When the Giants Come to Town, It's Bye-Bye Baby

06.25.2007
Bong Hits For Jesus and Felipe and Matty

I’m celebrating freedom of speech today by appropirating* a wee line from Tha Gippah himself: “Mr. Sabean, tear down this team!”

(*Hey, look at that. A typo becomes one of those newfangled semiotic wordplays, kind of like “Muse-Sick N Hour Mess Age.”)

I stand before you, in front of this 24–foot wall, and say “we must maintain defenses of unassailable strength.” OK, maybe not so much the part about how “we must strive to reduce arms on both sides,” though trading Matt Morris, whose value to a contender has never been higher, could certainly fetch a nice prospect back.

Speaking of arms, we’ll all be watching intently tonight to see if Tim Lincecum’s problems continue to proliferate. He’s taking the hill this time but reportedly will skip his next turn, a wise move. If you haven’t noticed, he hasn’t gone more than four innings his past three starts. Click here for more detail.

What’s wrong with him? Dave Righetti says this: "The same thing he's doing when he was getting hit, he was doing when he was throwing it by them."

Thanks, Dave. If it’s not mechanics, and it’s not a lack of stuff, it must be one of the following things:

1) He’s tipping his pitches.
2) His pitch patterns are predictable, even if he’s not tipping pitches.
3) He’s got a slight injury that affects his control.
4) The Giants have made him change his freak-of-nature routine — in other words, he’s not throwing enough — and the extra arm strength is affecting his control.

There were reports last year (which I can’t find now of course, so maybe I’m imagining them) that he had a habit of tipping pitches. If that’s the problem, it’s something teams and players are extremely reluctant to discuss. So don’t expect it ever to be the official explanation of his woes.

Watch Lincecum carefully tonight; no doubt the Padres’ bench will.

Opposing Lincecum is San Diego’s Justin Germano, whom the Pads plucked off waivers this spring. He’s only 24 and pitching extremely well — less than a baserunner per inning so far. He’s never faced the Giants before; here’s my guess at tonight’s lineup:

CF Roberts
RF Winn
2B Durham
LF Bonds
1B Klesko
C Molina
3B Feliz
SS Vizquel
P Lincecum

***

SMALL PRINT UPDATE: Now reading Mark Bowden’s Road Work, a collection of his magazine pieces. Now listening to Wilco’s brand-new Sky Blue Sky in eager anticipation of Aug. 24 at the Greek Theater. On the DL: Rich Aurilia, with Luis Figueroa up to take his spot.



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[June 25, 2007 7:41 PM]  |  link  |  reply
pantalones said

Man, that PE title was such a clunky stretch... you just knew it was the beginning of the end.

And one minor correction: Morris's value to a contender was higher a week and a half ago, before he posted back-to-back game scores of 13 and 29.

And I hope you're right about the lineup, Lefty. The way Barry was flying around the basepaths yesterday, I'm worried that he ran himself into an off day.

[June 25, 2007 8:18 PM]  |  link  |  reply
Josh from Hollywood said

You're absolutely right, Pants. Especially since those games were against the Red Sox and a DH-less Yanks lineup. That can't look good if you're an AL team who needs to compete with those teams either to get to the playoffs, or once there -- like, say, the Indians. Would you rather take a flier on an NL guy with good numbers who might have a hard time adjusting to longer lineups in the AL, or a guy like Beuhrle, who's already proven he can handle those lineups?

[June 25, 2007 8:27 PM]  |  link  |  reply
ELM said

>Would you rather take a flier on an NL guy with good numbers who might have a hard time adjusting to longer lineups in the AL, or a guy like Beuhrle, who's already proven he can handle those lineups?

hmm, legitimate question. I didn't see or hear either of the games in question, but from the boxscores it seemed he was getting hit hard, not just dunked and doinked. Was it just two bad days or indicative of deeper patterns? He also did fine against the A's, admittedly a popgun offense, but with a DH. He also shut down the potent Phils lineup in hitter-friendly Philly on a night the Giants scored 13 or whatever it was.

Another factor in trading Morris: he's signed through '08 with a fairly reasonable '09 option. It could cut both ways: attractive to a team that wants more than a two-month rental, and unattractive to a team that worries about his long-term health.

[June 25, 2007 9:13 PM]  |  link  |  reply
Frank said

I am no expert, but it seemed to me, against the Yankees, his curve had no snap - it seemed to have kind of a gently break which was easy to pick up and easy to time.
My recollection from earlier games was that his curve was a much bigger breaking pitch.

[June 25, 2007 9:17 PM]  |  link  |  reply
FRank said

Oh, and regarding Timmy - last time out, everything he threw in the first inning was 4 inches low. After the game he said he'd been working on keeping his pitches down between starts, then had a hard time making the adjustment and finding the strike zone. Once he did that he pitched two very fine, scoreless innings.