History

 ...... 

How about a quick-shtick on each lineup position? ... we'll go for the top half on Thursday.  :- )

....

Miguel Olivo hit a ball, about 10 feet foul down the LF line, that cleared the upper-deck facade like James Belushi hitting a tennis ball over the chain-link fence against Big Sak.  It literally disappeared back into a tunnel.

As Jeff Sullivan pointed out, Olivo's out ratio is farrrrr above the legal limit and if a saber patrolman ever field-tests him, Miguel will not be driving his own car home.

Olivo is averaging 24 walks and 153 strikeouts (!!) per 162 games on his career.  I'm guessing that is the worst, the #1 worst, EYE profile of any good player in major league history.

 ........ 

Re Brandon League, Mojo likes what he sees:

Contrast Brandon League:

Cooler tattoos, 

Better control,  League can paint the corners when he wants, and can throw his sinkerball for a strike.

Good stuff too,  He hits 98 on the radar gun, has a good sinker ball, and has that fork thing as his offspeed pitch.

Has thrived in Seattle, with 3.42 and 2.82 ERAs while pitching high leverage innings for the lowest run scoring and most disappointing offenses in history. 

Does not whine,  Last year, he never whined, that we know of, during all those 1-1 and 0-0 tie games where he pitched his heart out for at least two innings, and the Mariners lost anyway.

 .... 

Megadittos to G-Money's org overview, in this thread.  /cosign G.  It's a legitimately strange organizational situation.  

... EVERYbody has got to give it up for Zduriencik's talent development, and for me the signature decision was to draft Dustin Ackley and to move him to the 2B position. That represents Zduriencik in so many ways.

***

The Mariners usually contract some famous saberdweeb or other, to propose them a schematic for the next season's moves.  Maybe they should retain your services, Gordon?

Personally, I never understood why a Mat Olkin would want to submit an "offseason plan" in a vacuum -- not having full information as to which trade targets were available.  Of course, the $10k might have something to do with it.

Spec sez,

You're forgetting one [in your rookie rundown] ... Tom Wilhelmsen, take two

7 G, 12.1 IP, 9 H, 4 ER, 0 HR, 4 BB, 14 K

2.92 ERA, 1.05 WHIP, 0.0 HR/9, 2.92 BB/9, 10.22 K/9

He didn't make the highlights, so I don't know what he looked like, but Gameday sez:

97, 95, 81, 97 (1 out)

96, 79, 96, 81 (2 outs)

97, 80, 96, 81, 98, 97, 97 (3 outs)

Ruffin and Lueke have been 93-95 while Wilhelmsen has been 95-97.

Didn't make the highlights, eh ... Dr. D and Mrs. D had the pleasure of watching Mr. Martini live with a monitor in line of sight, and GameDay did not do him justice ...

Wilhelmsen was 96-97 standin' still, and this time when he came back with the 81 hook they just watched it go by.  For a few batters, he was Josh Beckett.  They were utterly locked up on anything offspeed.  (GameDay shows one called strike on the yakker, but there were two others that froze the batters and the ump didn't call the strikes.)

=== Plus, not Plus-Plus, Command ===

Here is one of Beavan's better AB's from Monday night, a first-inning strikeout of Josh Willingham:

True, he does manage to get through 7 pitches without giving Willingham much to hit, except the one centered FB that Willingham fouled back.  And, granted, there are three pretty nice jam pitches there, although Beavan is wide open to simply "Ball Two" on any of them.

But this is nibbling, as opposed to painting.