Tim Lincecum: This is Not Good…..
How bad has Lincecum been this season? Last night’s *bad* start was so *good* that he was able to shave two full points off his ERA ratcheting it down to a tidy 10.54. As we all know from watching Zito pitch for the last several years (excluding this year) it’s pretty hard to win a game when you give up a 4 spot in the first inning. Yes, Pagan screwed up making the inning more stressful but Pence, Victorino and Nix all found him quite hittable and all of that is on Timmy. We had our chances against Doc and could have scored more with a little better luck but you just can’t give up 4 runs in the first to anyone, much less Halladay…….
Timmy righted his sinking ship, only giving up one run the rest of his start. But, as we’ve also seen with Zito, after a team puts up an early crooked number they often ease into cruise control and don’t score much the rest of the way. Lincecum’s fastball was 91 or so for the first 3 or 4 innings. He seemed to throw a lot more off speed pitches and the hitters, in turn, are expecting them. That’s not a good ratio to get into. His FB dipped mostly to 89 in the 5th and 6th. Again, he threw so many sliders it was hard to tell if he still had a live fastball as the game progressed. It didn’t look or feel live to me……
I don’t think Lincecum is hurt the way I thought Wilson was hurt. His problems might be mechanical but it seems to me to be more mental. His swagger is gone. The confident grin, also gone. When the camera panned to him in the dugout before he ran to the mound to pitch the first he had a look on his face that looked like a loss. And he had the same look and expression the entire game. It was like a passive, pensive look that appeared to have a feeling of acceptance to it—like someone who was accepting defeat. Some pitchers throw “hit me” fastballs. Last night, Timmy wore a look that said “beat me.”
Back in the day, when Mark Grace would find himself in a slump, he would end it by finding himself a *slump buster*. You can look that definition up yourself if you want, I don’t want to seem like I’m condoning the practice. I don’t know what Timmy is going to do to come out of this. Maybe he needs his dad to come down and kick him in the ass. But one thing I know about competition is this: It’s easy to be a winner. When you win, everything falls into place—confidence, attitude, self esteem, etc….When you lose, you find out what kind of competitor you are. When you lose, you face adversity, and that’s when you have to do a lot of work to preserve things like *confidence*, attitude*, *self esteem*. Right now, to me, it looks like Timmy has lost it mentally. And if he can’t overcome it, this is a problem that will be a far greater influence on the ultimate outcome of the 2012 season than the loss of our quirky closer………
A Place To Talk About Giants Baseball 
You responded to my post, Mike. Stop being a disingenuous baiter.
Then again you are the master baiter.
See y’all tomorrow.
Nice game by Bummie to get through the trouble all night.
Chuck has sought out battles from the very beginning of the SFGate blogs. One of his tricks is accusing others of what he is guilty of. In this case-baiting. That Sandoval is treated differently by the media and especially most blogs is clear to anyone who pays attention. I never said that the posters here were racist on this and I’m not tolerating that accusation anymore.
TF, how were we supposed to read this and not think that your accusation wasn’t about Chuck or the whole blog?”
unca_chuck said, on April 17, 2012 at 9:38 pm
It sure ain’t Crawfish’s night.
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twinfan1 said, on April 17, 2012 at 9:45 pm
My, my. How genteel we are about one of the terrible nights for a SS in recent memory- 8 runners LOB and what could be 4 errors…
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unca_chuck said, on April 17, 2012 at 9:55 pm
If we were down 4-2, it’d be a different story.
twinfan1 said, on April 17, 2012 at 10:05 pm
No, if he were a roundish Venezuelan it would be different..
unca_chuck said, on April 17, 2012 at 10:08 pm
See, Mike? That’s called baiting.
twinfan1 said, on April 17, 2012 at 10:10 pm
No, it’s called “truth”. If Panda had these last two nights in the field, it would be the only topic on the postgames and the blogs. I don’t “bait”, son. I may speak unpleasant truths… that’s not baiting.
Actually, my question is confusing. I don’t think I should have used a double negative there. (grin)
Bochy can play musical lineups and matchups for another month, fine. But, essentially he’s platooning Belt with Schierholz, which I think disserves both. When Belt is at first, Huff goes to LF, which reduces the outfield D there as well as moving Melky to RF, where his effectiveness is reduced. I think they eventually should trade Huff somewhere for something, take back half or more of his salary on a conditional deal, whatever it takes. Belt goes to 1B, the outfield becomes more predictable for the players so people aren’t playing out of position so often. Reducing the first baseman logjam frees up Pill for a bit of time, and gets Belt the ABs he needs. Huff is just treading water in this current situation, and he’s gone next season, so I see little point in him staying around for long if he keeps on hitting around .250 with not much OBP. That also can free up Posey for more 1B duty, and get Hector more ABs than just carrying Zito’s water. Meanwhile, Blanco has disappeared. He was the spring phenom, then Bochy has him buried as soon as the season starts…
Great Post Snarkk…And so damm true! Any other manager has Belt playing everyday getting his AB’s and experience,but Boch will not do that.Freakin SEVENTEEN AB’S IS JUST BS.He will go with Crawford though everyday,cause he has no options,theirs nobody else who can play it.Freakin Huff is done,but they won’t just Rohand him.Just ticks me off,how easily a few moves right now would make this LU alot better.
I’ve trid to be kind and I’m still not singling out invidivuals but the virtual definition of
“disingenuous” is the absurd claim that Panda’s errors don’t receive more condemnation than Crawford’s. We have another cult afoot. The kid is not fielding his position well as a whole and he’s not hitting, yet he’s sacrosanct like Buster and Lincecum. Sandoval gets FAR more crap here and everywhere than a no hit, occasional field kid. Flavor
said I didn’t like jokes about the latinos, actually there haven’t been jokes about them. They’re just held to a different standard.
And I understood your question perfectly. I’m sorry you asked because I didn’t want to include this blog- I don’t believe the unbalanced treatment is intentional but it’s there. It’s everywhere and denying it is what’s disingenuous.
And you should be able to understand why your belief brings a reaction from some of us. We’re not thrilled about being called “subconscious racists.’
Maybe self examination is in order then…
Let me be clear- I don’t care what you think- you chose to start an argument based on your fabrication that I hate Posey and Lincecum. I also understand that many of you don’t like me anymore, if you ever did- if Loo wants to have his stupid poll, I’d be fine with leaving. Unlike before, I just won’t be able to do it physically soon, anyway. In the meantime, until I must or am asked by Flavor to leave, I intend to state my opinions as always. I’m sorry you and I got so far afield, you had always been a favorite of mine.Oh well…