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Giants announce Madison Bumgarner to start for Tuesday’s spring opener

By CM Towle

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The San Francisco Giants announced on Monday that left-hander Madison Bumgarner will start Tuesday’s opener and right-hander Tim Lincecum will cleanup.

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The Giants said late last week that Tim Lincecum was likely to piggyback on one of the first four starters for MLB Spring Training. Well, it appears they’re interested to see Lincecum and his reportedly new clean mechanics sooner rather than later. According to a story by the San Francisco Chronicle, Lincecum will appear as clean up in the spring opener after World Series hero Bumgarner goes an inning or two.

The opener is against the A’s at Mesa.

The lineup for the first game is as follows:

1. Aoki CF

2. Panik 2B

3. McGehee 3B

4. Maxwell LF

5. Belt 1B

6. Susac C

7. Duvall DH

8. Perez RF

9. Arias SS

Angel Pagan has been out with what is being described as a neck issue and has been limited to indoor activities. As such, Aoki is batting leadoff, so the Giants will get to test out their “Pagan insurance” right off the bat. Terrible pun intended.

Pagan has been tentatively scheduled to play on Wednesday at Scottsdale Stadium, also against the A’s. Also scheduled to play are Brandon Crawford, Hunter Pence and Buster Posey. According to Giants Extra, Jake Peavy should be on the mound for the spring home opener.

Manager Bruce Bochy has been reportedly taking a look at Pagan at other positions besides leadoff, likely due to Aoki’s capabilities there, but also likely in the case that Pagan has to sit out for another prolonged period. Something that has thrown the Giants batting lineup into disarray in recent years.

As for Lincecum, reports coming out of the camp are very encouraging. He faced Brandon Belt and new third baseman Casey McGahee in separate sessions and both had good things to say. Belt said Lincecum’s fastball got on him faster than he expected and his curve ball had bite. The latter is significant, considering the Phoenix area is notorious for taking the break out of breaking balls. McGahee had similar things to say, even saying that Lincecum looked like the guy he used to know.

All encouraging signs for anyone hoping Lincecum can regain his Cy Young form.

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