Tim Lincecum hit-and-miss in first minor-league start for Angels
Tim Lincecum pitched in an actual baseball game for the first time in nearly a year Thursday night, making a start for the Los Angeles Angels’ Triple-A team — and early on, the rust definitely showed.
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The first three batters he faced when like this: A single, a double and a walk. Then Lincecum stumbled on the mound and got called for a balk, which brought home a run. He would allow three runs in the first two innings. But the 31-year-old righty eventually settled down, and retired nine straight before he was pulled from the game after five innings.
The start, like Lincecum’s career as a whole, is best described as hit and miss. His final line for the Salt Lake Bees: five innings, three hits, three runs, five strikeouts and three walks. Reports from the scene indicate that his fastball was sitting between 89 and 91 mph.
Lincecum is finished (tonight). 3 runs in 5 innings. Maybe 5ks? Fun to watch. @SaltLakeBees @SFGiants @uw_baseball pic.twitter.com/tVQ8tRRRS4
— Drew Mikkelsen (@drewmikkelsenk5) June 3, 2016
His start wasn’t wowing, but it wasn’t disappointing either. It was Lincecum as we’ve seen him in recent years: good in glimpses, rough in others. Lincecum won two Cy Young awards with the San Francisco Giants early in his career and became one of the most popular players in baseball — aided by his unconventional delivery and smaller-than-normal stature. They called him “The Freak” and his talent was freaky in those early years. But Lincecum’s velocity dropped, then his inconsistency rose. He hadn’t finished a season with an ERA under 4.00 since 2011, sometimes getting sent to the bullpen for the Giants.
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He’s trying to make a fresh start now, having signed a one-year deal with the Angels two weeks ago. Lincecum’s season ended prematurely in 2015 when he needed hip surgery. He returned, supposedly, as a new-and-improved version of himself, with some of his velocity back now that his hips felt better.
A few teams, included the Giants, tried to sign him, but Lincecum opted for Anaheim, where the Angels offered a chance to start for a West Coast team.
The plan is to bring Lincecum to the big leagues later this month, but for now, he’s shaking off the rust in Triple-A. One start isn’t a fair barometer for any pitcher — but it’s especially unfair for a pitcher coming off hip surgery and tossing the ball for the first time since June 27 of last year.
We’ll see more from Lincecum soon enough. For now, he was neither great nor horrible. He was somewhere in the middle, which is about what you’d expect.
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Mike Oz is the editor of Big League Stew on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at [email protected] or follow him on Twitter! Follow @MikeOz
