Oh please....the man had one bad day....he's been an elite pitcher for much longer than Lincecum...IF Philly hitters give Halladay a chance to get a win, he'll keep the Giant hitter at bay.
Your logic doesn't make sense.... yea I guess Roy was an elite pitcher MUCH longer than Lincecum being that he's 33 now and Tim is 26 years old. Ever since Lincecum came up in 2007 he's been a more ELITE pitcher than Halladay. Lincecum has two Cy Young's in first 4 years, while Halladay has just one in his entire 13 year career. IMO strike outs and ERA are what make pitchers dominant/elite. Lincecum has beat Hallday in strikeouts every year he has pitched and tied him in ERA (2-2). This is their first head to head match up in the playoffs and Lincecum has him beat.
Lincecum has been more of an elite pitcher than Halladay? Great "logic" there, you got me. Halladay has one cy young because he played for the friggin Blue Jays, if he was with another big ball club it would be a different story (hell if he had been in another country it would have been different). At 33, with a good team he had 21 wins, 9 complete games, and a 2.44 ERA. Lincecum has 7 complete games in his entire career Pitchers are evaluated by more than just ERA and strikeouts. Halladay is ground ball pitcher anyway, so obviously his srikeouts are going to fall behind. What he does for a team is more than any other pitcher in baseball. He goes deep in games, usually finishing them himself, giving the relief pitchers a night off. Now that is old school baseball, he's a friggin BEAST!!!
Ever since Barry Bonds left SF -- Blue Jays offense > Giants Offense.. everyone knows this. Lincecum has 7 complete games because he's a strike out pitcher. Is it his fault it takes him 3-6 pitches per hitter to get out? Why would his coach kill his freakish arm by making him go 120+ pitches? Why pitch him 9 innings when they have Wilson (arguably the best closer). Let's go back to theoriginal question "Is Tim Lincecum > Roy Halladay?" So, if you had one game where you had to win who would you want to start? Today, Lincecum (even though he didn't have his best stuff) won the game. The two home runs hit off him would have been doubles in Pac Bell park while Cody Ross's homers would have gone out in any park. Your argument is Halladay is a beast, he's old school, he's got more complete games, he goes deep into innings, he's a ground ball pitcher... that's your reasoning why he's better than Lincecum? Final Score Lincecum 1 - Halladay 0
Ummm...he's like 8 years older than Lincecum, right? I think Tim had something to say about what Philly hitters were able to give. Bottom line is they're both elite level pitchers. Arguing who is better is just a matter of who has the better stuff that day. But at the end of it...assuming he stays healthy...I think we're going to be talking about Lincecum being among the top 10 pitchers in MLB history. What he's done from an early age on...with 2 Cy Young awards already at 26...is ridiculous.
Halladay has been doing what he's been doing for a long time, he's getting to the end of his career. Lets wait till Lincecum has accomplished as much as Roy before we say Lince>Doc. I agree.
Sincere baseball question for you experts out there. Everytime I watch MLB playoffs in the championship series or world series, I wonder about the role of a closer. Some managers (like SF's last night) will run their ace closer out in the 8th inning to make it a 4 or 5-out save. I understand that completely if it's one game or even three games, but this will probably be a long series. Over six or seven games, hitters really start to lock in on what a guy does, and statistically, they are more likely to hit the guy's stuff, right? So if you run Wilson out early, you expose more of the Phillies lineup to him early in the series, and everybody is more likely to hit him in games six and seven. It seems like, given how smooth Javier Lopez was throwing, you really could have let him finish the eighth inning at least (two out, nobody on base). I would kind of want to hide Wilson a tiny bit, and then maybe given him the four and five-out saves later in the series. Perhaps having a one-run game throws all those worries out the window.
not necessarily true that the more they see of him, the better they'll hit him. some pitchers are just that good. i think the giants needed to win that game last night...and you pull out all the stops in the playoffs. you'll see starters come in for relief frequently.
