You don’t acquire the nickname of “The Freak” as an athlete when you are undersized.  Well, that is unless you are Tim Lincecum.

The Golden Spikes winner from the University of Washington stood at 5" 11" and 170 pounds, and with a choir boy face, he did not look like a power pitcher, but he was not only as a Husky but for the Giants, who used a First Round Pick (10^thOverall) to take him in 2006.

Lincecum only needed one year to make it to the main roster, and in his sophomore year, he was named the Cy Young winner after posting an 18-5 record, a 2.62 ERA while leading the NL in Strikeouts (265), ERA+ (168), FIP (2.62), H/9 (7.2) and SO/9 (10.5).  It was the best season of his career but not his last great one.

The right-hander joined the elite group by becoming a back-to-back Cy Young winner.  Lincecum’s 2009 saw the Pitcher go 15-7 with a 2.48 ERA (his best) while again finishing first in Strikeouts (261) while again topping the NL in FIP (2.34).  These were Lincecum’s best years, but not his peak period still had some juice.

Lincecum went to his third consecutive All-Star Game in 2010 while also going number one in Ks for the third straight time.  Tenth in Cy Young voting, Lincecum, aced the Giants to their first World Series Title in years, and his star shone the brightest.

Lincecum went to his last All-Star Game in 2011, but following that year, he struggled and was no longer the same dominator he once was.  Every year, Lincecum’s stats eroded, but he was still helpful in their 2012 World Series win.  The Giants again won the World Series in 2014, though Lincecum’s participation was minimal.  He left the Giants for one final year in the Majors with the Angels in 2016, and though his career fizzled, you can’t discount that this is the only two-time Cy Young winner in franchise history.  Lincecum’s overall pitching stats are lower than other moundsmen in franchise history, but his brief period of dominance dwarfs many above him on this list.

On a ballot packed with qualified candidates for the National Baseball Hall of Fame, is it possible that none of them will be elected this year?

If that happens, as it did last year, it would be the third time in the last decade that the qualified voters of the Baseball Writers' Association of America (BBWAA) have thrown a shutout at the Hall of Fame. This is an odd paradox considering that after the Big Zilch of 2013, the BBWAA in subsequent years went on to elect 22 players across the next seven ballots, with the various guises of the veterans committee voting in another five players (and six non-players) during that seven-year span. (In 2013, the veterans committee did elect three candidates to the Hall.)

Last year, Curt Schilling, who had garnered 70 percent of the vote on the previous ballot, seemed to be a lock for election. Instead, he stalled with a negligible increase in support, then threw a social-media Trumper tantrum declaring that he wanted to be removed from this year's ballot. The Hall of Fame quickly responded that it would not do so.

In a tumultuous year that was not normal for anything and everything including baseball, one thing that might be back to normal is voting for the Baseball Hall of Fame. Granted, the 2021 Baseball Hall of Fame ballot has 14 returning candidates, with just about every one of them owning cases for induction that range from borderline to compelling.

This one should be a little interesting.

There was a time when Tim Lincecum was considered the best Pitcher in the National League and rightfully so.  Dubbed “The Freak” due to his powerful arm despite having a slender frame, Linceum is one of the few hurlers to record back-to-back Cy Youngs (2008 & 2009) in a stretch where he would also lead the National League both seasons in Strikeouts, FIP and SO/9.   Lincecum would still receive Cy Young votes over the next two seasons but injuries would render him a fraction of what he was and realistically Lincecum was a player with two excellent seasons, two very good seasons, and a few horrible ones, the latter two of which was when he would become a three time World Series Champion.