That Lonnie chap can really light it up when he's feelin' it, and dig his hard data on Adam Moore.

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=== Weight and WAIT, dept. ===

Lonnie's hitting charts on Moore are comical, especially for a catcher of Moore's size and strength. 

The charts brought back childhood images of Vince Lombardi chalk-talking a Power Sweep in the 1960's, with every X blocked inside a little semi-circle, two wavy lines indicating the seal inside and outside, and the runner advancing the football 80 yards on 1st-and-10.

In case you're wondering whether every ballplayer's scatterchart looks as randomly-peppered as Jemanji's dartboard, the answer is No.  Left is the hit chart for the last Mariner catcher; notice the blood-red clot designating the 6-3 and 5-3 artery.

Or look up the same thing for Jose Lopez.

Or look up the same thing for Adrian Beltre.

Or look up the same thing for Yuniesky Betancourt.

.................

We can't emphasize enough the way in which off-field hitting -- for a right hand hitter vs the 80% RHP's -- slows the game down.  Taking the ball up the middle is exactly the same thing as slowing down the pitcher's speed by 2-3 mph, but better.  Because you stay balanced, not lunging.  You retain options of swinging either later or earlier.  Taking the ball up the middle creates a syndrome of calm alertness, flexible reactions, at the plate.

Teddy Ballgame would fix hitters in slumps and the very first thing would ask them was whether they were taking the ball up the middle.  That's the starting point for beginning an attack on a superior pitcher -- as all pitchers will be to the rookie Adam Moore in 2010.

Somebody told Wade Boggs that if he waited on the ball, he'd have more time.  And that if he kept his weight back, he could put torque on the ball late.  Boggs noticed that the next time he tried this, he rifled a shot into LF for a hit.  He decided to rifle about 3,000 more of them.

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=== WEIGHT and Wait, dept. ===

Endy Chavez can take the other way, but Lonnie's charts show all sorts of blue HR dots to RF -- even right down the RF line.

The bathead has not accelerated yet when you don't get the ball in front of the plate, so you're talking about mammoth strength.  (How many times have you seen our hero Ichiro hit a home run to left field in Safeco?  Has he ever done it once?)

But assuming that a hitter is so strong that he gets extra-base hits up the middle, into the right-center gap, over the RF fence, the game is slower for him than for everybody else.

Here's a Gammons roundtable in which Ted Williams demonstrates to two HOF'ers* that they don't understand hitting.  :- )   Excerpt:

GAMMONS: Ted, who was the toughest for you?

WILLIAMS: Boy, Bob Feller had great stuff. I can't name one who was toughest for me, but Eddie Lopat and Whitey Ford were really tough because they never gave me a pitch to hit. Bob Lemon was as tough as anyone.

Now, if I could give you any advice, it would be that the tougher the pitcher, the tougher the situation, the tougher the count, the worse the light, the worse the umpires, the tougher the delivery, the single most important thing to think about is hitting the ball hard through the middle.

You'll never go wrong with that idea in your mind. As long as you hit, and especially as you get older, hang in there and be quick.

BOGGS: If your name was Webster, not Williams, what would be your definition of a slump?

WILLIAMS: The inability to get hold of a ball and hit it with authority according to my potential.

BOGGS: Are you hitting the ball hard at all?

WILLIAMS: No, I'm not hitting the ball hard. If I'm hitting the ball hard and not getting hits, I didn't worry. I would say, "The law of averages is going to catch up with this ."

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=== Career Arc ===

Tracking minor-league hitters, the number one thing you want to see if you're looking for special gifts:  smooth progression, a new league each year, fulltime play.  You'd be surprised how few minor leaguers fulfill that.

As Lonnie emphasizes, Moore has a classic impact hitter's progression through the minor leagues, facing a brand-new set of (tougher) pitchers and handling them all with ease.  That's talent.

True, he slowed down just a bit at Cheney, but now let's "normalize" his hitting lines for the fact that he's a catcher.  And paying most of his attention to that.  ... once he got to Cheney, we have little doubt that the real pressure on his catch-and-call game went through the roof.

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You take Doug Fister or Franklin Gutierrez or Mark Lowe and the more you look, the more you remain intrigued.

You take Adam Moore, and the more you look, the more you expect prime time play out of him.

Go baby,

Dr D