When scouts overreact to an athlete’s struggles

San Francisco Giants starting pitcher Tim Lincecum delivers a pitch to the St. Louis Cardinals in the second inning at Busch Stadium in St. Louis on August 21, 2010.   UPI/Bill Greenblatt Photo via Newscom

Baseball scouts have long been waiting for Tim Lincecum to fall apart.

He’s too small.

His delivery is going to lead to problems down the road.

His hair is too long. (This one I actually agree with.)

I swear, every time his velocity drops from one pitch to the next, someone starts hammering away on their keyboard predicting that Lincecum’s arm is going to disintegrate on the mound one day.

There’s no question that the 26-year-old two-time Cy Young winner has struggled this season. I’ve written about his struggles here at The Scores Report, so I’m not going to make light of the fact that he went 0-5 in the month of August with a 7.82 ERA.

But I almost fell out of my chair when I read a recent column by FOX Sports.com’s Ken Rosenthal, who spoke to a scout that had this to say about Lincecum’s future:

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