There are different ways of standing out.
Hopefully, he can stop standing out by being the worst pitcher on the staff. The last start was encouraging.
Comment
Posts Tagged ‘Tim Lincecum’
17 results.
By the way, as of today, I’m okay just letting Barry Zito go. I don’t think I could even put him in the bullpen without thinking that he’ll be displacing a worthier pitcher.
On Tuesday, Tim Lincecum asked for $21.5 million from the San Francisco Giants in arbitration. The Giants asked for a far more reasonable $17 million. That’s still more than any other non-free agent player in arbitration. Heck, it’s more than Pablo Sandoval will make in three years.
Boy, remember when a player’s arbitration years were supposed to be the cheap years?
But that’s not what this is about.
On Monday, before the arbitration numbers came up, Hank Schulman tweeted this:
Lincecum issue is complex. He wants 2 years for FA flexibility or 8 years for lifetime security. Makes more sense for Gs to go 4-5 yrs if…
It should be noted that Hank quickly said that he doesn’t think there’s actually been an eight-year proposal by Tim’s agent. But still.
Now, it’s easy to think “Lock him up!” And Cain, and Wilson. And MadBum, in a few years. That’s a pitching core. That’s a dominating (and somehow still underrated) pitching staff. That’s the heart of a team, the draw for free agent hitters who want to know they’ll be on a World Series contender. Pay ‘em. For as long as they want.
But then…two words.
Barry. Zito.
If you don’t know what I mean, you haven’t been a fan of baseball for very long. Zito’s 7-year+option contract is the albatross of albatrosses. 7 year, $126 million, with an eighth year that will pay him a $7 million buyout to not play in 2014.
And as Zito approaches make the most money per year in said contract, the realization starts to sink in: Tim Lincecum could make more money in arbitration than Zito in his albatross of a contract.
But, you say, Lincecum is not Zito.
After all, it’s not like Lincecum has had a serious drop in velocity even before he’s become a free agent. Oh, except for a couple of times in 2010. Or that, after having an average 94 MPH fastball in 2008, he was at 92 in 2011, and even lower in 2010. (Zito, as a comparison, dropped from about 88 in 2002 to 85.7 in 2010.*)
But, you say, Lincecum won Cy Young awards ridiculously early in his career. It’s not like Zito won two Cy Young awards in his first two full seasons in the majors. No, Zito only did it in his second full season.
Okay, what I can’t argue myself out of is that Lincecum at 80% is a better pitcher than Zito at 80%. And when Zito got his ridiculous contract, he was already sliding badly. Lincecum’s slide, if you can call it that, is still giving him sub-3.00 ERAs and votes for Cy Young awards.
But at some point, Lincecum will slide. Maybe it will be injury. Maybe it will be ego. Maybe it will be too many speeding tickets while high (which, frankly, makes me worry more about non-pitching injuries). But a slide is likely to happen before the end of a deal that lasts until 2020.
And how much will Lincecum be costing at that point? Seriously, if he’s making Zito money now, where will he be at the end of a back-loaded contract? And how will that affect other signings, be it Cain, Wilson, Posey, or stealing away some Dodger star prospect via free agency.
Eight years for a pitcher is insane. For any pitcher. Even a once-in-a-lifetime talent like Lincecum.
Eight years will be overpaying for past accomplishments. Part of it will be for over Cy Young awards like Barry Zito. Part will be for a World Series win, like with Aubrey Huff.
…
And I’d do it. If we’re going to overpay for someone, it might as well be one of our own. And it might as well be for one of the bonafide superstars of the team.
There are days where I know I’ll eventually regret eating a certain meal. But that meal just tastes so damn good going down. I know what’ll happen, I know I’ll feel terrible later. But I go in with eyes wide open. And it’s still worth it.
Get ‘er Done, Sabes. Negotiate it down as best as you can. Play hardball like Lincecum’s 2008 velocity. But Get ‘er Done.
* – I’m not comparing to 2011 because Zito had all sorts of injury issues that obvious had an impact in his velocity to a career low.
This comic came around from this tweet via @SFGiants:
Signed, Sealed, and De-twitt-ered
Holy heck!!! That is way too many signatures! My hand hurts after I write just half a page these days.
When I was a kid, my father ran into both Joe Montana and Jim Plunkett (look it up, kids) on the same day at SFO. He got their signatures on the back of a single business card. I was a little young, and it kind of confused me, but he was really excited about it, so I got excited.
But I got turned off of signatures when, one day, I was getting a ride with my best friend and his mom when she started going nuts because she saw Montana driving the other way. And no kidding, she did a u-turn in the middle of the street, followed him to his house, and asked for signatures on his driveway. Joe, being the class act that he is, signed away on the slightly-soda-stained piece of binder paper we found on the car floor, but I looked at him, and I just felt bad for him. Since that day, I’ve never been one to ask for signatures.
People go nuts for them, and to a point, I get why. But I respect the players for continuing to sign them, even when you see middle-aged men with binders of cards, and bags of memorabilia, asking players (even low-level prospects) to sign several items at once and then literally checking off a list like they were walking down the detergent aisle at Target. I’m a hardcore fan, but even I have a point where these things are pretty outrageous and just a bit disgusting.
That said, I still bought an autographed World Series ball by Buster Posey for my Dad, for our World Series display. I may not have gotten it signed myself, but it still brings me back to the excitement he gave me over that business card. That means more to me anything.
Happy Opening Day, folks. Stay dry out there.
Why is it always Barry Zito? Sorry Zeets, but if you keep this up a couple more months, you’ll stop being the butt of the good-natured jokes. I promise.
Seriously, though, I’m very worried about Lincecum right now. Krukow was talking all rainbows and happy puppies the last two nights, but it’s not happy until Lincecum starts pitching well. Good luck.
We might be a little late to this story, but here we are.
This may be the first time I’ve ever seen the Bay Area media and fans being referred to as…well, whatever these comments were. Ever.
I’ve seen them get referred as idiots (especially when Skip Bayless was a Mercury News guy). I’ve seen them referred to gutless (mostly by fans who want the beat writers to ask ‘tough’ questions). But being too hard on anyone? Maybe with the Hank Schulman’s comments about Dodger fans earlier this year…but they deserved it.
I get that Chris is Tim’s dad. So yes, he’s going to be protective. I get that part. There are times that parents can be that way. But these comments just got ridiculous.
Let’s be honest: There has been something wrong with Lincecum. I don’t know what. I’m pretty sure Tim’s not entirely sure. But any sort of media is going to ask questions when a two-time Cy Young winner is leading the league in earned runs after nearly three months of the season. If they don’t, they aren’t good media. That’s just a fact of life.
But the Bay Area media has done little more than explore all possible options, even the very, VERY unlikely ones. And the Giants themselves have shot down those really, really bad options, without hesitation. Lincecum is not getting sent to the minors. He’s not skipping a start.
And the fans have not been horrible to him. They have not booed him en masse, even on those starts when he really blew it. There have been some fans that asked questions, and a few of the very mad ones have demanded those things. A few.
But Philadelphia fans have booed Santa Claus. They just got voted the most obnoxious fans in baseball. (We know this poll is accurate, because it also showed that A.J. Pierzynski is the most hated player in baseball.) So…oh, wait, the same poll put Giants fans second? Wow…um, that’s kind of cool.
But seriously, Giants fans are not as bad as fans in the northeast. And Giants fans are passionate, but at least they show up. Any player who’s played for the Florida Marlins can attest how sad it is to play in front of no fans who care than a lot who do.
Tim Lincecum is one of our own. He’s a Giant, through and through. Yes, he’s getting paid a ton. And he’ll get paid a lot more if he overcomes his problems. And I hope it’ll be with the Giants.
I hope that Chris Lincecum’s opinions are his own, and not Tim’s. Tim will never get a better group of fans to play for than us. He’ll never have fans who fill the seats every night, like we do. He’ll never find a city that’ll embrace all his quirks like San Francisco does. He may find a team that’ll pay more, but he’ll never have as good a chance to be part of a legendary rotation as he will with the Giants over the rest of the decade, now that Matt Cain and Madison Bumgarner are locked up.
(And keep an eye on a couple of the kids coming up. Chris Stratton and Kyle Crick are a few years away, but they have some stuff.)
Hard times will always be hard to go through. Things will get said that will be regretted, by those who say them, and those they were directed at. Give it time, and with positive work, and wounds will heal. But only if both sides work on it.
We’ll see.
I feel a little guilty, posting this not long after our response to the Chris Lincecum rant…but it’s true.
At this point, Tim has to know that the Giants have to be at least thinking of their options if he can’t get right. He is literally the least effective regular starting pitcher in the National League. The stats back it up. The Giants would be insane not to.
This is not to say that Tim’s being disrespected. The Giants have given him a lot of time to work out his issues, and other than a glance of goodness here or there, he hasn’t shown improvement. In fact, his last two starts have been among his worse. Can’t use the heat as an excuse, because it didn’t really make him much worse than everywhere else, and it sure wasn’t affecting anyone else.
Someone said something about insanity being trying the same thing over and over and expecting different results. It’s close to time to try something different. Bullpen? I’d prefer that to the minors, and I know Tim would. Phantom Injury? I’m sure Zito can get Tim the forms.
Tim’s got the Astros at home. If you aren’t going to show improvement against them, then you never will.
Brad Penny is there. He was amazing in 2009 with the Giants. It’s not the same thing expecting different results.
Also, 3-to-1 odds that Penny is Squatch from the ESPYs. Just saying.
Now, let me say this: Sabean’s offseason trades have been amazing. The Melky Cabrera deal so far has been good enough that it’s right up there with the Jeff Kent and Jason Schmidt deals, and the only reason it’s not better yet is more that Melky hasn’t had the chance to be here that long. The Pagan deal wasn’t as one-sided, but Pagan’s clearly been more effective than Torres and Ramirez. Hell, even Chris Stewart for George Kontos looks like a steal.
But Sabean trying to trade for a closer scares me. It scares me in the cost, it scares me in the player we’ll get, and it scares me in how it might affect team chemistry.
The Royals made Jonathan Broxton available, after all. If you’re not scared, you aren’t paying attention.
Don’t look at me, this is what you signed up for. This is what it is to be a baseball fan. Your team wins it all…and a few days later, they’re back where the other 29 are: in the offseason trying to chase themselves for another ring.
Enjoy the weekend…it’s going to be a long offseason.