Le Egg Freak.
Yet Lincecum also ruminated on the subject of control, and accepting what is out of his sphere of influence.
“Yeah, sometimes you over-think,” he said. “You’re like, `Well, maybe I should stop worrying about things I can’t control.’ And there are times out there where you’re trying to control everything because as a pitcher the game starts with you.
“It’s the fine line of letting your defense do the work and controlling what you can control and eliminating the rest.”
All of this was so much easier when Lincecum was throwing 94-96 mph and was leading the league in strikeouts. He was at 90-92 mph in that stressful first inning, and worked anywhere from 89-91 after that. To strike out the same number of batters, it stands to reason that he’ll need to expand the zone. But that’s a temptation he finds himself resisting, too.
“Definitely, it’s making those better two-strike pitches,” Lincecum said. “In the back of my mind I think I can’t waste too many pitches because I’m aware that I walked a s—-load of batters last year. So it’s that fine line of knowing when you can throw a bad pitch or a waste pitch, and I’m still learning that.”
Repoz
Posted: April 17, 2012 at 04:57 AM |
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1. Chase Insteadman Wannabe Posted: April 17, 2012 at 12:53 PM (#4108903)Mickey Rivers can straighten him out
Strikeouts, 2011 National League
1. Kershaw (LAD) 248
2. Lee (PHI) 238
3. Halladay (PHI) 220
Lincecum (SFG) 220
Strikeouts, 2010 National League
1. Lincecum (SFG) 231
2. Halladay (PHI) 219
3. Jimenez (COL) 214
Yes ... strikeouts are the problem.
The issue is the 29.2% LD rate. While that's unsustainably bad, even with regression it could be an issue if his stuff is going to stay this flat.
.435 BABIP--yikes!
29.2% LD rate suggests that's not all luck. If you're grooving meatballs, DIPS theory won't save you.
This early in the season, with a pitcher with a long history of excellence, a crazy high BABIP or LD% has to be assumed to be a fluke.
This early in the season, with a pitcher with a long history of excellence, a crazy high BABIP or LD% has to be assumed to be a fluke.
With his velocity down 1.9 MPH from last year? By eyeball the worst 3 game stretch of his career?
If you're living up in the zone, with a diminished fast ball, you could easily see a lot of Ks and a lot of frozen ropes.
This makes me think he's still got great stuff but he's been a bit predictable. Guys are guessing right more often and hitting him hard but when they don't guess right they still have no chance. If he didn't have great stuff he wouldn't be notching the Ks at a high rate (and to Dan's point the K rate is still very very good even if it's down a bit).
The problem is, his velocity is way down. I'm guessing injury.
Paging Dr. Andrews, Dr. Jobe, Dr. Howard...
The velocity thing is so overplayed. His big velocity drop happened about three years ago, he's not that far off of his 2010 (91.2 mph). It's a small sample thus far and I'm inclined to think it's a minor mechanical issue that he will work out as the year goes on. He only really had plus-speed on his fastball in '07-'08 when he was throwing 2/3rds fastballs - he's been mixing in a two-seamer and slider since then.
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