If You Think Tim Lincecum's Change-up Is Nasty, Wait 'Til You See His Stat Sheet

I like exploring the Baseball-Reference.com features, and today I decided to look at the career splits of Tim Lincecum. With that, I wanted to put some interesting stats about Lincecum, like if he pitches better at home or on the road, what team gives him the most troubles, what team does Lincecum absolutely dominate, etc...

The first interesting fact I came across, although it may not be that interesting is that combined home and away Lincecum has 50 decisions and it is split right down the middle 25 decisions at home and 25 decisions on the road.

With the home record being at 18-7 with a 3.01 ERA in 39 games and all starts, two complete games, one shutout, 263 innings pitched, 304 strikeouts to 93 walks, and a WHIP of 1.187

On the road Lincecum has a record of 19-6, a 2.73 ERA, 41 games which 40 were starts, has four complete games, two shutouts, pitched 267 innings, struck out 302 and walked 97, and a whip of 1.14

With those stats you could make the argument that there is no significant difference between the production of Lincecum when he pitches at home or on the road.

Lincecum's best month for him is May where he has a record of 7-0, in 15 games, an ERA of 3.04, 110 strikeouts to 33 walks, and a whip 1.09 and the most wins in any month for Lincecum has been July with nine wins.

His worst month has been September/October where Lincecum owns a record of 3-3 with a 3.75 ERA in nine starts, he has struck out 68 and walked 24, and has a whip of 1.32

Looking further at situational stats though it is easy to see why Lincecum is one of the best young pitchers in baseball. Looking at his stats with runners in scoring position is when Lincecum prove his value.

When Lincecum is in a situation where he needs to make pitches he gets the job done. With runners in scoring position Lincecum has held opponents to a .203 batting average, a .292 on-base percentage, .302 slugging percentage, .594 OPS, has induced 12 double plays, and he has struck out 139 batters while walking 54 in those situations.

With the bases loaded that's when Lincecum gets even better, but then again that situation has been rare in his career too. Opponents have only 21 at-bats with the bases loaded against Lincecum and only one batter has been successful at getting a hit in that situation.

So, the numbers with the bases loaded look like this .048 batting average, .111 on-base percentage, .048 slugging percentage, .159 OPS, three sacrifice flys, and have struck out eight times to walking only once.

Lincecum enjoy facing the Atlanta Braves, St. Louis Cardinals, San Diego Padres, and Arizona Diamondbacks. Between those four teams Lincecum has compiled 17 wins and four losses.

On the flipside to that though is the teams that Lincecum does not enjoy facing very much which are the New York Mets, Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim, Detroit Tigers, Kansas City Royals, and Toronto Bluejays.

Note: All the teams he struggled against are in the American League except one so a majority of the teams he doesn't get to face very often. Out of the five teams he has a record of 0-3.

Ballpark wise Lincecum has been the best at the Oakland Coliseum where he has a .56 ERA. His worst has been at Kauffman Stadium where he has a 9.00 ERA.