San Francisco Giants Future Hall of Famer Has Turned It Around After Rough Start

The San Francisco Giants have been among the best teams in baseball in the early going of the season.

With a record of 17-10 and one of the more productive offenses in the league, the turnaround in the Bay Area over the first month of the new era for the franchise has been a welcome sight.

While the hitting has been strong and put the Giants in a position to be an early factor in the best division in baseball, the starting pitching has been anything but that.

San Francisco went into the offseason expected to be a player for the top names on the market in terms of free agents, though it didn't work out that way. Despite being on the cusp of signing Corbin Burnes, he wound up elsewhere and the Giants had to pivot.

The big splash wound up being future Hall of Famer Justin Verlander after a decorated tenure with the Houston Astros came to an end.

Though just the name recognition of Verlander was exciting, the fact that he would turn 42 years old before the season and was coming off the worst year of his Hall of Fame career led to a mixed bag of opinions on the signing.

In the early portion of the year, it looked like the naysayers were right. Through four starts, the legend had pitched to a 6.75 ERA and had allowed 15 runs already.

The two starts since however have been vintage Verlander.

Against the Los Angeles Angels last week, the right-hander tossed six innings of two hit balls with two walks and six strikeouts.

Then on Friday night in the first game of a series against the Texas Rangers, it was six more solid innings of allowing five hits and two runs with just one walk.

Unfortunately the bats could not get it going and Verlander would wind up earning a loss for his efforts, however the way he is pitching right now is much more notable than the result of one game.

Over the last two stats, the ERA has been lowered to 4.99 and WHIP to 1.40, neither numbers which are great but moving in the right direction nonetheless.

For a pitching staff which ranks outside the top-20 in ERA among starters, having Verlander emerge and give some sort of quality season is going to be absolutely critical.

San Francisco does not need Verlander to be the Cy Young version of himself nor will they get it, however they do need him to be a capable No. 2 behind Logan Webb.

After what was a brutal start to the year, he certainly appears capable of doing just that.

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