Halladay vs. Lincecum

Tim Lincecum turned some heads with a 14 K CG SO for his postseason debut and the debate has turned into who had the better game. Obviously both are impressive in their own right, but let's compare the numbers by each starter. I'll be using Baseball-Reference's gamelogs.

Roy Halladay pitched 79/104 strikes good for about 76%. Tim Lincecum threw 75/119 strikes which is good for 63%. Tim Lincecum had 20 called strikes with 28 whiffs, Roy Halladay had more called strikes and less whiffs. 23 called, 19 looking. These numbers are expected for each pitcher considering their different pitching styles. Doc likes the groundball to keep him in the game longer. The Freak loves the strikeout and none of these numbers deviate from either pitching style.

Let's check out the GB:FB ratios now. I'm not accounting for the LD since each pitcher only had 1 logged for the game, although Doug Glanville reported on ESPN that Lincecum had a lot more harder hit balls. Tim Lincecum induced 4 GB to 11 FB. Roy Halladay recorded 12 GB with only 7 FB. Everything looks pretty normal so far.

Now lets get into the more detailed stats. Win Probability Added (WPA) is a stat that determines how important that player was for the game. Since Roy Halladay had awesome run support he posted a WPA of .306 (based on his pitching performance alone, he added another .300 for his RBI). Tim Lincecum wasn't as fortunate and really had the weight of the game in his hands with a WPA of .754. That's amazing right there. The Giants really had no shot at winning without Lincecum on the mound. Kudos to you.

I've heard arguments about the gamescore for these two. The no-no posted a score of 94, tied with Don Larsen's perfect game. Tim Lincecum had a gamescore of 96. If you know how the score is judged the only reason Lincecum has a higher one is because of his strikeout abilities.

These two gems by two great aces on two pretty damned good teams are almost incomparable. The fact of the matter is Roy Halladay faced 28 batters and Tim Lincecum faced 30. The Doc had no hits, and the Freak had 2. Nobody is denying Lincecum's outing, it was outstanding. Some things transcend statistics and boxscores, and to have no-hits is surely more impressive than 2 hits. Unless you're Ken Johnson.