Dr. D smiled wryly when Mike Carp moved to the head of the Cheney line and pole-vaulted senior Rainiers into Safeco Field.  Well, who can blame Capt. Jack.  He's bringing in his own crew and he's enthused.  More power to him.

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=== What, Me Worry Dept. ===

Some guys just have It, as Silentpadna says. 

We remember Alvin Davis being called up from AA baseball to the big leagues in (?) 1984.  Funny thing about Alvin, he was completely, totally comfortable in his very first game as a big leaguer.  We were sitting in the third deck, 1B side, watching the rook (hit #6 IIRC), and had a perfect angle for Alvin's titanic HR into the third deck in RF.

In his first week or so, Alvin had like three doubles and three homers, a bunch of walks, and it was the league that had to figure out how to play him.  Not the other way around.

It was the WAY Alvin did it.  From his very first game, he looked like he didn't care whether he hit or not.  He was visibly calm -- and visibly in the zone.

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Mike Carp, in his first two games, showed the same -- very rare -- complete lack of self-consciousness.  The Japanese call this "mu shin," the no-mind, the mindset in which you sincerely do not care who is watching and hence do not feel any pressure.  You're free to concentrate, when you aren't thinking about the results.

Carp wasn't pressing, and he wasn't afraid to fail.  He simply went out and hit.  That is blinkin' impressive.

First AB, as you probably saw, Carp not only walked but *worked* the walk in exactly the same way he would at Cheney.  Who in the world shows that kind of relaxation in their MLB DEBUT?   .... can you imagine what you would feel like, inside, if debuting in the major leagues?  It's as if you strolled out onto the stage at Carnegie Hall and shared a few friendly jokes with the audience before you sang "In Bloom."  Never happen.

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For all of the swooning that young sabermetricians do over Jack Zduriencik, it sure seems to me that a lot of his best decisions are based on seasoned baseball judgment.  Do you doubt that it is this "presence", this "It" factor, that led Capt Jack's team to single out Carp as the guy they wanted -- despite the Mariner logjam at 1B/DH?

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=== WAIT and WEIGHT, Dept. ===

Also very impressive is the studious way in which Carp reads each pitch before he decides what to do with it.

Anybody can hit a 90 fastball in the cage, if they simply swing at the same moment each repetition.  That's how guys hit Brandon Morrow's fastball.  And that's how most hitters, even most big league hitters, swing.  You do it too much and it's "cheating," and leaves you wide open to the straight change.

Carp, however, didn't cheat on a single pitch in San Diego.  He stayed coiled as he deciphered the pitch.  He was able to swing very late -- and yet when he launched, he was very quick and swung EXTREMELY hard.

Let's not get carried away, because he was underneath everything.  Alvin Davis with 20 bases the first seven games, he wasn't.  But in one game plus one AB, Carp showed me exactly why Capt Jack is so hot on him.  He's got some magic sparkle dust to him.

Cheers,

Dr D