News

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=== Steve Del-a-Bar-the-Doors Dept. ===

Coming off the winter, the question was how much velocity he'd bring back.  He's still a cur pup, a year off the junior high blackboards, with an elbow "put together at McClendon's hardware."  A couple of hot months are fine as far as they go, but Delebar hasn't presented a stationary target to anybody yet.

Goodie gumdrops:  on March 14, Delabar had every blinkin' inch the life on his fastball that he'd showed in 2011.  He got four garbage swings in the 6th inning alone, and had several other fastballs fouled back over the 1B dugout by lefty batters.  He was throwing the ball by 'em.

His Delabar Deuce had that same oddball 12-6 break fading away from LH's.  He sells it hard, with an emphatic wrist snap, and if it's not wild it's going to be a strike.  I don't specifically remember a hitter making contact with it, and none did today.

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That's the good news.  The bad news is that Delabar's weight transfer and mechanics are unpredictable, as is his command in the strike zone.  He's been "effectively wild" -- the catcher sets up outside, and here comes a jam pitch.  Which has the same effect, but...

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=== I'm Sure You Haven't Noticed This, But ===

UZR says that Casper Wells has a career total of +20.0 runs saved (per 150 games) in the outfield.  That's over a good span of 700 innings, 700 being 78 games x 9 innings.  

Skip past the trite retort on that, that he probably isn't the best defensive outfielder in baseball.  Sure, that's true.  Move on to the relevant point.  In his first 131 full and partial ML games, Casper Wells has run down a whole bunch of batted balls out there.

He's also +33 runs in center field, having made 4 out-of-zone plays in 10 (full) games and presumably all the normal plays IN his center field sector.  

Wells' sabermetric speed index is 130, which is higher than Curtis Granderson's and Ichiro's.   His range factor in center field is 3.11, compared to an AL average of 2.65.  It's not like he's Chris Snelling playing center (which Billy Beane actually did).  Casper Wells can pick 'em up and lay 'em down.

Now let's turn the question around for a second.  Why, exactly, do you argue that Casper Wells is not a center fielder?  Is it because his torso looks like a V, and he bats right handed? 

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  .......... though we're not brimming with confidence that the idea will hold up.

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=== Consider the Source, Dept. ===

The best objective source on Figgins, that is to say one not from Seattle, is over at BaseballHQ and their expectation is:

And Ron sez, 

"Hip injury caused him to miss final two months, but things were bad long before then.  To hit this poorly, you have to be both bad (see dreadful PX, bad expected AVG of .238) and unlucky (see BABIP).

"Good news is that his AVG should rebound some.  Bad news is that he's at an age where those one-trick speed skills should rebound."

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=== STOPLOSS, Dept. ===

If Chone Figgins is producing 1.7 runs per 27 outs in April, he'll be out of the leadoff spot by game 10 and out of the lineup by game 15.  Shall we start a pool?  ... Hey, let's...

If you're a Mariner fan, DON'T pencil in 650 ABs' worth of a .188 Chone Figgins.  That's not going to happen.  They're sweet-talking Figgins because they have to sweet-talk him.  G-Money talked about mental midgets.  Well, if there's any way to prescribe anti-anxiety drugs to a head case, you do it.  Give it ten games.

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20-team roto champ Cool Papa Bell goes 6-for-6, tying Cobb's and, um, Bell's marks:

I figured the Cardinals to be a real threat since they have to replace Pujols. But their GM was interviewed this week and had this to say:

Can we safely assume you will not be in the Prince Fielder sweepstakes?

“That’s a safe assumption.”

With that things are looking fabulous.

During the season people just assumed that there would be twenty teams throwing crazy offers at Prince and that he was guaranteed to get a deal that was absolutely ridiculous. As I tried to explain, the Yankees, Red Sox, Mets, Phillies and Dodgers all would be completely uninvolved which meant the M's actually were in a great position to not only land him but get him at a reasonable price.

So far that seems to be exactly the case. There is absolutely not a bidding war going on, instead we just have a handful of teams timidly sniffing around and none of them have given any indication they will go all out for Fielder.

What we have been hearing is that teams don't have the heart to give him a monster deal and Boras' faux-cockiness is giving away the game which is that he doesn't have the type of market he was expecting.

Let's review the six-hit afternoon:

1.  The Cardinals were the scary, overlooked team.  Agreed.  When Dr. D handicapped the field, he thought he'd be overlooking something very simple, and when CPB brought up the Cards, Dr. D's stomach did a slow roll to the left.

NL Central, good geographical location, team with $$$$ earmarked, etc etc.

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