Raising the bar

Timothy LeRoy Lincecum has set a new standard for San Francisco Giants pitching excellence.  He deserved the Cy Young Award.  He was the best.  Congratulations, Tim!  And joy to all.  After all, we are all Giants.

And a wink-is-as-good-as-a-nod to the Good Doctor, who proved prescient:

Most likely to get the "glory":
By this I mean the hearts and souls of the fans, the acclaim, the awards; that kind of stuff. I think Matt's working man persona hurts him here. Also not having a nickname (an issue that this blog has tried to address) is a big handicap. I get the sense that Tim might be more likely to get the flashy stats (strikeouts, low BA) and we all know how the media loves that. Tim seems like a better photo op and that's probably the difference maker here.
Advantage: Tim

Raising Matt Cain is all about raising the bar.  Matt Cain is going to step it up next season.  He's not going to let Tim get all the glory and hardware.  He's going to kick the little pipsqueak's ass!!

Well, OK.  Sorry.  I'm getting pumped up for my main man!!  And I'm losing it.  Speaking of losing it, it's my birthday tomorrow.  I will be older than Tim + Matt.  And I'm going to spend money on Matt Cain.  Such a deal!

Baseball-Reference is always seeking page sponsorships.  And, in a sudden development, Matt's B-R page needed a sponsor!  Fabulous news.  (I use B-R like a drug.)  I pulled the trusty old PayPal account out of the garage, dusted it off, gave it new spark plug and spent the bucks.  Eighty-four Yankee dollars.  That was easy--my lovely bride and I got married on 8-4-84.  Eighty-four is my number!

So from now until a year from now, RAISING MATT CAIN will be the OFFICIAL SPONSOR of MATT CAIN'S BASEBALL-REFERENCE PAGE.

I'll stop yelling now.

<---Click on Matt's bobblehead box cover to go to his page.

Why Tim is about to win....

DOMINATION.

In the next few minutes, Tim Lincecum will be awarded thr National League Cy Young Award. We all know why... he dominated the league FOR THE ENTIRE SEASON. It was very likely the best pitched season I have ever witnessed.

Let me be the first to congratulate you ( even before you win! ) and wish you all the best for the next season. Surprise us all again!

p.s. If he did not win...never mind and every writer should go to hell...all of you!

Our neighbors have been busy

Looks like the A's will acquire Matt Holliday. (FanGraphs take on MH here.)

This guy is a stud. Any team would love to have a young, accomplished athlete in his prime like Holliday. The A's had some trading chips and went after one of the best players around.

How does this impact the Giants? (1) We'll see less of Holliday. That might add some wins. (2) Our Eastbay neighbors steal some headlines--AGAIN!

(1) + (2) doesn't add up to much, really. Tim Lincecum winning the CYA will steal the headline thunder right back. And beating the Rox will have more to do with OUR offense than theirs.

I don't expect the Giants to make any "blockbuster" moves to get a player of Holliday's caliber. We could sure use a guy like him, but we'll have to grow one from our crop of youngsters. Unlike Beane, Sabes doesn't have the overstock to parley with.

Chrome

I switched to Chrome.  It's the Google browser.  It's a beta.  I notice it does not work with the RotoWorld widget.  What say readers--fix the RotoWorld widget or dump it?

Fur-chrissakes

Do you want Rafael Furcal?

His career line .286/.352/.412 makes him very Winn-ish (.288/.347/.425) at a premium glove position. (They are rated 96 and 102 respectively using OPS+.) Furcal is 31, still in his prime, but coming off two injury-shortened seasons.

If he could be had for a 2-year deal, would you want him? Martin at OGC and Andrew Baggarly kick the tires on Furcal if you need some background.

My take? No, fur-chrissakes. Sure, he is an upgrade, but he's a short-term short-timer. I want to build a team from within and not with aging free agent "stars" unless they can solve an IMMEDIATE problem (like third base). A fellow like Mark Texeira is a true "impact" free agent. And we could sure use a thumper and a genuine major-league first baseman. I'm not sure I want to see the Giants throw millions his way, though, despite his impressive credentials (q.v. Giants Cove for a contrarian take on Mr. T). Pablo Sandoval sure tugged at our heartstrings last season and I'd hate to deny him a chance to show us his stuff. We picked up Josh Phelps as a bit of insurance for that move, and I'm feeling OK about it. As I've said many times, I'm willing to lose and if we know the team is moving in the right direction with youth, the draft, the farm system, etc.

So me buckos, what's your take on the FA market?

Faster than a speeding bullet

This Internet Age thing, that is.

It is 0630 here in the State of Jefferson, I'm having my morning cup o'Peets and reading the news, surfing the 'net, and I come across John Shea:

Giants not interested in trading Cain

Yes, I still read the Comical, but only because I think I'll miss something. Idiotic notion, and hopelessly outdated in our super-cyber world. So I jump to RMC to post my happiness and share it with my blogfellows, and I see my little Roto-World widget already has the story. Normally I would pop in on a few other blogs and see if anyone has picked up the thread, but it is six-freakin'-thirty in the a-freakin'-m and I ain't getting up any earlier than I do now so I'm just going to post and be done with it.

So there.

I'm happy.

Are you?

Don't trade Matt Cain.

Chris Haft has a piece on everyone's favorite off-season topic.

Trading Cain is nuts. We have two good pitchers to build a staff around. Well, one other-worldly great pitcher and one good pitcher. Make no mistake. Matt Cain is a good pitcher. When you have a young, studly 1-2 punch you are a fool to break it up. Especially when your next-best guy is Barry Zito. Sure, Jonathan Sanchez could step up next year. That would be great. Right now, our rotation is God, demi-god, mortal, mortal, mortal. Fuck with that at your own peril.



(a wink is as good as a nod to Chris at BCB)