arm, although his experience – with eight career starts under his belt – and performance should give him the upper hand.

Twitter

– PitchingNinja Twitter

Who could take last place behind Bielak? The most likely candidate is right-hander JP France, who was protected by the Astros in the Rule 5 draft this offseason. Although there may be other possibilities at play. Right-hander Ronel Blanco dominated Spring Training competition with just one earned run in 17 innings, and Forrest Whitley has some upside potential following the hype. Given his past struggles at Triple-A Sugar Land, I’d be cautious about calling up Whitley. Although Baker could try to give Whitley a one-start trial in a pinch.

External options?

Astros CEO Dana Brown isn’t afraid to be aggressive considering he’s proposing a slew of potential contract extensions this summer, and perhaps the same logic will apply in the trading market. Where might the Astros look for guns? Let’s take a look at the bottom of the league table. Perhaps the NL East bottom-feeder in Washington — a phrase that was frankly unthinkable in October 2019 — will part ways with a low-cost veteran arm in Trevor Williams or Chad Kuhl, and a similar path could be taken in Oakland, though the A as (theoretical) divisional rival. The most appealing option could be in Kansas City, where Zack Grienke’s less-than-stellar homecoming could see him returning to a contender.

None of the above options are particularly attractive, but as May approaches, it’s hard to imagine anyone other than the league’s worst-performing teams wanting to sell. Instead, Brown will likely need to keep his proverbial prospect powder dry, hoping to get enough production through internal replacements before we really hit the dog days of summer.

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San Francisco Giants reliever Ross Stripling throws a pitch that Kansas City Royals’ Salvador Perez hits in the eighth inning for a 3-run home run, tying the game at 5 on Saturday, April 8, 2023 at Oracle Park in San Francisco : 5. California (Karl Mondon/Bay Area News Group)

MIAMI — If there was a bright spot in the Giants’ loss Tuesday night, it had to be the seven outs recorded by Ross Stripling. After three tough games early in the season, Stripling made his first clean game in a Giants uniform, and he’s only going to become more important over the next two weeks.

Barring “something unforeseen,” Stripling will take the rotational spot vacated by Alex Wood, who was put on the 15-day injured list after straining his left hamstring with a bunt in the third inning Tuesday night, manager Gabe said Kapler before the series finale on Wednesday against the Marlin.

Though Kapler gave up six homers and posted a 9.00 ERA in his first three appearances, he said he has “a lot of faith” in the 33-year-old right-hander, who along with Sean Manaea is one of two newcomers to the pitching team both signed at two-year free-agent contracts worth $25 million last winter.

“I’m very confident that we’re going to look back on the early-stage struggles that Ross had and it’s going to be just a small blip on the radar screen,” Kapler said. “I think the biggest key to Strip is counting leverage. It’s the first pitch strikes. It is the overall hit percentage. Both have been better in the last few games than at the start of the season.”

Stripling pulled back seven of the nine sluggers he faced and knocked out three while allowing a pair of hits but no runs. His sliders were down and gone, his changeups broke deep and in, and he populated the top of the hitting zone with his heaters. Stripling, known for his spot-on lead, put all his pitches where he wanted them for the first time this season.

“It’s my game,” Stripling said. “Obviously if I’m there I’ll have more success than if I’m not. If I can dial in my arsenal like that, it will do better than it has done so far.”

Stripling also dropped the alternate switch he had experimented with during spring training and his first two appearances this season. While using the field, which has more breaks than his primary changeup, to register strikeouts from Aaron Judge and Josh Donaldson, he missed the strike zone too often and fell behind on counts.

“It was just inconsistent,” Stripling said. “It’s inconsistent in my bullpens, it’s inconsistent in my catch game, and the only thing I’m not is inconsistent. So if it robs me of my only strength, which is throwing strikes, I can’t have it.”

The final straw was the home run he allowed Salvador Perez, who came up with a version of the switch that Stripling felt was well executed.

“Salvy hit the homer,” Stripling said, “and I was like, alright, I’m fine.”

So his arsenal ranges from six to five pitches. Or in other words, just the kitchen sink – not the plumbing as well.

While Stripling has plenty of experience between bullpen and rotation, which has essentially been his role at Toronto for the past three seasons, he signed with San Francisco in part because he was promised consistent starts. After a brief stint at the bullpen, he’s happy to return to the rotation and is confident he’ll stay there.

“That’s why you signed me and Sean,” Stripling said. “One of us can jump right in and keep the rotation going without feeling like we’re taking a step back in any way. … It made sense to lean on me early on in that role just because I’m comfortable with it and have done it before. But I always had the feeling that my arsenal was better suited as a starter.”

Beck Debuts: Between Stripling, Manaea, Jakob Junis and Sean Hjelle, the Giants were built to withstand the wear and tear of their initial pitching staff. This morning around 6:30 am further help for the red eye arrived. Stanford product Tristan Beck was recalled to take Wood’s spot on the list to complement her pitching depth.

Beck was first called up and received numerous hugs Wednesday morning at the Giants clubhouse and Tuesday night at the Triple-A Sacramento dugout. Scratched from his scheduled start and observing the situation in Miami, Beck had an idea of ​​what River Cats manager Dave Brundage would tell him in the first inning of their game Tuesday night.

“It was kind of surreal,” said Beck, 26. “There was definitely that mid-sentence moment when I realized no one wanted to mess with me. He kinda got all the words out and I’m sitting there and it just hit me for a second. It was pretty cool man. It was pretty cool.”

Acquired from Atlanta in the Mark Melancon trade, Beck followed up a strong spring with a 3.38 ERA in his first three starts in Sacramento, where he is one of only a handful of pitchers with a sub-4.00 ERA and more strikeouts than walks was. (Other 40-man options, Cole Waites and RJ Dabovich, have combined to allow 16 runs in 8.0 innings with 17 walks to just six strikeouts.)

Considering Beck flew cross-country and the Giants will make the return trip after Wednesday’s game, they considered holding a train until they got back to San Francisco. But Kapler has relied on his own feelings as a player: “Players will always be excited, even if traveling in a major league uniform is a little uncomfortable. Somehow the adrenaline carries you through.”

And, Beck added, a cup of coffee.

Despite the late announcement and the overland trip, Beck has been able to bring his family to Miami if he makes his debut. His older sister Megan also boarded a red-eyed cross-country flight Tuesday night, while it was an easier trip for his younger brother Brendan, a pitching prospect in the Yankees system who is based in Tampa.

Long DFA: Left-hander Sam Long, who was last called up for action after a precipitous fall as a consistent contributor in 2021 and 2022 on Wednesday. Despite posting a 4.55 ERA in 40 games over the past two seasons, Long has struggled to miss racquets in spring training and continued his first four games at Triple-A.

Long, 27, was a 40-man casualty as the Giants made way for outfielder Cal Stevenson, whom they acquired from Oakland for cash.

While the Bay Area neighbors have had a few small trades in recent years, they still haven’t had a player-for-player since 1990, when Ernest Riles was traded from the Giants to the A’s in exchange for Darren Lewis and Pedro Peña. Player swap complete.

Stevenson, a Fremont native, batted .348/.483/.435 in seven games with A’s Triple-A partner. The 26-year-old Stevenson has batted .294 .409 .420 over more than four minor league seasons since he was drafted by Toronto in the 10th round in 2018. He was selected for Triple-A Sacramento.

The post SF Giants place Alex Wooden on IL; how will they fill his rotation spot? appeared first on DAILY SAN FRANCISCO BAY NEWS.

The Warriors head coach Steve Kerr entered the training camp last month believing it would take him at least 20 games to solidify his rotation.

But after eight games this season, Kerr is already aiming for a rotation that he likes. Here are the great takeaways from Golden State’s lineups:

James Wiseman will soon be playing 30 minutes a night: The Warriors are keen to put Wiseman into a heavy workload, which is understandable given that he has only played three college games, hasn’t had a summer league, and missed the entire preseason due to a positive coronavirus test. But little more than half a dozen games in his NBA career, he’s clearly the Golden State franchise center.

Kerr realizes that the best way to learn is through experience and plans to play Wiseman for about 30 minutes a night in the near future. This will allow Wiseman, who currently takes an average of 21.3 minutes, to iron out inconsistencies in the blink of an eye and stabilize a center rotation that is without Marquese Chriss (broken leg) for the next several months.

Andrew Wiggins is the head of the second unit: Kerr has identified Wiggins, not Kelly Oubre Jr., as the first choice for the second unit. As Stephen Curry kicks off the second and fourth quarters, Wiggins is the undisputed leader of a group that includes Brad Wanamaker, Damion Lee, Eric Paschall and Kent Bazemore.

This has been a fruitful decision in the last few weeks as Wiggins is not only a proven goalscorer but also an experienced playmaker. By calling up a series of tall screens for Wiggins, Kerr let him showcase his skills as a presenter. On numerous occasions, Wiggins has curled up from a tall screen, drifting the color, pulling the defenses toward him, and stepping out to open archery.

Bazemore has proven to be an important part of wing rotation: Two weeks into his second term as Warriors, Bazemore has seen some ups and downs. After completing just 16 minutes in the first four games, he cracked the rotation in Friday’s loss to Portland, scoring eight points and two rebounds in 17 minutes.

Now, after three more solid appearances, Bazemore seems firmly entrenched as the seventh or eighth man of the Warriors. While not conspicuous, he is an accomplished wing that limits errors, holds multiple positions, and knocks down open 3-pointers. This kind of reliability is very much appreciated by a team with so many new players.

Paschall is undeclared as a small ball center: Sometimes injuries can be positive because they allow a player to show off a part of their game that they may not even know was there. After Chriss suffered a high right ankle sprain with a broken right fibula in training last month, Kerr started giving Paschall, who is 6 feet 6, minutes in the middle out of necessity.

Kerr found the new position ideally suited Paschall’s abilities. He has the power to guard tall men at the post, and his ability to shoot at goal and handle the ball make him a disproportionate standard for traditional attack centers. Kerr appears content with a central rotation of Wiseman, Kevon Looney and Paschall so that Golden State can’t take advantage of its $ 9.3 million disabled player exemption.

Jordan Poole is behind Mychal Mulder on the depth map: Much of the off-season conversation that came from Warriors’ camp focused on the behind-the-scenes steps of Poole, who was a successful shooter and playmaker towards the end of his rookie season. What few could have guessed, however, was that the appearance of Mulder would make it difficult for Poole to find a meaningful game time.

Mulder’s shooting ability – in eight games he has a 50% clip out of 3-point range at 2.5 attempts per game – provided the warriors with much-needed ground clearance. Despite showing promise on the floor, Poole is still not a reliable marksman or defender for granting a spot in the regular rotation.

Juan Toscano-Anderson will play meaningful minutes when he is available: Within a week Toscano-Anderson switched from cutting to power forward for the injured Draymond Green. Kerr was so impressed by Toscano-Anderson’s energy and feeling for the game that he has gone all out in the last few days to name Toscano-Anderson a true NBA player.

Although Toscano-Anderson doesn’t offer much offensively, he makes informed decisions, finds Curry off-screen, and plays tough on defense. That might be enough for Toscano-Anderson, whose two-way contract limits him to 50 out of 72 possible games, to keep his rotation slot when it’s available, and an average of 12 minutes a night.

Connor Letourneau covers The Warriors for The San Francisco Chronicle. Email: cletourneau@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @Con_Chron

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When the Clippers finally begin to improve (fingers crossed) head coach Tyronn Lue has a good problem: the Clippers rotation for the remainder of the regular season and the postseason.

In the last month alone, LA had games where they had four starters. In these situations, players will see 10-12 significant minutes at the end of the bench, and for a team the depth the Clippers have, this is not too much of an issue. In fact, it can give Lue some insight into who might be able to make a difference in the future. For example, Luke Kennard and Terance Mann have made significant strides over the past month. But last night as Patrick Beverley made his long-awaited return from a recurring right knee injury, both Mann and Kennard played under 10 minutes, and the majority of the minutes they played came in garbage time after the Clippers had theirs Had cemented victory.

When asked about the new rotation, Lue made it clear that it is not set in stone.

If anyone else got the short end of the racket, it would be reasonable to assume that it would have been Reggie Jackson, considering he was out of rotation earlier in the season. He also plays the same position as Rondo and Beverley, but Lue decided to push him up and play him alongside Rondo as a shooter. His three-point shooting makes him a good off-ball threat, but he’s not as dangerous as Kennard on a percentage basis (41.8% vs 48.5%, although both are respected by the defense).

Mann gives the Clippers an off-the-dribble dynamic that they don’t really get off the bank now that Lou Williams lives in Atlanta. His athleticism and speed also make him a transition threat for a squad in LA who is otherwise extremely half-place oriented.

Perhaps, as with many coaches in the NBA, Lue trusts experience with youth. With the exception of Mann, Kennard and Ivica Zubac, everyone in the Clippers rotation has at least 10 years of experience.

As Lue made clear, this rotation could be completely different by tomorrow. Lue has always talked a lot about Kennard and Mann and understands the time they invested throughout the season.

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