Tim Lincecum

Lincecum on Saturday – the good: his first career shutout, a complete-game four-hitter in which he struck out 12 Padres. The bad: an unbelievable 138 pitches. With a 17-3 record, 2.43 ERA, and major league leading 243 strikeouts, Lincecum appears headed for the NL Cy Young award, but a mere five days after throwing 127 pitches, Bruce Bochy allows the franchise to throw 138? Incredible. In late August, Lincecum threw 247 pitches over two starts and followed that up with a five-run outing. Lincecum is a special pitcher, one that seems impervious to arm problems related to workload, but there was another pitcher we felt the same about a few years ago – Mark Prior. Let’s hope Lincecum is this good in a year or two, but someone needs to tell Bochy that the Giants have nothing to play for this year and shouldn’t be abused like this just for a piece of hardware.

Chad Qualls

Manager Bob Melvin announced Saturday that Qualls would take over the closer role from Brandon Lyon effective immediately. Lyon had allowed 10 runs in his previous 6 2/3 innings, so this comes as no surprise. Qualls though seemed to be fourth in line for saves just a couple weeks ago behind Lyon, Tony Pena, and Jon Rauch, but since August 6, Qualls has a 1.02 ERA and 17:1 K:BB in 17 2/3 innings, so he’s deserving of the opportunity. Qualls has one of the better sliders in the game a la Brad Lidge, and though he doesn’t though as hard as his former Houston teammate, Qualls makes up for it via a 2.26 G/F and has done a much better job avoiding the home run ball this year, surrendering just four. Sadly for Arizona fans, had Melvin made this move two weeks ago, the Diamondbacks wouldn’t be trailing the Dodgers by such a margin.

Jayson Werth

There was some fear that the late-August acquisition of Matt Stairs would eat into a little of Werth’s value, but since the trade, Werth has started every game for the Phillies while Stairs has been primarily a late-inning bat off the bench. Werth was 1-for-2 with a pair of walks Saturday and has hit in seven straight. Unfortunately no multi-hits games in the bunch and just one home run, but on the year, Werth is still batting a fine .276/.374/.514 with 22 homers in 362 at-bats. He’s even missed in a career-best (by far) 17 stolen bases while maintaining a 12.8% walk rate. Werth has perhaps the most enviable spot in any lineup in baseball between Chase Utley and Ryan Howard, practically guaranteeing he’ll see good pitches. It’s good to see Werth finally get an opportunity for full-time duty.

Clayton Kershaw

I’ve watched most of Kershaw’s starts this year and don’t believe it’s an exaggeration to say that Saturday was as good as he’s looked all year. Pitching in Coors Field, Kershaw allowed one run on just four hits over six strong innings, striking out seven and walking two. He was in command of his 94-96 fastball and often mixed in a curve that buckled Rockies’ knees, even in the thin air of Denver. Kershaw is now 4-5 with a 4.41 ERA, winner of his last two decisions. I’d like to see him cut down on the 4.4 BB/9, and he has, posting a 3.2 mark in his last three starts. Kershaw is now at 157 1/3 innings on the year, leaving him right on target to meet or perhaps slightly exceed his 170 target. Should the Dodgers continue to maintain their three-game lead over Arizona, it’s pretty easy to see Kershaw getting just two more starts this year.

Edinson Volquez

That’s it, I’m officially worried about Edinson Volquez now. With his team out of contention in
the Central, Volquez was left in the game to throw 121 pitches on Saturday and this after throwing 119 and 117 his previous two times out. At 16-5 with a 3.22 ERA and 184 strikeouts, it’s been a true breakout year for Volquez, but he’s on pace to top 200 innings this year after throwing 178 last year. Sure that’s not a big jump by any means, but only four pitchers in the NL have thrown more pitches than Volquez this year. Dusty Baker may get more flak than he deserves for running Mark Prior and Kerry Wood into the ground, but he may be on the verge of doing the same in Cincinnati.

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