May 2009

=== To MORRRRRow, To MORRRRRow Dept. ===

As with Brandon Morrow's career to date, this 80-year-old song works beautifully -- provided you are a viewing it as a 4-year-old child on an ice cream bender:

The sun'll come out
Tomorrow
Bet your bottom dollar
That tomorrow
There'll be sun!

Just thinkin' about
Tomorrow
Clears away the cobwebs,
And the sorrow
'Til there's none!

When I'm stuck a day
That's gray,
And lonely,
I just stick out my chin
And Grin,
And Say,
Oh!

The sun'll come out
Tomorrow
So ya gotta hang on
'Til tomorrow
Come what may
Tomorrow! Tomorrow! Read more

After the M's got Felix five runs and lost the game to their division rivals, Wakamatsu was furious.  Give him credit for his professional social veneer, but his anger was palpable even on the radio.

One of the things that Wok talked about, was Felix putting little or no effort into holding runners -- and it was exactly this same frame-of-mind that had Felix grabbing the ball and throwing it without an idea.  He was evidently in a lazy-brain mode. 

Felix had no "pitchability" -- no capacity for, and no interest in -- throwing the Angels the pitches that might cross them up.  He grabbed the ball and threw it mindlessly.  Read between the lines and you will see that general (lack of) interest in the game is what had Wakamatsu apoplectic. Read more

=== PTI, Ackley at 2B ===

Mt Grizzly finds the idea decidedly too optimistic:

I love the optimistic angle as much as the next guy but...if the only examples that one can find where this type of move has worked are HOF-level guys, then I'm not sure how applicable it is.

Mariner Central posters reply, in the main, that you're not losing much even if Ackley cannot play the infield.  If he can play 2B, you're max'ing out his value; even if not, he's still the #2, goes the volley.

True dat.  But in Grizzle's defense, my argument was that you are PROBABLY looking at an infielder when you draft Ackley.  So lay down your clipboards and forget about the #3-8 candidates in the draft. Read more

CrustyJuggler pointed out Gammons' report regarding Ackley's potential at second base.  What gives the story traction is that Jack Zduriencik likes the idea.

If Ackley actually moved from OF to second base, that would also move him from "Player of choice, in an uncomfortable draft position, in an uncomfortable draft" to "true #1-worthy pick."

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=== Feasibility Studies, Dept. ===

Would it take Ackley four years, or eight, or what, in order to meet our local standards for aesthetically-pleasing defense?  ;- )  Read more