SF Giants History: Looking back at the career of the most legendary pitcher

There are so many prominent figures that have donned the orange and black. The amount of legends to come out of the SF Giants organization is through the roof. There is so much rich history and so many noteworthy careers worth looking back on.

Pitching is one of the things that defined the championship winning era of Giants baseball. You often think of Madison Bumgarner and his legendary run in 2014. However, Tim Lincecum was a freak of nature and at his peak he was one of the most dominant pitchers in baseball. 

Looking back at SF Giants Legend Tim Lincecum

Lincecum was not the biggest guy out there, as he was 5’11 and weighed 170 pounds. Some guys you see today on the mound tower over him. However, when he was at the height of his powers, Lincecum was a force to be reckoned with and was one of the most electrifying pitchers on the planet. 

His peak of dominance was from 2008-2011. It was a four year stretch of dominant pitching and he took the league by storm. From this span, Lincecum ranked 4th in ERA (2.81), 14th in WHIP (1.17), 2nd lowest batting average against (.218), and was tied for the best K-BB% (18.4). Throwing strikes was such a key part of his game and he did extremely well with it. Lincecum had the most strikeouts in this stretch (973) and also the highest strikeout percentage. Not to mention, he led the league in strikeouts for three consecutive seasons. He had impeccable command and great swing and miss ability. He was truly a freak of nature. 

Longevity was a key part of his game and he could go the distance. Lincecum averaged 220 innings per season in this span and had four straight seasons of 200+ innings of work. Incredible. All this dominance did lead to awards, as Lincecum went on to capture back to back CY Young’s (2008 & 2009). In 2008, he finished second in fWAR (7.1), finished 3rd in ERA (2.62), but led the league in strikeouts and had the fourth fewest earned runs. 

2009 was another dominant season. He finished with the second most strikeouts, third lowest ERA (2.48), 5th lowest WHIP (1.07) and put together another dominant season. One thing that will always standout is when he threw 148 pitches in a no-hitter. That would NEVER happen in today’s game. The pitchers back then were a completely different breed and it was one of the best no-hitters in the history of the franchise. 

Lincecum brought excitement back into the Bay Area when it came to the game of baseball. He was instrumental in being the jolt of electricity that ignited the winningest era of Giants Baseball. On top of his peak dominance, Lincecum was able to be part of the three World Series winning teams (2010, 2012, 2014) and was also a four-time All-Star. 

There are always players that live on and will forever be legends of the franchise. His peak of dominance should go down as one of the most legendary peaks in this game's rich history.