Talk about a set-up for failure...

Tomorrow, a rookie named Brad Hennessey is pitching his major league debut for the Giants against the Chicago Cubs. It's nerve-wracking enough to be pitching one's first game in the big leagues, but the Giants are asking the kid to do it on a day when opposing pitcher Greg Maddux will be angling for his 300th career victory, with all the attendant media attention that will engender.

What were the Giants brass thinking? Why not put one of their more experienced starters into that pressure cooker — say, the recently-banished-to-the-bullpen Dustin Hermanson — and move the kid to Sunday, thereby earning him a fighting chance of winning that first start?

Then again, this is the same Giants brass whose big move before the trading deadline was trading F-Rod for the ever-popular Ricky Ledee.

It's going to be a short October for the G-Men.