As a die hard Giants faithful for well over 20 years, it’s hard to imagine anything sweeter than Barry Bonds homerun, or a Will Clark swing, but believe it or not, Tim Lincecum’s right arm might top them both.

Call me crazy, delusional, or whatever word you choose for making such a bold statement. The four people who read this column on a weekly basis are probably doing that as we speak, but this kid is poetry in motion on the mound, all 160 pounds of him. Lincecum fever has gripped Giants nation, and this honorary member of the Lunatic Fringe has a bad case of it. Blame the mid to upper nineties fastball, the panic attack curve ball, and the ever improving changeup.  With apologies to Clark, Matt Cain, and Matt Wiilliams, Lincecum is the best player to come up through the Giants minor league system that I have ever seen. Before you Mays and McCovey fans get your panties in a knot because they were left out of the discussion, those guys were stars two decades before I arrived on earth.

Is this too high of praise for a guy who has only been in the big leagues for one year? Maybe, but like Bonds at bats, whenever “The Franchise,” as he was dubbed by his teammates, pitches it is must see television. There isn’t much about the Giants this season that I would scrap my plans to watch, but when Lincecum takes the hill all bets are off. Nothing beats watching him throw a 98 MPH heater past Ryan Howard, or drop a wicked curve on Pujols for strike three, except making the Dodgers lineup look like little leaguers. (Of course who isn’t doing that these days?)

The scariest part is that Lincecum is still only 23 years old. He’s only going to get better as he gains more experience at the major league level. The improvement from his first major league start last May, to now is clearly evident. Last year he was primarily a fastball, curveball pitcher, who was trying to strike everybody out. This season, Lincecum has added a four seam fastball, changeup, and a slider, to his already impressive repertoire. While Lincecum still loves to rack up the strikeouts, he’s learning to become more of a pitcher, and making an effort to get batters out using fewer pitches. Case in point last Sunday against the Cardinals at AT&T Park, Lincecum struck out 11 batters. Facing the Cardinals this week in St. Louis he only fanned five, instead using his changeup effectively to get guys out using a minimal number of pitches, allowing him to go deeper into the ballgame.

Once Lincecum puts it all together the sky is the limit. He has the potential to be the best pitcher in either league, which is why Brian Sabean would be best served to lock him up with a long term deal similar to what Matt Cain and Noah Lowry received. I don’t want to hear any of this injury concern garbage from the front office from the front office as to why they haven’t signed Lincecum to a deal yet. Save that excuse for somebody who cares. Lincecum has never been hurt (knock on wood), and doesn’t even ice his arm after starts. The guy is out there the day after he pitches throwing long toss for god’s sake. Every pitcher is an injury risk. It doesn’t matter if the guy 6’11” or 5’11.” Sabean and his traveling band of idiots were willing to give Barry Zito, a guy who was a .500 pitcher in his five seasons prior to joining the Giants, $126 million dollars. If that’s not a risk I don’t know what is. Peter Magowan opening up his wallet and throwing $12-15 million dollars Lincecum’s way may be a gamble, but for the kid with a once in a lifetime arm, it would be money well spent.


•  Coming in to the finale against the Cardinals, the offense had scored 12 runs in five games this week. On Sunday, they scored eight runs, including six in the third inning.

• Too bad the Giants won’t see the Cardinals again this year. In seven games against St. Louis San Francisco’s offense has scored 33 runs. In their other 12 contests they have scored a total of 28 runs.

• Just call John Bowker the Cardinal killer. In four starts against St. Louis this year, Bowker has three homeruns and 9 RBI.

• Rich Aurilia must go day 21. I said it last week and I will say it again, Aurilia is done. What does Bruce Bochy see in this guy that the rest of us don’t? Aurilia is solid defensively at first base, but he swings the bat like Billy Crystal did in his one day tryout with the Yankees. At best, Aurilia is nothing more than a late inning defensive replacement. He’s taking away at bats from younger guys like Dan Ortmeier and John Bowker. If a future Hall of Famer like Frank Thomas, who is making 10 million dollars, can be designated for assignment, why can’t the Giants do the same to Aurilia? If the Giants don’t want to eat his contract they can sit him on the bench to collect splinters for all I care. Just do us all a favor and get him out of the lineup Bruce.

• I’ve been pretty vocal about the fact that Ray Durham should not be playing everyday at the expense of Eugenio Velez. My stance hasn’t changed, but Durham deserves some kudos. He had a decent weekend at the plate with three hits in eight at bats. Even his outs were hit hard. It’s nice to see that double play Ray still has an ounce of life left in his bat.

• Through the first three weeks of the season, the 126 million excuse maker Barry Zito still has a big goose egg in the win column. Since joining the Giants, he is 11-17. In his last start against the D’backs, he pitched a little bit better, but his shaky control came back to bite him once again. In the second inning Zito walked the bases loaded. After retiring the seventh and eighth place hitters, all Zito had to do to get out of the inning unscathed was retire Brandon Webb. So what does he do? Gives up a base hit to the pitcher. Granted the defense has been shoddy behind Zito at times this year, but he’s supposed to be the ace (yeah right). There is no excuse for not retiring Webb in that situation. Typical Zito. So close, yet so far away.

• When told by San Francisco Chronicle beat reporter Henry Schulman that Bruce Bochy was thinking about going to a six man starting rotation when Noah Lowry returns, Zito responded by saying “Sometimes four days seems like a long time before you go out there. Waiting one more day, or possibly two, would be tough because we're itching to compete."  If you were to ask most Giants fans, they’d probably tell you that the four days between Zito starts isn’t long enough. The way he is pitching since he joined San Francisco, waiting an extra day or two before he takes the mound would be cause for celebration. Some fans might even be willing to wait six years (when his contract expires) before he takes the mound again.

• The bullpen, besides Brad Hennessey, has done a fairly solid job this season. Merkin Valdez continues to impress, posting a 1.08 ERA in nine appearances. Tyler Walker (3.86 ERA), and Jack Taschner (3.86 ERA), with the exception of one bad outing have also been impressive. Brian Wilson has looked great in his past few outings. With five saves in six chances, Wilson looks like he just may provide the Giants with something they haven’t had since Robb Nen. A reliable closer.