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In which we discuss what was different with Tim Lincecum this start compared to his last three or four.

I'll start: nothing. The results were different. The pitcher wasn't. He allowed one earned run, which is better than allowing six. He pitched seven innings, which is better than four or five. So it seems like a positive step in the sudden reclamation project that is Tim Lincecum.

But the control is still broken. Five walks tonight, which followed a four walk game, which followed a pair of three-walk games. Pitches that didn't go where the catcher was set up. The theories I've heard or read about Lincecum's struggles this year:

His arm is hurt, his brain is hurt, his fastball is down and hitters can lay off the off-speed, his off-speed stuff isn't as crisp and hitters can sit fastball, he's depressed because he stopped smoking pot, he's depressed because he's smoking too much pot, he doesn't care anymore, he cares so much that he tenses up, Pat Burrell shook his hand and now he has gonorrhea of the confidence, his mechanics are too complicated, his motion is hard on his back, he's unlucky, he's fine, he's …

Thanks, Twitter and Facebook. We'll take it from here.

The simpler way to look at things: Something's screwed up. It's probably his mechanics. Could be his head! Probably his mechanics.

You're reading this and saying, jeez, what a buzzkill. Lincecum gets a quality start, allows just one earned run, and you open with this? No, no. You're misreading me. No, this start didn't make me think that Lincecum was fixed. But it sure as heck made me feel better about the three starts before this. Because it was the same pitcher. And that pitcher should get through a few of these high-walk games relatively unscathed.

When dinks like me were mentioning iffy luck -- citing strand rates and batting averages on balls put in play -- it wasn't because we were certain there wasn't anything wrong. It's because whatever was wrong couldn't have been making him that bad. Pitchers with high strikeout rates shouldn't get bludgeoned every time they make a mistake. Baseball doesn't work like that. It just seemed like it did for every Lincecum start.

So this was an encouraging start because it made the previous starts less discouraging. Something's still wrong. But it was never that wrong. It seems like the kind of wrong that can snap back in place like a shoulder out of its socket. That's a horrible analogy when explaining something to do with a pitcher, but it's late, and I'm not changing it. You know what I mean.

Paul Goldschmidt's career slugging percentage is now .453. If you remove his at-bats against Tim Lincecum, it's .404.

I can understand the organizational hopes for Steve Edlefsen. He throws a sinker. It sinks. That can be a good thing.

But there's a Venn diagram out there that shows the common areas for "Times it's a good idea to put Steve Edlefsen when you're down by a run" and "Times it's a good idea to put Steve Edlefsen when you're up by a run." It's just a glowing circle, and if you stare at it long enough, you're in the kingdom of Lost-Hope dancing with the Raven King. Don't stare at the circle. Don't seek out the Venn diagram. Don't put Steve Edlefsen in one-run games.

You don't miss Brian Wilson in the ninth inning with a two-run lead. You miss him in the eighth inning when the Giants are down by one, apparently. With Wilson out, everyone moves up a slot, and suddenly it's surprise Edlefsen! when you least expect it.

With runners on first and second and no outs, Ryan Theriot bunted. The lead runner was Lincecum, and he was thrown out easily. It's easy to blame the bunt. It was an annoying bunt.

But after that, both Melky Cabrera and Buster Posey struck out swinging on what would have been ball four. It happens. Sometimes their pitcher gets your best hitters out. After a successful stretch of 20 consecutive games, during which the Giants didn't have Pablo Sandoval, it's probably not a good idea to make too much of this game.

I probably would have bunted there too, but only because Theriot's more like another pitcher in the lineup. I had a bigger problem with the execution of the bunt, but whatever.

Tonight's game: whatever. It's always disproportionately discouraging to lose the last game of a series win. But the series win is still nice.

Gregor Blanco - RF
Ryan Theriot - 2B
Melky Cabrera - LF
Buster Posey - C
Angel Pagan - CF
Brandon Belt - 1B
Joaquin Arias - 3B
Brandon Crawford - SS
Tim Lincecum - P

Jim Abbott is throwing out the first pitch at Angel Stadium on Wednesday night, which provides a great excuse to watch this again:

It was a nice story. Jamie Moyer turns 50 in November. He was still pitching for a major-league baseball team. After a spring-training invitation and a good spring, the 49-year-old lefty made the Colorado Rockies' rotation, and that meant he got to set all sorts of records whenever he pitched. He was the oldest player to record a win. He was the oldest player to record an RBI. He was the oldest player to allow a home run to a guy who threw his bat at the ball.

But on Wednesday, he became the oldest player to be designated for assignment:

Rockies designate Jamie Moyer for assignment.

— Tracy Ringolsby (@ROOTSPORTS_TR) May 30, 2012

Moyer had a 5.70 ERA in 10 starts with the Rockies, allowing a league-high 75 hits in 53 innings. He also allowed 11 home runs, which is a lot even by Coors Field standards. With the Rockies looking to get their young pitchers some innings in the rotation, Moyer was clearly expendable.

But it's worth a moment to stop with the silly jokes (which we've all made) and think about how incredible it was that Moyer could get even a single out in the major leagues. He was born in the same year as Oddibe McDowell, Danny Tartabull, and Wally Joyner. Kevin Seitzer, Darren Daulton, Darryl Strawberry.

He's 12 days older than Bo Jackson.

And he was designated for assignment, not put to sleep. He could still pitch. He probably doesn't have a lot left, but it's possible. Here's hoping ...

To replace Moyer in the rotation, the Rockies called up Carlos Torres, a 29-year-old right-hander who had a 2.45 ERA and 32/12 strikeout-to-walk ratio in 33 innings at Colorado Springs.

The Phillies have been extra secretive when it's come to media access to Ryan Howard, who is still recovering from an Achilles injury sustained on the last play of the 2011 National League Championship Series. I, for one, am picturing Ryan Howard in a laboratory, where he's sedated around the clock and waiting for a new leg to grow in a large, large petri dish.

But now we have an update from CSN Philly. Kind of.

Amaro was asked if he believed Howard could be back before the end of June.

"I don’t believe so," he said. "I don’t think so."

Could Howard be back by the All-Star break?

"I don’t know," Amaro said.

Howard had been taking batting practice, and the earlier reports suggested that June was a possibility. But according to CSN, Howard's calf is weakened from the atrophy that occurred when his leg was immobilized, so they don't want to push him only to have another body part snap. So that means June is out. It's possible that July is in jeopardy, too.

Speller 145, Emma Ciereszynski, spells sabermetrics correctly in Round Three of the Bee. #spellingbee

— NationalSpellingBee (@ScrippsBee) May 30, 2012

Secretly, there's a part of me that misses the bad baseball. Almost all of it was awful, of course. If I had to put my finger on why, it probably had to do with all of the bad baseball. But in the middle of every season, there was a reward for the bad baseball: a shiny, high draft pick. In 2006, the Giants got a shiny, high, high draft pick. It was a reward for 162 mostly miserable games.

Don't get me wrong: There's no comparison between those days and the present. There's obviously no regret, no pining for the days that used to be. We used to argue about Fred Lewis. Like, there would be two different people with two actual opinions about Fred Lewis, and they'd go around and around. Others would join in. This is how we would spend our day. I mean …

But one of the favorite things I've done on this site were the draft previews from 2008. The Giants had the fifth-overall pick in a hitter-heavy draft, and that allowed me to profile each of the top options for the Giants. Like a true weenie, I never argued for or against specific players, taking more of a "they all sound good!" approach. But I had fun looking it all up. I can even remember specific instances of where I was when I wrote some of them -- I vividly remember writing the Gordon Beckham one on an airplane to New York, for example.

The reason these were so fun was that they allowed for unfettered dreaming. You could look at the name "Gordon Beckham" and think of a franchise shortstop -- a guy who could pummel fastballs that almost reached the Coke bottle, hold down the shortstop position with aplomb, and make All-Star teams for the next decade.

Dammit, get that reality out of here. It smells like feet and broken dreams. I'm talking about the pre-draft stuff, when everything was possible because there weren't any indications to the contrary. Think stats are ruining the game? Then you'll love the draft. There aren't any stats! At least, no professional stats to judge. You can just sit and level-16 wishcast until you collapse.

Justin Smoak was going to hit 25 home runs every year … from each side of the plate. Pedro Alvarez was basically the new Pujols, but we weren't going to get a chance at him. Is that a high-school catcher? Heck, throw him on the pile. He's probably going to be the next Pudge.

Spoiler: The Giants took a guy who made those dreams look like gray, one-dimensional, passing fancies that popped in and out of our heads like a soap bubble. Because the reality was better. Thinking about a player panning out is exciting. Wondering, "What if this is the guy who leads the team to a … nah, never mind" makes you feel like a giddy, silly fanboy. Watching the guy charge the mound like a hyperactive child after a championship that he was as responsible for as any other player on the team? That's something else. That's not something you get by closing your eyes and thinking what might be.

The draft used to be exciting because we were hoping that the Giants could get a player like Buster Posey. Or Tim Lincecum. Or Matt Cain. Or Madison Bumgarner. With four first-round picks out of the seven drafts from 2002 through 2008, the Giants built a sellout streak. They did what you think you're hoping for before every draft -- I write "think you're hoping for" because you have no idea how awesome it really is.

But I still miss the excitement of a high draft pick. It sounds perverse, and it is. The draft starts next Monday. The Giants pick #20. I want them to take Richie Shaffer. Sounds like a name with some hits in it. If it were Rich Shaffer, I wouldn't be interested in him, but the manchild promise of Richie is always worth a second look. Maybe I'll check out some video before the draft. Probably won't.

If the honeybees died off and agriculture collapsed, and the world was beset with a famine that you never thought you'd see, you'd remember the dented can of artichoke hearts you found under a bridge. You'd remember what the salty packing fluid tasted like as it dribbled down your chin. That doesn't mean it was a good situation. But it was an oasis that helped break up the monotony of losing. So it's worth a little nostalgia, even if things can get much, much better.

Also, the honeybees dying off scares me like a Gordon Beckham trade. Brrrrr. Just got the chills again.

Last night, Shane Victorino fell down again. This confirmed what we already knew: He is the greatest individual benefactor to the .GIF arts. He gives and gives and gives, and it's glorious. No individual efforts can match the sacrifices he has made.

But a group effort? Well, that's something different. I suppose a group effort could at least give him competition. And it looks like the fans of Tropicana Field are up to the challenge. On Wednesday, there was more Tropicana magic.

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A summit of New York icons:

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I can't comprehend this Ryan Vogelsong thing. We're over a year in. Still feels like a waking dream. I'm pretty sure the Jason Schmidt trade was a mistake now. Can you imagine Ryan Vogelsong coming back on short rest for Game 7 of the 2002 World Series? Nails. He would have shut the Angels down with his light-tower glower. Barry gets a ring. Man, this was all a huge mistake.

Except that Ryan Vogelsong broke well before the World Series, and he missed the entire 2002 season. You know the story from there. Locked up prison for crimes he didn't commit. Trained with Rāʾs āl-Ḡwl in the art of throwing strikes. Used his right ulnar collateral ligament to fashion a makeshift ladder to save a dozen people from an office fire. Spent time on a foreign island far, far away where they don't even cook their fish. Blah blah blah. You're already so jaded with the Ryan Vogelsong story.

But if you had asked me what makes Ryan Vogelsong good, I'm not sure if I would have had a good answer before tonight. He's been unquestionably fantastic, obviously. But I couldn't name a signature, this-is-why-he's-good weapon. He doesn't throw 95. He doesn't have a wipeout slider or a filthy, 12-to-6, knee-buckling curve. His changeup doesn't break the width of the plate. So I decided to watch this game and see if I could figure out how Vogelsong got as many outs as he did. My findings:

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You know what that means: another entry into the Shane Victorino .gif Hall of Fame. He has been so very kind to us over the years.

You might prefer the simple .gif of Victorino falling down while attempting to make the play. I, though, prefer the slow-motion closeup majesty of this one:

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Roy Oswalt probably isn't going to throw a pitch in the majors again until the end of June, at the earliest. It's possible he isn't going to be ready until early July. What kind of financial commitment would the Rangers have to lay out for three to four months of pitching? From Scott Miller:

Oswalt and the Rangers have agreed to a deal that will pay the veteran right-hander $5 million for the rest of this year, with $1 million available to him in incentives, according to sources with knowledge of the deal.

If Oswalt were willing to take a deal from the highest bidder this offseason, he probably would have received at least two years. If he didn't have a troublesome back, he probably would have had three-, four-, or five-year offers. In the end, he's still getting paid a decent amount of coin, he gets to pitch for a team that satisfies his offseason demands, and he picked up a couple months of extra vacation. There are worse fates.

If you're a little confused about why Curt Schilling is in the news these days, it's because of video-game stuff. Just knowing that probably doesn't help you understand a whole lot.

Luckily, SB Nation has a sister site dedicated to video games, and I can't think of a better way to show off their use of StoryStream reporting than to point you to their Schilling stream. Long story short: The financial bleeding can't be staunched by a single sock.

The rumblings from this morning had the Texas Rangers in the lead for Roy Oswalt's services, and considering his desire to play for a contender that was close to his Mississippi home, it made sense. Now the Dallas Morning News is reporting that Oswalt has signed with the Rangers:

The Texas Rangers have signed free-agent right-hander Roy Oswalt, according to an individual familiar with the process.

As a guy who knows how telephones and computers operate, I'm also familiar with the process, but the Morning News probably means someone who actually knows what's going on in Ranger Land. The move made sense when it was rumored last week, and it still makes sense.

The Rangers briefly courted Oswalt last winter before committing to moving Neftali Feliz into the rotation. Now that Feliz is hampered by elbow problems, though, the Rangers became interested again, and they beat out several teams for Oswalt's services, including the Dodgers, Red Sox, Tigers, and Orioles.

Oswalt will likely need a few minor-league tuneups before returning to the majors, and the word earlier was that it would take him about a month to get ready.

If you want to know just how stupid and short-sighted this site is, this is a pretty good place to start:

Those are screen caps from this site's search field, and the number to pay attention to is the one at the left by "stories." That's how many times the search phrase appears in front-page stories. This site started in 2005, right before Barry Bonds got hurt, so that has something to do with it. Also, there are "minor lines" results included with the Bowker totals, which pad the numbers.

Still, the name "John Bowker" has been on the front page of this site almost as much as "Barry Bonds." I never felt like I gave enough attention to Bonds when he was putting up OBPs over .450 and single-handedly keeping the offense afloat in 2006 and 2007, nor have I mentioned him enough in subsequent seasons. He was sure easy to take for granted.

In retrospect, every post about the 2006 Giants should have been about Bonds. Here's a post on how long the Giants should have stuck with Lance Niekro. Who in the absolute hell cared about that? Why did I waste my time? Good god, what a miserable existence. Barry Bonds was active and playing for the San Francisco Giants at that time. That post should have been a collection of Barry Bonds limericks.

Later on that month, I mentioned Tim Worrell for some reason. That should have been a post filled with links to oil paintings of Barry Bonds. That was all that mattered back then. It's so cute that we used to pretend otherwise.

And since Bonds has retired, it's almost felt like the Giants have ignored Bonds similarly. Part of that had to do with Bonds withdrawing on his own, sure, and it's quite understandable that the Giants were looking to build a post-Bonds existence and identity. It's probably not fair to suggest that the Giants completely ignored Bonds for the past five years -- he did throw out the first pitch of the NLCS, after all.

But there wasn't the slate of post-retirement bobbleheads, or team-related appearances that you're going to see for the five years after, say, Derek Jeter retires. Bonds had a trial going on, related to the kegs of chemicals he likely ingested as a member of the San Francisco Giants, so you can see how the team might want to keep their distance a bit. And you wondered what the statute of limitations was going to be with all of that ... other stuff.

Looks like it's five years. Bonds was in the booth for Monday's game, and he's eager to join the Giants' organization in some capacity:

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If Brandon Phillips is balking at some octopus with bone marrow, he probably doesn't want to know what Andrew Zimmern has eaten for his job or just to survive.

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From September 20, 1934, here's Ty Tyson calling this Yankees and Tigers game, which might be the earliest baseball broadcast to survive intact:

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Our long national nightmare is almost over, in which "national" is defined as a niche news story of mostly regional interest. Roy Oswalt is close to signing with a team. From Jon Heyman:

folks think a roy oswalt deal will happen this week ... finally. #rangers #orioles #redsox #phillies

— Jon Heyman (@JonHeymanCBS) May 29, 2012

Lots of teams mentioned there. But according to Jayson Stark, there's one team that's pulling away from the rest of the pack:

The Los Angeles Dodgers watched pitcher Roy Oswalt throw last week in Starkville, Miss., but team officials are convinced that Oswalt is going to sign with the Texas Rangers -- possibly as early as this week.

Seeing as Jayson Stark is the lord and mayor and owner of that particular town, you'd have to figure he has a pretty good idea of what's going on.

Oswalt didn't sign this offseason because he was looking for a team close to his Mississippi home that was also a contender, and of the teams in the Oswalt market now, the Texas Rangers are the only team that still satisfies those desires. With Neftali Feliz on the shelf, the Rangers could sign Oswalt and rerereresend Feliz to the bullpen when he comes back from elbow soreness. Because the Rangers were running low on power arms in the bullpen. Gotta lock down that fourth inning.

Jered Weaver left Monday's game against the New York Yankees after 12 pitches with a back injury. The Angels won anyway, defeating the Yankees for their seventh straight win, but after the game, the team ordered a battery of tests for Weaver.

From MLB.com:

... an MRI could reveal a bulging disk for Weaver.

"I can't really bend over too much," Weaver said. "Muscle relaxer's helping a little bit, but like I said, I've never had something like that happen before, so it was pretty painful. No doubt about it."

The Angels said they'll "most likely" call up a pitcher, regardless of whether Weaver needs to go on the DL. The team hasn't had a day off since May 10, and the bullpen had to absorb nine full innings on Tuesday. The three starting pitchers the Angels have on their 40-man roster are Garrett Richards, Trevor Bell, and Ariel Pena. Bell is struggling this season, and Pena is in AA, so Richards is probably the likeliest candidate.

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The Tampa Bay Rays struck surprisingly early when filling their designated-hitter slot over the offseason. Incumbent Johnny Damon was booted out the back door, and Luke Scott was signed to a one year, $6 million deal that made him one of the highest-paid players on the Rays. Then the bottom fell out of the DH market, and there were all sorts of one-year options for cheap.

One of those options was Hideki Matsui, and he went the entire offseason without latching on to a team, signing with the Rays in the spring. With Luke Scott scuffling, the Rays are looking to give Matsui a shot:

Expect Matsui to join #Rays tomorrow

— Marc Topkin (@TBTimes_Rays) May 29, 2012

That "tomorrow" referred to Tuesday. Scott hit .213/.291/.348 in May after starting the season hot, but there are no indications that he's in danger of losing his job. Matsui is up to be a bat off the bench for now.

Matsui hit .170/.231/.213 without a home run in 47 at-bats for triple-A Durham, so it's not like he forced himself onto the roster, but presumably the Rays saw something they liked.