Tag: Tim Lincecum (Page 10 of 14)

      Posnanski: Top 100 MLB Players

      July 22, 2009 /

      Joe Posnanski put together a ranking of who he believes are the top 100 current MLB players at this moment (as in right now – not over the past two years, three years, etc).

      Here is his top 10:

      1. Albert Pujols, 1B, Cardinals
      “Every hitter is human,” says pitcher Zack Greinke (No. 4). “Except Pujols.”

      2. Joe Mauer, C, Twins
      Could win his third batting title this year … no other American League catcher ever has won even one in history.

      3. Hanley Ramirez, SS, Marlins
      Advanced stats suggest he’s better defensively than people think. Offensively, he leads the league in hitting and might have another 30-30 season.

      4. Zack Greinke, SP, Royals
      Throws four plus pitches, all for strikes, leads the league with a 2.08 ERA, and has won 10 games for a team that has scored the fewest runs in the AL.

      5. Chase Utley, 2B, Phillies
      Crushes the ball, plays outstanding defense and, just as a fun side note, has led the league in hit-by-pitch three years running.

      6. Alex Rodriguez, 3B, Yankees
      Disastrous first half splattered with injuries, rumors and a low batting average … and the guy STILL has a 145 OPS+, good for seventh in the AL.

      7. Tim Lincecum, SP, Giants
      The Freak is pitching even better this year (10-2, 2.27 ERA, league-leading 159 K’s) than last year, when he won the Cy Young.

      8. Dan Haren, SP, Diamondbacks
      League is hitting .187 against him and he has a strikeout-to-walk ratio of 137-18. Baseball hasn’t seen anything like that since the heyday of Pedro.

      9. Johan Santana, SP, Mets
      He was 2-4 with a 6.19 ERA in six June starts and people screamed that he was done. But Santana is a demon in the second half … and sure enough he has not allowed a run in his last two starts.

      10. Roy Halladay, SP, Blue Jays
      Not sure where he will be pitching … but he will dominate. A handful of the people in the world can throw 93-mph fastballs that sink. A handful of people can pitch with pinpoint control. One man can do both.

      It’s hard to argue Pujols being in the top spot and with how good Mauer has been this season (especially considering how there were huge concerns about his back in spring training) I’m not going to debate Posanski about his second slot either.

      But I guess I’m a little confused about his ranking system overall. He says that he’s doing a top 100 of players RIGHT NOW (to use his exact phrasing of the words “RIGHT NOW”), but what does that mean? Over the past two weeks? Over the past couple days? Over the entire course of the season – what?

      Because if it’s over the entire course of the season, he’s got A-Rod way too high and I don’t think Johan Santana should be ranked ahead of Roy Halladay either. Also, and I know I might catch some flack for this, but I think Lincecum is the best pitcher in baseball right now. Greinke has been absolutely phenomenal, but Lincecum just recently went 29 innings without giving up an earned run and could easily have 13 or 14 wins if it weren’t for the Giants’ pathetic use for an offense.

      But hey, as with any ranking, you can debate every slot 1 through 100 and I like the feature on a whole.

      MLB

      Six Pack of Observations: 2009 All-Star Game

      July 15, 2009 /

      The American League was once again victorious over the National League in the Midsummer Classic, as the AL topped the NL 4-3 to run its unbeaten streak in the All-Star Game to 13. Below are six quick-hit observations from the game.

      1. Carl Crawford is a bad man.
      How many times when you were growing up did you go in the backyard by yourself, stand up against a fence and practice robbing home runs? Crawford’s highway robbery of Brad Hawpe in the seventh to preserve the 3-3 tie was the play of the game. The way he sprinted to the wall and timed his jump to make the catch was flat out sweet.

      2. The National League will never win another All-Star Game…again.
      Or so it seems. It’s not like the NL is getting blown out, but 13 straight years without a win? How does that happen? It’s not like the NL was devoid of talent with names like Pujols, Fielder and Lincecum gracing its roster. But the league can just never get over the hump and the AL’s dominance over the past 13 years has been impressive.

      3. Tim Lincecum was incredibly nervous.
      Or too hyped up, either way, you didn’t see the best he had to offer tonight. You could tell the excitement of the game got to him, because most of his pitchers were missing high and he had no command of his changeup, which is usually un-hittable. I don’t blame the young man (pitching in his first ASG) for being a little wound up, but I was excited for Lincecum to show the nation what kind of talent he has and it just wasn’t in the cards.

      4. Great piece of hitting by Fielder, Mauer and Jones.
      You know what the difference is between All-Stars and your run-of-the-mill major leaguers? They can go opp-o. Prince Fielder, Joe Mauer and Adam Jones all displayed great opposite field hitting tonight and that’s a skill often overlooked in the baseball world these days.

      5. Mariano Rivera has still got it.
      Watching this guy pitch over the past decade has been an absolute treat. It’s amazing – even after all of these years, when he comes into a game you know it’s essentially over. Although I will say this, I would have loved to have seen Ryan Franklin get an opportunity to save the game in the 9th with the NL leading because he has been flat out un-hittable this season. If you blinked at all in the third inning, you probably missed Franklin’s ASG outing, because that’s how quick he ran through the AL hitting.

      6. Nice AB, Jayson Werth.
      After Werth struck out to end the seventh inning, somewhere Matt Kemp and Pablo Sandoval said to themselves, “Hell, I could have done that.” It’s incredibly unfair to hammer Werth for striking out against Jonathan Papelbon because after all, many have struck out against the Boston closer. But Werth didn’t make his manager Charlie Manuel look too good with that AB, seeing as how the Philadelphia skipper chose his own guy over the equally deserving Kemp and Sandoval.

      MLB

      Lincecum, Halladay to start in All-Star Game

      July 13, 2009 /

      Giants’ ace Tim Lincecum will oppose Blue Jays’ starter Roy Halladay in tomorrow night’s All-Star Game from St. Louis. Lincecum is 10-2 at the break with a 2.33 ERA, while the “Doc” is 10-3 wit a 2.85 ERA.

      Albert Pujols will bat third for the NL behind Marlins’ shortstop Hanley Ramirez, who will bat leadoff, and Phillies’ second baseman Chase Utley, who will be in the two-hole. Brewers’ outfielder Ryan Braun will bat cleanup for the NL and be followed by Raul Ibanez (Phillies, left field), David Wright (Mets, third base), Shane Victorino (Phillies, centerfield) and Yadier Molina (Cardinals, catcher).

      The AL will have M’s right fielder Ichiro Suzuki leading off, followed by Yankees’ shortstop Derek Jeter and Twins’ catcher Joe Mauer. Yankees’ first baseman Mark Teixeira will bat cleanup, followed by Jason Bay (Red Sox, left field), Josh Hamilton (Rangers, centerfield), Evan Longoria (Rays, third base) and Aaron Hill (Blue Jays, second base).

      No word yet on when Dodgers outfielder Matt Kemp and Giants third baseman Pablo Sandoval will get in………….they didn’t get in? Jayson Werth? Jayson Werth?!

      Just kidding – Werth deserved to go. By no means did he and his .260 batting average get in only because Charlie Manuel is managing the NL.

      Again, just kidding. I know Werth has already popped 20 dingers and has driven in 56 runs this year. His numbers have been great both at home at that little league field Philadelphia calls a stadium, and on the road. I just hope for Manuel’s sake that Werth contributes, because Kemp and Sandoval have been freaking outstanding this year and deserved that final spot (the one that opened because of Carlos Beltran’s injury) as much as Werth did.

      MLB

      Giants can’t be quick to trade Jonathan Sanchez now

      July 11, 2009 /

      If you were to have gotten Giants general manager Brian Sabean all liquored up in a private setting (I know you’re probably weirded out by the start of this sentence, but stay with me here) and asked him which players he wouldn’t mind giving up in a trade to acquire a bat, he almost certainly would have uttered this name: Jonathan Sanchez.

      Hell, there’s a great chance he would have uttered that name first. But that was before Sanchez’s no-hitter against the Padres on Friday night, when he struck out 11 batters and was a Juan Uribe-error away from throwing a perfect game.

      The Giants had been waiting for that kind of performance all season out of Sanchez. Granted, they weren’t expecting that good of a performance, but they did have high expectations for him coming into the 2009 season.

      He did show flashes of brilliance earlier this season, most notably in a two-hit, 2-0 win over the Diamondbacks on April 17. But ’09 has mostly been a season of massive frustration for not only Sanchez, but also a Giants organization that had hoped the 26-year-old lefty would be the third leg of a tripod that also featured pitching sensations Tim Lincecum and Matt Cain.

      Sanchez has always been a strikeout pitcher, but for much of this season he struggled mightily with his control and he seemed to be racking up K’s only because he was wildly effective. And when he would start to struggle during games, he appeared to be a mental midget on the mound and could never recover.

      Continue reading »

      MLB

      Giants’ Sanchez throws a no-hitter against Padres

      July 10, 2009 /

      A San Francisco Giants’ starter has thrown a no-hitter.

      It must have been Tim Lincecum right?

      Nope.

      Matt Cain?

      Nope.

      Randy Johnson?!

      Nope.

      It wasn’t Barry Zito was it?

      Absolutely not.

      One night after Lincecum flirted with a similar feat, 26-year-old Jonathan Sanchez, coming off a recent demotion to the bullpen, threw a no-hitter against the Padres on Friday night as the Giants beat San Diego 8-0 at AT&T Park in San Francisco. It was the first no-hitter of the 2009 Major League season and the first Giants’ no-hitter since John Montefusco threw one in 1976.

      In his nine innings of domination, Sanchez struck out 11 batters in obviously his most dominant performance of his career. He did allow a base runner, but it was due to a Juan Uribe fielding error in the eighth inning. Had Uribe not booted the play (he misplayed a bad in-between hop), Sanchez could have had a perfect game.

      Speaking of fielding, Sanchez got an amazing gift from centerfielder Aaron Rowand in the ninth as he went back on a ball that was crushed by Edgar Gonzalez, leaped against the wall and made a terrific catch. Shortstop Edgar Renteria also made a fine play in the hole the play earlier.

      What’s amazing is that Sanchez wasn’t even supposed to pitch tonight (relatively speaking, that is). He was taken out of the starting rotation at the end of June and replaced by Ryan Sadowski after he started the season 2-8 with a 5.54 ERA. But an injury to Johnson gave Sanchez a start tonight and he obviously took full advantage of it.

      This was supposed to be Sanchez’s breakout season, but instead he struggled considerably with his control and would often get flustered after bad innings. His strikeout numbers have been consistently good, but he has been more wildly effective than anything. His name has even come up in numerous trade rumors, although considering Johnson’s injury and the fact that the Giants are in the thick of the NL Wild Card chase, they might hang onto Sanchez for the second half.

      No matter what Sanchez’s future holds, this was an amazing accomplishment. The Padres don’t exactly have the most potent offense, but Sanchez isn’t exactly Cy Young either. He was absolutely phenomenal and for a young man who has had so many struggles this season, he deserved this tonight and maybe he’ll use this performance as a stepping-stone to turn things around and have a great career.

      On a personal note, I was fortunate enough to watch every pitch of this game and it was absolutely thrilling as a baseball fan. They said on the broadcast that Sanchez’s dad, who had never seen his son pitch in the majors before tonight, flew to San Francisco yesterday to watch the game and was able to celebrate with Jonathan in the dugout afterward. It was a great scene.

      Congratulations to Jonathan Sanchez.

      MLB

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