They Lince-come and they Lince-go
It’s a sad day when you realize that your favorite player in all of sports, well second to Steve Nash, is on the brink of complete destruction. Tim Lincecum has not looked good at all this season, even in his two wins, he was shaky at best against poor/bad offenses (Mets, Padres) in pitching parks (Citi Field, AT&T Park).
Lincecum’s walks are WAY up while his ERA and WHIP are terrible. Lincecum has gone from a bona fide ace, to a struggling star, to a spot start pitcher, and now all the way down to a guy that you may just want to cut bait on if you have a small bench and a deeper league.
Yes I said it, you may even want to drop Timmy, BUT only as a last resort. I have Timmy in all 4 of my leagues and am not about to drop him just to pick up the likes of Ubaldo Jimenez, Jeff Samardzija, Gavin Floyd or Ervin Santana.
However I am open to entertaining offers for Lincecum. If you are a Lincecum owner and want to win this season, then you should be too. Now of course if someone is willing to trade you a top one or two tier pitcher for Timmy still you need to jump all over that. But what about the tougher decisions? Guys lower than top-25 for Tim Lincecum and other scenarios.
Now, a lot can really depend on your league and if you can keep Tim for next year. If you can keep him at a discount then he can truly be worth retaining. I’m gonna try to break down some scenarios for you to better understand how to handle trading Lincecum.
Like I said, I have Timmy in all four of my leagues and they are all pretty different in how I would handle Timmy trade wise:
First league:
Tunacorn, our deep 15 team, 7×7 roto league. We get 5 keepers, have a 3 year limit on keepers and we reset auction values according the site we use.
In this league I just might bite the bullet and stash Timmy on my bench I hope he turns it around. Worst case he will be at a good discount next year, hopefully. Now, I have started to look at other pitchers in this league that cannot be kept next year and would LOVE to trade Timmy for a rental such as: Cole Hamels, Jered Weaver or Madison Bumgarner.
Second league:
Fantasyland 401, this is quickly becoming an expert type league with great, active owners! It features 13 teams, deep benches, and we are looking at it as a dynasty style league! If this can happen for next year, I may also wait on Timmy if I can get him at some sort of discount.
Sadly, since there is no limit on keepers set for this league yet, everyone is keepable. So I doubt I can get so lucky in a league with rental type players. That said, I am probably stuck with Timmy or selling extremely low. It’s not the worst thing as with a deep bench it is not so bad to stash him away. I would trade Timmy for third, fourth, maybe even fifth tier pitchers: Tim Hudson, Hiroki Kuroda, Edwin Jackson types.
Third league:
Head-to-head league, 12 teams, fairly deep benches but only seven transactions per week. We get 3 keepers, and it is a snake draft, so CLEARLY Timmy is nowhere near a keeper here. I would love to trade Timmy for a burgeoning stud like James McDonald or Lance Lynn, but would probably settle for Chad Billingsley, Clay Buchholz or even Max Scherzer. Head-to-head is a different beast, especially when there is a transaction limit. You can’t have guys taking up a bench spot, and come playoff time I’d probably end up dropping Timmy anyway.
Fourth league:
A standard 5×5 league, with 10 teams and is just a one year league.
I think Lincecum could be traded for just about any warm body. I mean Lincecum has been a drain on my ERA and WHIP and we don’t have a crazy deep bench so I cannot just leave him there while I lose ground in Ks and wins.
I now leave you with this: If you can afford to stash Timmy on your bench and wait it out, and he does in fact get it together, he would be icing on the cake down the stretch. So here’s to keeping high hopes!