You know the way in which you wring a sponge if you're trying to get it completely dry?  Here's what I saw during Wednesday's TV game...

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=== Matt Tuiasosopo ===

Pinch-ran, about the 3rd, for Milton Bradley, and went out to left field.  I noticed two plays: 

1) A long, high gapper off the left-center wall -- it was Byrnes' in CF -- that Byrnes played a bit awkwardly.  Tui, backing up, had it roll away from him toward the LF line and trotted after it leisurely.

2) A hard drive straight over Tui's head -- he turned his belt buckle to the foul line and ran it down, but had to 'banana' back over to CF to get it.  He wasn't too close to falling over when he glommed on to it.

Both plays functional, but not at all pretty.

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If Tui plays LEFT field, and Byrnes backup OF, there will be some serious AB's there for Tui.  Talk about your super-sub:  if he got hot, you could get him 450 AB's that way.

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Tui wasn't seeing the ball well, striking out twice.  He was "in between", a little ahead of the offspeed, a little passive on the heater.

Still, the arms and the torque on the swing are Canseco-esque.  You can certainly see the 40+ homers if and when he ever figures it out.  His arms and chest fairly crackle with power.

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=== Kotchman ===

Made a play I'm not sure I've ever quite seen:  took a high hopper that was fully 50% of the way to second base -- and then outran the hitter to first base. 

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First AB:  0-1 pitch, cheated fastball, got a mediocre inside curve, locked up badly.

0-2 pitch (IIRC), squared up his pitch, a FB out-and-over IIRC, took a big arm swing, absolutely no leverage whatsoever ... topped it on 3 bounces to the SS.  Who leisurely took two steps, stomped on second, and flipped the ball to first for a DP.

Casey actually jerked his head a bit with the effort, belt buckle all the way to RF, squared it up pretty much... a little 3-hopper to short.  You'll never see a more static swing.

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Second AB:  RBI opportunity in a 0-0 game.  Runner on second, 2 out.  Your #3 hitter up.

Lazy fastball from Chris Young, letter high.  Kotchman TOPS this pitch (!!!!????). 

Let me read that sentence again.   What in the world causes you to TOP a LETTER-HIGH fastball?!

Kotchman tops it.  Two bounces to the second baseman.  Inning over.

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Kotchman will probably hit .300 in Safeco, don't get me wrong.  And it's two AB's, so sue him.  But .300/.350/.400 is the line you go for, on your $4m shortstop.

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=== Milton Bradley ===

With his power outage last year -- and this spring -- I was watching anxiously for some torque in the swing.  Some guys lose their power overnight.

We saw what we wanted to see.  Bradley turns on the ball.  First inning, in fact, he turned on one and nearly dented the RF's cup on a short hop.  Could hear the ugggghhhh in Seattle.

So, very pleased with that.

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=== Jason Vargas ===

Say what you will, the dude goes out there and challenges.

He had the juice back in his arm, such as it was, threw tight little laser beams at the knees until he got tired, about the 4th, and then the ball came up.

Not that he's going to get away with one 90-mph pitch against the Rangers in Texas.  But Vargas executes his game, night in and night out, and he makes you beat him.  Good on yer, Jason.

He's better than French or Olson IMHO, and with Lee out, now looks assured (and deserving) of an early rotation slot.  Very likely, both he and Fister are in the rotation as it stands right now.

Vargas is going to give you strike one, and that synergy with our defense and park? - we could do worse at the #6 slot, I guess.

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Cheers,

Jeff