Posts for Tag: tim lincecum

Opening Day for the Giants ... Much optimism but more doubt

Cain and the Giants agreed Monday to a $127.5 million, six-year contract, the largest deal for a right-handed pitcher in baseball history.

It's that time of year again. The baseball season is underway (actually it's been underway). The Giants made some big splashes in the off-season, most notably the above mentioned extension on Matt Cain. I'm not sure if we are in a pitcher salary bubble but $21.25M a year for a guy who never won more than 14 games or struck out more than 186 a year seems a little much. Giants fans should rightfully have Zito nightmares over this signing. At least Zito had a Cy Young under his belt and a season or two of dominance on his resume. Does it make sense for Cain to be paid more than Roy Halladay ($20M a year)? For this contract to make any sense, Cain has to pitch like a #1 and he's had many years to prove he can and just hasn't. Some will argue that he doesn't get much run support and that's a valid point. But does anyone think the Giants are magically going to start bumping up the offense? Angel Pagan and Melky Cabrera won't scare many opposing pitchers.

And let's not forget that Lincecum's contract is up in two years and he'll want more than Cain given his resume. Can you afford to pay him the $25M+ a year he'll most likely want? I'm hoping for the best this year but have more doubts than ever.

Tim Lincecum is so money

It's apparent that Tim Lincecum is the best pitcher in baseball today. A complete game 4-hitter with 0 ERs lowers his ERA to 2.30, just 0.16 behind Dan Haren, the NL leader. He also racked up 15 K's to extend his major league lead of 183. He's tied for 3rd with 11 wins, just 1 behind Matt Cain and Jason Marquis. Aside from the stats though, he's just dominating and confusing hitters. Granted, it's just the Pirates but any time you can rack up 15 K's against any major league team is an impressive feat. Let's hope he can duplicate today's magic against the Phillies on Saturday.

Best 1-2-3 punch in National League?

I'm watching the Giants play the Diamondbacks - 3-1 Giants, Top of the 3rd. Last night Matt Cain won his NL lead tying 8th game to go 8-1. Last year's NL Cy Young winner, Tim Lincecum is at 5-1 and newly minted 300 game winner Randy Johnson is at 5-5. That's 3 out of the top 20 starting pitchers (Jonathan Broxton and Tony Pena are closers). I don't expect much out of The Big Unit but I think Lincecum could easily have 2 or 3 more wins and Matt Cain looks amazing. Now if only we had a decent bat in the lineup...