Rusty's Player Projections: Tim Lincecum

*In every off-season, I will predict stat lines of most of the Giants for the upcoming season. These are usually determined pretty freely so don't be afraid to comment below with your own predictions.


Tim Lincecum is good. In his first two full seasons in the majors he won 2 Cy Young awards, a feat most pitchers dream of and rarely achieve. In those two seasons he was 33-13 with over 500 strikeouts and an accumulative ERA of 2.55.

Thats freakishly good.

And now the man known as "The Freak" entered last season poised for his third shiny Cy trophy. Unfortunately he took a step back as he had some of the worst months of pitching we had ever seen him throw, posting a 16-10 record with a 3.43 ERA and only 231 strikeouts (still lead the NL but his career low).

Not a great season, but passable for most teams. Not the Giants, we had expected more from our cherished ace. In the playoffs, Timmy made us all forget how mediocre he was and we remembered the Timmy we used to watch in awe.

In the Giants first post season game since 2003, Lincecum pitched a two-hit complete game shutout with 14 strikeouts against the Braves.

He was back.

The playoffs is where he thrived, pitching against big names such as Derek Lowe, Cliff Lee (twice) and Roy Halladay and knocking them all down with ease. He posted a 4-1 record with 43 strikeouts and a 2.43 ERA.

So without further adieu, here are my predictions for Tim Lincecum in 2011:

17-7 record
220 innings
2.52 ERA
245 strikeouts
0 haircuts

Feel free to post your own predictions for Tim Lincecum in the comments below!

Giants Reach Out to Renteria

Edgar Renteria won the 2010 World Series MVP award.

According to John Shea at the San Francisco Chronicle, the Giants have offered Edgar Renteria a Pat Burrell-type of contract ($1 million for 1 year) for the 2011 season.

Renteria, 33, hit the World Series winning home run for the giants last month, and was considered a hero that lead us down the market street parade.

Although he only played in 72 games due to an elbow injury, last year he hit .276/.332/.374 with 3 home runs and 22 RBI, not very productive for the veteran shortstop.

After the world series ended last month, the Giants declined his option to come back for a $10.5 million salary for next season, but it looks like they would like him to come back for much cheaper.

Earlier this off season, the Giants signed veteran shortstop Miguel Tejada to fill the void at shortstop, and now it looks as if Sabean and the front office would like to make Renteria a back up to use off the bench; a solid move if Tejada were to get injured.

All in all, this deal should get done, Renteria is a smart, crafty ball player that is always focused on what's best for the team. If he takes the discount contract like Burrell, then Giants fans should be relieved that they don't have to watch Emmanuel Burriss struggle at shortstop next season.

I will update here if any more information come up.

Go Giants

National BBA Awareness Day!

This post has nothing to do with the Giants, but it has a lot to do with this blog and other baseball blogs world wide.

A couple weeks ago, I applied to become part of the Baseball Bloggers Alliance (BBA) and was quickly accepted into their 230+ blog community. The BBA consists of baseball blogs from every team (10 Giants blogs including Seed Spitters) across the country, as well as baseball history blogs and fantasy baseball blogs.

Within the Alliance, bloggers like me will vote at the end of the season on awards, much like professional writers do. These awards consist of Rookie of the Year, Most Valuable Player, Best Pitcher, Best Manager, etc. Results of this year's BBA awards can be found here. We also vote on other topics such as the Hall of Fame ballot ever year.

Founded in 2009 and currently run by St. Louis Cardinal blogger Daniel Shoptaw, this alliance has grown into a well-oiled community of baseball blogs.

So thank you BBA and Daniel Shoptaw for making Seed Spitters a part of this wonderful alliance and would like to congratulate my fellow bloggers for a job well done.

Giants 2011 Projected Lineup

Due to the addition of Miguel Tejada, and the return of Aubrey Huff and Pat Burrell, we can assume the Giants are done shopping this off season. So now, we can go a head and guess the 2011 starting lineup:

-First Base
Starter: Aubrey Huff
Back up: Travis Ishikawa (or Brandon Belt if the Front Office decides he is ready)

-Second Base
Starter: Freddy Sanchez
Back up: Mike Fontenot or Mark DeRosa


-Shortstop
Starter: Miguel Tejada
Backup:Mike Fontenot or Emmanuel Burriss (if Renteria is not re-signed)


-Third Base                                                                        Pitchers
Starter: Pablo Sandoval                                                        Starters: Tim Lincecum
Backup: Mark DeRosa or Mike Fontenot                                                 Matt Cain
                                                                                                          Jonathan Sanchez
-Left Field                                                                                       Madison Bumgarner
Starter: Pat Burrell                                                                             Barry Zito
Backup: Mark DeRosa
                                                                                            Bullpen: Sergio Romo
-Center Field                                                                                   Santiago Castilla
Starter: Andres Torres                                                                       Jeremy Affeldt
Backup: Aaron Rowand                                                                        Javier Lopez
                                                                                                        Ramon Ramirez
-Right Field                                                                                    Brian Wilson
Starter: Cody Ross
Backup: Nate Schierholtz 


-Catcher
Starter: Buster Posey
Backup: Eli Whiteside 


Well, this is the team that will take the field next April, with the only difference from last years championship team being the loss of Edgar Renteria and Juan Uribe and the addition of Miguel Tejada. There are, however, rumors that Edgar will be re-signed to a backup role at shortstop, but nothing has been confirmed yet.

Let's hope for a repeat!

Go Giants

Pat Burrell is Back

According to MLBtraderumors.com and CSN's Mychael Urban, Pat Burrell and the Giants have agreed to a one year deal. Sources say the amount of money Burrell will make was not certain.

A good pick up for the Giants; they keep a guy, who with the Rays and Giants, hit .252/.348/.469 last season as well as picked up some great clubhouse chemistry alongside Aubrey Huff. We all know how much fun those two had on the way to their championship a month ago.

We can treat him the same way we treated him last year: cautious at first, but finally settling for a power hitter to start everyday. It's just not certain that the playoffs last year are a good indication of what he will hit like this upcoming season. So, I think it'll be best if we wait to see how much we paid him until we make a formed opinion.

Hey, who know's? We might have gotten a steal like last season for a great pinch hitter/ left fielder in Burrell.

I'll keep you updated,

Go Giants


**Update- it is a 1 year/ $1 million deal, no incentives