I veto the "Johnny Cueto is hurt" resolution
Come back with a 2/3 majority or don't come back at all!
I like Johnny Cueto, is the thing.
I was optimistic about Cueto coming into the season, not because I thought he’d see a post-Tommy John bounce in velocity, or because I was encouraged by some trends from 2020, or because he looked good in the spring. I was optimistic because I like him and want him to do well.
He shimmies on the mound. He started the 2016 All-Star Game. He made his horse Popeye (named for the restaurant!) an Internet star, before Popeye tragically died and he posted a picture of Popeye’s body on Instagram. Instead of pictures of himself riding Popeye, now he posts pictures of himself on couches. He is exuberant and professional, able to outsmart hitters and also get them with pure stuff. If he was an okay pitcher, he’d still be a guy you want on your team; as an excellent pitcher, like he was in 2016, he’s a godsend.
I think he shouldn’t be hurt. I will send a letter to the president of baseball about this, and also to the president of health. We should all be able to come together and agree that it is not acceptable for Johnny Cueto to be hurt, and together we can come up with a solution to this problem (Not to spoil it, but my solution is that he’s not hurt anymore. Willing to workshop it, though).
Cueto left yesterday’s game in the 6th inning, having given up no runs and just three hits, with four strikeouts and zero walks. It was a very strong outing, which has become the expectation for him this year. His first start was fine but nothing special, so it’s taken just two excellent starts for him to go from “Will Johnny Cueto be good this year?” to “How good will Johnny Cueto be this year?”
I think a lot of Giants fans, and people around baseball (the Cardinals-adjacent are excepted, naturally) want to see Johnny Cueto looking like a star again. He’s a unique pitcher in today’s game, which makes him the sort of player you want to root for. After all, what’s more fun, another guy who Mike Krukow says “can cut and sink the fastball, understands movement, has a slider that sometimes hangs up in the zone,” or this?
I mean, that’s not much of a choice, is it?
The Giants, as a team, have lost a lot of character over the last half-decade or so. Hunter Pence and his big personality are gone, and so are Sergio Romo and Jeremy Affeldt, replaced by a bullpen full of guys who presumably have lots of fun when they talk to each other, off camera, in ways that fans will not see. Pablo Sandoval could be the star of any room he was in, and Tim Lincecum, even in his bad years, always drew massive amounts of attention and interest. Brandons Belt and Crawford are still around, of course, as is Buster Posey, but all the other links to the championship years are gone, replaced with players who go about their business and are generally pretty competent at it.
This is not a criticism of Farhan Zaidi or the front office, who have possibly turned the Giants around without tanking, but it’s just a fact: the team is less fun without those guys.
Which is what makes Johnny Cueto so important. He gives you something to watch that nobody else does. I am not insulting Kevin Gausman when I say that Cueto is much more memorable than him, even though Gausman has also been having a good year (through three starts, which is not enough starts to judge how the year will go, and I can’t stress that enough), and had a much better 2020.
It is worrying that Cueto asked to be taken out of the game with a strained lat, but hopefully he and the medical staff got to it soon enough to prevent further damage. Cueto’s a veteran, and he knows his body, and it’s a genuinely good thing that he’s not afraid of how it’ll look to others that he’s asking out of a game where he’s dominating. If coming out of a game at 68 pitches (after throwing 118 in his previous start) saves his arm for the long haul, then good. Do that. Everyone wins.
Therefore, with all these points being considered, I think Johnny Cueto shouldn’t be hurt. Baseball is better when he’s healthy and pitching well, the Giants are better when he’s healthy and pitching well, and I’m happier when he’s healthy and pitching well. Taking a look at all these factors, the choice is clear: No to Johnny Cueto being injured. I don’t like it and it shouldn’t happen.