Paging Chris Lincecum…..please report to Dave Righetti’s office
It couldn’t be any clearer if you poured a barrel of Windex on it. Ubaldo Jimenez and Tim Lincecum are two ace pitchers going in opposite directions.
Jimenez is putting together a Cy Young award-winning campaign for the Colorado Rockies, pitching another dominating shutout on Monday against the San Francisco Giants. Jimenez has thrown 27 consecutive scoreless innings, dating back to May 15. He’s already thrown a no-hitter this season (that got lost in the hoopla of two recent perfect games by Dallas Braden and Roy Halladay). For the love of God, Ubaldo is 10-1 with a preposterous 0.78 ERA. Only six other pitchers have won as many games by June 1. See if you recognize any of these names: Smoltz, Clemens, Pedro, Schilling and Webb.
Lincecum on the other hand? The reigning two-time Cy Young award winner walked five batters for the fourth straight game (granted, two were intentional, but had he been “on” he wouldn’t have had to give away the two free passes). After starting the season by throwing eight straight quality starts to go along with a 1.76 ERA, Big Time Timmy Jim Jam failed to complete six innings for the third straight game on Monday and is now 5-2 with a 3.14 ERA. He allowed four runs (three earned) and looked like Aqualad next to Ubaldo’s Superman.
I won’t get into how his mechanics are still off (been there, done that). And I’m not going to get all alarmist on you. But I am going to ask you, my intelligent readers, this: Should the Giants go ahead and skip Lincecum’s next turn?
He is scheduled to pitch again on June 6 against the Pittsburgh Pirates (not exactly the New York Yankees). A victory would seem inevitable (you know, back in the day when The Freak was The Freak). But clearly something’s still wrong in Lincecumland and if the Giants can’t figure it out, maybe a full 10 days of rest would do him some good.
During the 10-day rest, Lincecum could have his dad, Chris Lincecum, come down and work with him on his mechanics. After all, it was the senior Lincecum who first taught his kid how to twist and turn his body while throwing that violent heater in the backyard of their Bellevue, Washington home.
You may remember from that now-famous SI article by Tom Verducci that Chris designed his own weight-training program for Timmy and that he videotaped all his games so father and son could sit down and meticulously review them. Chris knew his son’s mechanics so well that even while listening to Timmy’s college games on the radio, he could “see” what he was doing wrong.
Back then, Tim’s dad would sit in the stands behind home plate and flash signals to his boy, who knew exactly what to correct. Giants pitching coach Dave Righetti once said about Linceucm, “I treat Timmy differently from most pitchers. I leave him alone.”
Well, Dave, you might want to change your strategy. Bite the bullet, swallow your pride and give Chris Lincecum a call. Us Giants fans want our Superman back.
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