Tim Lincecum is just 25 years old and he is in serious contention to win his second straight Cy Young award. Kids, does that sound like something you would like to accomplish, too? Well, apparently it’s easy, because now we know Lincecum’s secret – pot, and lots of it. Lincecum was apparently pulled over last week for speeding, and the officer discovered that his car reeked of pot. Lincecum ended up handing over a pipe and 3.3 grams of pot. That’s not much, but it’s enough for him to be facing misdemeanor charges. It will only be a slap on the wrist ultimately, but it’s obviously not what a league that has been overcome with drug stories for years now would have hoped from one of its biggest young stars. Kinda funny.
There has been an amazing amount of player movement in the league over the last couple of days – trades, signings, and so on. Two have stood out as particularly interesting. The first is that the Angels have resigned Bobby Abreu for two years and $19 million. He was a major bargain for the Angels last year at $6 million, and I think he’s still a big bargain with this new contract. I like the deal a lot for both sides – he was obviously comfortable there, and they are much better with him in the lineup. With that locked up it will be very interesting to see what the team does with Vlad Guerrero. Ilike the guy, but I think it’s time for a new address. He hasn’t been healthy, and he’s too undisciplined at the plate for the Angels. It would serve him and the team both well if he found a new team. The other deal I really like is Boston’s acquisition of Jeremy Hermida from the Marlins for a couple of minor league spare parts. Hermida has struggled since his rookie year, but the guy has one of the sweetest swings there is, and if they can get his mind right I think he can be a very good player. He’s only 25 after all, so there is all sorts of time. Hermida can legitimately play both corner outfield positions, so he gives the team all sorts of flexibility, and it means that they don’t have to overpay for Bay or Holliday if they don’t want to. However they use him I think this will be seen as a very good signing.
Now that the World Series has been over for 24 hours or so and it has had time to sink in, I have five quick thoughts in my mind: 1. there is absolutely no way that Pedro was healthy last night. He looked like he was going to puke, and he was mostly terrible. Rough way to likely end a career. 2. Andy Pettitte is a warrior. I thought he was done a few years ago, and he’s not a great regular season pitcher anymore, but give him a game that really matters and look out. It’s pure will, and I could see him doing that for a couple more years if he wanted to. That being said, I don’t think he’ll keep going. He’s 37 and has nothing to prove, so why carry on? 3. If I were the Yankees I would say goodbye to Jorge Posada. Its time. 4. The Yankees were this good without Chien-Ming Wang. They really could have been scary. 5. I think we saw the last of Matsui in pinstripes. If I was a solid AL team looking for a boost I would jump on him, especially if I could capitalize on the Japanese connection. You listening Seattle?
