Photo from fOTOGLIF

Reigning NL CY Young winner Tim Lincecum is facing misdemeanor marijuana charges following a traffic stop in Washington.

From the San Jose Mercury News:

The 2008 Cy Young Award winner also was cited for driving his 2006 Mercedes 74 mph along a 60 mph stretch of Interstate 5 near Hazel Dell, Wash., police said.

After an officer detected the smell of marijuana, the two-time All-Star complied with a request to turn over 3.3 grams of the substance and a pipe from the car’s center console. Because the officer did not judge Lincecum to be impaired, he cited him and allowed him to continue.

Lincecum, 25, entered a plea of not guilty through his attorney Monday, according to court records obtained by The Associated Press. He is scheduled to appear in court Dec. 22 and faces fines of $622 for the misdemeanor charges, police said.

I’m not going to blow this story up and make it bigger deal out of it than what it really is, but there’s one thing I don’t get: He knows he’s driving around with the pot, so why go 74 mph in a 60 mph zone? If you’re going to speed around in a Mercedes with pot in his car, why not just hold a sign out the window with a big marijuana leaf drawn on it too?

This will all blow over in due time and it’s highly unlikely the Giants will punish Lincecum because of this. But hopefully he’s a little humbled by the sitaution and realizes that he’s a celebrity and has to be a little smarter than to speed around in his car with pot in the center console.

Tim Lincecum pitched seven scoreless innings in the Giants’ 9-0 win over the Astros on Saturday. He has now thrown 23 scoreless innings in his last three games and has lowered his ERA to 2.23 while amassing a 9-2 record.

So much for Lincecum’s arm falling off. After tossing 227 innings last season, many thought that “The Franchise” would suffer a post-Cy Young slump and sift into arm-trouble hell. And when he started the season 0-1 with two no decisions, the I-told-you-so’s were out in full force.

But Lincecum has been absolutely filthy of late, with Saturday marking his 14th career start in which he’s allowed zero earned runs in seven or more innings. That ties Ron Gudry and Fernando Valenzuela for the fourth-most such starts by a pitcher in his first 75 career games since 1954, with Dwight Gooden leading all players in that category with 23.

With the Giants playing on the West Coast, Lincecum seemingly doesn’t get the national attention he deserves. But he’s the best young pitcher in the game and if San Fran can continue to play well this season, maybe they’ll make the postseason and his skills can be on full display come mid-October.

At the beginning of the 2009 MLB season, the Giants and reigning Cy Young Award winner Tim Lincecum set out to talk long-term contract and keep the ace in San Francisco for years to come. But according to Lincecum’s agent Rick Thurman, the Giants haven’t brought the topic up again since.

Not that they would, but the Giants can’t play games here. Lincecum is clearly the future of their staff and while clubs are always hesitant on giving young pitcher’s hefty contracts, Lincecum is without a doubt worth the risk. He’s essentially a freak of nature given his unique skills (he barely has to warm up, he has never had to ice after an outing and pitch counts mean very little for this young man) and he’ll probably be worth every penny he makes.

The Giants have a little bit of time since Lincecum’s arbitration years aren’t until 2011-2013. If they don’t mind paying him truckloads of money for one-year deals, they could go year-to-year (which Lincecum and his agent don’t mind because they’re not worried about him getting hurt) with his contract. But again, why mess around? He’s the face of the franchise and one of those rare players that a team just can’t let go.

The Giants are little more cautious these days with long-term contracts after blowing the Barry Zito deal. But again, Lincecum is going to be worth it and it would be shocking if the G-Men don’t enter long-term talks with him again after the season.