Congratulations to Tim Lincecum, the new San Francisco Giants single season Strikeout King. With nine more K's last night, Tim boosted his total to 252 which passed Jason Schmidt's 2004 record. All true Giants fans are thrilled by this milestone, but even more exciting is the kid's future. What on earth can he do next year to top this!!??? Please, o' wise management, make sure we all get to enjoy this journey to stardom for his ENTIRE CAREER.
Oh yeah, he pretty much sucked last night. In a self described "garbage start," Tim gave up more runs than ever (6, should be four), went fewer innings (4.1, tied with when he got hit on the leg), and more walks (6, which he did once before). This all follows a dynamic stretch drive (for an award, not the division) which featured a couple complete games and a couple 8+ innings games. Is this one bad game enough to blow Cy Young award chances? Combined with Webb's 22nd victory, yes, I'm afraid it is. I do not think that Tim Lincecum will win the award. Being 5, and maybe, 6 wins behind Webb is too big a jump for a bunch of East Coast writers. But that is OK...Tim can't control those fools and I'm pretty sure he is not worrying about that. Right now, I hope all Tim is thinking is
It is good to be King!
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4 comments:
Indeed.
I wonder, if Johan Santana throws another gem (2.14 ERA in his last ten starts) and the NYM's make the playoffs, will he get CY votes? He ought to--his numbers are as impressive as Webb's (other than win totals--fewer BBs, more K's, for example). Not that I care that much, but he's been awesome in "crunch time" for a contending team. (Stick a fork in the Snakes, they are way over-done.)
I'm glad Tim got the K record. But I pretty much feel like Big D at Giants Win about the whole thing.
Jon Miller made a good point last night - that in the days when Juan Marichal pitched, wins were a much better measure of a pitcher's prowess than they are now. Marichal and his contemporaries would pitch 25 complete games a year or more, now, 5 puts you among the league leaders. Pitchers do not do that anymore.
Add Brandon Webb's bullpen losses and Tim Lincecum's bullpen losses to their win totals and each of them has 23 W's. Of course, some of the Cy Young voters may not have paid much attention since Juan Marichal was pitching, but you would think that they should. However, I think you are right. Other depressing news from last night - the doggers won and the snakes lost. The snakes suck, no doubt about it, but it would be sad to see the doggers foul our fair city with the stench of a division winner when they arrive. Here is something I didn't think I would say/type: Go Phils!
Even in Marichal's day there were variations due to luck and the team behind them. Take a look at his career stats (Marichal at B-R) and you'll see that he had FEWER wins in his best seasons (in terms of hits, runs allowed, ERA compared to the league, shutouts). He was more dominant in '65 and '69 than in '68, but had more losses in both those seasons.
Wins and losses are team stats. Assigning them to pitchers is only marginally useful as a metric.
Quoth Crash Davis:
"Strikeouts are boring - besides that, they're fascist. Throw some more groundballs. Its more democratic."
(Although it's likely Crash is occasionally full of shit.)
So maybe King Tim can make the trains run on time.
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