Stats — Minor League Splits — WTM
When Lincoln was drafted by the Pirates with the fourth pick in the 2006 draft, many Pirate fans groaned that after two years of drafting promising position players, the team was back to drafting college pitchers that would flame out in the system. Lincoln’s almost immediate Tommy John surgery (he threw 23 2/3 innings in Bradenton and Hickory in 2006 after being drafted, then didn’t pitch again until 2008) did nothing to quell those fears.
Lincoln really was different when he was drafted, though. Most prospect watchers didn’t seem to think it was an egregious move to take him above Andrew Miller, who was the consensus #1 pitching talent in that draft who then plummetted over signability concerns. Since returning in 2008, Lincoln has shown the great control he had in college (he walked 1.5 batters/nine innings in 2008 and 1.8/9 in 2009) and by all accounts, his two best pitches (fastball and curve) are back to where they were pre-injury.
After dominating AA in 2009 he hit a bit of a speedbump in AAA, but his ratios there were still very good (6.2 K/9 vs. 1.5 BB/9) and he was much better in the month of August. He’s still got some kinks to iron out, but there’s no reason to think he’s not capable of that. I think he’ll be in the Pirates’ rotation by the middle of this season.
