Thanks. After i posted i realized that this might be the case.
It’s really hard not to like Leyland. He answered every dumb question they could throw at him after that loss. He’s a true pro. Hall of Fame worthy? That’s tough. He had a lot of post season success but only 1 WS to show for it, but he never managed a huge market team.
Someone on Sunday morning radio said Leyland should have brought in Verlander. Interesting thought.
Honestly, I would take a long,hard look at him in the Spring and see where he is at when the season starts. It’s my belief (and only my belief, mind you) that he would benefit significantly from more time in the minors. He was brought up quickly out of sheer necessity, but with a healthy and experienced outfield in place, it isn’t as much of a necessity this time around (fingers crossed). Why not take a little more time to develop his enormous talent in a lower pressure setting?
If I were looking at the Hall of Fame case for Leyland, I’d be tempted to omit the 1998 Marlins season - doing so raises his career winning percentage by almost a full point - and overlook or at least pay less attention to his years with the Pirates after all their good players left. He still didn’t win much in the playoffs, but it makes his record look better for sure.
The Giants re-signed Tim Lincecum to a contract worth $35 million over two years and with a full no-trade clause. I guess they have total confidence that he can get back to his old form because even if he won’t be on the books forever, that’s a lot of money considering how he has been pitching.
His performance was markedly improved the second half of this year (I’m not sure what the statistics say; this is general consensus based on watching him pitch every 5th day). The thinking is that he’s finally come to grips with the fact that he’s permanently lost several MPH off his fastball, so he can’t just go out there and blow people away any more, and that he’s committed to becoming a good ‘pitcher’ rather than simply a ‘thrower’.
As a Giants fan, I have no problem with the signing. I don’t think he’ll ever be the team’s ‘ace’ again (that job will soon be handed over to Madison Bumgarner), but I think he’ll wind up being a very capable 3rd starter. Plus, everybody seems to genuinely like the guy, and I’m a firm believer in ‘clubhouse chemistry’.
I know there’s a consensus that he was better in the second half of the season, but I was reading that he was bad in September. In total he’s been awful the last two years.
First half of the season:
16 games
W-L 4-8
IP 95.0
ERA 4.64
WHIP 1.43
Second half:
16 games
W-L 6-6
IP 102.2
ERA 4.12
WHIP 1.21
It’s worth noting that he was a bit more unlucky in the first half, with a BAbip above .330 for hitters who faced him, versus about .285 in the second half.
He was certainly better in the second half, although i’m not sure i’d be thrilled to pay $17.5 million a year for those second-half numbers.
They’re the sort of numbers that RA Dickey put up for Toronto this year, and are slightly worse than what Ricky Nolasco did for the Dodgers and Chris Tillman did for the Orioles. You’d pay 10 or 12 million for those numbers if you had to, but probably not 17.5.
Still, the Giants have plenty of money, and are probably happy to stick with a known quantity who they might believe still has a possibly very good upside.
His numbers for September were pretty much in line with his numbers for the rest of the second half, maybe a little worse: 4.32 ERA, 1.30 WHIP.
Why are we talking about Tim Lincecum?
Hey, I heard there’s a game tonight!
Speaking of…
This Grant Brisbee article that dares to ask the question, is the Boston/St. Louis World series the most annoying matchup possible? made me chuckle.
As to Tim Lincecum I’d argue that it’s an excellent signing. It sounds like a lot but
- It’s not really much in today’s baseball economics,
- It’s Tim Lincecum, for whom a 1.32 WHIP is considered really disappointing. It’s not like they gave the money to a guy who peaked up at that level of performance.
- Lincecum is only turning 30 next summer.
- His peripheral stats still suggest a guy who can bring it. He struck out 193 men against 76 walks, which are the numbers of a pitcher who can quite conceivably win a Cy Young Award again, and are, perhaps most importantly, the numbers of a pitcher who will probably not be any worse than somewhere around league average.
In other words, Lincecum is actually a GOOD bet. He could be much better, but it’s quite unlikely (as unlikely as it is for any pitcher, anyway) that he will suddenly get worse. He doesn’t have the profile of a pitcher who’s about to get worse.
If you compare him to similar pitchers he is clearly a superior bet. mhendo mentions Dickey and Nolasco (and Tillman, who is only 25 and just had his first full season and so is a hard comparison to make.) Dickey was old when he was signed and contrary to popular belief knuckleball pitchers DO usually get worse in their late 30s. Ricky Nolasco had similar numbers, but Nolasco’s 2013 was one of the best seasons he’s ever had, not one of his worst. I would much rather have Lincecum than either Dickey or Nolasco.
Yeah, it’s probably something that should be saved for a Hot Stove thread, which i’m too lazy to start right now.
This upcoming World Series is likely to be a good one, and it’s also pretty clearly between the two best teams of the year, so it’s hard to complain. I’m finding it a bit hard to get excited, though. I would have preferred to see any one of a number of other teams make it through, and seeing two teams who’ve each won it twice in the last decade is a bit uninteresting for me.
Edit:
RickJay, i gues you’re right about the economics, and if Lincecum’s upside comes through then they might have a real bargain on their hands. But if Lincecum pitches at the same level for the next two years as he did in 2013, will you still think that he was a good deal for the money? I’m not sure that i would. And if he regresses to his 2012 performance, well…
I understand that. I think it’s pretty normal to get burned out on the same teams after a while (unless it’s your team).
Of course, for me, it’s a dream series, since even if my team loses, my other team wins. I’ll be disappointed if the Sox lose, but a Cards win is fun too.
I’m not going to offer any predictions, except that I expect an excellent series that goes at least 6 games. But really, I will be completely unshocked by anything.
Is there a separate WS thread, or is this it? I didn’t see one. Anyone know why McCarver was late to camera? And what was that weird pause near the end of the anthem by MJB?
I think this is it.
The pause at the end was the jet fighters flying overhead
That’s what it sounded like to me, but MJB seemed very surprised by it.
Unfortunately McCarver eventually showed up. Gawd, I hate him. I know it’s been beat to death but McCarver and Buck are just awful. As much as I love me some baseball, they are almost enough to ruin a World Series for me.
What is Mike Matheny even arguing about here? This must be the most obvious call reversal of all time.
NapolI!
It was probably timed to occur after the anthem, but between vocal acrobatics and extra breaths, they showed up early.
(Can you tell I’m not a fan of mangled anthems?)