Saturday, May 21, 2016

So Tim Lincecum Wasn't Worth $2.5 Million


You know I haven't ranted and raved in a while and while I know you guys get tired of the doom and gloom, the ranting and the talk about management letting the fans down and such but when the team gives me something else to talk about I'll happily take the lead. This winter I vouched for signing Tim Lincecum for much of the offseason and pleaded, hell I almost begged, for the Yankees to watch the former San Francisco Giants right-hander pitch but once again my pleas fell on deaf ears while the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim swooped him up for the low, low price of just $2.5 million. Too rich for Hal's blood I guess.

I think the thing that irked me the most is that the team didn't even watch him throw. Let's ignore the fact that CC Sabathia has already been on the disabled list once this season and let's ignore the fact that Michael Pineda and Luis Severino couldn't get out a Little League World Series team right now consistently and instead focus on some common sense. There is no such thing as too much pitching. That's the best problem to have. Let's also ignore the fact that the Yankees used this philosophy not so long ago under their former owner George Steinbrenner. All it costs was a plane ticket to watch him throw, that's it.

So long story short the Angels swooped in and signed Lincecum to a Major League deal worth $2.5 million. At the time of this writing the deal was agreed upon in principal and Lincecum had just passed his physical after degenerative hip surgery last September so the specifics have not been released. You have to figure that there will be a ton of incentives written into this contract leaving me to wonder what the Yankees had to lose here?

A plane ticket? $2.5 million plus incentives? Or their 2016 season? That is yet to be determined.

3 comments:

  1. Between 2012 and 2015, which spans 106 starts and 615.2 innings, Lincecum has an ERA of 4.68, WHIP of 1.402, a walk rate of 3.9 per 9 innings (including a career-high 4.5 last season), and we've seen his strikeout rate drop from 9.2 to 8.8 to 7.7 to 7.1 per 9 innings as well.

    And all of that was before having surgery on his degenerative hip.

    Now, yes... $2.5 million plus incentives is not a lot, and certainly affordable for the Yankees. However, the team does have pitching options outside of Tanaka, Eovaldi, Sabathia, Pineda, Severino, and Nova. Chad Green led the RailRiders in ERA after seven starts with them, and has earned another start in the Majors. Luis Cessa and Anthony Swarzak should get MLB starts before going outside the organization for help, too.

    Again, I understand that you and others want to see the Yankees do anything and everything to try and improve the team, but I don't believe they are in a situation where they have to throw all the crap they can find at the wall and see what sticks.

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    Replies
    1. My overall point with this article is not a frustration that the Yankees didn't sign Lincecum specifically. It is more that the organization doesn't seem to give a shit what is going on. They wouldn't even splurge for the plane ticket to go watch him throw. Leave all the stats from before the surgery at the door, this is a bit of a clean slate now.

      The Yankees have pitching problems and pitching depth problems, no one can argue that. If they won't even watch Lincecum throw what makes you believe that if the team is close in July and August that they will do ANYTHING to help.

      The sky isn't falling, totally not the reason for this post, but the level of caring is while we're simply going through the motions. It's frustrating.

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    2. Now that I totally agree with... At least check him out.

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Sorry for the Capatcha... Blame the Russians :)