San Francisco Giants Need More from Lincecum and Sandoval to Win West

Every season, most teams deal with inconsistency from players whose past successes have led to high expectations.  For the Arizona Diamondbacks, that frustration played out this week when the owner of the team publicly called out their best player, Justin Upton, for getting off to a slow start. 

Nick Piecoro of the Arizona Republic had an excellent article on Upton's slow start.  In the article, Piecoro quoted an American League executive, who said, "I don’t think you can expect anyone other than the top .1 percent of players at any one time not to have those struggles....That’s why they have the Hall of Fame. It’s for guys who can take that career arc, but there aren’t that many of them....It just happens...The norm is an inconsistent career arc, rather than the opposite."

That quote is an important one to keep in mind for fans of the San Francisco Giants and their struggling stars, Tim Lincecum and Pablo Sandoval. 

Lincecum and Sandoval have had tremendous success in the past, so we expect them to build on that and continue their forward arc of stardom indefinitely.  In fact, in 2010, we were led to believe that things were settled forever for the two stars.  Lincecum had figured out that he needed to focus on his conditioning more to maintain his stamina and velocity, while Sandoval learned that he needed to lose weight to stay effective after losing his starting spot during the postseason.

Instead, Lincecum has gone backwards so far this year while Sandoval has clearly gained weight, lost range and is now the subject of an investigation regarding possible sexual assault charges (via Huffington Post). 

In fairness to Sandoval, he was swinging the bat well before he was sidelined with a broken hamate bone, and there is no evidence that the hamate injury had anything to do with his lack of conditioning. 

The Giants brass entered this season expecting Lincecum to be their best pitcher and Sandoval to be their best position player.  They know that both players will need to perform up to those expectations for the team to make the postseason.  Unfortunately, right now neither player is showing signs of righting the ship.

Two pitches from Sunday were indicative of the issues surrounding the Giants former stars. Lincecum floated a hanging changeup to Craig Gentry in the fourth inning.  Gentry hit the ball hard down the third baseline towards Sandoval, who couldn't come up with the ball. 

It was a tough play, but one that Sandoval would have made last season when he was in better shape.  It was a poorly located changeup from Lincecum—a continuous theme that has been central to his horrendous start. 

On the next pitch, Alexi Ogando bunted down the third baseline.  Sandoval froze for too long before coming to get the ball.  By the time he got to the ball, there was no play, and the bases were loaded with one out.  The Rangers would score twice in the inning, on their way to a 5-0 route as the Giants lost for the 11th time in Lincecum's 13 starts.

The Giants have survived Lincecum's struggles because the rest of his rotation mates have been outstanding thus far.  They have survived losing Sandoval for a month by getting excellent starts from the outfield of Gregor Blanco, Melky Cabrera and Angel Pagan, as well as the steady presence of Buster Posey.  Joaquin Arias couldn't match Sandoval's production at the plate when he filled in at the hot corner, but his glove was outstanding. 

At some point, the Giants other key players will go through struggles of their own.  When that time comes, they will need Lincecum and Sandoval to perform.  Will their former stars be up to the challenge?  Or have Lincecum and Sandoval peaked, the promise of their past performances something only to be remembered fondly, and not something to be seen again?