Seattle Sports Insider

At MC, Vidya points out this finding by Gennaro in the 2010 Mariners Annual:

[[ He goes beyond the usual defensive metrics that drive most of us crazy and brings up a very important point in how defense affects pitching. It turns out that starting pitchers on teams in the top quartile of defensive teams average 6.0 IP per games. Starting pitchers in the bottom quartile average 5.5 IP per game. ]]

Brilliant!  :guinness:

Fo mo yeahsFurther, Gennaro went on to demonstrate that these 80 innings per year, for a lousy defensive team, get shifted from the rotation pitchers to the worst relievers. Read more

Early bone fusionI/O:  Jeff Sullivan with a solid little quick-study on performance before and after LASIK.

Sully selected the 26 names with a reasonably non-prejudicial method - the 26 names that came up when he Googled "LASIK" and some other term ("MLB"? who knows). 

Even for peer review, Googling can count as a random-enough selection method, actually.  It's not like you're taking the names off of last year's leaderboards.

97 wRC+ before; 109 wRC+ after the surgery.

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Early bone fusion

CRUNCH:  SSI's guess is that if a player suddenly manifests 20/10 vision, he's going to hit better.  How's that for going out on a limb.

We remember a famous Babe Ruth anecdote where somebody asked him to read something, go to the movies, or whatever ... quote, "If my eyes went bad even a little bit, I wouldn't be able to hit home runs."

Little Joe Morgan has stated that All-Star hitting isn't based on physical reflexes; it is based on being able to see the spin of the baseball as early as possible in its flight.  Think about that. Read more

Dr D chews on the Cactus LeagueI/O Mike Sweeney:  Per the Live! broadcast, it is "hilarious" that a team, not able to hit its way out of a paper bag, is even thinking about cutting the one guy who's hitting .750.

Career .300 hitter, reminds Baka, slugged .500 last year "as soon as his back was healed" and this spring is simply continuing what Sweeney was doing when we last saw him in September.

Sweeney is way slimmed down from 2009 is the report, both down in bodyfat and actually slimmer in the chest and arms.  Looks 30 years old. Read more

We ll take 30 of em this year, section 151I/O Jose Lopez:  The Mariners like Lopez' work at third base this spring.  They want to see him take a couple of particular angles, show he can make this or that particular play, and then they'll probably finalize his move to 3B.

They could wait until Albuquerque without problems, says Zduriencik on Rockies TV the other day.  But they'll probably finalize Lopez at 3B shortly, barring somethin' ugly...

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CRUNCH:  One thing we tend to forget:  basically any 2B could play 3B, if he had the arm.   I mean, there is work to do, but we have wayyyyyy over-emphasized it. Read more

that s gotta hurt, battaSlam-dancing again off Baker's show on Thursday -

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I/O Ryan Rowland-Smith:  Baker, who isn't an extreme optimist about RRS anyway, reminds that Rowland-Smith has never gone a year in a big-league rotation.  Baker throws in the observation that "Rowland-Smith is historically a slow starter in April and May."

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CRUNCH:  Hm.  Certainly RRS had velo problems in March-April last year, so much so that SSI wrote him off at those 86 gun readings... looking at it again, it wasn't until August (!) that he got untracked, and in 12 starts down the stretch he posted an ERA of right around 2.00. Read more

How sweeeet it isMoshing off Geoff Baker Live! last night.

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=== Kanekoa Texeira a Mariner! ===

Baker puts the exclam on it, saying it's a done deal.  With 12 men there isn't even any discussion left about it; with 11 pitchers, it would be between Tex, White, and the long man, with Tex the least likely to be cut.

So, here's a cool addition to a cool team.  Go baby.

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=== Fister vs Vargas === Read more

How sweeeet it isAs far as I know, Baker's interview was the first and only time that Bill James has commented extensively on the Seattle Mariners specifically.  In the modest little world of baseball saber, it was a historic event, for us here in Seattle.

Just real quick:  a couple of people groused that "sabermetrics have passed James by; he's no longer relevant."  Baker, amused, replied that Bill James has two World Series rings and is participating in decisions with the Boston Red Sox. 

Typing up theories on the internet, Baker quipped, that some day might even be used by a major league team, that is fine.  (Remember what a big deal it was, that Felix read a paper by USSM, or that the P-I stole a D-O-V article for its page A-1?)   Read more

Didn t mean Wash was Da Bomb in THAT way=== M-Pops on Roster Stagnation ===

I/O:  [[ I wonder what the disconnect (if there is one at all) is between Capt. Jack's thinking and SSI's regarding Wash and the BOR...

Doc mentioned that Bill James, IIRC, cited a kind of roster stagnation as a possible starting point to begin to explain the "consolidation season" phenomenon - a club owes a player leeway due to their success the season prior. Read more

Best to ya, dudeMaybe :- )

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=== Sandy on Branyan ===

I/O:  [[ From where I sit the sentiment that Z could've had Branyan cheap is rewriting history. It wasn't until after it was clear the market had vanished the Branyan finally signed a cheap deal - (and even that includes a vesting option - IIRC).

Doc is often the temperate voice going against the lemming hordes plunging off the cliffs of enthusiam. If there is a niche for my own ramblings - it is that I instinctively factor in "what is going on in this guys HEAD" into my analyses. ]] Read more