Yep indeedy.  This Tuesday, November 11, is the date which MLB has chosen to announce the National League Cy Young winner is Tim Lincecum.  Um...I meant they are announcing the recipient of the award.  It should be Tim Lincecum but sometimes people are dumb.

In any case, we have not had a Timmy Day in a while and it is with great hope that we can have a final stirring Timmy Day to close out the 2008 season.  I know that I have been struggling to focus on the GM meetings in large part because until the award is announced, I am still stuck in 2008.

Anyone else feel this way?  Anyone else excited and counting the seconds (approximately 240,000 if my really quick estimate is correct) until we get some much needed validation.  I don't know why but as much as life goes on with a snub, I feel that this award would be more than just a personal achievement for Timmy, it would be a prize for all of the fans.

The votes are cast, the ballots are drawn, the polls are closed.  It's just a couple days now.  Anyone want to share a Lincecum memory?

I have two.  My father has been raving on and on about his seats for the last game of the season.  Tenth row, third base side.  He had watched Timmy but never like this and he's been marvelling ever since.  I began hyping Timmy a couple days after he was drafted but dad didn't really listen.  It does the heart joy to see him on the bandwagon.

My own personal lincecum moment was at his final minor league start.  I sat right behind the plate, front row, and watched in awe as batter after batter flailed away.  Many walked from the plate with their head shaking.  I had never seen a pitcher with such filthy stuff from such a viewing angle.  Hopefully I can do that again.

And a small comment on Cain.  He seems to be an object of much debate recently.  Some people say trade him for a bat, others say keep him.  Me?  I say keep him for one really simple reason: he loves it here.  He did not have a baseball loyalty growing up and the Giants are the first team he has actively rooted for.  He has no intention of ever leaving, from what I have read.  He seems to be a simple country southerner.  We could keep him forever at affordable rates.  Trading him might help him improve quicker as he would likely be very upset and focused on showing we made a mistake.

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I'm curious what strategies you have come up with that you think would be of benefit on a big league diamond.

My first/main one is when to bring in relievers.  Barring injury, they are almost always brought in at the start of an at-bat.  On occasion a pitcher will be so bad that he gets the yank in the middle of an at-bat, but this is rare.

I would like to see relievers brought in in the middle of at-bats.  In my mind, if you change pitchers during the at-bat, you put the batter in a really bad situation.  Take this: it's a 1-2 count and you have a reliever ready to go who trhows from the other side.  You could stick with current pitcher or bring in the other guy for a VERY high percentage of getting a K.  If you are planning on switching anyway, who cares if you upset your pitcher...the goal is to get the guy out. 

This would backfire when the new guy couldn't find the zone, but most often a reliever who knows they just have to throw that one nasty strike will be able to come out of pen and do it. 

You see what I'm getting at?

My other idea is to steal home more often.  Not in the early innings, but how often do you have a guy w/ speed at 3rd, in the bottom of the ninth, two outs, weak hitter up, down by a run?  It's pretty common to see that or something similar.  Usually the manager just tries to eke out a hit. 

A good OBP is around .400, so that means that 60% of the time, at least, it is game over.  I don't know what the stat is, but I imagine straight steals of home are in the same range of success.  This could be done often, of course, or the opposition would expect it.  Many closers don't hold runners on well, and can be somewhat wild.  I'm sure you have seen steals of home succeed because the pitcher overthrew and didn't set the catcher up well.

In any case, I think stealing home in the right situation would pay off more often than doing the standard try to get the ball in play against this K machine closer who throws a million miles an hour, strikes out everyone, and picks his nose during on screen interviews.

I'm sure there are more ideas out there, please share.

I am sure just about everyone knows that Cain is the adopted son of this website.  The funny thing is that people like to pretend that Cain sucks and will never be better than third best.  Even his gameday threads are full of this negativity.

I would like to see everyone be positive about him in his starts.  There is a lot to be said about positive energy, and when all the things that are said are negative, it could potentially effect his play on the field.  Who knows, maybe he reads this website and has a lower self-opinion because he thinks we all think he sucks.  This is doubtful, though.

In any case, he has a couple more starts this year.  Let's be positive and refrain from the jokes unless they are of a positive variety.  I honestly don't expect this post to be taken seriously, as the only thing that people seem to really care about is pitch counts.  But a guy can dream. 

The way I see it, we could try the positivity thing starting tomorrow and then continue the first month or two next year.  If his results are the same, go back to the silliness.  If he pitches as well as we mostly believe he can, then I will be vindicated or something. 

I would say that he has lived up to the expectations that are presented by many peoples posts.  He's been okay, but has not really lived up to his potential.  The thing is, if you take a step back and just view the comments and his performance they are pretty much in step.  But...and this is key, if the only real control we have over anything that happens on the field is simply the attitude that we take towards the games, perhaps if we can change, he will respond in kind.

#1 pick?

He is perfect through four innings with eight strikeouts.  I dunno how fast he is throwing due to lack of MPH in China or this broadcast, but 154 KMH seems fast.  He definitely has the look of a pitcher.  I would not be unhappy to see him show up at our door.  It's doable, we just have to get better at not winning so much for the next six weeks.  We can do it!

Happy birthday Barry Bonds!  You are now kind of old but that is okay because we still love you.  It also happens to be my cats birthday, too.  He is five years old and if you had his personality you would be the most popular baseball player ever.  But you are not a cat, you are you and that is just fine.  Flaws and all, you were the best I have ever seen.

Happy birthday to you

Happy birthday to you

Happy birthday dear Baaaaarry (even though all those colluding motherfucking asshole owners are trying to ruin your year by being complete chickenshit dickholes)

Happy biiiiiiiiiiiiiiirthday to you!

COLLUSION!!!

The Yankees have signed Sexson.  There is absolutely no way you can convince me that he will help them in any way more than Bonds would.  Not that the Yankees have problems drawing fans on the road or home but any game that was not sold out already would definitely sell more tickets.  Therefore they would make more money with Bonds.

Offensively they are taking a guy who was dropped by one of the worst teams in the league rather than THE ALL TIME FUCKING HOME RUN KING!!!  I hope the Red Sox sign him out of spite and then pee all over the Yankees dugout.

There is definitely collusion going on.  I really hope that some sort of lawsuit or whatever sticks and the owners get their asses hammered.  This is just ridiculous.  A guy who doesn't like the media gets buttfucked by said media and all the asshat owners follow suit or something.  Fuck Bud Selig, too. Yer an asshole, Bud.  You will go down as the worst "commish" this league has ever or will ever see.  Money isn't everything.

GRAGAAFDAD RABBLE ag;lkjal;fdjakl;sd afUCK

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The futures game should be starting in the next half hour or so.  The Giants have four representatives:

US Team -

Kevin Pucetas (for some reason) SP (Not the MadBum)

Nate Schierholtz OF

World Team -

Pablo Sandoval C

Angel Villalona 1B

The game is on ESPN2.  The broadcast is set to begin at 9:30 AM, PST.  I am trying to find the lineups but am failing miserably so far.  Ah found em:

World:

Ivan DeJesus, 2B
Elvis Andrus, SS
Wilkin Ramirez, LF
Pablo Sandoval, 1B
Luke Hughes, 3B
Scott Campbell, DH
Fernando Martinez, CF
Welington Castillo, C
Gorkys Hernandez, RF

Carlos Carrasco SP

US:

Andrew McCutchen, LF
Cliff Pennington, 2B
Mat Gamel, 3B
Jamie D'Antona, DH
Nate Schierholtz, RF
Matt LaPorta, 1B
Dexter Fowler, CF
Lou Marson, C
Jason Donald, SS

Clayton Richard SP

So Angel is not starting and since he is the main thing that most of us want to see the game already is a bit of a bummer.  Sandoval should be interesting to see.  Hopefully they get AnVil in there early enough for more than one at bat.  How do these futures games work anyway?

Just sit back and ponder this very simple statement:

Tim Lincecum is going to get better.

True, a person could argue that it is possible that he has already peaked and that just as he is a completely different pitcher from any we have seen before, it is possible his maturity is going to be completely different.  The future is cloudy and we can not say with certainty exactly what will happen.  I do feel that this is neccessary to mention if for no reason other than to take the words out of some other posters mouth.

The reality that I see is that he is currently one of the ten best pitchers in the league.  He is arguably one of the five best.  It is even possible to say he already is the best.  The only things that raise that number to ten are his youth and inexperience.

Based on his youth and inexperience we can expect improvement and possibly a great bit.  Typically a pitcher comes into the league and takes at least a few years to peak.  In watching Tim this year, I think we can all say that he is a better pitcher now than he was in his first start of the year.  When there are runners in scoring position, who can honestly say they expect him to let them in. 

When you rule out the strange possiblity that his growth will be a total aberration and just look at the history of this game, there seems to be one conclusion: Tim Lincecum is going to get better.

A lot better.