Monday, April 16, 2007

Baseball Prospect Lookout: A name you should start looking out for.

The Team: San Francisco Giants

The Kid: Tim Lincecum

In 2006, Lincecum pitched in a few different places. Most notably was his college, Washington.

He started 17 games for the Huskies and pitched 125 and a third innings, ending the season with a 12 - 4 record. He also had a microscopic ERA of 1.94. He also had a nation-best and Pac-10 record 199 strikeouts.

Oh, and I almost forgot! He won the Golden Spikes Award, which honors the best amateur baseball player in the country.

On April 18th, Lincecum faced off against the UCLA Bruins, and won the game 5 - 0.

He struck out 18 batters that night.

Later in 2006, Lincecum joined the Single-A Salem Keizer Volcanoes. He only pitched in 2 games for them, and he only pitched 4 innings. He allowed only 1 hit, and didn't walk anyone. 10 of his 12 outs were strikeouts.

He was soon promoted to the Single-A-Advanced San Jose Giants. He started 6 games for them, and pitched 27 and two thirds innings.

ERA: 1.95
WHIP: (Walks and Hits per Innings Pitched): 0.90
Strike Outs: 48

Now it's 2007, and he's pitching in Triple A Fresno. In 2 games, he is 2 - 0 with a 0.00 ERA, and he has struck out 17 in his 12 innings pitched.

Have I mentioned yet that he has a filthy array of pitches, including a curveball to compliment his high 90's (and sometimes low 100's) fastball?

As soon as San Francisco suffers an injury to their pitching staff, or as soon as one of their starters falters a little too much, Lincecum will find his spot in the bigs, and be this year's Liriano/Verlander/Weaver.

Tick tock, tick tock. The wait is killing me.

3 comments:

eric nusbaum said...

you should mention the fact that he had his best game of the year against usc...and that he's probably going to wind up a closer.

He's a nice guy though and a pretty entertaining interview.

Vegas Dave said...

I wouldn't say he's PROBABLY going to wind up a closer, but it is a very real possibility that he takes the Papelbon route. Still, my guess is he'll be a starter.

eric nusbaum said...

They don't trust his endurance and durability because he has a kind of funny herky jerky delivery. The consensus is that he's a Tommy John waiting to happen.