Tim was actually 22 when he made his debut, although he turned 23 just 40 days later.

I too am pretty high on Clayton Kershaw, as stoned as that sounds. He DID pitch very well for a 20-year-old.

The Giants now have their own very young left-hander in Madison Bumgarner, who is dominating Low A ball despite still being only 18 years old for another week and despite having no pro experience before this season.

Oh, and of course they have Lincecum. And Matt Cain. And Jonathan Sanchez. If the Giants are patient, they appear to be building a very impressive starting rotation. And finally they have some hitters on the way (assuming they sign Buster Posey and Conor Gillaspie to add to their present young (if small) group of hitters.

2012. That is the year I think the Giants can be good again. Perhaps REALLY good—especially if they can draft well with what is again likely to be a very high draft choice in 2009.

I know this thread is about Kershaw and Torre, but I am amazed that anyone can assert that LaRussa is good at developing young talent with a straight face. Without searching a database, I can think of Canseco, who was hitting .274/.359/.526 (1st-half stats) when Tony was hired by Oakland (after 83 games in the 1986 season), McGwire, who earned his September callup by hitting .314/.405/.568 in Tacoma in Tony’s first season, and then hit 49 homers as a 23-year-old Rookie in 1987. And Pujols, who – at least according to LaRussa in “Three Nights in August” – McGwire almost had to hit him over the head with a bat to get him to take with the team out of spring training. Frankly, I don’t think Lou (I’m sending down A-Rod to play Felix Fermin) Piniella could have prevented any of those three from emerging.

I don’t mean to belittle LaRussa’s accomplishments (or those of his cohort Dave Duncan), but his accomplishments certainly seem much more stacked in the realm of working miracles with reclamation projects than in nurturing youngsters along. For a guy who has managed 4500+ games, it certainly seems like fewer than normal farm products have developed to me.

As far as Torre and Kershaw, I don’t know how many managers would have tolerated 24 walks in 38.2 IP, but it hardly seems like a terrible move to allow him to work out his control issues under less-bright lights for a while.

With Torre and Pierre, I don’t know if the problem is Youth v. Vets, it’s moreso that “baseball men” seem to value what Pierre does a lot more than bloggers do.

Random thoughts on the rest of the OF: As far as Ethier, I don’t know that I’d play him against LHP much, either (though he did take J.Sanchez deep Friday). I know people complain about Kemp’s PT, and I know the Dodgers make silly pronouncements about him “sharing time”, but the fact is that he’s gotten 322 PA already, which is a pretty good total. I’d probably be trying to get him a lot of AB, too, but resting him against guys like Peavy makes some sense. He’s only hitting .262/.324/.374 against RHP, though he hit them in 2007. Anyway, I am sure Torre’s doing what he thinks will win games (although I’m sure most would disagree that “Pierre starting” helps with winning), and it doesn’t seem like he’s starving Kemp and Ethier for AB’s in the process.