Giants Best Team in MLB … Without Lincecum

Following the Giants latest loss -- a 5-0 egg to the Rangers that featured Tim Lincecum struggling on the mound once again -- we pointed out that Timmy's teammates and coaches are standing behind him.

Which they should. That's what teammates do, and it's not like we're talking about some has-been off the streets here. It's Tim Freaking Lincecum.

But here's a mind-boggling stat, courtesy of Matt Snyder at CBSSports.com: if you take away Lincecum's starts from the Giants performance this season, they would have the best record in baseball.

Timmy's taken the mound for San Francisco 13 times this season and in those starts, the Giants are 2-11. (Lincecum himself is 2-7 on the season.)

Take those wins and losses away from the team's season record and the Giants are 32-16. That's a .667 winning percentage and that's equates to a higher winning percentage than the Dodgers, who have a .639 winning percentage, and the best record in baseball.

As it stands now, though, the Giants are five games back of the NL West lead, 34-27 and sitting with a .557 winning percentage. They were hopped by several teams over the weekend, having sat at second place heading into the Texas series.

Bear in mind that the Giants have done this all while losing their closer, losing their best hitter (at the time) to the second fractured hamate bone of his career, while trotting out Barry Zito every fifth day, and without making any monster splashes this offseason.

And of course, they've done this while Tim Lincecum's gone through the worst stretch of pitching in his career. Assuming that Lincecum can begin to turn things around at some point, it could be a pretty good problem to have right now.

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