Archive for the ‘Tim Lincecum’ Category

My Approach: Tim Lincecum

Posted by Drew Fairservice under My Approach, San Francisco Giants, Tim Lincecum on May 16, 2013

Philadelphia Phillies v San Francisco Giants

It is tough to establish new ground when discussing Tim Lincecum. The two-time Cy Young award winner has been analyzed, dissected, and scrutinized to within an inch of his life over the past three years. What is wrong with Tim Lincecum? What will become of Tim Lincecum?

While he isn’t the pitcher he was in years past, he is still a very good and very exciting starter. Only four other qualified starters manage his strikeout, ground ball, and swinging strike rates this season. Each pitcher on that list can play for me any time.

Despite his unorthodox mechanics, Tim Lincecum was a very conventional pitcher when it came to his plan of attack. He blew hitters away with his mid-90s fastball and sat them down with his swing-and-miss changeup (which looks an awful lot like a splitter but ISN’T). As he ages, Lincecum keeps learning what it takes to make it work and how to adopt to his changing body and arsenal of pitches.

It’s a slightly different edition of My Approach with San Francisco Giants starter Tim Lincecum.

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Paul Goldschmidt Knows What He Likes

Posted by Drew Fairservice under Analysis, Paul Goldschmidt, Tim Lincecum on May 08, 2013

Colorado Rockies v Arizona Diamondbacks

Extending Paul Goldschmidt was a pretty smart move made by the Arizona Diamondbacks. While he might not be an “elite” first baseman, he is at the very least knocking on the door of elite, with a bouquet of flowers in his hand ready to join the party.

Not many thought this would be true of Paul Goldschimdt as he climbed through the minor league ranks. His all-or-nothing approach was bound to catch up with him, they said as he crushed pitching at every turn.

For his career in the big leagues, Goldschmidt has a .283/.363/.496 line with 35 home runs in less than 1000 plate appearances. Pretty good, no? Far from bad, that much I know for sure.

All batters have pitchers they just see well. Guys the seem to have figured out and guys against whom they take good swings and get some good luck. Paul Goldschmidt might play in a tough pitching, low scoring division but there are two pitchers he sees really well. Insanely well, in fact.

Paul Goldschmidt sees Tim Lincecum and Chris Capuano so well that it, perhaps, distorts his entire career line.

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The Giants Victory Parade Went Exactly as You Assume

Posted by Drew Fairservice under HardBall Talkin', San Francisco Giants, Tim Lincecum on Nov 01, 2012

The San Francisco Giants hosted their World Series victory parade yesterday and it went pretty much as anyone would expect. The parade — staged on Halloween in San Francisco — featured all the requisite weirdness, from the Beach Blanket Babylon hat lady to Tony Bennett getting photobombed by a zany reliever wearing a t-shirt of mild political protest to the mayor of SF sporting an orange nehru jacket because why not?

Grant from SB Nation attended, submitting this breathless/claustrophobic recap which sums the event up nicely. All you really need to see is the above chill dude soaking up the scene for the second time in three years. Seems like a pretty good time to me.

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Tim Lincecum “Changes Up” his Approach

Posted by Drew Fairservice under Analysis, San Francisco Giants, Tim Lincecum on Oct 16, 2012

The unceremonious downfall of Tim Lincecum sent ripples throughout the baseball world. In addition to breaking the internet’s heart, it upended the natural order of the San Francisco Giants rotation. When this post-season began, Tim Lincecum was noticeably absent from the rotation. Despite a strong second half (results-wise), the skinny dude from outside Seattle found himself working out of the pen.

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Tim After Tim

Posted by Dustin Parkes under Tim Hudson, Tim Lincecum on Aug 29, 2012

Every pitcher who ever performed on the big league stage for a significant period of time has had to adapt. As we learned a couple of months ago from Eno Sarris, from the day a professional pitcher is born, his velocity begins dying. This means that today’s whiff-inducing hard fastball up in the zone is tomorrow’s meatball that gets taken deep.

This inevitable decline is hardest felt on pitchers who depend on their fastball, not only to get swing and misses, but also to set up their other pitches. Perhaps the most cited recent example of this phenomenon is San Francisco Giants’ starter Tim Lincecum who has seen a major drop in velocity on his fastball coupled with atrocious numbers in terms of runs being scored against.

Enter Atlanta Braves starting pitcher Tim Hudson, who has been around the block more than a few times. The fourteen year veteran is the standard bearer for adapting approach to match capability as one ages. Once a swing and miss maestro with the Oakland A’s, after a drop in velocity, he turned himself into a ground ball inducing machine with the Atlanta Braves through a sinking fastball that looks like it uses magnetic forces to avoid line drives and fly balls off of the bats of opponents.

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