Finally Talking Browns QBs (Again)
November 2, 2010Cleveland Proud…And You Should Be Too
November 2, 2010Watching Tim Lincecum giving interviews with the Commisioner’s Trophy on the back of his hat likley made a lot of Indias fans say “what if?” Not that such a phrase isn’t uttered about this time every season – just last week we touched on the fact that Cliff Lee was merely a year late.
But this time, what if the Indians were able to sign Lincecum back in 2005 after selecting him in the 42nd round?
For all of the criticism that this team has faced for their poor drafting and development, they were $300,000 away from having the biggest steal in the history of Major League Baseball. Lincecum was drafted with a pick that some casual baseball fans did not even know existed. A second-year hurler at the University of Washington, Lincecum wasn’t coming off of a stellar season by any stretch of the imaination but the Indians obviously saw something that they liked.
Knowing that he was going to be something special, or at least hoping to bank on a decent payday in the event of complete collapse, Lincecum’s representation was asking for a $1 million contract – something that was essentially unheard of for a 42nd-round selection. The Indians, much to the chagrin of Major League Baseball representatives, offered Lincecum a very generous $700,000. Since $700,000 is not $1 million, Team Freak opted to give it another go at an amatuer level.
One year later, Lincecum was taken 10th overall by the San Francisco Giants and, as they say, the rest was history. Congrats to Big Time Timmy Jim – though it would’ve been just a bit better had he been lifting that trophy about 2,000 miles east on Interstate-80. Okay, way, way better.
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13 Comments
Lee, Sabathia, Lincecum, Carmona, Atom Miller for the next 5-6 years in a perfect world. No bullpen needed.
If CLE had even half of that, we wouldn’t need to be debating about who their third baseman will be next season – wouldn’t matter, as SF just proved.
– Cody Ross, clean-up hitter
Jake Westbrook would be your 5-spot guy…
I had no idea about this and now I am sick.
I ran across this on the Indians Wikipedia page after his 1st Cy Young…..of course that was right after CC won his, Carmona was a 19 game winner, and we had just finished within a game of the WS so I was only mildly depressed….heck, at that point Cliff Lee was still a one hit wonder for his 18 win season two years prior…
Oh well….can’t get too upset that we didn’t throw a million bucks at an unknown at that point..
Someone should make a team of all ex-Indians/Indians that got away/people we couldn’t re-sign/people we didn’t sign after draft-day, etc. It would likely be a World Series team.
The Indians probably would have screwed with his mechanics and ruined him anyways… /Randy Quaid
Wait so the Indians did well in selecting Lincecum but they were to cheap to sign him? I feel alot better now! One more shining example of not being able to close the deal.
@6 – You could do the same for just about every team in the league. See Lincecum getting drafted in the 44th round in 2003, by the Cubs. I know many will want to spin this as a negative, but it’s not. The team would like to apologize to you personally for not giving in to every last demand of a player every team passed on 41 different times. Even today, 7 years later, $1 million is still first/supplemental round money.
Why does Lincecum have a penis on his hat?
@9 – thank you for saving me the time to type that.
major pet peeve of mine when people complain that the Indians missed out on signing a 40+ round draft pick. that’s just how the MLB draft works, which is why there are so many rounds.
now, if we had drafted him in the top 3 rounds and lost out on him, then I would be a little more upset about it.
@11 Not only do they whine about missing out on a 40+ round pick, they do it years later. Congratulations on having the benefit of perfect hindsight. You know how many people complained about the Indians not signing Lincecum in 2005? The same number who complained when they didn’t sign Chadd Hartman, who was picked one round later.
[…] of the draft, WFNY does the post that I’m surprised I held off on: The Indians drafted Tim Lincecum in the 42nd round in 2005, but he did not sign. I don’t get all bent out of shape about this. The Tribe took a flier on him. They offered him […]