Friday BP: Figuring out the rotation

The San Francisco Giants enter the 2020 season with a whole lot of options for their starting rotation. If you watched how Farhan Zaidi handled the Los Angeles Dodgers, you’re probably not surprised that the team could field two different rotations (even if neither rotation would be good).

In the coming weeks, as we gear up for yet another season, we’ll discuss this a bit further, and dive into stats and organizational strategy and whatnot.

But for now, I want to know what you all think.

It would appear that four of the five rotation spots are nearly set: Johnny Cueto, Jeff Samardzija, Kevin Gausman, and Drew Smyly.

But there will be a lot more starts to go around. In addition to needing to fill the fifth spot, there will be injuries, there will be assignments, there will be skipped starts, there may be DFA’s, and, if I had to guess, there will be at least one trade, and probably more.

That leaves the door open for Tyler Beede, Logan Webb, Tyler Anderson, Dereck Rodriguez, Conner Menez, Andrew Suarez, that guy I’m forgetting, and oh, that other guy I’m forgetting.

So, here are my questions:

Who will be the fifth starter for opening week?
Who should be the fifth starter for opening week?
Who (other than the four penciled-in starters) will pitch the most innings?
Who (other than the four penciled-in starters) will have the best season?