Posted By Jeff Fletcher on May 31, 2010 6:46 pm

My FanHouse story on the big duel between Tim Lincecum and Ubaldo Jimenez is here, but wanted to point out what a scout who was at the game told me about Lincecum.

“I think there is something going on,” a major league scout said. “The velocity is down. He’s relying on his changeup a lot, throwing his curve ball a lot. He doesn’t have command of the strike zone and from the start of the year I haven’t seen that.

“I didn’t see anything that would indicate pitching with an injury. I think he’s got a dead arm. Or he’s not trusting his stuff. That’s not the Tim Lincecum the National League is accustomed to seeing.”

So there ya go. I am not a scout, so I can’t really say with any authority whether I believe Lincecum is hurt or if his mechanics are just out of whack or if he just has “dead arm.”  Before this game, I was willing to give him the benefit of the doubt, thinking that maybe it was nothing but a hiccup. However, after watching today and listening to what Lincecum had to say about it afterward, I think there may be something wrong.

One of my Twitter followers asked if I thought the Giants would have Lincecum skip a start. I don’t think they would now, but if he has another clunker like this the next time out — against Pittsburgh — it wouldn’t shock me if they did try to re-arrange the rotation to give him a break.

By the way, I have to give myself props for one thing. At 1:32 p.m., during the second inning of today’s game, I tweeted my predicted lines for the two pitchers:

Lincecum: 6IP, 6H, 4R, 4ER, 5BB, 6SO. Jimenez, 8IP, 3H, 1R, 1ER, 3BB, 10SO #linesfromthefuture #rockies #sfgiants

How’d it end up?

Lincecum: 5.2 IP, 6 H, 4 R, 3 ER, 5 BB, 3 SO.
Jimenez: 9 IP, 4 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 2 BB, 9 SO.

Pretty good, huh? I ought to go to Vegas. Actually, I am going to Vegas, in about 31 hours.