9 responses to “The 200 Club”

  1. delorean

    Good gawd, Schmidt’s 251 in 2004 is absolutely absurd! Too bad his arm fell off shortly thereafter. :(

    I can’t say anything about Timmy that hasn’t already been said — watching him pitch this year has been an honor.

  2. obsessivegiantscompulsive

    Yeah, the 1971-2002 period was horrible for pitching, Krukow as nice, so was Big Daddy Rueschel, Dave Drevecky, but we never had any dominating guy since The Count in terms of strikeout aura, until Cain, then Lincecum, came along.

    We were suppose to get another one when the Giants traded for Sudden Sam McDowell (gave up Gaylord Perry), but according to rumors he was a drunk and he was done, essentially, before he even put on the Giants uniform. And of course Perry went on to fame and fortune and Cy Young…

    It was trades like that that yielded nothing that killed the Giants in that period, Perry, Cepeda, Foster, Kingman, Jack Clark, Chili Davis, Gladden were all traded and while they went on to further very productive, All-Star level play, the players we got in exchange essentially did zip for us, except for Clark which at least got us the iconic “Ooo-Ree-Bay” but we lost on big on that trade still. Plus the loss of key young players like Ron “Bear” Bryant (career basically ended diving into pool with not enough water), Atlee Hammaker, to injuries, and non-development of players like Mark Grant, Mike Remlinger, others, that contributed to the mediocre play during most of the 1972-1996 period, except for the oasis of the Al Rosen years.

    Have to like Barnes more right now, he’s doing better at a much higher level. And he is dominating and should be right in there age-wise for that league, maybe a little too old for a true blue-chip prospect, but look at that H/9, BB/9, K/BB, K/9, that is pretty much shut down goodness, much like how Lincecum was chewing up the Cal League in his first pro experience.

    So how poor is Barnes’s velocity? Velocity is nice but as you know if he has great control over his breaking pitch, that separation is what is key. If it’s under 90 MPH, then I can understand your reticience to select him over King.

  3. Paulie R.

    Lowry is a great example to use for anybody who wants to argue against buying out a young player’s arbitration years. Since he signed that extension he’s been an injury-riddled, mediocre mess. That’s not to say that the risk wasn’t worth taking, but you never really hear people talk about the downside to this strategy.

  4. daveinexile

    “Lowry is a great example to use for anybody who wants to argue against buying out a young player’s arbitration years. Since he signed that extension he’s been an injury-riddled, mediocre mess. That’s not to say that the risk wasn’t worth taking, but you never really hear people talk about the downside to this strategy.”

    Funny I look at Lowry’s contract has a great example of what happens when a manager stays stuck in the 80’s ( or before) and piles work on an under 26 year old arm. Going from 92 MLB innings ( 189 if counting Minors in ’04 at age 23) to 204 innings in the Show during ’05 at age 24 was a large risk. The injuries and flame outs are the stakes when you run that gamble. To each their own I guess.

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