The Chad Bills Vs. T. Lincecum Debate Such As It Is

First of all I'd like to once again thank the Tragic Illness chat room for its help. I just could not do this blog without the daily gold mined in that baseball Romper Room. People like Phattonez7, Justinincredibly14 and Bill Grabarkewitz, I thank you from the bottom of my curmudgeon heart. Seriously, you come with some awesome, eh, stuff, and you never disappoint.

We here at Veryolddodgerfan salute you and those like you.

A couple weeks back while I was still allowed in the Tragic Illness chat room I read what I thought was an absurd post about how Chad Billingsly was now a much better pitcher than Tim Lincecum. And not only that but the STATS showed Chad has favorably compared to Timmy for years now. If given the choice of getting Chad or Tim, some Tragic Illness people would obviously choose Chad.

AND Tim Lincecum was pretty much done as a pitcher as he was going to REGRESSION himself or something like that right out of major league baseball. His velocity is dropping like a stone and more, eh,  stuff, like that.

I had read something about his problems this year and saw that his ERA was astronomical although his standard more-than-1K-an-inning was still intact. So I looked forward to seeing this all but broken down former great pitcher on his final legs throw his weak-assed stuff up against the Dodgers.

So what's my scouting report on Lincecum? Bottom line: He doesn't need to rush out and look for work anytime soon. Crisis averted.

His fast ball ranges between 90-92. He's got a four-seamer. A sharp breaking curve ball. A slider. And a still very competent change. He has pitches in the 70, 80 and 90 MPH categories. He's obviously not dominant anymore but missing bats for starters is not a must. Most pitching coaches tell you they rather have starters hit bats so they conserve pitches. If you have the batters off balance it doesn't matter how hard you throw, they're not hitting it on the sweet spot which is by far the most important thing.

Chad was Chad. A talented underachiever. I like Chad. He's an excellent No. 4 starter to have under team control. Occasionally he won't pitch well and occasionally he will pitch great. But everything in between should give the Dodgers a chance to win. Just don't forget he's a No. 4 starter and gauge your expectations accordingly.

Lincecum on the other hand is in transition. His fast ball is not going to be his out pitch anymore. And he was obviously not in command of all his still above average pitches. The guy is smart and as long as he's not too stubborn he'll be a very competent pitcher that you can depend on for several more years.

Against the Dodgers Lincecum strike out 8, gave up 4 hits, walked one and the closest the Dodgers came to a run was Chad Bills getting thrown out at the plate on a wild pitch. Meanwhile Chad was walking in a run and moonwalking his mediocre tightrope as he often does. The Tragic folks pooh pooh Tim's results because it's against the Dodgers. But what the Dodgers do best is WALK and they couldn't get it done against the hasbeen Lincecum.

 I like Chad. But the thinking behind saying you rather have Chad than Tim could set the human race back hundreds of years.

My Favorite Tragedy Of The Day from Bill Grabarkewitz. Sometimes you hope the Sabre Kids will take their eyes off the computer screen for a second and actually watch ball games and maybe learn something about baseball. Didn't work this time.

Bill Grabarkewitz 233 pts

Things I noticed today:

Bills looked really good out there. Confident and relatively sharp. I was surprised, but gratified.

Timmy did not look good. A decent team would have been all over him.

The Dodgers looked so bad that I didn't get any of the usual "Dodgers suck" crap.

Giant fans still arrive late, drink early, and drink like fish.

Now from the mostly adult chat room at Dodgerthoughts:

Terry PruettCollapse

I'd prefer Lincecum, of course. Any sane person would prefer him. And...he has the kind of pitching aptitude that will allow him to be very successful once he adjusts to diminished fastball velocity. He has struggled this season while making that adjustment in my view...but he WILL make it.