Tag: San Francisco Giants (Page 22 of 38)

      Lincecum, Giants headed to arbitration hearing?

      February 3, 2010 /

      The Giants are likely headed toward an arbitration hearing with their ace Tim Lincecum, as the sides remain far apart on the pitcher’s 2010 salary.

      From the San Jose Mercury News:

      The Giants and Lincecum exchanged salary offers two weeks ago; the Giants filed at $8 million, the highest number offered by a club to a player with less than three years of service time. Lincecum’s camp filed at $13 million, a record-setting number that many in the industry still considered low.

      Industry sources said that it made sense for Thurman to file a “winnable” number if he expected the case to reach a hearing. Once at that stage, an arbiter considers the evidence, hears arguments and chooses one salary or another — with no middle ground.

      I’d be shocked if an arbiter sided with the Giants at $8 million. Lincecum already has two Cy Young awards, is a two-time All-Star and the Giants finished with a winning record last season, which are all things an arbiter looks at.

      The Giants have an interesting situation on their hands in regards to Lincecum’s long-term future. He has four more years of arbitration and if they wanted to, the club could go year to year and continue to pay him in the $13-20 million range (assuming his arbitration number continues to rise). Assuming he doesn’t get hurt and leaves via free agency at the end of those four years, then the Giants would have had him for four years at around $80 million.

      Now, if they wanted to buy out his remaining arbitration years with a long-term contract, then the Giants will guarantee Lincecum upwards of $100 million. If he gets hurt, then they’re screwed but at least he’s locked in and they don’t have to worry about going year to year with arbitration and getting embarrassed with offers like $8 million for one of baseball’s best pitchers.

      With the way he’s looked the past two seasons, I would hurry to lock Lincecum up to a four or five year deal if I were the Giants. But he’s only 25 and no matter great he’s pitched over the last two years, there’s no guarantee for future success. If his arm fails off in a year, the Giants would have made the right decision to take things year by year.

      Either way, “The Franchise” is under the Giants’ control for the next four years.


      Photo from fOTOGLIF

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      Damon to the Giants? You must be kidding me.

      December 18, 2009 /

      There’s a horrifying rumor making its way around the web that Johnny Damon could be heading to San Francisco now that his time in New York appears to be finished.

      Now, some people might be thinking, “Hey, Damon can hit and the Giants need hitters sooooooooooooooo…it’s a perfect fit!”

      But no. I mean seriously: No. (No.)

      Johnny Damon and his chicken wing would be a horrible fit in San Francisco and if Giants GM Brian Sabean goes for this then he should be forced to give tours on Alcatraz for the rest of his life.

      Sabean is notorious for overspending on the wrong players. Outside of a respectable 2009 campaign, Barry Zito and his mega-million dollar contract has been nothing short of a disaster. Aaron Rowand has been a great defender and a solid clubhouse guy, but he can’t hit and therefore, can’t live up to his contract either. Sabean is also the genius that overpaid for Edgar Renteria (yet another player that has no concept of a decent batting average) last winter.

      Yeah, Damon can hit. He also has the worst arm in baseball and fails to reach the cutoff man on a consistent basis. He would no doubt cost the Giants’ pitching staff runs based on his shoddy fielding and there’s no guarantee that he would even produce as a hitter in spacious AT&T Park.

      Hopefully this rumor is just that: A rumor. Damon belongs in the American League as a DH. He’s half a player in the NL and a quarter of a player in a pitcher’s ballpark. Maybe the Red Sox could use him as a piñata or something, but keep him out of San Fran.

      MLB

      Are the Giants getting closer to acquiring Uggla?

      December 11, 2009 /

      One potential move that has taken a backseat to the Roy Halladay sweepstakes at the winter meetings this year is a deal that could make Dan Uggla a San Francisco Giant next season. According to FOXSports.com’s Ken Rosenthal and MLB.com’s Joe Frisaro via their Twitter pages, the Giants and Marlins are heating up discussions involving Uggla.

      Uggla is the right-handed bat that the Giants desperately need. They acquired Freddy Sanchez at the trade deadline last year, but he could potentially move over to third base (moving Pablo Sandoval to first) in order to make room for Uggla, who hit .243 last year with 31 dingers and 90 RBI. San Francisco is already a contender (and I use that word loosely) with its pitching, but in order for the G-Men to make a serious run at the postseason they need more pop in their lineup outside of “The Panda.”

      The question now becomes: What do the Giants need to part with in order to acquire Uggla? They’ve already traded one top prospect away in Tim Alderson to acquire Sanchez, and they have zero plans to deal pitcher Madison Bumgarner or catcher Buster Posey.

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      MLB

      Giants’ Lincecum wins second straight NL Cy Young

      November 19, 2009 /

      For the second straight year, San Francisco Giants’ ace Tim Lincecum was named the National League Cy Young award winner, earning 11 of 32 first-place votes. He just edged out Cardinals’ ace Chris Carpenter, who earned nine first-place votes and Carpenter’s teammate Adam Wainwright, who earned 12 first-place votes but only had 90 points (compared Lincecum’s 100 and Carpenter’s 94).

      Lincecum led the NL with 261 strikeouts and also finished with four complete games and two shutouts. His 15-7 record wasn’t dazzling compred to Carpenter’s (17-4) or Wainwright’s (19-8), but he finished with a 2.48 ERA and the Giants didn’t have near the offense the Cardinals did.

      Some St. Louis fans may complain about Lincecum winning this award and they certainly would have a case considering how good Carpenter and Wainwright were. (If either Carpenter or Wainwright won the award, it would be hard to debate they didn’t deserve it as well and it’s no wonder the voting was so close this year.) But if you watched Lincecum throughout the season, there wasn’t a more dominating pitcher in the National League.

      On most nights, Giants’ pitchers were lucky if the offense scrapped together three runs. Every inning the pressure was on Lincecum and company to keep the runs to an absolute minimum and that’s exactly what he did. He was phenomenal.

      No pitcher has ever won the Cy Young with only 15 victories. That means voters looked past the number of wins Lincecum had and saw what this kid did beyond the stat sheet. And while his recent bust for marijuana was unfortunate, it doesn’t taint what “The Freak” accomplished this season.


      Photo from fOTOGLIF

      MLB

      Giants’ ace Lincecum facing marijuana charges

      November 6, 2009 /

      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.

      MLB

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