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Baker gives today's lineups as:

CF Chone Figgins
2B Dustin Ackley
Rf Ichiro
1B Justin Smoak
C Jesus Montero
3B Vinnie Catricala
LF Trayvon Robinson
DH Jesus Sucre
SS Carlos Triunfel

LHP James Paxton

Team 2

SS Brendan Ryan
2B Kyle Seager
CF Casper Wells
LF Mike Carp
1B John Jaso
RF Carlos Peguero
DH Luis Jimenez
C Adam Moore
3B Francisco Martinez

RHP Taijuan Walker

Let's see, that's fully six players starting who aren't in my Blues vs Whites varsity-jayvee game.  Therefore the five players left out, in addition to Gutierrez, are:  C Olivo, SS Kawasaki, 1B Carlos Guillen, DH/3B Liddi, and CF Saunders.  Stipulating first that the lineups mean very little:

1.  The absolutely number one question for me about these intrasquads, right now, is whether Vinnie Catricala looks confident defensively.  If he enjoys playing third, that's good enough for me.  If he's out there looking like they're throwing horse cookies at him from the batter's box, well, siiiiigggghhhhhhhhh.

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Okay, this play's over, where's the next signal from the coach already?!

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Ticking the list off on your fingers:

DUSTIN ACKLEY - James says, 60-90 games to become completely adjusted, just in terms of the clubhouse, daily routine, etc.

Ackley's played exactly 90 games.  He's gone home, spent the winter knowing he was the incumbent 2B.  He's going through spring training as one of the established locals at Diamond Lil's. He should be all.  systems.  go.  in April 2012.

.

KYLE SEAGER, JUSTIN SMOAK - these guys may or may not be actually developed.  The "acclimation" principle applies only assuming that development is complete.

Still:  Justin Smoak is the very definition of a post-hype sleeper.  People have gotten bored and lost interest, because it's been a fairly large number of at-bats without payoff, and most roto owners are thinking that the adjustment period is over and that he's failed (to be a star).

James' comp for Smoak was Carlos Pena, who was also a post-hype sleeper and who hit .286/.411/.627 once he jelled.  Whether that's this year, or 2015, for Smoak, we'll see.

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Whoop!  Sudden development, as Figgins takes the 6 spot in the intrasquad.  

Reminds me of a Robert A. Heinlein novel, where you've got a table for two.  Suddenly, a dark red spot appears on your dinner partner's chest, his head settles into his spaghetti ... the staff hustles the man away by the elbows, and re-sets the table in 30 seconds.  More wine, sir?  

Funny the way a homer and a double can get the staff bustling around, isn't it.  Vinnie knocks the fences down at 1 p.m., and a freshly-minted shortstop glove is in Figgy's locker at midnight.  Jack, I love you, man.

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SSI is on the record as taking the under, the very under, on Ryan's games played for 2012.  And for 2013, 014, 015 ..... 2068.  

Whitey Herzog took over the Cardinals and had a minor star playing SS, Garry Templeton.  Templeton was, we read in The White Rat, a prima donna and an unreliable commodity.  Whitey said, quote, I've got to have a shortstop I can count on, and traded a boatload (Templeton and Sixto Lezcano) for an unappreciated Ozzie Smith...

SSI doesn't like where this is going, this thing about Ryan sleeping with his neck in semi-traction every night.  Stop me if you've heard this one!  They've had allllllll winter, and spring training has started, and oh yeah!  He should be ready in a day or two, and

Bah humbug.  Just call the game on account'a rain, before somebody gets hit by the baseball.

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I never understood in the FIRST place why Chone Figgins wasn't a shortstop.  He's got the arm for third, right?  I'll guarantee you the guy can throw as hard as Omar Vizquel ever could.

He'd have been a bat-first shortstop, but a good one, I'll bet you.  Has anybody ever moved to short at 34?  Well, utility players move to increased duties at SS all the time.  Seager's doing it now.  

Well, Pete Rose was a big left fielder from ages 26 to 33, and then he moved in to the very demanding position of third base at the age of 34.  He was in the top 5 in the MVP voting the next two years.  Lemme go look for other precedents ....

It is generally undesirable to move a veteran toward the right of the defensive spectrum.  This doesn't mean that the general principle carries the absolute inviolability of a law of physics. 

By the way, Figgins has played 27 major league games at shortstop, with 4 errors and a range factor solidly above average.  The last time was in 2006.  Why the Angels didn't see him as a shortstop, it would be interesting to hear.

 ...............

So Baker decides I've traded on his fame and fortune one too many times, such as this time, and posts a Cage Match Call-Out on his website.  To Baker's surprise, Dr. D signs up, and the venue is set:  the Seattle Mariners clubhouse carpet.

Baker, pre-match, is perfectly coherent.  He's an athletic young football player, and I'm a 49-year-old out-of-shape blogger, so his plan is --- > to show a little mercy after I've learned my lesson.  Maybe.

Dr. D's plan is what it always is, against an unfamiliar sparring partner.  Keep the hands high and extended, "tangle" the punches, and at the right moment when he's engaged at chest level, surprise him with a power front kick or two.  After a few of these, he'll try a kick back, and when he does I'll trap the leg.  My "signature move," as it were, Mojo.

We're both coherent as we square off, Mariners forming a no-escape circle and cash flying into the hands of the clubhouse bookie, whom we presume is Brendan Ryan...

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=== Linkage ===

After the intrasquad game, Jeff Sullivan was witty even by his own standards.  He's the most famousest of all 'net hobbits, and that's sayin' a lot.  In this paragraph he hit for the cycle and turned an unassisted double play:

Brendan Ryan hit a home run off Oliver Perez and subsequently didn't run the bases. He just turned around and walked back to the dugout. Every part of this is my favorite. One interpretation is that Ryan doesn't know what a home run is, and so he wasn't sure what to do. Another interpretation is that Ryan wanted Perez to feel as bad as possible. The actual correct interpretation is that Ryan didn't want to rub it in Perez's face and figured the homer would've been a fly out in Safeco, but they don't hold spring training so that players can just walk around and do whatever they want. Ryan was supposed to jog, and he didn't jog. Look for Eric Wedge to make Ryan do some disciplinary circular jogging over the weekend.

So the first two sentences have to be burned on a setting forth of the facts, but check out the next six sentences.  Either 4, or 5, depending on your taste, are XBH in the comedy box score:

Every part of this is my favorite - HEH!  I've never heard that phrase before, have you?  It could be a cultural catchphrase.

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Moe sez,

What I see is an entirely natural move that hasn't been tweaked/coached/frame-by-framed.  Simple. Simple.  ... with almost no "effort" or strain.

I like this way of putting it amigo.  Walker's organization down the center line does seem to come naturally to him, and all his movements are light and easy.

We definitely give him credit for that.  And this is where the natural all-sport athleticism absolutely comes into play.  Body control comes easily to guys like Taijuan.

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

In the aikido dojo, these are two different concepts -- the "lightness" and "sureness" of your movements, as opposed to the dynamic tension you have learned to gather.  Two different things.

In aikido, Walker's mechanics (not his K rate!) would be 3rd or 2nd kyu.  1st kyu students - right before black belt - are expected to have excellent torque to their movements.

 ..............

Q.  Does it increase Taijuan's All-Star chances that he could win an MLB dunk contest?

A.  Taijuan would not win an MLB dunk contest.  He might not finish in the top 20.  Well, not based on the video I saw, at least.  

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MLB players, well over 50% of them including pitchers, could play basketball and football at a high level.  The same is not true in reverse:  NBA and NFL players can't play baseball.  As fans, we have very little concept of how remarkable the MLB player is, as an all-around athlete.

Here is a great June '11 read from Tim Kjurkian.  Take a sec and check it out; you'll be glad you did.   ... We'll wait ...

... back already?  Okay, yeah, Mike Cameron deadpans that 70% of MLB players have dunked a basketball.  Cameron Maybin can dunk any way you call, meaning reverse, windmill, etc., I guess.  Dustin Moseley, a 30-year-old pitcher for the Padres, was asked if he could dunk and he was offended at the question.

Joe Mauer was asked about his (sterling) basketball career and said, "I was a defensive specialist."  Go look up his points scored?  22 per game. Heh!

The article says that Grady Sizemore ran for 3,081 yards his senior year of high school; is that a typo or do some guys get 300 yards a game as a prep?

CC Sabathia can dunk; David Wells, at his heaviest, could supposedly dunk.  Okay, that's for starters.

.

Q.  You're seriously saying that MLB players are as strong and fast as, say, NFL players?

 ................

Our main man Jeff Sullivan put together a couple of animated .gif's.  Good on yer, Jeffy.

.

=== Wrist Hinge ===

The first thing to notice?  Imagine that you're looking straight down at home plate from outer space.  Superimpose a clock face onto Ichiro, with the 12 pointed at the pitcher and the 6 pointed at the catcher.

With Ichiro's old swing, when he pulled the bat back into his backswing .... the bat head pointed at 2:30 on this clock.  You can see it on the .gif.  It was the one and only part of Ichiro's swing that was not dynamic:  he was a golfer swinging a 6-iron, pulling it back to his knees with a stiff pair of arms.  Ichiro's wrist hinge was painful for me to watch, not only much too short, but also much too stiff.

Now look at Jeffy's .gif from Larry Stone's photos from Arizona from 2012.  You can clearly see that Ichiro's load takes the bat head to 1:00, or even 12:30, on the clock face.  This isn't an accident of that particular swing; it's integral to what Ichiro is doing.

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We wondered whether Ichiro had his big years, in those seasons in which the #9 Mariner hitter was competent.

You'll never find a simpler study than this one:  without peeking, that is before looking at the splits, we put a tick mark beside Ichiro's four glory years.  Those were :

1. 2001, the MVP ...
2. 2004, the .372 season, when he broke the hits record ...
3. 2007, when hit .351 with power and walks and finished #8 in the MVP ...
4. 2009, batting .352 with a whopping .465 SLG, getting the #9 in the MVP ...
5. whoops gotta add 2002, since he had a 120 OPS+ and by far his best EYE ratio.

In all of the above years, Ichiro's OPS+ was 120 to 130 ... in the other six years, his OPS+ was 84 to 113.  Okay, you've got a clean split, five MVP-candidate seasons and six lesser seasons, with no blurry seasons in the middle at all.  Beautiful.