Tuesday Links

- Andy Baggarly had a chance to talk to Fred Stanley, one of the Giants' roving minor league instructors, who updated him about some notable names in the farm system.

Of note: Stanley envisions that Nick Noonan could skip straight to Double-A. Noonan surpassed expectations this year at Low-A by posting a .283 average. If all goes well, Noonan conceivably could be up in the big leagues by 2010.

Tim Alderson and Madison Bumgarner are impressing at San Jose and Augusta, respectively. Baggarly added a comment that he's heard from several people that if Alderson could add a couple more ticks on his fastball, he would have Kevin Brown stuff. Speed is nice, but it's just gravy with exceptional command. If he can locate his pitches, which he can, then he doesn't need to throw 95-mph every time out.

As for Bumgarner, a quotation from BP's Kevin Goldstein will suffice:

He's not only the best prospect in the Giants system, but rates as one of the best pitching prospects in all of baseball.

- Chris at Bay City Ball applies WAR (Wins Above Replacement) to the Giants' starting rotation. Lincecum, Cain, and Sanchez make up one of the best young, talented, and cheap trios in the majors; the sum of their actual salaries only totals to $1.5 million, while $WAR values their performances at a total of $48.93.

Overall, the net value of the starting rotation is $33.67 million -- pretty good considering the value sinkhole that is Barry Zito.

- Not exactly related to Giants baseball, but an interesting article by Mark Purdy about Olympic softball, nonetheless. As you might know, this is the last year in which baseball and softball will be played in the Olympics. The IOC voted to scratch the two off the program for the 2012 London Olympics because the cost for building baseball/softball specific venues became too expensive.

Something to think about: if the games make a return in 2016, starting pitcher Jennie Finch will be 35, and Monica Abbott will be 31. Even more frightening: the last game to be eliminated from the Olympics was polo, in 1936. Have you seen guys with mallets riding horses since? Neither have I.

- Tim Lincecum versus Roy Oswalt tonight. I, for one, am excited.