Ryan Rohlinger: Rookie Roosebumps; RiGetLost

Well, no one said these kids could make the transition seamlessly. But although Ryan Rohlinger had some miscues in his ML debut, you'd be hard pressed to pin the abhorrent pitching on the kid, unless you were some kind of psycho.

So, before the 11AM kiddie parade pre-empts your regularly schedule rants and raves in this space, let me take this opportunity to use the Giants second consecutive loss to the 'Stros as Exhibit R that Dave Righetti must go?

Some doomed contrarians may ask, "Why is that? Don't you think that Barry Zito sucks independent of coaching?"

My retort? Some thought the Giants would be an excusable team, in spite of their horrific offense, because of their sublimely talented pitching staff, but instead they have proven consistently inconsistent and maddeningly middling. Three-quarters of the way through the season, the Giants are in the bottom half of the league in ERA and rank fourth (in a bad way) in walks allowed.

And although I can't find a stat that proves it (and I encourage all you sabermetrician nose-miners to back me up), the pitching staff is inexcusably charitable to their counterparts, a point that Kruk and Kuip have repeatedly echoed.

Last night, once again, was an example of how this staff is liable to give games away. The Astros would have won if Larry, Moe, and Curly were in their lineup last night.

"But what about Lincecum?" some of the soon-to-be-dealt-with dissenters may point out. Well, I suggest you review last month's SI cover piece on The Franchise. Or just read this:

"His dad obviously did a very good job with Timmy," says Giants pitching coach Dave Righetti. "I treat Timmy differently from most pitchers: I leave him alone."

But for the other poor saps that are subject to Righetti (think Cain, Sanchez, and all the other young guns in the pipeline), we risk wasting the sky high potential of these talents because Giants brass are too hardheaded to let a crony go.

A point of optimism? If Sabean could fire his curiously close pal Joe Lefebvre, he could conceivably give the axe to Rags.

Comment! Should Dave Righetti go?