Scott Ostler put up an intriguing (to say the least… and not in a good way) article.
The old drug was Barry Bonds.
The new drug is Tim Lincecum.
The new drug has way fewer scary side effects. The side effects of the old drug included mood swings (from grumpy to surly), forgetfulness (“Why am I in my street clothes? I forgot you might need me to pinch-hit.”) and national scorn and ridicule.
The old drug still hit 54 HR in 707 AB while walking 247 times in 2006 and 2007 at age 41 and 42.
Giants fans weren’t so much fans as they were co-dependents. Enablers. San Francisco became a joke. Bonds’ fans, employers and teammates were viewed as apologists for, and worshipers of, a fraud.
Winning 76, 71, and 72 games were probably a larger reason for being a joke aside from Bonds.
Your old drug had the people skills of a cobra. Bonds redefined condescension. Your new drug flunked out of superstar school. Lincecum doesn’t seem to own a sneer.
And still had OPS’ of 1.008 and 1.045 despite hitting for a .270ish average. I’ll take that production over off field sneers and anti-people skills.
It might take awhile for the nation’s sports fans to join San Francisco in appreciating Lincecum. We’ve burned ‘em before. Consider the last several baseball heroes the Bay Area has foisted on the world – Jose Canseco, Mark McGwire, Jason Giambi, Miguel Tejada and Bonds.
Winning games could help too. You don’t see much scorn aimed at the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim after all. You also gave us Rickey Henderson and Dennis Eckersley so it hasn’t all been bad.
The good news is that the Giants whiffed on Manny Ramirez. Had they signed Manny and won, it would have been business as usual – San Francisco led by a giant Giant of questionable character.
Yup… and a guy who hit .396/.489/.743 over in Los Angeles for the Dodgers.
The bad news is that the Giants whiffed on Manny Ramirez, so America doesn’t have to start hating us again. And Lincecum, if he wins just 10 games for this team, will be a front-runner for the Cy Young Award again.
Apathy is clearly better and name me one Cy Young winner who won 10 games who wasn’t a reliever or closer. The reason he won the Cy Young was because he went 18-5 with a 2.62 ERA where the league average was 4.38.
They are considered a possible division contender. Name one other possible contender in baseball whose main pitching and offensive weapons are a skinny kid pitcher who doesn’t ice his arm, and a portly young hitter (Pablo Sandoval) with no real position, questionable hitting habits, and 145 big-league at-bats.
Named a contender by who? They still have to fight off the Dodgers and Arizona Diamondbacks first. And having two weapons isn’t a good thing (although Fred Lewis and Randy Winn are solid). Sandoval lucked out with a .340 BA last year, which he surely won’t repeat and averaging 1 BB every 36 AB isn’t a good sign.
Until San Francisco can average over 4 runs a game, I don’t think anybody will take them seriously as a division threat.
