Jeff at Lookout Landing with a witty call for all of us to hyper down a bit.
He apparently shares an office with the kind of amigo who will assume the fetal position when you twang a rubber band at him :- ) ... not a bad metaphor for the Mariner blog-o-sphere (including me) when it hears a rumor of a move it doesn't care for.
LOL.
Good patter around the 'net about Clement's batspeed, and about his getting jobbed a few times in Cheney last year. Which is true. Clement's eye ratio would have been 1.5, not 1.2, with major league umping.
As y'know, the highest medal awarded by the D-O-V Galactic Senate is... the Point-By-Point Rhetorical Ribbon with Cluster.
Once in a while we grab an article from The Bakery and riff off that. Or an interview of a Mariners suit or player. Today, Prospect Insider offers a meaty composition on Clement and gets the musical fugue:
Billy Martin did not add +20 wins to every team that he took over, by importing five superstars. He added +20 wins to every team that he took over, by changing its attitude.
And he did that, by installing a fear of failure. Playing badly, under Martin, cost you and cost you dearly. He was willing to pay the price to put his players on eggshells -- that price being that he wasn't their pal.
It has been controversial whether sports psychology matters, or even exists. But for a $100M payroll that loses 102 games, attitude is simply the #1 area of attention.
=== Rotation / Closer ===
Morrow and Clement are (most likely) the guys who will have to do a Jim Rice and Fred Lynn, so to speak, if the 2009 M's are to surprise. Now that Putz is gone for a #4 outfielder and change, how about Brandon Morrow disappears into the maw of the hole that we left?
=== OF ===
The evolution of thought on the OF has been Bizarro In The 'Burbs this winter:
In a radio interview last month, GM Jack Zduriencik sounded like he was going to hand the starting left fielder's job to Endy Chavez. I asked Zduriencik about that a few days later and he assured me that no decisions had been made.
As far as 1B goes, it was a stake through Dr. D's heart to hear Zduriencik say that
"Whoever we sign, he's going to be able to field his position."
Apparently this means the 'net rats / consultants (no offense meant) talked Zduriencik out of Adam Dunn's 40+16 homers and .600 normalized SLG ... because he violates the absolutes on defense.
Only a Sith speaks in absolutes. I will do what I must.
;- )
Jason leaked the rumor that we might be talking about flushing Morrow or Clement for "An AL Central outfielder with solid defensive skills and one strong offensive season under his belt." MC posters hooted, "Yeah, CHOO!" :- )
In 2008, Shin-Soo Choo hit .300/.400/.550 to the tune of a 146 OPS+ ... at the age of 25.
Just for fun, below is pasted my original projection of him, back in about April of the year 2006.
We have a post up at SF Sports Insider.
As y'know, the M's have 4-5 early picks this summer. What can they expect? It's an interesting debate.
Cheers,
Jeff
One of our fave posters is uncharacteristically cranky this winter. :- )
Not that I deny having mastered at least 10 kinds of stupid. ... but .... forgetting that SB's are not equal to HR's, and stuff like that, isn't one of them.
It is ten kinds of stupid to use ROTO draft logic in relation to ANYTHING about real-world baseball.
Anything? You mean like the roto draft logic that says 45 homers are better than 9? That doesn’t apply, because it’s a roto draft logic, and not "real baseball"?
