Tim Lincecum, Angels seem like good fit on surface

The Los Angeles Angels need starting pitching.

Tim Lincecum wants to be a starter in the Big Leagues again.

So cue the wedding bells because a perfect marriage seems to have occurred, and it couldn’t have come at a better time; the Angels spent the first month of the season limping through an injury plague that has already severed several of the team’s key arteries.

The team is still bleeding, but Lincecum is probably the best option of tourniquet the team has for right now.

More from LA Angels News

• LA Angels: 3 offseason moves the Halos desperately need to make
• LA Angels: AL West rival Astros proving that they’re not giving up yet
• 6 important offseason award dates and times for LA Angels fans
• This LA Angels move proves the Halos are trying to spend big on pitching
• No, the LA Angels should not blow their payroll on Freddie Freeman

In his prime, he was one of the best pitchers in baseball. The now-31-year-old is a two-time National League Cy Young Award winner and has three World Series rings.

But last year, his hips gave out on him, possibly because of the extreme torque he generates in his delivery. Degenerative hips limited him to 15 starts in 2015, and he hasn’t pitched in the Majors since June 27.

Not that his hips, or injuries at all for that matter, have been a problem for the right-hander in the past — he appeared in at least 32 games every season except last year and his rookie year, when he started 24 games.

But those hips need to be kept in mind as the Angels search for another short-term solution to the injury woes that have already claimed Garrett Richards, C.J. Wilson, Andrew Heaney and Tyler Skaggs from the rotation.

Want your voice heard? Join the Halo Hangout team!

Write for us!

Newly-acquired Jhoulys Chacin was brilliant on Saturday night in his Angels debut (7 IP, 2 ER, 4 K, ND) and the addition of Lincecum would round out the end of the rotation behind Hector Santiago, Jered Weaver and Nick Tropeano.

The potential to be inserted right into the rotation seems to be the biggest reason “The Freak” picked the Angels ahead of the Chicago White Sox and San Francisco Giants, who were the final teams in the running for his services after he threw a public showcase on May 6 in Scottsdale, Ariz.

More from Halo Hangout

• LA Angels: 3 offseason moves the Halos desperately need to make
• LA Angels: AL West rival Astros proving that they’re not giving up yet
• 6 important offseason award dates and times for LA Angels fans
• This LA Angels move proves the Halos are trying to spend big on pitching
• No, the LA Angels should not blow their payroll on Freddie Freeman

Lincecum said he was “happy” with how he felt physically after the session.

“I was able to throw strikes with my pitches, stay within myself, commanded all of my pitches,” Lincecum said after the session, per ESPN.com. “I only had a couple of misses, and they weren’t out over the plate, so that’s encouraging for me.”

Lincecum had pitched with the Giants his entire career and it’s been noted that he enjoys living in the Bay Area, so whatever else he saw with the Angels to lure him away from the northern part of the state is worth noting as well.

Maybe it’s a chance for a fresh start, maybe it’s a chance to feel like an ace again in a rotation that really only has Santiago challenging him for that title.

It would be exciting to see him don a Halos uniform because he has the potential to pitch well this season, especially since American League hitters, for the most part, have never seen him up close before. If they have, it’s been once or twice in interleague play.

The deal is being finalized so it is not official just yet, and contract details have not yet been released.

Next: Garrett Richards not done yet?

This season has been freakishly tough to watch for Halos fans to this point, so maybe The Freak can contribute until the team gets healthy again.