If you're a San Francisco Giants fan like me, then you're not really expecting much this year. I mean, I'd take 70 wins for God's sake. But despite how horrible this team is, I thought we'd at least get a decent showing from the pitching staff. Zito, Lincecum, Cain, and Lowry as the top 4. That's a damn good group. Sure they'll get no run support, but they'll at least pitch well.

Or so I thought. Yesterday Noah Lowry pulled something I've never heard of before down at spring training.

He walked nine of the 12 Texas Rangers batters he faced and allowed four first-inning runs in the Giants' 8-6, 10-inning exhibition loss. I'm actually amazed he only gave up four runs - good pitching kid. Twelve of his 50 pitches were strikes, by the way. When you combine that with his other spring training appearance (where he sucked, but not quite as hard) that brings his two-game totals to 58 balls, 27 strikes and 12 walks in 23 batters faced over 2 1/3 innings. Good lord.

And if you think Lowry's the problem on the staff, guess again. Barry Zito, the $126 million man, gave up eight runs and seven hits against the A's on Saturday, which puts his current spring training ERA at a nice round 108.00. That's also about how many more millions we still owe him by the way.

I guess I should at least be happy that Lincecum and Cain haven't given up any runs so far.

But what might officially make this season pure comedy gold is that the Giants are considering going with an 11-man pitching staff, one fewer than normal. That means the bulk of work will fall on those 4 starters, with sporadic 5th starters occasionally making appearances.

Yikes.

By the way, did I say I'd be impressed with 70 wins? Let's go with 60.