There are a few reasons to watch the Giants this coming season, Tim Lincecum might be most of them. You can conveniently move aside the official Spring Training motto of “These games don’t matter” and enjoy Lincecum’s dominating start against the Athletics last night, a team that has already played a couple of official games — the early start against the Red Sox in Tokyo. By my count, the Athletics had 5 regular season starters in the lineup — Buck, Cust, Ellis, Crosby, Barton — and one of their top prospects — Gonzalez.

The Giants won their first game in almost a week but the story of the night was Lincecum’s performance. Watching Barry Zito walk 4 guys per game while pumping out mid-80’s heat will most likely get old by June. But Lincecum, at the minimum, is exciting to watch. That type of excitement will make one of the worst teams in the MLB slightly more fun to watch. When Lincecum takes the mound, anything can happen. His style couldn’t be any more different than Zito’s. Zito nibbles and pitches up in the zone with a BP fastball. Lincecum rears back and fires mid-90’s fastballs paired with a devastating curveball. He attacks hitters. He’s small. He’s a freak. He’s just fun to watch.

I can’t say a whole lot about Lincecum that hasn’t already been said. He alone won’t be able to save this team but on the days he starts, he’ll give us a good reason to tune in and watch Giants baseball and for now, that’s a good enough reason for me.

Final Line:

5 innings pitched, 0 hits, o runs, 0 earned runs, 1 walk, 9 strikeouts, 0 home runs.