Tim Lincecum threw 138 pitches against San Diego Saturday night.
Let me make this as clear as I possibly can.
That is utterly, completely, and colossally reckless, stupid, arrogant, and just plain lazy. Send in all the nasty emails calling me a geek who?s never played you like. Feel free to point out that Lincecum?s ?just different?,?rubber armed?, or a ?freak of nature?. It?s still mind-blowingly stupid, risky behavior. A couple of undeniable facts:
(1) People I respect have told me ?Lincecum?s just different.? Perhaps. But the truth of the matter is that you don?t know that. No one can tell me they know, with any reasonable degree of certainty, that Lincecum can stand up to mindless, pointless abuse better than anyone else. He might be less capable of doing so. We just don?t know.
(2) The gain for the Giants having Lincecum throw those extra pitches last night was zilch. Perhaps less. The Giants were 15 games under .500 going into last night. If they win out, they could end up .500. Those pitches could have been thrown by Carol Channing for all the real world value they had. For that matter, one of the kids could have been thrown out there and perhaps learned something.
So why take *any*risk under the circumstances? So Lincecum could have a shutout for the CY race? Seriously? That outweighs the strategic risk of exposing your only potential franchise cornerstone to injury that could instantly destroy his ability to perform at an elite level?
If Giants fans wonder why their team is in such dismal shape, last night was a microcosm of it. This organization hasn?t shown any ability to look past a single game, much less past a season and towards, say, potential stability and success. Last night wasn?t even a joke. It was a farce.
To those of you who will feel compelled to write in and say ?Tim didn?t want to come out,? my response is pretty simple?My four year old wants to eat a bunch of ice cream too. It?s kind of my job to make sure he doesn?t. And it?s kind of Bochy?s, Sabean?s, Baer?s, and the entire occupancy of the Giants front office?s job to keep completely moronic things from happening.
Clearly, they?re not up to the task.
--Baseball Prospectus
Let me make this as clear as I possibly can.
That is utterly, completely, and colossally reckless, stupid, arrogant, and just plain lazy. Send in all the nasty emails calling me a geek who?s never played you like. Feel free to point out that Lincecum?s ?just different?,?rubber armed?, or a ?freak of nature?. It?s still mind-blowingly stupid, risky behavior. A couple of undeniable facts:
(1) People I respect have told me ?Lincecum?s just different.? Perhaps. But the truth of the matter is that you don?t know that. No one can tell me they know, with any reasonable degree of certainty, that Lincecum can stand up to mindless, pointless abuse better than anyone else. He might be less capable of doing so. We just don?t know.
(2) The gain for the Giants having Lincecum throw those extra pitches last night was zilch. Perhaps less. The Giants were 15 games under .500 going into last night. If they win out, they could end up .500. Those pitches could have been thrown by Carol Channing for all the real world value they had. For that matter, one of the kids could have been thrown out there and perhaps learned something.
So why take *any*risk under the circumstances? So Lincecum could have a shutout for the CY race? Seriously? That outweighs the strategic risk of exposing your only potential franchise cornerstone to injury that could instantly destroy his ability to perform at an elite level?
If Giants fans wonder why their team is in such dismal shape, last night was a microcosm of it. This organization hasn?t shown any ability to look past a single game, much less past a season and towards, say, potential stability and success. Last night wasn?t even a joke. It was a farce.
To those of you who will feel compelled to write in and say ?Tim didn?t want to come out,? my response is pretty simple?My four year old wants to eat a bunch of ice cream too. It?s kind of my job to make sure he doesn?t. And it?s kind of Bochy?s, Sabean?s, Baer?s, and the entire occupancy of the Giants front office?s job to keep completely moronic things from happening.
Clearly, they?re not up to the task.
--Baseball Prospectus
