June 2009

RB HR

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=== Vargas, #5SP ===

Lest anybody get the false impression that we're slow to give credit, where credit is actually due... let us remind you that Jason Vargas was a *throwin* on the Putz deal.

Vargas surprised the M's as much as anybody -- or he'd have been a feature piece of the deal -- but still, Capt Jack was the one who picked Jason Vargas out of a lineup and said, "let's try THIS guy." Read more

=== Franklin Gutierrez ===

M's broadcasts continue to show that Gutierrez has a marvelous zone rating.  It's cool to see the M's sabermetric team linked up with the face of the franchise up there in the broadcast booth.

How does this happen?  Typically, the saber employees sit in meetings with Tony Blengino, to whom they have full access on a day-to-day basis.  If it's a typical white-collar enviornment, you as a saber employee can talk to Blengino just like you talk to the guy in the cubicle next to you, though when you do get Blengino, it's usually in a small, casual committee, or perhaps in his office for 15 minutes at a time on his agenda. Read more

=== Dr's Prognosis ===

First five pitches against the Padres, Morrow finished "out in front" on four of them and pulled off one of them.  My 17-year-old son, a pitcher, was sitting on the couch.  Reality check, babe.  I slo-mo'ed it. 

[Good pitch] "Does that look like he's finishing out in front to you?"  (With the front side of his head traveling towards the plate on followthrough, and his right elbow closer to the catcher and away from his body, rather than closer to 1B and tight against his body.) Read more

One thing that we fans *consistently* do is assume that if a name doesn't look glittery to us, then the player doesn't have much value to other GM's.

To us, if a guy hasn't been on the Baseball America org top-10 for MULTIPLE years, then Theo Epstein and Kevin Towers don't know who they are.

That's just not the case.  Who in Seattle had ever heard of Freddy Garcia, Carlos Guillen, or John Halama before Houston used them to acquire Randy Johnson?  Carlos Guillen's name hadn't come up a single time anywhere on the internet that I ever found -- but after the fact, we discovered that he was a 5-tool prospect who was considered an impact minor leaguer *only* by people inside baseball. Read more