Baseball question: 2-2-2

I would have guessed ol' Cy Young himself except that he only won one World Series (of course the first 13 seasons of his 22-year career came before there was such a thing as a World Series) and it's damn hard to win an award that wasn't even created until you're dead.

 

511 wins? Compiler.

 

"Deuces wild."

 

I don't know what to make of Lincecum.

Is he the next Bret Saberhagen?

 

Saberhagen got hurt (several times actually), so that's not really a valid comparison. Same with Dwight Gooden, Luis Tiant, Fernando Valenzuela and Orel Hershiser.

I've been wracking my brain to come up with a comp for Lincecum, a guy who was so dominant early in his career then fell off sharply and became just another guy without getting hurt. Vida Blue maybe, but he had a cocaine problem (and wasn't ever as bad for an extended period as Lincecum is now until very late in his career).

 

I don't think there's a Timmy comp. I mean, look at the guys he compares to on a list of achievements.

And yet at age 28 he was the single worst starting pitcher in all of major league baseball.

 

Saberhagen was terribly inconsistent even before he got injured. I remember how terrible he was after he won his first Cy Young. Then he was good in 1987, mediocre in 1988 and won the Cy Young in 1989.

I think his first big injury was in 1990.

 

It was almost surreal to watch him pitch middle relief in the 2012 playoffs.

 

He actually had a sore shoulder and elbow for much of 1986 (when he was limited to 25 starts).

http://articles.latimes.com/1986-09-17/sports/sp-10587_1_problems

And his 1988 season was essentially league average. Then in 1990 he started getting hurt, but was never all that bad when he was healthy until he went to the Rockies in 1995.

As LTL said, Lincecum went from finishing in the Top 10 in the Cy Young balloting four straight years to the worst pitcher in baseball seemingly overnight. And he's never been hurt, as far as we know.

I did have one idea for a comp: Hideo Nomo.

Both relied on deception in addition to filthy stuff.

Nomo's decline also happened at about the same age (28), though he didn't have as long an MLB track record due to pitching in Japan.

http://www.baseball-reference.com/players/n/nomohi01.shtml

 

A topper -- Elias says Lincecum was the first pitcher to reach base three times in a no-hitter since Palmer in 1969.

Of course, for overall hitting/pitching dominance, you have to go with Rick Wise's 2-HR no-no in 1971.

 

Orioles swept. Baltimore Sun headline: "Do You Believe It? Four Straight"