Tim Lincecum: A God Among Men
If God were a pitcher, he would want half the talent Tim Lincecum has. Call it hyperbole but…well you’d be right it’s hyperbole, but the point here is that Tim Lincecum is very good. So good in fact, that in just his second season in the Majors he’s mowing hitters down like a John Deere tractor. His Majesty’s line from tonight: 7 IP, 5 H, 0 ER, 3 BB, 11 K’s, 116 pitches. Anyone else glad we didn’t ship him out for Alex Rios in December?
The final two innings of the game were the usual hijinks of the Giants’ bullpen as Tyler Walker and Brian “Adventureman” Wilson made it interesting as I yelled obscenities and sweet nothings directed at my TV set in hopes of seeing Lincecum get a well-deserved 9th win of the season. Everything was working for The Franchise tonight, with his impossible 80 mph curveball working with his 96 mph two-seamer and 85 mph changeup, all weaving together to make the Athletic’s hitters look foolish for a better part of the night.
Towards the end of the game, Mike Krukow mentioned that the Giants have the chance to have three pitchers with over 100 K’s by the halfway point in the season, with Lincecum well over the century mark, while Jonathan Sanchez and Matt Cain aren’t far behind. Baring this in mind, also know that first rounders from ‘07 Madison Bumgarner and Tim Alderson are mowing down Minor League hitters. A Lincecum/Sanchez/Cain/Bumgarner/Alderson (in Hypothetical Giantsland, Barry Zito has been traded to the Yankees) combo in a few years could present the best 5-headed monster of a rotation in recent memory. 5 homegrown products, all young, and all of ace-caliber.
Now of course in Hypothetical Rainbows Puppies and Unicorns Giantsland, everything goes to plan, no one gets injured, and everyone lives up to their massive potential. Someone could blow out an arm along the way or simply not live up to the hype, but all said, there’s a massive pot of gold waiting for the Giants on the other side. Buster Posey (assuming he signs), Connor Gallaspie, Angel Villalona, Bumgarner/Alderson, Rafael Rodriguez, Nick Noonan, et al are on the way, and the rules of probability state that with this many prospects, at least some of them will pan out.
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4 Responses to “Tim Lincecum: A God Among Men”
June 29th, 2008 at 8:21 am
God, I love hypothetical Giantsland. Can we please deal Zito to the Yankees? I’d take a few toilet stalls to be named later from the old Yankee Stadium in exchange.
That said, I’m ecstatic we didn’t deal Timmy to Toronto, even if it’d been for a lot more than Alex Rios. Not only is he good, he’s also incredibly fun to watch.
And Lincecum-Sanchez-Cain-Bumgarner-Alderson a few years down the road is making me salivate, as unlikely as it is to actually happen because of injury/guys not panning out.
June 29th, 2008 at 1:29 pm
Sigh -
long suffering mariner’s fan here. Followed Linecum up here @ UW and was hoping and praying the M’s drafted him. But no, he was too small. Brandon Morrow isn’t chopped liver, but it hurts me to think about King Felix and The Franchise going 1-2.
Now that I think about it, if we had drafted Linecum we probably wouldn’t have traded away Adam Jones to get Bedard…who we are now going to trade for 50 cents on the dollar.
Moral of the story? Don’t be a Mariner’s fan unless you enjoy ripping your hair out.
Still, it is nice to see the local boy making good
June 29th, 2008 at 8:43 pm
I doubt that rotation makes it. Beyond the possible prospect busts I think you really have to be worried about Lincecum. Is anyone else worried about his delivery? I mean he is spectacular and unreal and I have loved watching his highlights but he’s not a big dude and that is a violent delivery. I think he’s going to turn into Roy Oswalt 2.0. The similarities and strong: Oswalt is 6′ and 170 while Timmy is 5′ 11″ and 160. They both debuted at 23 and had/have electric and dominating stuff. Each had a ridiculously aggressive delivery. That’s not a bad thing (clearly every team would love Oswalt between 2002 - 2005). My problem is that Oswalt is just turning 30 and looks past his prime. Does anyone else see this happening?
June 30th, 2008 at 9:48 am
Alex–
While a lot of people may be worried about Lincecum’s size and delivery, his delivery has actually been designed to be as fundamentally sound as they come. Will Carroll of Baseball Prospectus has this to say about it:
“I LOVE his delivery. The more I see it, the more I like it, and I wonder every day if that’s teachable. Different? I wouldn’t try to change his delivery, that’s for sure. I might let him throw MORE than most at his level.”
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