It’s been two weeks since I last wrote about Lincecum and the Cy Young Award, and I’d say he’s in better shape now than he was then.
Last night’s shutout took an eye-opening 138 pitches, something Bochy seems to think isn’t a problem, (although I sure worry), and nailed down his 17th win.
Lincecum’s record is now standing at a stellar 17-3 to Brandon Webb’s 20-8, and overall, our boy has to be the front-runner right now. The fact that a number of voters will simply look at Webb’s 20 wins cannot be ignored, but, come on.
Lincecum’s allowed 20 fewer earned runs, 20 fewer hits, and has 60 more strikeouts than Webb, leads the majors in strikeouts (237) and is second in ERA to only the AL’s phenom, Cliff Lee (2.43 to 2.36). Really, Lincecum’s only real flaw this season has been his walks allowed, (77). He’s held the opposition to a ridiculous .219/.295/.309 .604 OPS, allowing only 10 home runs, 50 RBI, and 232 total bases, all of which lead the majors. He’s far and away the best strikeout pitcher in the game, with 10.27 K/9IP, and has been overpowering all season long.
Again, he’s lost something like 4 wins to the bullpen or the offense, and we should be beyond won-loss records to decide who’s been the best pitcher in each league. It’s his Cy Young to lose right now, Brandon Webb has faltered down the stretch (allowing 6, 6, and 7 earned runs in his three tries at twenty wins before finally getting there last night), and Lincecum just threw his first career shutout.
9 Backtalkers
I think last night sealed the Cy for Timmy. Hopefully the ~1000 pitch jump in pitches thrown (during games anyway) doesn’t come back to haunt him next year or later down the road.
We have to remember John, that in spite of all the logic, facts, and reasoning put forth in your argument, that it will be the same media asscracks voting for the Cy Young that have condemned Barry Bonds for playing ball while arrogant and Black.
It is because of such things as awards and recognition from and by media respectively, that we should stop and consider the idiotic decisions made my these folks. Joe Jackson and Pete Rose are not in the Hall of Fame. Harry Carey and Bowie Kuhn are.
Groucho Marx said it perfectly: I don’t care to belong to a club that accepts people like me as members.
Baseball does reflect other aspects of American Culture as well. As the veracity of msm (mainstream media) has come to be less and less credible, so has the integrity of baseball media as personal agendas cultural ideology have replaced content, insight, and context. The Bob Costas’ Mike Lupica’s, Tom Verducci’s, Jim Romes, Bruce Jenkins’ and the rest of the self-anointed and self-appointed have made cynics out of hundreds of thousands of sports fans, and helped speed the retardation process of millions of others.
In a sentence: Lincecum’s season is the best I have personally witnessed from a Giants pitcher in my entire lifetime. (Sorry Juan, Timmy has the punchouts.) His diminuative size makes his domination even more remarkable.
And. His pitch counts will come back and bite him. Perhaps not as hard as it might somebody else, because of his excellent balance and extraoridinary DNA, but it will. Its just a matter of when. Anybody with a background in Biomechanics, Kinesiology or related fields can tell you this and provide you with documentation and paper after paper that high pitch counts are a bad thing. The disagreement is about the when and where the breakdown will occur. Not if it will occur. My understanding is that Timmy’s folks don’t want a long-term deal with the Giants right now. If that is the case, it wouldn’t surprise me to learn that theyplan on “CC-ing” him right up to his free agency. As in the Brewers riding CC Sabathia as hard as they can since he’s a free agent this year and they are not going to spend the kind of money the market is going to dictate he is worth.
Basically, I’m with John. Lincecum is far and away the best pitcher in the N.L. this year. Not only his stats, but his won loss percentage is incredible. Win totals can be taken out of context. But not in this case. Lincecum is the anti-Zito. The won loss totals for both of these guys are the punctuation marks of their relative worth and value and performance and size of their balls for that matter too. Lincecum 17-3. Zito 9-16, or 9-17 if not for Pablo Sandoval. As far as I am concerned Lincecum’s win total for this collection of maggots, gerbils, and human refuse rescued them from a certain 100 loss season. Since 2003, the presence of, first Bonds, and now Tim Lincecum has allowed the Giants to disguise the fact that they are the worst team in MLB along with the Expos. Pathetic. So, yeah, wins mean something. And I’ll stack up Lincecum’s 17 wins against Webb’s 20 anytime, anyplace. Lincecum’s wins give the Giants credibility. Webb’s inability to stop his team’s bleeding, took away most of the credibility the Dbacks had as a playoff contender. In his case, 20 was just a number.
If Lincecum doesn’t win Cy Young, I’m going to be SO pissed… I mean, I know wins are important, but so are losses (winning percentage is underrated). I don’t know how anyone could look at these lines:
http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/stats/pitching?league=nl
And conclude that anyone else but Lincecum deserves to win. That’s just crazy. Not to mention that he had a string of 5 no decisions with an ERA around 1.3 during that stretch. For a good team, he’d probably end up with 25 wins or so.
On the “I hope he doesn’t get hurt” note, while I’m nervous as well, I kind of like his old school approach and I think positive thinking in that respect can go a long way (if you’re not worried about your arm, I’m willing to bet the odds of it getting hurt drop significantly)
The only way I don’t worry about Tim Lincecum’s long-term health and effectiveness is to assume he really is a freak, a spectacular Bondsian athlete who can operate outside the normal parameters for his sport and do things others cannot. In other words, I have to gamble on the (very) long odds that we have one of the few special players that comes along once in a generation. There. Feel better?
Tim clearly deserves the award, and I do hope he gets it. But I have no expectations of media fairness, insight or rational thinking, so if he doesn’t get it, I won’t be upset. We’ll still have the best pitcher on our team. I agree with +mia, I think the Giants are “C.C.-ing” him because they expect him to depart at the first free agent window (2012?). Will we try to pull off a Johan Santana-type trade with him before that time? If you were Lincecum, would you feel the SFG’s give you the best chance to pitch in a World Series and win a ring?
Can you guys let me know what evidence exists that they are
over-using Lincecum and that he plans to leave when he becomes
a free agent?
It’s very difficult to keep pitch counts low when you
strike out as many batters as he does and most of the media criticism
on how they’ve handled him comes from the opposite viewpoint-that
they don’t allow him to finish games. I’m no fan of MSM, but on this
one I think they have it generally correct.
As for his leaving when he qualifies for free agency, I have neither
seen nor heard anything that supports that view.
Hi Dan:
This from Andrew Baggarly–a guy I don’t always agree with, but a guy who is fair and consistent, and he reports facts as facts, and opinions as opinions.
————————————————————————
Sabean said he was not disappointed to hear that Tim Lincecum’s agent is not keen on discussing a multiyear contract.
“Why would we be?” Sabean said. “The goal is to go year to year. It’s not something I’ve thought about.”
The Giants have signed Matt Cain and Noah Lowry to multiyear deals in recent seasons, providing cost certainty for the club. Team officials had made preliminary contact with agent Rick Thurman about a similar deal for Lincecum.
But during the All-Star break, Thurman said he probably will negotiate one-year contracts through Lincecum’s arbitration years. The right-hander can’t become a free agent until after the 2012 season.”
————————————————————
Speaking for myself, I’m not say the Giants are abusing or misusing Timmy per se. My point is simply that high pitch counts can, do and will accelerate the onset of arm and tissue breakdown. In the playoffs or the heat of a pennant drive, pitch count has to be weighted against the cost of victory of course. With a youngster whose bones haven’t even completely knitted yet, pitching for a horrible team in meaningless games, the question you have to ask yourself is simply this: For whom and for why?
Its akin to racing 2 year old thoroughbreds. An endeavor akin to Russian Roulette, driven solely and exclusively for financial remuneration.
mia,
if you watch timmy’s delivery, his arm is the least of his worries, as he uses it like a slingshot
the worries are more about his back
and if i were his agent, i wouldnt sign a multi-year either
sabean and peter the pink effed this org but good with the zito signing…no way can this team sign timmy for less than what zito got, and of course he will test the waters
i see the chances of keeping lincecum past 2012 to be around 40 percent…which is sad, because of a pitcher of his quality comes once in a lifetime
and yes…he deserves the cy young
but so did schmidt…
With a youngster whose bones haven’t even completely knitted yet
Human arm bones aren’t knitted at 23 years?
Link please.
They went too long with him in that game with an eye towards marketing the team in 09.
The Brewers will ride CC hard because he’s gonna die under someone else’s saddle next year. Timmy’s here thru 2012.