Ringolsby: Lincecum needs change, not changeup

and now gets a pitching change…as he’s down 5-zip in the 6th.

Now, with his 28th birthday coming on Friday, the baseball world is waiting to find out just how good a pitcher Lincecum really is.

Giants fans are starting to freak out about The Freak. He ain’t what he used to be. Not even close.

Entering his start Sunday against the Texas Rangers, Lincecum was 2-6 with a 5.83 ERA, and the Giants were winless in his four starts in which he had no decision. That’s 10 losses for the Giants in Lincecum’s first 12 starts this season.

That’s not the way the Giants drew up the game plan during the offseason. After Lincecum rejected a five-year, $100 million contract that would have bought out his first three years of free agency, the two sides settled on a two-year, $40.5 million deal that takes Lincecum to free agency in the fall of 2013.

Right now, that’s a $59.5 million windfall for the Giants. They certainly haven’t gotten their money’s worth out of the right-hander so far this year, but at least they don’t have that extra three years of guaranteed money hanging over their heads.