Tim Lincecum Smart Deal For Giants

One way or another, artbitration or face-to-face negotiations, Tim Lincecum was going to get big money to pitch for the San Francisco Giants this year. So the Giants pre-empting the arbitration process with a large stack of greenbacks to tie up one of the best young arms in the game for two years was a worthwhile investment.

Lincecum is basically San Francisco’s hottest property. He is four years into a career that at this pace could make him a Hall of Fame candidate. So getting his autograph on a contract was not only wise, but imperative for the Giants unless they want to sink to the bottom of McCovey Cove. The Giants will pay Lincecum a $500,000 signing bonus (Almost irrelevant unless Lincecum has a cash-flow problem, and in how many walks of life can one say that $500,000 is irrelevant?). They will pay him $18 million to pitch in 2012 and $22 million to pitch in 2013.

Unlike Albert Pujols and Prince Fielder, who are seemingly signing contracts for life, Lincecum, who is just 27, will be tied up only for two years. He can be a free agent for the 2014 season and if he keeps up the kind of work he has been doing for the Giants since he rose from obscurity to prominence abruptly a few years ago, he will have sultans of countries seeking to bestow treasure upon him at that time.

In four seasons, Lincecum has been a four-time National League All-Star, a three-time NL strikeout champion, and won two Cy Young Awards. His record is 69-41 with a 2.98 earned run average and although it already seems like a long time ago, it should be remembered that Lincecum led the Giants to a 2010 World Series championship, the franchise’s first title since it was located in New York more than a half century ago.

Looking at that resume, the Giants pretty much had to give Lincecum anything he wanted to keep him. Management would have been booed out of town by an angry fan base if it did not please Lincecum. The Giants, the fans, all of baseball, hopes what we have seen from Lincecum at this early date in his career is just the beginning and that the young man has the talent, the health and good fortune to keep rolling the way he has been going.

When he first came up to the majors there was concern that Lincecum was an arm injury waiting to happen because he has a quirky wind-up and delivery. So far, so good. He is just unique, apparently not injury-prone.

By all accounts, Lincecum is a good guy, fun to be around, most assuredly fun to watch, and he gets the job done. The only problem Lincecum has had is not peculiar to him, but to the entire team. The Giants cannot hit. Their batting production is pathetic. Lincecum finished 13-14 in 2011 even with the fourth best ERA in the league at 2.74. Hard to believe, but in 10 different starts the Giants scored zero runs for Lincecum and 21 times they scored two runs or less. Unless he was going to pitch a shutout every game the poor guy didn’t have much of a chance. The Giants were the ones who should have emptied the vault for Prince Fielder.

Did Lincecum only sign a two-year deal because it was an ultimatum to the Giants that they’d better get some hitters in the lineup or he will be out of there when the contract is up? No one could blame him if things stay like this. In the meantime, Lincecum will just keep plowing through opposing team batting orders, striking out most of the threats as he goes.