NO SUCH THING AS TOO MUCH TIM LINCECUM

The Giants' Tim Lincecum starts for the National League tonight in the

All-Star Game, and in a perfect world I would love to see Lincecum pitch all

nine innings. Why not? When you see Lincecum pitch, you get greedy. You can't

get enough.

''Tim is pitching as well as I have ever seen anybody pitch in my years of

baseball both as a player and a manager,'' said Giants manager Bruce Bochy,

who began playing pro ball in 1975.

That's not a compliment as much as it is a knighting. One wants to see Sir

Tim Lincecum take on those big hairy hitters like Derek Jeter, Ichiro Suzuki,

Mark Teixeira, Evan Longoria, Jason Bay. OK, so maybe they aren't all that big

and hairy, unless compared with Sir Tim, who resembles a sophomore who plays

trombone in his high school marching band. Ichiro looks like his grandpa.

''Now everyone gets to see him,'' said Bochy.

Lincecum is by no means faceless. You don't remain anonymous winning a Cy

Young in your first full season in the majors, but the Giants haven't been

must-see programming for a few years now. Lincecum is one of the reasons that

is changing and therein lies the irony of this All-Star Game.

This may be as good as it gets for the Giants in 2009, Lincecum starting

the All-Star Game.

See, the Giants got up this All-Star morning and found themselves in the

hunt. It's like waking and finding a new Ferrari in the driveway. Of course

they say they are not surprised. Of course they had to say it. Otherwise

they'll reveal they believe they are a house of cards, one stiff breeze from

collapse, with the fans staying home except when Matt Cain and Lincecum pitch.

An urgency covers this franchise, an urgency the franchise never expected,

at least not this year. But with the bulk of the teams in the NL West looking

like they can't get out of their own way, the Giants could feast on the

carrion of dead-in-the-water Arizona and San Diego, smack vulnerable Colorado

upside the head and slide into the wild card.

How urgent do the Giants feel? THIS urgent.

''I assume Madison Bumgarner is a September call-up,'' I asked Bochy about

his precocious 19-year-old who is tearing up the minors.

''Maybe sooner,'' Bochy said. ''He's a 19-year-old who pitches like he's

29.''

Of course, Bochy doesn't want to call up Bumgarner, who is 9-2 with a 1.66

ERA this season at Class-A San Jose and Double-A Connecticut. But Bumgarner

already has pitched for four minor-league teams in his short career, his ERA

not even cracking 2.00 at any stop, ascending the ladder five rungs at a time.

DoubleA is when the true prospects emerge, as rookie ball, instructional

league and A-ball weed out the batters with fatal gaps in their swings or

pitchers who have one-pitch stuff and can't hit a barn standing next to it.

In nine starts at Double-A Connecticut, Bumgarner is 6-1 with a 1.74 ERA.

If a player makes it to Double-A, he is judged to have major-league skills.

Only time will reveal how long it will take to develop those skills on a

consistent basis. Some never do.

The Giants, with the wild-card gift suddenly placed in front of them, may

be tempted not to wait for Bumgarner. If that happens, it will be for one very

good reason. The Giants can't make a sustainable and credible run at the

playoffs with only Cain and Lincecum the dependable starters. That much was

apparent when Bochy brought up Randy Johnson's name.

''We took a really big hit when RJ went down,'' Bochy said of Johnson, who

is on the disabled list with a strained left shoulder. ''He may be out three

weeks.'' When Bochy said that last sentence, he shrugged, clearly

uncomfortable.

Johnson will be 46 on Sept. 10. This is his fourth time on the disabled

list in the last 2 1/2 years, including a four-month stint in 2007.

Johnson is pitching on borrowed time; it was the risk the Giants took when

they signed him as a free agent in the offseason.

With a weak lineup, the Giants need to count on three starters to give them

a chance to play in October. With Johnson iffy, the only other option is Barry

Zito, but his 5-9 record and 5.01 ERA unfortunately make Zito dependable for

one thing. There's a better than even chance that in any particular game he

will be booed like Johnnie LeMaster.

''And I don't think adding one (power) bat in the lineup will make a

difference for your offense,'' I suggested to Bochy. ''You need at least two

bats (by the trading deadline).''

Bochy nodded but said nothing in return. Didn't have to. In order for the

Giants to get two quality hitters by July 31, they would have to give up some

if not all of their young pitching and teams would have a better chance of

extracting Bochy's bicuspid than San Francisco surrendering Bumgarner or Tim

Alderson, another hot prospect.

So, the Giants need Madison Bumgarner now. Unless, of course, they pitch

Sir Tim Lincecum every third day. Lincecum makes one greedy but even greed has

boundaries, and the Giants just missing the 2009 wild card may be that

boundary.

.

For more on North Bay sports, go to Bob Padecky's blog at

padecky.blogs.pressdemocrat.com. You can reach Staff Columnist Bob Padecky at

521-5223 or bob.padecky@pressdemocrat.com.