Whale

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Almonte LF.  Rating = 5 to 6 (on a 1-10 scale)

The first AB against Brett Anderson, Dr. D fell out of his chair.  The same LH Almonte who'd sat on his back leg and swatted at pitches, Boggs-style ... that guy, in the other batter's box, absolutely pulled a Me-Myself-and-Irene on us.  now hitting RH, loaded up, looked for a zone, and fired the bat through the zone like Lloyd McClendon just told Almonte he didn't love him any more.

It wasn't just hacking away mindlessly.  Almonte controlled the zone, read the pitch, turned on fastballs, held up for breaking pitches, and smoked loud foul balls down the 3B line.

He had no trouble at all catching up to Anderson's heater -- was too far in front, in fact.  First AB, Anderson came in with a hot jam fastball ... Almonte cleared the front knee, got the bat in front Jose Lopez style, and blistered a double past the left fielder.  Slap me silly and call me shirrrly.  It was like watching Willie Bloomquist hit lefty and go upper tank.

True, his second and third AB's, those big swings resulted in "blonks," a grounder to 1B and a can of corn to RF.  This was pitch recognition.  Don't forget that Almonte is a raw rookie, about 1,600 AB's behind Justin Smoak.

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Ryan Divish at the Seattle Times reports that Nick Franklin took 2 innings in RF.  Ryan isn't pleased.  Let's give a "roundtable" (as opposed to "debate") style followon.

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By the way, when Geoff Baker was beat writer for the Times, he'd link to SSI frequently, and with gusto.  This is because SSI is :: ahem, adjusts tie :: the best Seattle site for info-taining baseball analysis.  

Since Baker left and Divish took over, we notice that the Times has reverted to follow every other "mainstream" outlet -- the Times' "editorial links" (those in the text of articles) now point to everyplace in Seattle except Seattle Sports Insider.

This bemuses Dr. D.  He has never quite understood the persona non grata treatment, but it has been persisting for at least five years now.  Usually the insinuation is that Blog X does not have material of sufficient quality to merit linkage.  But even USSM would not attempt to take that position vis-a-vis Seattle Sports Insider.

So, like we say, the reasons for the persona non grata mode remain opaque to Dr. D.  Obviously it never did Geoff Baker any harm, to put us on the marquee.  For our part, it's a curiosity.  :: shrug :: Another year of "Bill James 1981" treatment?  We're in good company.  ;- )

As you know, SSI is not small-minded, so we reiterate that we like Divish.  We'll continue to link to him whenever such is of benefit to our audience.

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It's been a cold winter, hadn't it?  :- )

Detect-O-Vision gets to take its hacks off the big, bright 60" high-def TV this morning.  As you know, we live to serve.

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Abraham Almonte

McTeacher's Pet.  Literally the only* guy in camp not playing well, too.  He's 4-for-30 including 26 three-hop bouncers on the infield.  As Dr. Lasker said, the theater of war despises petted favorites, and breeds heroes...

That 4-for-30 ain't off of Yu Darvish, seeing as Yu Darvish doesn't pitch in the Cactus League.  Almonte is swinging badly against VERY fringe pitching.  's OK.  He's still McTeacher's Pet.  Abraham Almonte will have to do a whale of a lot to blow his starting gig.

Originally posted on Feb. 28.

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Q.  Are you a real doctor, or do you just play one on my LCD?

A.  This isn't a court of law, a Franciscan Prompt Care Clinic or a national baseball site that has confused itself with a genetic-code research facility.  This is a baseball chat.

As always, we defer to Gordon or Dr. Grumpy, if they care to chime in.  Until then, I'm going to chat about the roto draft position of Taijuan Walker.  You have two choices:

1. Take it
2. Leave it

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Q.  Pineda had a torn rotator cuff, which they called bursitis.  Same thing here?

A.  I doubt it.  (Look up the definition of "doubt:" a feeling of uncertainty -- here, about the idea that Taijuan's rotator cuff is in jeopardy.)

The literature says that the rotator cuff is the group of muscles that holds your upper arm bone into your shoulder; the bursa sac is there to lubricate the rotator cuff.  So you can see how the two ailments could get confused with each other.

Taijuan got on a plane, flew to California, and the second doctor said, "Yep.  It's the bursa sac, not the rotator cuff."  Also, they said the MRI (not the X-ray) is clean.

So, I have a distinct lack of conviction that Taijuan's rotator cuff is torn up and that he's in a Pineda situation.

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Reason 1

The last 710-ESPN Hot Stove League.  They had an out-of-town guest on, who remembers the name ... he relayed a funny little incident about Erasmo.  

"It was one of the first starts of Ramirez' career.  Chili Davis was at the plate.  Ramirez blew him down and Chili went back to the dugout.  He told the bench, 'Guys, we have absolutely no chance.'  Ramirez threw a lockdown."

From the CF camera, he looks so underwhelming - Greg Maddux overwhelming. You forget to invert the camera and imagine it from the ump's point of view.

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Reason 2

BaseballHQ on Erasmo, going into this season:

Spring triceps issue lingered, ending possible breakout season before it could begin.  Showed, in 5 August starts, what could've been (1.11 WHIP, 116 Base Performance Value).  He still owns those 2011 and 2012 skills (93 and 102 Base Performance Values, 50 being average-solid), so with good health, there's plenty of roto profit here ... UP:  3.50 ERA

The simplest way to beat average fantasy baseball owners:  Just avoid being impressionable.  Just make yourself a bunch of "hot list" Post-Its that identify players who had lousy stats last year, for no important reason.  Beginners just go off last year's stats.

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Reason 3

Bill James' research.