Tim Lincecum is throwing in preparation for the upcoming season and is still hopeful of finding another opportunity in the majors, agent Rick Thurman tells Andrew Baggarly of the Bay Area News Group. Lincecum has no plans to retire, or to look for offers outside of Major League Baseball, Thurman said.
After signing a prorated $2.5MM deal with the Angels last May, Lincecum posted a 9.16 ERA, 7.5 K/9, and 1.39 K/BB rate over 38 1/3 innings for the Halos. Some degree of bad luck was involved in those numbers (a .432 BABIP and a whopping 22.9% home run rate), though Lincecum only averaged 87.2 mph on his fastball. He threw that fastball a career-low 42.9% of the time, as Lincecum adjusted to his declining velocity by trying a more finesse-based pitching attack, such as tossing a changeup 29.4% of the time (well above his previous high of 24.5%).
Lincecum underwent hip surgery in September 2015 and his return from injury drew quite a bit of interest, as his showcase was attended by scouts from over half the teams in the big leagues. In the wake of his rough 2016 campaign, however, Baggarly feels Lincecum will have to settle for a minor league deal if he is to catch on with a big league club this offseason.
Lincecum signed with the Angels in part because they were willing to commit to using him as a starting pitcher, and it seems as if the righty is still looking to continue as a starter rather than consider a move to the bullpen. As Baggarly puts it, Lincecum becoming a reliever has been “a long-predicted role in his career arc,” especially given his declining velocity and effectiveness in recent years. Only eight of Lincecum’s 278 career regular season appearances have come as a reliever, though that doesn’t count his postseason work in 2012, when his effectiveness out of the pen helped the Giants win the World Series.
Given how dominant Lincecum was in his prime years (winning NL Cy Young Awards in both 2008 and 2009), one can’t blame him for wanting to exhaust all possible options as a starter, though the time may have come to embrace relief pitching if he wants to continue in the majors. The Giants don’t have any more room in their bullpen for a potential reunion with their former ace, Baggarly writes, though one would think Lincecum would draw interest from at least a few teams if he indicated a willingness to work as a reliever.
Interesting
Arencibia next is Timmy
Would love to see the cardinals turn him into the next andrew miller.
Not too many successful bullpen guys throwing 87mph… Even assuming it goes up a little coming out of the pen, I doubt he even averages 90. I don’t see it happening.
True, just being hopeful lol. Doesn’t zeigler throw like 90 avg. thou?
Hes got that submariner style that helps him though. The best comparison would be Koji Uehara but he is laser accurate with his pitches and gets a lot of late movement.
The fact that miller is so rare of a commodity should tell you all you need to know about the chances you can just take any washed up sp and turn him into that
I would love to see the Cards beat the Cubs, too. But we all know that ain’t happening either.
I bet they could, if they dumped leake
Except Timmy doesn’t hold runners on very well, hard to bring him on with runners on. But man I like him and hope he finds a home. Hoping SF sign him on a minors deal but I don’t think it’ll happen.
Miller doesn’t throw batting practice stuff.
Hope is a strong word here
Just go to the pen…his flop last year should have exhausted all his starting ops
He’s gonna have to come off his starter demands if he wants another opportunity
Yeah, well…….good luck with that, Tim.
Someone will give the guy a spring invite. That someone will not have a chance to play in October.
The funny thing is that basically every scouting analyst wrote, when Lincecum was drafted, that he wouldn’t make it past age 30. His fans were outraged and excoriated that analysis. But they turned out to be right.
you would have been outraged too if you regularly saw him pitch in 2008 and 2009
How about the cubs? Could be another arm in the bullpen possible starter off a minor league deal.
Dude throws 87 M.P.H. now….he’s done, they throw harder in batting practice
I don’t think that’s true, but yeah I think he’s done
87.5 means you’re done? Didn’t Jaime Moyer live off low 80s? He could adjust I would imagine
This would normally be true. You just have to figure out how to adjust your mechanics to be a control pitcher. However, Lincecum’s delivery is so awkward and different that I doubt any pitching coach would know how to adjust his delivery. It will be dependent on if he is able to figure it out. Last year wasn’t a good sign. It sounds like he was still pitching with the intention of getting people offspeed rather than control, which only works if you actually have a good range of speeds working together with movement. Will be interesting to see how he adjusts this year.
Big difference between lefties and righties. Lefties can survive with lower velocity. Not a ton of righties living in the mid-80s except maybe Uehara, who isn’t anything like Lincecum.
And Colon, of course, but Colon has probably the best command in baseball. That’s not the case with Lincecum.
Colon also has crazy movement on his different fastballs to go along with his command, I wouldn’t be surprised if colon pitches another 3-4 years
Tim needs to come to terms with the evidence that he is no longer a SP. Embrace the pen and I’m sure a handful of teams will show interest.
I’m huge a fan of Tim Lincecum, but I think he’s done. He was great in his prime, but he overachieved for his lack of size.
Stroman is only 5’8 and he’s successful
for now. I’m guessing Stroman is also cooked by the time he hits 30.
Not impressed by Stroman a d comparatively speaking, not a pimple on Lincecum’s backside in his prime
Size wasn’t the only issue for longevity, it was his weird delivery. He was bound to get injured and/or lose velocity, and no pitching coach will ever be able to figure out how to adjust his mechanics. If he had a normal delivery, a pitching coach could work with him to figure out how to adjust to pitching for accuracy (i.e. the ageless Bartolo Colon who, a decade ago, used to be a power pitcher). Of course, that funky delivery is part of the Lincecum charm.
I would like to see spin rate as well, in further analysis to provide pitching abilities. If the spin rate on his unique fastball he established himself on, he needs to reestablish his secondary pitches as well to be successful again. Velocity is not always the key in a lower ERA or K/BB rate.
Interesting how how the Giants won three championships with three different aces, Lincecum, Cain, and Mad Bum., and only Mad Bum is still a factor. It shows that pitching is outleir!
I know he wants to stay in the MLB, but I just don’t see it happening. If he wants to still make an impact on a team, he’ll have to go to Japan or the Minors. Likely the latter moreso
Tim Tim Tim. We know it, the industry knows it, your done.
Welcome to the Padres, Tim.
Ouch. I have been a Padre fan for almost 20 years, and it hasn’t been easy.
Our current GM doesn’t inspire me with confidence that we have finally settled on a long term strategy to field a winning team either. So why not Lincecum as a reliever for the Friars? If we aren’t going to compete, we can at least enjoy the ride.
Let Timmy smoke!
Go for it White Sox! Another potential arm to flip at the deadline if Coop can get him pitching effectively and consistently.
Maybe. Only if they ever trade Q and he signs on the very cheap.
Pirates maybe ?
He’s toast
Completely done. Should just try to embrace the relief role or go somewhere else.
Too much weed and too little velocity. Timmy is done.
Come on Rangers, sign him! The Astros need someone on your staff that will give up lots of runs to them!
Fearless prediction – he signs with the Long Island Ducks this spring. Unless he suddenly finds his fastball he’ll vanish until he pops up on some TMZ video while living in Colorado.
I wish Seattle would sign him and give him a chance to play at home. They should have drafted him in the first place but it shows the long line of awful GMs we’ve had. Even if he doesn’t make it let him at least try here.
You can see the guy is sickly with how skinny he is. Maybe his girlfriend left him or something i dont know but hes lost way too much weight to be effective. Id hire him under one condition have someone follow him around and make sure he drinks a lot of milk shales and everything. If he could put on about 40 or 50 pounds he may return to form.
So am I Tim, but your chances aren’t much better than mine
I have a solution: call up the padres
I mean, they could use another really cheap bad starter, right?
And he gets a chance to start. Win- win.
He really should just embrace being a reliever. He can be the next Eckersley. It’s not like the old days, when pitchers were only part of the bullpen if they were afterthoughts on the roster.
The problem is, Tim is done. There’s nothing left in the tank.
Another Cubs rejuvenation project??
lincecum wants to start. His best bet is to get into the rotation of a rebuilding team. Teams like the Cubs aren’t going to just throw him into the rotation.
It’s really not that unusual for injuries to wipe out a guy’s career… but usually the guys who were as good as he was in his prime seem to bottom out on a slightly higher floor that he one Tim found.
Put a fork in tim.
I understand the Hiroshima Carp are a strong contender
I was gonna go to the hall of fame, but I got high…
Pathetic end to his career, hang it up
Big time Timmy fan and life long Giants fan (since 1962) here. Unfortunately Timmy has no where to go beyond baseball. He is crowd/camera shy so broadcasting is out. Because he has an unorthodox delivery I doubt he’s coaching material if he even would want to. In all honesty he’d do better by getting into the legal marijuana trade as he lives both CA
Ha! He sucks. His career is over. What a joke. Go Dodgers!