Skip to main content

Lincecum's Struggles Continue

Tim Lincecum turned in his 3rd straight sub-par outing on Wednesday, a game in which the Giants had a chance to sweep a series, something they haven't done in about a month. Lincecum's lack of control continues to be his downfall. His stuff is amazing, but he's consistently getting himself behind in counts and putting himself in situations where he has to give in to hitters. Wednesday's start was his worst start of the season, even worse than his debut outing vs. the Mets, and it was the second time in a row Lincecum failed to complete five innings. His recent struggles have raised the question to some as to whether it's time to start thinking about Lincecum in the closing role? My feelings on that... No Way. You can't decide to alter a guy with this much potential because he's had a few bad outings early in his rookie season. We all know young pitchers go through ups and downs in early on, and even guys praised as highly as Lincecum are not always going to come up and dominate right off the bat. Most other 22 year old pitchers are either still in college or in the low minors. This guy hasn't even been out of college ball a full year yet, he's going to go through some struggles. That being said, I did expect a little more out of Timmy right off the bat. Giants scouts and personal all felt he was further along than Matt Cain was when Cain was promoted, but Cain's first 7 starts of his career looked a lot better than Lincecum's. I would expect to see Lincecum keep improving, and there is no way I would move him to the pen. If anything, send him back to Fresno if he has another couple of bad starts, but not to the bullpen.

Jeremy Accardo got to show Giants fans, and Brian Sabean especially, what they are missing out on. Accardo saved the series finale win for the Blue Jays and did it in impressive fashion. He struck out Barry Bonds to end the game and in Barry's at bat Accardo featured nothing but filthy, 96-97 mph fastballs away at the knees, reminding me a lot of Francisco Rodriguez. Accardo is a legit closer, the 2nd one the Giants have let get away in the last 4 years, 4 years in which they have been searching for one themselves. I hope that by watching Accardo dominate the ninth inning, it encourages Sabean to keep all his young arms this summer. In fact maybe it will encourage Sabean to go out and try to take some steal some young arms, or bats, from some other team for once.

Comments

Anonymous said…
Lincecum's a rookie, people need to give him a break. The kid's a top flight pitcher and will be fine.
8:25 PM
Anonymous said…
Yeah, he's shown flashes...he's a rookie and you're gonna see growing pains, but I certainly envision him as a future top of the rotation guy...
8:33 PM
Anonymous said…
The kid is young and has great stuff. Just give him time.
11:04 PM
Anonymous said…
Maybe the Giants can rehire Dusty Baker as a pitching consultant or something. He really did wonders for the early development of Mark Prior and Kerry Wood.
1:33 AM
Trevor Cole said…
Ahh, you can't blame Bake for Prior and Wood! It's not like he built their elbows out of glass.
1:38 AM
Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

WORLD SERIES: Giants Move Up 2-0 on Texas

PreGame After taking game one in a surprising slug-fest , the Giants look to go up 2-0 on the Rangers in the World Series on Thursday night. The Giants are sending out Matt Cain, a guy who I'm sure every Giants' fan is pretty confident in. He'll be a opposed by C.J. Wilson, who's in his first year as a full-time starter, but has been brilliant in the role. He did struggle his last time out though, so hopefully the Giants can get to him early and get into his head a bit. I'm going to do something I've never done here on this unique occasion, and sort of do an in-game post. updating this post every time I feel I have something to add. So go Giants, and be sure to check back throughout the game, and after, to vent or whatever! As long as Matt Cain keeps rolling, and the Giants keep coming up with those clutch 2-out hits, we should be OK. Texas has that high-powered offense that can score in a hurry, as we saw last night, so the Giants cannot let down and have to t...
87 comments
Read more

Giants Still Need Infield Help

On Saturday, the Giants finalized a 2 year contract extension with Freddy Sanchez, who they acquired in July for Tim Alderson. The new deal for Sanchez will pay him 12 million over the next 2 seasons instead of 8.5 million for just 2010, which was his option for 2010. I've voiced my disappointment in Sanchez a few times here since the Giants dealt for him over the summer. He wasn't able to stay on the field full time to help this club with their run at the NL Wild Card, and even when he was in there, he didn't seem to make much of an impact in th e lineup. Now, I wasn't necessarily hoping the Giants would cut ties with Sanchez (they probably would have had to pay 4 million or so to buy him out), just didn't think he was worth upwards of 10 million dollars, and would have liked to see the Giants pursue someone like Orlando Hudson with that money. The Giants already have an infielder who's being paid about 3-4 times what his play over the last 2 seasons would indi...
200 comments
Read more

Giants Notes: Lincecum Signs, Ross to Boston

Well, even though I touched on it a little bit in our last post, I haven't really had a chance to get my thoughts out on the new Lincecum deal since he and the Giants agreed earlier in the week. Also, on the other end of things, the Giants missed out on shoring up their outfield by letting Cody Ross sign in Boston for only $3 million in 2012. First off, obviously, wanted to talk a bit about Lincecum. I've already said here that I didn't expect him to sign a long-term deal that takes him through free agency, but it doesn't mean he wants to leave San Francisco like everyone is suspecting. I mean, if I were Lincecum, I'd probably do the same thing, even if I planned on eventually signing with the Giants long-term. Why take a chance at mitigating your value to just sign a deal? Granted, a 5 year, $100 million deal isn't anything to sneeze at, in this market, if he were a free agent, Lincecum could probably easily command a 8 year, $200 million deal. If he could get ...
119 comments
Read more