Tag: Tim Lincecum (Page 9 of 14)

Courts let Tim Lincecum off easy

Lincecum

I think Geovany Soto put something else in those brownies. Someone help me!

If you take a good look at Tim Lincecum, you wouldn’t think the 25 year-old is a former Cy Young winner who is possibly the most challenging pitcher in the National League. No, you wouldn’t. You would, however, guess that he liked to hit the pipe every now and then. Tim Lincecum looks like the type of guy that drives 15 mph over the speed limit with 3 grams of weed in his car on Interstate 5.

Regardless, none of us think any less of The Freak and apparently prosecutors in Clark County, WA don’t give a damn either.

The Vancouver, Wash., newspaper said Clark County prosecutors have reached a deal with a lawyer for the 2008 Cy Young Award winner that would result in a $250 fine for possessing a marijuana pipe.

The prosecutor told The Columbian “it could have been the kid next door” getting the same treatment. “The fact it’s a celebrity doesn’t mean he doesn’t get the same deal.”
Grant Hansen, a Clark County deputy prosecutor, told the newspaper his office is willing to dismiss a misdemeanor charge of possessing 3.3 grams of marijuana.

Schatzel said police consider the 3.3 grams a small amount for personal use, well below the maximum of 40 grams before possession is classified differently and carries a more severe penalty.

“It’s not really out of the ordinary. It happens every day,” Schatzel said about the volume of marijuana Lincecum handed over. “It was about the size of a thumb, the whole thumb.”

Lincecum still faces a $122 fine on the speeding citation.

I think he has the money.

Even though 3.3 grams isn’t all that much, he’s lucky to escape with a simple fine. From my understanding, most California courts would order the offender to take some drug classes.

They obviously run things a bit differently in Washington. Anything under 40 grams is the limit before they enact a harsher penalty? What are they smoking?

Giants’ ace Lincecum facing marijuana charges


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.

Mikey’s MLB power rankings

Pennant races this season are not quite as exciting as last season, but that doesn’t mean we won’t have a few good races in September. The power rankings this week have not changed much, but the Rockies and Rangers swapped places. The Rays, who were on the cusp of cracking the Top 10, traded Scott Kazmir to the Angels yesterday, making us all scratch our heads and wonder if they are conceding the race.

1. New York Yankees (80-48)—The first team to 80 victories is officially in cruise control. The question is, can they carry it over into the postseason? Because we all know how you-know-who performs in October.

2. Los Angeles Angels (76-51)—If newly acquired Scott Kazmir stays healthy, this scrappy Angels team could be wearing new jewelry. Then again, October has been none to kind to them recently as well.

3. St. Louis Cardinals (75-55)—The Cardinals now have a 9 game lead on the woe-as-me Cubs. The good franchises always add the right parts when they are in a pennant race, and Matt Holliday and John Smoltz are those guys for the Redbirds.

4. Philadelphia Phillies (74-52)—The Phils may have given the slightest ray of hope to the Marlins and Braves, but then they remembered that they were the world champs.

5. Los Angeles Dodgers (76-53)—Their lead over the Rockies shrunk to 2 games this past week. It’s now back to 4, but this NL West race is not going to be a landslide as everyone thought. In fact, it’s now a 3-team race.

6. Boston Red Sox (74-54)—Don’t think the Sox can’t still catch the Yankees. If not, they should be able to hang on to the wild card, and adding Billy Wagner certainly doesn’t hurt their chances.

7. Colorado Rockies (72-57)—The wild card is not what these Rockies have in mind, and they just keep right on winning and closing the gap.

8. Texas Rangers (71-56)—Slipping in the power rankings and slipping in their quest for a wild card berth.

9. San Francisco Giants (70-59)—Got a big lift from Lincecum last night against the Rockies, but Giants need to sweep this weekend if they want to remain in contention.

10. Detroit Tigers (68-59)—T-men hanging tough, but watch out for the surging Twins, is all I’m sayin’.

Jeff Passan’s 25 things you didn’t know about baseball

Skip

Jeff Passan of Yahoo! Sports recently discovered FanGraphs, a great baseball website which uses complicated algorithms to determine attributes about players. Passan compiled 25 intriguing stats that the common fan would never realize unless they went to this site.

1) The best fastball in baseball is 88.4 mph.

And it belongs to Jarrod Washburn. He also throws a slider, cutter, curveball and changeup, but his average-velocity fastball is the dagger of the bunch. At 22.4 runs above average this year, it has been more effective than the fastest (Ubaldo Jimenez) and the slowest (Jamie Moyer). The most amazing part: Washburn’s fastball was actually 8.3 runs below average last year.

6) The best pitch in baseball is a changeup, and you’ll never guess who throws it.

Tim Lincecum came up heralded for his blazing fastball and hammer curveball, and neither is close to his best pitch. Lincecum’s changeup has been 27.5 runs above average this year, the highest total for any pitch and almost double the second-best change, Brian Tallet’s 14-runs-above special. It’s not like Lincecum piles up the runs above average by throwing the changeup egregiously. His 5.62 runs above per 100 changeups thrown is also the best for that pitch.

15) One person has three pitches that are among the five best in runs above average.

More evidence that Dan Haren is the business: He’s got the best splitter in baseball (7.2 runs above average), the fourth-best cutter (13.7 above average) and the fifth-best fastball (19.3 above average).

25) Six players in baseball do not have a weakness on a specific pitch.

As you know, Pujols isn’t one of them. Joe Mauer is an easy guess, and it would be correct. Same with Cabrera, who has the privilege of being the only player above average in all six categories – knuckleball included. Torii Hunter(notes) just makes it, one-one hundredth a run in the black on curveballs, and his center field peer Adam Jones(notes) joins him. The two National League representatives come from the Central Division. Cincinnati first baseman Joey Votto(notes) is a monster. The other is not. He hits .292. He slugs .386. He is the epitome of utility. The final player without a weakness: Skip Schumaker(notes).

If I’m a professional baseball player, I’m checking this site everyday, as it reports useable statistics scouts are even missing. The people they have contributing to the site are all very serious and spend days mapping out an athlete’s progression or regression in various areas. Be sure to check out Passan’s entire list as well as the FanGraphs page.

And what about that Dan Haren? These stats show that he has the stuff of a Cy Young-worthy pitcher. It should either be he or Lincecum who ends up with the award in the NL. While the Diamonbacks have no chance of making the playoffs, at least Haren can accomplish this feat on his own. As for Lincecum, his team is looking better by the day.

Indians wanted Matt Cain for Victor Martinez

According to a report by Henry Schulman of the San Francisco Chronicle, the Indians wanted quite the haul from the Giants if they were to have acquired catcher Victor Martinez, who eventually wound up being traded to the Red Sox.

Sources said the Indians wanted a package led by either Matt Cain or Madison Bumgarner for Martinez, and the Giants are happy with a righty-lefty first base combo of Ryan Garko and Travis Ishikawa.

This report might not be true (after all, Schulman didn’t site his sources), but if it is, Cleveland GM Mark Shapiro had to have been hammered when he took the call from San Francisco GM Brian Sabean about V-Mart:

“Uh yeah, Mark? This is Brian Sabean from the Giants.”

“What can Brain I do for you Giants?”

“What? Is this Mark Shapiro from the Indians?”

“Yes siiiiiiiirrrrrrrrrrrrrr! Word up, man?”

“Uh yeah…hey listen Mark, I was wondering what kind of package you’d be looking for in a deal for Victor Martinez.”

“Matt Cain.”

“Matt Cain?”

“Matt Cain.”

“Are you drunk? Martinez is a good hitter, but he’s struggled this past month and he’s 30. Cain is only 24 and is a legit Cy Young candidate.”

“Fiiiiiiine…whatever, douche. Give me Madison Bumgarner then.”

“He’s our top pitching prospect! Seriously Mark, are you freaking sauced right now? And did you just call me a douche?”

“Tim Lincecum, Pablo Sandoval and Jonathan Sanchez….Sanchez can be the throw in.”

“Sober up, Mark.”

« Older posts Newer posts »