June 25, 2014

Tim Lincecum Throws 2nd No-Hitter Against Padres: San Francisco Giants hurler Tim Lincecum has thrown another no hitter against the San Diego Padres. He had six strikeouts and only one walk Wednesday in the 4-0 victory. The two-time NL Cy Young Award winner threw his first no-no against the Padres last July.

posted by rcade to baseball at 05:25 PM - 20 comments

And yet, no Padre has ever thrown a no-hitter. Getting a no-no against the Padres this year should come with an asterisk or something.

posted by LionIndex at 06:16 PM on June 25, 2014

The Padres have endured much karmic payback for dispatching the Cubs and taking the pennant in 1984. That just wasn't supposed to happen.

posted by beaverboard at 06:23 PM on June 25, 2014

rcade did not jinx the bid. Being a low or no jinx risk should make him all the more welcome during his pilgrimages to Rome.

posted by beaverboard at 06:28 PM on June 25, 2014

rcade did not jinx the bid.

Again, it's the Padres. Pretty hard to jinx it.

posted by LionIndex at 06:31 PM on June 25, 2014

There have been 41 no-hitters since 1998.

San Diego has been no-hit 5 times (including today).
Tampa Bay has been no-hit 5 times.
Both have been no-hit twice in a season (TB in 2010, SD in 2001)

No other team has been no-hit more than twice in that time, or more than once in a season.

posted by grum@work at 08:54 PM on June 25, 2014

Soooo...where does this put The Freak in the HOF hunt? Multiple Cy Youngs, multiple no-hitters, a World Series ring, All Star appearances. This is also the first multiple no-hitters by a Giants pitcher since Christy Mathewson about 110 years ago.

posted by NoMich at 09:57 PM on June 25, 2014

Soooo...where does this put The Freak in the HOF hunt?

He's 94 and 75 with a 3.54 career ERA. In 8 years he only has a positive WAR in 5. His ERA+ is 110. That's way down on this list. For comparison, Mike Mussina ERA+ is 123.

If you look at his Baseball-Reference page and scan down to his Hall of Fame stats (chances a current player will make the HoF) he's not even close, coming in at 391st among pitchers.

Grum might come along and open my eyes but I'm guessing he doesn't have a shot in hell unless he has a very serious career resurgence. And I don't see that happening.

posted by justgary at 10:23 PM on June 25, 2014

*poof*

The average HOF pitcher has the following stats:

260 wins, 182 losses, 3906 IP, 2.97 ERA, 122 ERA+ (That includes innings monsters like Young, Galvin, and Johnson, but also relievers like Gossage, Fingers, and Sutter, so I figure it all evens out.)

That means Lincecum needs to put up the following numbers for the rest of his career to be an "average" HOF pitcher:

166 wins, 107 losses, 2412 IP, 129 ERA+

That's (if you squint a bit) somewhere between Brett Saberhagen and Lefty Gomez for the rest of his career.

If you assume he only has to be a "bottom tier" HOF pitcher (no 300-game winners, no relievers, no ERA+ greater than the average listed above),

236 wins, 175 losses, 3645 IP, 117 ERA+

then he'll need to put up for the rest of his career:

142 wins, 100 losses, 2151 IP, 121 ERA+

If you look sideways at those stats, it's pretty close to Chris Carpenter's career.

Do I think he can do that? It's a bit early to make that kind of judgement for a pitcher that would be about 40% of the way through his career (if he makes these numbers). I'd bet against it simply because of his small frame and general "pitchers get injured" worry.

*poof*

posted by grum@work at 11:56 PM on June 25, 2014

HOF bonus points for wearing U.S. jersey in locker room after game.

posted by holden at 12:09 AM on June 26, 2014

Over the past 2 and a half years he's 25 and 34 with an ERA of 4.82 and the fastball is no longer special.

If Lincecum does turn himself int a HoFamer over the next decade he's going to deserve a hell of a lot of credit for a pretty amazing turnaround.

posted by justgary at 12:23 AM on June 26, 2014

Pretty sure NoMich meant the Stoner Hall of Fame.

posted by yerfatma at 07:59 AM on June 26, 2014

He also needs to get to work increasing his hobo-murdering if he wants to get into the Greg Maddux wing.

posted by Bonkers at 08:03 AM on June 26, 2014

He also needs to get to work increasing his hobo-murdering if he wants to get into the #### ###### wing.

Okay, we all know the rules, right? Say his name three times in a thread and one of us will die at his hands by the end of the year, so we don't want that to happen...

posted by grum@work at 08:18 AM on June 26, 2014

Fun with misleading stats:

Tim Lincecum becomes only the second pitcher to ever win multiple Cy Youngs, throw multiple no hitters and win multiple World Series.

I'll leave it for people to figure out the first pitcher.

posted by grum@work at 08:21 AM on June 26, 2014

Lince gets a few Smoltz points for doing well out of the bullpen.

I'm not going to go look it up, but I hope to hell that grum's mystery pitcher isn't Schilling.

posted by beaverboard at 09:20 AM on June 26, 2014

No, it's Sandy Koufax. 4 world series championships (twice as MVP), 4 no hitters, 3 CYs.

posted by LionIndex at 09:40 AM on June 26, 2014

Lince gets a few Smoltz points for doing well out of the bullpen.

Well, Lince's RP resume is only 9 innings more than former utility infielder Doug Dascenzo's sparkling 0.00 ERA resume. Sample sizes and such.

posted by dfleming at 09:57 AM on June 26, 2014

Dascenzo, for the record, was so unremarkable as a position player than his 1991 Score card position/photo ended up pretty confusing.

posted by dfleming at 10:02 AM on June 26, 2014

Koufax is kind of relevant too, since once NoMich asked the HOF question, I immediately wondered whether Lincecum's streak of good years would be any match for Koufax's, as long as we're talking about HOF pitchers that burned brightly for a short while. And, apparently not.

posted by LionIndex at 10:38 AM on June 26, 2014

Lince gets a few Smoltz points for doing well out of the bullpen.

I would guess that the bullpen is where Lincecum could get back on a HoF track, but he's got a very long way to go.

posted by justgary at 11:35 AM on June 26, 2014

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