Few pitchers have enjoyed a better start to a career than Tim Lincecum. The 26-year-old won the Cy Young Award in his first two full seasons in the bigs, leading the league in strikeouts both years.
2010, however, has been an entirely different story.
Lincecum lost all five of his starts in August, posting an ugly 7.82 ERA during the month to forget. For the first time in his career, he lost three starts in a row. People speculated about the reasons for Lincecum’s poor performance. Some attributed the struggles to having a new catcher, a drop in velocity, or poor conditioning — which is what manager Bruce Bochy said.
Whatever the reason, many people are down on the former Cy Young winner. In a good, wide-ranging notes column, Ken Rosenthal shares this item from a scout who said about Lincecum, “It will be an interesting question this winter: Where is he? What does he have left? I think he’ll end up in the bullpen.”
From Cy Young winner to just being a bullpen arm? Does that mean the scout thinks Lincecum will have arm trouble and lose durability? Even if his pitching has fallen off, I can’t imagine Lincecum becoming a reliever any time over the next few years. He’s not what he was the last two years, but that seems too extreme to me.
Regardless, we know one thing is for certain: there isn’t much more fragile than a pitcher’s arm. We’ve learned that countless times over the past few years.
Sources:
Would Jeter take less money for Yanks? [Ken Rosenthal/FOX Sports]
