Baseball Musings
Baseball Musings
July 21, 2007
Some Call Me Tim
Lincecum95201593_Giants_v_Astros.jpg

Photo: Aaron M. Sprecher/Icon SMI

Tim Lincecum pitched the best game of his season this afternoon as he held the Brewers scoreless for eight innings in an 8-0 San Francisco victory, another blow out loss for Milwaukee. He went eight innings, allowing four hits and finding his control as he walked one and struck out eight. He's allowed zero runs in three of his last five starts, over which time his ERA stands at a minuscule 1.05. He's only allowed nineteen hits in those 34 1/3 innings while striking out 41. Lincecum is so good over these games that opponents are only hitting .250 when not striking out.

This photograph is from earlier this season against Houston. I love it because it shows Tim's focus on the target, and at the same time his total relaxation. Every part of his body is in motion, but he's just looking to put the ball in the catcher's glove. In an otherwise disappointing season for the Giants, Tim is providing hope for the future.


Posted by David Pinto at 07:56 PM | Pitchers | TrackBack (0)
Comments

I love the photos in the blog entries - they really improve the look of the site!

Posted by: maynard at July 21, 2007 11:17 PM

So if your eleventh or twelfth man gives up five runs when you've been shut down all day by a downright filthy starter, that dooms you as a team, hm? Say Micah Owings pitched a gem and Scott Eyre came in to finish the game and gave up half a dozen essentially meaningless runs - does that mean the Cubs are a bad team?

Excuse my questions, but I'm just trying to figure out how this blowout win/loss thing is relevant at all. Can I pick twenty-five one-run games and use those as an argument of a team's quality?

Posted by: Theron at July 22, 2007 12:30 AM

Teams that win blowouts on a regular basis have both great pitching and great hitting. If you look at the history of the greatest teams, they did very well in games with large score differences. Close games, to a great extent, are a matter of luck, but you need to be consistently excellent on both sides of the ball to have a good record in blowouts.

Posted by: David Pinto at July 22, 2007 07:35 AM

If you believe in Pythagorean projections, then you have to believe that a team's blowout record is a significant indication of overall team quality.

How many times is a team going to lose when they score 10+ runs? How many times are they going to win giving up 10+ runs? The blowout record targets the team's ability to produce and prevent big offensive outbursts.

I would have alot more faith in a team's ability to win it all based on a good blowout record vs a good close game record.

Posted by: thumble at July 23, 2007 02:55 PM

BTW, Longball Lincecum's HR rate has plummetted from 1.35/9IP to 0.88/9IP - below the MLB average.

Posted by: Doug Purdie at July 27, 2007 06:41 PM
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