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.
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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.
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