Tim Lincecum Breaks Our Defensive Rankings

You may not be surprised to hear that Tim Lincecum is a poor fielder. His unusual delivery adds deception to his pitches, which helped him earn his new $35 million extension, but it also puts him in less-than-ideal fielding position and allows plenty of time for baserunners to steal on him. Well, this season, Lincecum redefined poor fielding.

Having cost himself and his team eight runs with his defense in 2013, Tim Lincecum ranked number 176 out of the 175 pitchers that we rank defensively! Now that’s bad.

OK, let me explain. After each season, we create a grouping of 175 pitchers, about six per team, that have the most innings pitched in baseball. This season, two pitchers were tied for the 175th-most innings pitched, so we ended up having an extra pitcher in the group. Lincecum, as it turns out, finished last among all qualifiers in fielding, which was 176th out of (an intended) 175 pitchers!

Lincecum had his worst defensive season in 2013, costing the Giants eight runs defensively, but Lincecum has actually cost the Giants at least two runs in six of his seven seasons. And in three of those seasons, Lincecum was ranked 171st or worse out of 175 qualified pitchers.

In particular, baserunners have been an issue. Since his debut in 2007, only A.J. Burnett has allowed more stolen bases (197) than Lincecum’s 146. In addition, only Burnett (84.2 percent), Ted Lilly (82.9 percent) and Gavin Floyd (84.5 percent) have allowed a higher percentage of baserunners to successfully steal against them than Lincecum. In allowing 82.5 percent of attempted basestealers to advance, Lincecum has essentially turned average baserunners into Carl Crawford, who has succeeded on 81.7 percent of his stolen base attempts in his career.