The Pittsburgh Pirates dominated the Giants in every phase of the game pounding a rail thin Tim Lincecum and a series of relievers for double digit runs while AJ Burnett continued his resurgent season with a dominant pitching performance. The Giants defense contributed a comedy if errors to boot. Key Lines:
Tim Lincecum- 3.1 IP, 7 H, 6 R, 1 BB, 3 K's. ERA= 6.32. Watching Timmy from the CF TV camera angle, I became convinced that Timmy's problems run much deeper than mechanics. To my eye, he has visibly lost weight since the season started. He looked rail thin! With his uniform hanging off him, he still did not take up enough airspace to cast a shadow. With a $20 M salary in his pocket, the time may have come for Timmy to outsource his diet and conditioning program to someone who is trained in those areas. I mean, there are ways of increasing your caloric intake without stuffing your face with Double-doubles and Animal Fries from In-N-Out! There are also ways to build muscle mass and strength without sacrificing flexibility. This, of course, is assuming that Timmy's gaunt appearance is due to choices he has made in diet and conditioning and not due to illness of one sort or another.
The Giants are 1 game behind the NL West leading Dodgers pending the outcome of their game with the D'Backs which they are trailing 2-0. As for the D'Backs, if they hang onto their lead they will move to 4 games back of the leaders. As for the Wild Card race, the Giants are currently tied with 3 teams 0.5 games behind the Braves for the second spot.
The Giants now, thankfully, get a 4 day break before opening a series at home against the 'Stros on Friday the 13'th of July.
The Giants have 4 players participating in the All Start Game, Melky Cabrera, Buster Posey, Pablo Sandoval and Matt Cain. All 4 could be starters if Cainer gets the call. That has to be close to a record for most All-Star starters from 1 team.
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It's going to be a looooooong season if Timmy can't pitch worth a damn.
ReplyDeleteIt's hard to even bother to watch Giants games when they fall behind from the first inning. And yeah, been watching them for 40 years.
At this point would it make sense to go after Cole Hamels? You have to figure the Giants had some dollar amount in mind set aside for Timmy when his time comes, would it be better to use it on Hamels who looks like a better,safer long term bet if you are going to spend that type of money? Back end load it to make up for the money still owed Timmy and deal with Timmy at the end of the season.
ReplyDeleteThere are rumors that the Giants have had a scout following Zack Grienke.
DeleteNot really. Can't trade for Hamels now. No real blue chippers in the system.
DeleteAnyway, what would the Giants do with him in 2013? Still have to pay Zito & Timmy. Even if the Giants trade Tim (a horrible sell-low idea) they'd still have to pick up the bulk of his contract. Put Hamels in the mix, Giants would have $100 mil in the pitching staff alone.
If the Giants spend, they're going to do it on bat.
OK, going as far away from hard numbers as one can get: I do not like the looks of Grienke. He's an odd one. Really wouldn't want to see him here.
DeleteGrienke definitely marches to the beat of his own drummer.
DeleteLincecum, who said he weighed 197 pounds at the end of last season, began this season at 175 pounds. You have to think that the drop in velocity is at least partly due to that.
ReplyDeleteJust an estimate, but I would be surprised if he weighs an ounce more than 160 right now, more likely significantly less. He looked atonishingly thin out there today.
DeleteI heard that he weighs 152 right now. That can't be healthy
DeleteThere must be conflicting reports about how much Lincecum weighed at the start of the season and how much he weighs now. There was an article on SFGiants.com a week or so ago indicating that he currently weighed 167 pounds, which was an increase from the 160 he weighed to start the season.
DeleteIf the above report is true, that means Lincecum lost 37 pounds in the offseason, which is A LOT of weight to lose. I think he'd be wise getting his weight up to 175 or so. Last year he started off at that weight and his fastball was consistently around 93-94, with frequent 95 and 96s thrown in for good measure. Just watch the highlight from his start against the Mets last year in early May--he was striking guys out on 95 mph fastballs.
If you looked at Timmy last year, he looked puffy and bloated. It wasn't good weight, which is exactly what you would expect from somebody who puts it on pounding down Double-Doubles.
DeleteBased on my own estimates from seeing him on TV today(and I admit that is a very sketchy way to estimate someone's weight), I would be surprised if he's a pound over 160 right now.
It seems to me that his best weight is probably between 170 and 180 lbs, but it needs to be weight that is gained from proper nutrition and conditioning to build muscle mass and strength while maintaining flexibility, not from pounding Double-Doubles and Animal Fries.
This sounds like a task well-suited to steriods...
DeleteI think it can be done without 'roids, but yeah.
DeleteThis looks to me like a much more serious problem. Nobody is saying it out load but some of you have to be thinking that the weight issue could have something to do with some of Timmy's lifestyle choices. It is entirely possible that Timmy has moved on from smoking a little herb to the peruvian dancing dust. Professional athletes don't just lose over 20 pounds in an offseason (unless it were Prince Fielder after turning Vegan). If he had gained 20 pounds we would all be speculating steroids so is it that far fetched to thing that Timmy is getting his scarface on?
DeleteIf it isn't nose drugs then maybe he is hanging out with Pat Burrell every night and is having trouble keeping up. It could also be something else entirely like an injury nobody knows about or some crazy chick he has been hanging out with that has him on a strict bread and water diet with an occasional apartment trashing for exercise. Whatever it is, it isn't going away anytime soon.
This is especially frustrating because we already have one 20 million dollar pitcher on our roster who makes us hold our breath every 5th day. In order to justify having 3/4 of your payroll dedicated to pitching, this can't happen. At least Sabes got it right and got Cain signed, I think it is safe to say he has a brighter future ahead of him. Before the season started I was arguing that it would be wise to trade either Timmy or Cain to help balance out the roster (this was before Cain signed and we were looking at possibly losing both of them within 2 years). Aside from getting high level prospects, salary relief, and having the money to lock down whichever pitcher we ended up keeping, the situation we are in now with Timmy and what we have seen with Zito are 2 more reasons I wish Sabes was a little shrewder and had a better crystal ball.
I just knew we would find a way to make Timmy's inexplicable and ill-conceived weight fluctuations Brian Sabean's fault. Hey, at least he's only in for 2 years on Timmy and 5 on Cain. Gotta give him credit for that!
DeleteWhen you are 1 for 3 on 20 million dollar a year starting pitchers I would say that your strategy has flaws. Especially when you had a chance to sign someone like Pujols, Prince, or even Reyes or Darvish with that money and instead sunk it into your starting rotation for a guy who doesn't really want to be here. Not sure how you can still be behind Sabey Sabes on this one, we don't know how it would have turned out if they had traded Timmy and signed one of the other guys but we sure know how it has turned out keeping him. I made the argument a few times before but an extra 20 million this year and next plus the prospects they could have gotten for Timmy and you aren't convinced signing him was a bad move?
ReplyDelete