Krukow on Lincecum on KNBR Morning Show

Krukow in his show this morning stated some interesting stuff about Lincecum.

One was that Lincecum was focused on getting an out with 2-3 pitches early on - which suggests that Lincecum is starting to focus on trying to get a complete game. Probably a pride thing with him to get that done as an accomplishment to show those who question his abilities because of his size.

Two was that he said that Lincecum still did not know what he was doing half the time - just wait until he puts it all together. That is a very pleasant surprise to find this out, he is already lights out this season and yet it sounds like there is still a lot of room for improvement.

Three was that one thing Tim needs to learn is that full effort is not necessary to get major league hitters out - a lesson Sandy Koufax eventually learned - but throwing strikes is. This was something disappointing to hear, as I thought he would have figured that out last season after his bad second month in the majors, but I guess he forgets sometime because of his youth. Some guys never learn this lesson, like that guy, I think he was a Baltimore Orioles prospect in the 60's, same time as Koufax, threw 100 MPH, but never could throw strikes consistently and faded away. Luckily, The Kid has shown that he's a pretty good student able to learn, so it is probably just a matter of time for him.

Fourth was that Righetti has been slowly bringing in lessons - like waiting for failures and mistakes - in order not to overwhelm a young player trying to implement everything at once. He said that Lincecum has advanced from a 2-pitch pitcher last season to a 4-pitch pitcher to start this season, and now he is learning to be more of a finesse pitcher, a nice steady progression. Again, shows that Lincecum is very capable of learning, and rather quickly.

Fifth was that Lincecum has something that Koufax had - a lot of “stuff” - and once he learns to ratchet down his speed a bit more in order to get strikes and let his stuff take over, he will really take off. Stuff is that secret sauce that pitchers either have or don't have, that sneaky, random movement that accompanies every ball the pitcher throws, that results in hitters either swinging and missing or grounding meekly somewhere.

S-I-G-N L-I-N-C-E-C-U-M L-O-N-G-T-E-R-M N-O-W!!!