Tim Lincecum: Should The San Francisco Giants Be Worried About Lincecum?

How many pitchers would like to have an ERA of 3.10 and a WHIP of 1.27? How many pitchers would like to be fifth in all of Major League Baseball in strikeouts with 152 and have an average of 9.41 K’s/9 IP?

The answer to these questions would be 99% of pitchers in baseball would take these numbers in a second.

But for the reigning two-time Cy Young winner Tim Lincecum, these numbers are not good enough.

Listening and watching sports fans and some analysts you would think that Lincecum had completely fallen off a cliff. He is still one of the better pitchers in the National League. The problem is he has set the bar so high that being “one of the better pitchers” is not good enough. He is the guy that’s supposed to post an ERA around 2 and strikeout every single hitter that he faces.

Tonight, Lincecum goes after his 12^th win of the season when the Giants take on the Braves in Atlanta.

For baseball fans, Lincecum seems to have lost his dominant mound presence just like that. This is a guy that led the National League in strikeouts and a few other traditional categories, plus he led National League starters in most of the new scientific categories out there (VORP, tRA, FIP) in 2009.

So how is this guy no longer talked about in this year in which pitching has made such a dramatic comeback?

The answer is quite simple: there hasn’t been this much great pitching, especially in the National League, in decades. Josh Johnson, Adam Wainright, Ubaldo Jimenez, Mat Latos, Roy Halladay, Yovani Gallardo, Clayton Kershaw, et al. have been incredible to watch all year. Johnson is having the best year that no one is paying attention to because he plays in the baseball abyss that is Florida.

No one talks about Lincecum now mainly because all these guys are having years that are at least as good if not better than the Giants ace.

It’s true that Lincecum is having an “off year” by his own standards: his walks are up, his strikeouts are slightly down, his home run rate is the highest of his career.

However, we shouldn’t be so quick to dismiss Lincecum as one of the best pitchers in all of baseball, not only the National League, just because he hasn’t quite lived up to his own lofty standards.