Independent

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Malcontent sez,

I know Sunday you were saying the swing was coming apart, in at least that one at bat you say he looked good. Do you feel he looked good in every AB? He also had that Deep Fly to Center that died 5 feet short of retying the game as well.

Tuesday night, he hit the ball very well three times.  On the first one, it looked to me like he lowered his CG, kept his front knee in and his intentionality more up the middle.

Every swing he took after that, that I saw anyway, he flew open again, keying the swing with his front hip, "floating" his weight, and hooking the ball.  The one to CF, not AS much, maybe.

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In aikido -- and in Nippon baseball -- they talk about things like "keep one point" and "keep weight underside" and it sounds like mumbo jumbo.  Keep weight underside is like ... have you ever tried to pick up a baby that didn't want to be picked up?  And it glued itself to the crib's pad?  Have you ever tried to lift an unconscious person?

In aikido, one of their 4 golden rules is "keep weight underside," sinking your weight so you're "glued" to the floor, and can avoid "floating" your weight in a fragile, reactive manner -- very possibly Saunders keeps weight underside better now than he did in 2011, even when you can't see it.

We're always "floating" our weight, if we're not unconscious, and this causes an unstable factor in our movements.  A boxer who gets scared might "get stood up" and if he does, he's toast.  Obviously no NFL player wants to be caught with his weight high.  You get the idea.

On the other hand, a doggy jumps forward and snarls, and what do you do?  You go AAAAAAHHHHH!, lift your hands, float your weight, open your eyes and mouth, because you're about to scamper off to safety.  Not because you're about to apply energy to an enemy. 

The human body is fluid, mostly water.  You can float it or sink it as if raising and lowering a bag filled with silicone.

Baseball example?  Pitchers "stand tall" in the windup, floating their weight, so that their parts move lightly, easily and gently into alignment with their spines ... and so that their floated weight then sinks back down into an increased "keep weight underside" drive forward.  Imagine a pitcher trying to throw powerfully while floating his weight?  Well, why would a hitter try to do that?

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=== Brandon McCarthy ===

Famously used sabermetrics to reinvent his game, spending 2010 in the minors, and then coming out the other side as one of the AL's elite starting pitchers.

• OLD McCARTHY:  Used a stereotype 3-pitch mix, FB-Change-Overhand Curve, to throw lots of fly balls and run 4.70 ERA's.
• NEW McCARTHY:  Throws 40% fadeaway fastballs, 40% biting cutters, and 20% curves, to get tons of grounders and a 1+ walk rate.

Think Doug Fister, but maybe even better.  McCarthy was one of the league's 10 best pitchers in 2012, and his second half provided even bigger gains.  If you double his second half, you get:

• 16-8, 3.15 ERA, 144 strikeouts, 26 walks

For the whole year, he actually led the American League in Fielding Independent Pitching (FIP), better than Felix, better than Verlander, better than anybody.  McCarthy goes into the game as a legit Opening Day starter for any team.

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=== Charlie and the Loss Factory... er, the #28 Hitter Rule ===

The M's lost 3-1 to the Angels on Sept. 7th.  We saw the furor over Eric Wedge saying that he didn't want to turn Maicer Izturis around at the plate -- didn't want Izturis batting LH (against Tom Wilhelmsen) in a game situation.

An uproar resulted when the fans, led by Baker, immediately realized that Izturis doesn't hit better lefty.