Welcome Home, Big Time Timmy Jim

Post date: Jun 15, 2012 3:02:39 PM

Tim Lincecum all smiles at press conference on his 28th birthday announcing his return to the A's

In the 2nd major stunning trade within a month, the A's announced last night the reacquisition of starting pitcher Tim Lincecum from the rival Montreal Expos. News began to leak out of the A's Delaware Avenue complex last night at around 8:30pm, and in short order the club publicly announced the deal bringing back the now-struggling righthander who turns 28 years old today. In exchange, the A's sent a package to the Expos of lefty starting pitchers Erik Bedard and Brian Matusz, and a pair of first round Amateur Draft picks, one in each of the next two seasons.

At a news conference this morning, A's GM Matt Veasey spoke of the route taken to this, his 2nd big trade in the last few weeks. The GM traded for the return of 3rd baseman Evan Longoria just three weeks ago. "We began to evaluate the options to select with that 5th overall pick" said Veasey, "We liked a number of potential prospects. But as we progressed with our evaluations, it became more and more apparent to us that the choices were very similar to one another. With the rapid progress the team is making, we decided to shop the 5th overall and the high pick next year to see if we could get some real help right now. We cast wide net, had conversations with a half dozen teams. In the end, this was the best fit."

At the press conference, manager Buck Showalter was all smiles in welcoming back his former young ace. "Well folks, we're here to announce that we're putting the band back together." When the room finished cracking up, Showalter went on to praise his old/new pitcher. "We all know what Timmy is capable of, what he has accomplished. We checked him out physically, and he appears to be just fine. His struggles this season, we think they involve confidence in himself and his stuff. Being back with (pitching coach) Pat Borders is going to do wonders for that."

The pitcher himself seemed floored by the entire turn of events. "In Montreal, we were rolling along, man. Champions, undefeated. Everything just seemed to be going right. I wasn't even thinking about any chance of leaving. Yeah, I was struggling, but it would have gotten fixed. Then we finally lost out in Eugene, my agent started to hear trade rumors all of a sudden. We thought it might be Brantford or even out west. This whole thing has been so quick, it's crazy."

Asked if he was glad to be back, Lincecum was all smiles. "Now I am, after talking to Mr. Veasey and Buck. When they made all of those trades what, a year and a half ago? It just seemed crazy to me. Yeah, some guys were getting older, but we won a title together, and we were still a good team. I just didn't get it. I kinda see what their thought process was after sitting down this morning, and I'm ready to go at it. This is where I came up, made my mark, won that first title. This feels like home, and these fans are incredible. I can't wait to get back out in front of them at Liberty Bell Park."

When he'll make his debut, and how he'll slot into the rotation, is still to be determined. "We're gonna evaluate how he looks, and make the decision based on what Pat (Borders) says, how Tim looks and feels, and what the team needs. But with his talent and experience, we expect him to be a big part of the rotation now and in the future."

Lincecum was originally selected in the first round of the 2006 WFBL Amateur Draft by the former Louisiana Longballers. He was traded less than a week later to the old Carolina Cardinals, and Carolina dealt him to the A's at the 2007 Winter Meetings. He was called up for his first appearance in May of 2007, and was up in the Majors for good by 2008. As part of a great pitching rotation, he helped lead the '08 Athletics to the WFBL Championship in his rookie season. He came up huge in the post-season, especially with a big effort on the final day of the championship win over Eugene, and was named the Chuck Klein Award recipient as the MVP of the playoffs.

Over the 3 1/2 seasons that he pitched here, Lincecum rose to where he currently places 2nd on the franchise' all-time Strikeouts list, and 5th on both the all-time Wins and Innings Pitched lists. He was dealt to Montreal as the centerpiece in what has become known as the "Valentine's Massacre" series of deals agreed to in February of 2011 with Montreal, where he was traded for current left fielder Bryce Harper and prospect pitcher Dylan Bundy. He then helped lead the Expos to last year's WFBL championship.

Now he's back in Philadelphia, as is Evan Longoria, who begins an injury rehab assignment this weekend and could return to the starting A's lineup as soon as Week #12. The band is indeed getting back together, at least a couple major players are rejoining the group, and it appears with every passing week that last year's 6-16 debacle was just a speed bump on the road to something bigger and better, and longer lasting for the franchise.