Saturday, August 2, 2008

Tim ex Machina


Unlike young Mr. Cain, Tim Lincecum shows no weakness in the area of consistency. This dude is a fookin' machine! (and I mean that in a good way, more on that later...) Another quality start, another game with double digit strikeouts, and, yes, another no decision. There was the second inning, 35 pitches, 2 walks, in which The Enchanter looked a little disheveled. I was having a hard time figuring out the ump's strike zone and apparently so was Tim. He was getting squeezed and many low strikes were ignored. But that lapse was just about Tim's only digression into humanity. I liked how Tim adjusted later on and used the high strike zone to his advantage. Once again (yet another consistent trait!), Tim muscles up in his last inning and gets a couple K's. I'm too lazy to look it up but I bet he has finished with between 110 and 120 pitches in almost every start!! Maybe that is embedded in his programming...

Now for the off topic but somewhat related obvious attempt to stimulate conversation so I don't get zero hecklers like MOC just did (kind of):

Has there every been a player that was "too good" for you to really like?
Some guy that was so seemingly perfect that you can no longer relate to them as a human being? A player whose steady good performance satisfies but no longer thrills?

Check out the cool photo link!

6 comments:

Brother Bob said...

At the risk of offending those who believe Steve Garvey is an incarnation of the anti-christ, I will attempt to describe my feelings about him.
So technically he doesn't qualify as too good for me to like, he was actually too good for me not to hate. It was almost sorta like how EVERYONE hated Barry Bonds. If you have normal Giants fans emotions you HAD TO hate Steve Garvey. And these were the days when the Dodgers were winning the occasional World Series.
In 1976 I became a displaced Giants fan, when I moved to San Diego County. I became a provisional Padres fan for the next 10 years. They had some good players; Dave Winfield, Tony Gwynn, Ozzie Smith. Then one year Steve Garvey became a Padre. He was still a darn good hitter, and he helped put the Pads into the WS in '84. (They were swept by the Sparky Anderson Tigers)
My feelings about Garvey were always mixed at that time, but I realized how I felt about him in my heart of hearts when I had the privilege of seing him get injured, and I was thrilled. See, he had a bodascious consecutive games streak going, approaching a record maybe. Then he broke a thumb sliding into home and went on the DL! Woo Hoo!
This was the highlight of my 10 years as a pseudo-Padres fan.

Brother Bob said...

Proposed RMC Logo

M.C. O'Connor said...

No.

Barry Bonds was the only ballplayer who was other-wordly. The rest were mere mortals. None of them were ever "too good."

Tim is amazing, his consistency is hard to believe in such a young player. I keep waiting for the other shoe to drop. I know, don't think that.

I love the MC bobblehead logo idea. Oh, and stats? Even the Giants web site has stats. ESPN has 'em, too. If you want weird stats, go to Fan Graphs.

Anonymous said...

Barry is obviously the answer to JP's questions, and I still and always will hate Steve Garvey. SIR

Brother Bob said...

Of course stats are an indispensable part of baseball and the discussion thereof. I was just being a dick. And I'm ignorant of the meaning of half of the new type stats.

JC Parsons said...

The player that comes the closest to being so good they are kind of boring is the guy we face today: Greg Maddox. Sure HOFer that will put you to sleep as he beats you over and over. Tony Gwynn might count too. Seems like I saw Tommy Herr bat .900 against us.

Barry's ability to walk fits the bill but he was far too exciting and "moody" to be what I was talking about. Not many Giants made me feel that way...Reuschel was machine like for a while...