Cubs drafted Tim Lincecum

GOI has talked about how bad Jim Hendryand the Cubs are at drafting. Well I stumbled across something stunning to me. Other people might have already knew, but I just learned that the Cubs drafted 25 year old, two time CY Young Tim Lincecum who is currently with the San Francisco Giants. The Cubs drafted Lincecum in the forty-eighth round (1,408th overall) of the 2003 MLB Draft. He was not a high pick, and most late picks do not sign if they are still College eligible. Lincecum was drafted by the Cubs after highschool, so he did not sign and went to College. Then he tested the waters again in 2005
and was selected by the Cleveland Indians in the forty-second round (1,261st overall) and did not sign so he went back to school. Then in 2006 he was a high pick and drafted tenth overall by the San Francisco Giants.

Lincecum at only 25 years old is 40–17, with a 2.90 era, 676 strkeouts, led the NL in strikeouts in 2008 and 2009,and has earned two CY Youngs (2008 and 2009)in only three seasons in the majors! He is one of the best pitchers in the game at 25 years old and should be for the nest few years with the chance to be one of the best of all time.

The proof the Cubs drafted him. It shows they were on top of their game to realize the talent he had then when not many people did to draft him in such a late round. They didn't realize how good he was because they didn't make a great push to sign him.

The Overall draft for the Cubs in 2003:



Maybe next time they have a gem they will sign him!

FJM: ESPN/ Tim Lincecum Edition

Here's excerpts from the ESPN article written about Tim Lincecum winning the NL Cy Young this year. You can read the full article here, but if you're smart enough to be on this blog, I wouldn't recommend it.

ESPN seem like that kid in your high school class who's a nice kid but just a little bit slow getting things. Kind of like Forrest Gump. He's trying so hard to learn the material, but you can't help but laugh at him anyway.

I'm going to hell.

Anyway, here's some of ESPN's hard hitting analysis and it's attempts to bring sabermetrics and advanced statistics into the mainstream

Lincecum, nicknamed "The Freak" for his giant stride, led the NL with 261 strikeouts and tied for the league lead with four complete games and two shutouts.

Well, at least they're getting off on the right foot. You know how us sabermetricians love to use complete games and shut outs as the basis for our Cy Young votes. That's why I've been advocating all year for Mark Buerhle to win the AL Cy Young.

The wiry right-hander attracts plenty of attention on the mound with his shoulder-length brown hair and twisting delivery. But it was his 15 victories -- the fewest for a Cy Young starter over a non-shortened season -- that were really noticeable for the award winner.

Yes, the fact that Lincecum plays a team with an offense worse than the Washington Nationals and on par with the Kansas City Royals. It wasn't the fact that this is Lincecum's second Cy Young in less than three years of being in MLB or the fact that he's fucking awesome that was the noticeable thing. Nope, it was 15 wins.

The 2009 honors for Lincecum and Kansas City Royals ace Zack Greinke reflect a recent shift in how pitchers are evaluated. The focus has changed to more developed statistics, including some that even take into account team defense.

What a novel concept! We use data that proves causal factors in determining how good a player as the basis for Cy Young awards and not wins!? These smart baseball writers are too confusing for my dumb little mind. My head can't comprehend this concept that once a pitch leaves the picthers hand, he really has no control whether that ball goes as a pop up or home run! How DARE ESPN take into team defense when evaluating a pitcher!

Also, I think Chris Rongey would disagree with you ESPN.

Greinke equaled the previous low of 16 wins for a non-shortened season when he won the AL award on Tuesday. Afterward, he talked all about FIP, a mathematician's dream that stands for Fielding Independent Pitching.

Oh, you mean a Kansas City Royals pitcher ALSO got a Cy Young. Well, too bad both guys are just shitty batters that they couldn't generate enough runs to help themselves win.

Also, when did FIP equal a mathematicians dream? That's like saying it's Steve Phillips dream to spend all of is free time going after ugly girls. Sure it SOUNDS like they go together, but do they really?

Plus, I thought FIP also was for loser bloggers who sit in their mother's basement? Why couldn't ESPN just say FIP = one of the best ways to measure how good a player is considering, um, it is?

Lincecum has his own favorite indicator.

"To say which one I look to the most, I would just say WHIP," he said, referring to walks plus hits allowed per inning, "just because you just limit the amount of baserunners that can hurt you."

Too bad Lincecum isn't as smart as Zach Greinke. Lincy's arm may be developed by NASA, but his head sure isn't.

...

Two voters, Will Carroll of Baseball Prospectus and Keith Law of ESPN.com, did not include Carpenter on their ballots. Carroll had Wainwright in the top spot, Lincecum second and Arizona's Dan Haren third. Law voted for Lincecum, Atlanta's Javier Vazquez and Wainwright in third. Those were the only votes for Haren and Vazquez.

You mean two really smart analysts who are aware of the causal reasons why a pitcher is good actually used logic and reasoning as the basis for voting and not their "eye" or anything like that! What silly people are getting Cy Young votes these days!

Lincecum's NL Cy Young Implications

Congratulations to Tim Lincecum, who just won his second (consecutive) Cy Young Award. Despite not getting the most first place votes (Wainwright did, but finished third), Lincecum undoubtedly deserved the baseball's highest pitching honor. His 261 Ks were the most in the NL. His 10.42 K/9 was the best amongst all pitchers in baseball who throw 150+ innings. Lincecum was top 5 in ERA, WHIP and FIP. Truth be told, his 2.34 FIP was second only to Greinke's 2.33 mark. Lincecum's 2009, like Greinke's 2009, was nothing short of dominant. It was better in every aspect to his outstanding 2008 campaign in every way except W's (which is a useless metric anyway). There is no doubt in my mind that Lincecum unanimously deserved the award over Carpenter, who had over 100 less Ks in 30 less innings, or Wainwright, who had a great season, but was not even top 10 in FIP or top 5 in ERA). In fact, if it was not for the Wins disparity, Lincecum would have probably gotten all of Carpenter and Wainwright's second place votes too, just for good measure.

That's two Cy Youngs in 2.5+ years of service. Lincecum is a Super Two this year. His arbitration potential in unheard of. Ryan Howard set the first year arb. award record in 2008, at $10 million. That was with only a single MVP to his name. Lincecum -- who has 676 Ks in less than 600 IP and a career WHIP of 1.15 -- stands to make more money than Free Agent SP John Lackey. He even has the potential to make more money than Matt Holliday, depending on the kind of long term deal Holliday is seeking.

Fangraphs valued Lincecum's +8.2 WAR 2009 season at $37.0 million. Only three players (Greinke (+9.4 WAR), Zobrist (+8.6 WAR) and Pujols (+8.4 WAR)) were more valuable last season. Bill James is predicting that Lincecum will almost exactly repeat his 2008 numbers (+7.5 WAR) in 2010. That would make Lincecum's performance worth between $30 and $35 million.

The good news for that Giants is that Lincecum is open to a long term deal. The bad news is how much Lincecum will probably cost. The Giants were dead last in wOBA/OPS last year and are in dire need of a quality hitter. According to MLBTR, the Giants' payroll stands to be around $80 million next season. They opened the 2009 season with an $82.6 million payroll, so the team seems a bit cash strapped at the moment. The Giants, however, will not have Lincecum forever and he's only going to get more expensive (just imagine the second year arbitration award potential if Lincecum were to pull off the three peat). SF has a great, young pitching staff and the window for winning will shrink as more core players (Sanchez, Sandoval, etc) get into the arbitration mix.

It's pure speculation on my part, but if the Giants have the money lying around, they should look into trading Jonathan Sanchez over to the Brewers for Prince Fielder. Sanchez is the kind of cheap, quality talent the Brewers are desperately seeking and Fielder is...well, Fielder. Can't hurt to add a .400+ wOBA bat to a .305 wOBA team. Sanchez might be too little to offer for Fielder, but maybe Matt Cain (also cost controlled)? Perhaps take a gamble and trade for Mat Gamel?

Suprise, Tim Lincecum is a hippie

Tim Lincecum, the Cy Young award pitcher who's delivery was engineered by rocket scientists, was pulled over for speeding at which point the officer smelled a certain fragrance, sometimes referred to as the hippie lettuce. Lincecum surrendered 3.3 grams of the pot to the officer and got to spend a few hours in the slammer. Considering he lives in San Fransisco, the officer could have found more disturbing things in the car...not that there's anything wrong with that. I guess Lincecum doesnt run on rocket fuel but druggy fuel.

He has entered a plea of not guilty and given the facts of the case i think he has a chance to come out clean. He was stopped at 8:30 in the morning. I have never met a pot head who gets up before 2pm so Lincecum obviously could not have been smoking. He was probably just holding on to it for a friend.