Lincecum ready to face team that first drafted him

SAN FRANCISCO -- Tim Lincecum is scheduled to start for the Giants against the Cleveland Indians on Saturday.

It could have been the other way around.

Eligible for the 2005 First-Year Player Draft after his sophomore season at the University of Washington because he already was 21, Lincecum was selected by the Indians in the 42nd round but declined to sign. The Giants drafted him in the first round in 2006, and the rest is history.

Lincecum listened to the Indians' proposals but felt fairly certain that he would stay in school, as he ultimately did. "I just felt like I didn't want to sell myself short of my junior year," Lincecum said Friday.

Lincecum admitted that he occasionally has pondered what might have been if he had signed with Cleveland. "It's because it's just the way I think," he said. "I'm an analytical person and sometimes I think a little more than I need to."

The Indians and Chicago White Sox are the only teams Lincecum has not faced in his Major League career.