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At Ax Bill, they sez
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Originally posted June 15, 2015. - Ed.
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During the Mariners-Giants game on Monday, they talked up the Giants' franchise Hall of Famers. I think they said Willie Mays, Willie McCovey, Orlando Cepeda and Juan Marichal ... this struck me as a super-cool "Mt. Rushmore" even though they snubbed Barry Bonds. The four players all played together (right?), were all diverse, were all names that I marveled at when first discovering baseball ....
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FILTHY McNASTY AWARD
The Astros enjoyed the first pitch of the game; the Mariners enjoyed the other 251 pitches. It took Elias and Zunino that one pitch to figure out a thing that you'd think was rather important: that the young, gifted Astros are GREEDY. They lust for First Pitch Fastball Home Runs. This epiphany had not occurred during any of the previous Mariner-Astro contests, but when a First Pitch Fastball Home Run had been the entirety of the game, reality dawned on the Mariners.
Elias twirled his curve back door for strikes. He spun it into the righties' back feet for garbage swings. He flipped his changeup anywhere he wanted with impunity. And, "pitching backwards," he then threw a 103-MPH fastball past the Astros' re-calibrated eyes for easy K's.
The tale of the tape: 5 garbage swings against the hook, 6 garbage swings over the top of the changeup, and 6 more swing-throughs on the 93 fastball. But why take Dr. D's word? Here's a 2-minute whiteout blizzard of strikeouts on video, courtesy of MLB.com. Enjoy.
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So in the 2nd inning, our #7 starter (or is it our #7 lefty?) was batting the Champs toof-and-nail. The enemy had loaded the bases with 1 out, no score. First Blood imminent, or, not.
Mike Montgomery responded with a celery-crisp changeup to Joaquin Arias, inside, off the plate. Arias KBIZLT'd a perfect fungo to Dustin Ackley, and it took a Major League effort to even put that pitch into play, fair territory. But it was into play, fair, only as a clinical double play grounder, as if a coach had hit it to Ackley in the pregame warmups. Way to go Mont-mi-go.
Ackley had not played 2B in the better part of two years. Didn't look like it on this play! Ack Attack was a fish in water, lowering the tailgate, dirt-schhhoooping the ball neatly and backhanding the ball over to Miller at a really nice catching temparature. Second baseman, anybody? Tampa, maybe?
Brad Miller glommed onto the perfect backhand feed, skipped across the bag like an ice dancer, and ... flopped the ball on the ground like he'd suddenly realized he was holding a Fringed Ornamental Tarantula. One run scores. Champs' inning still going. #7 Starter still under massive pressure.
Now, it's not that a team is going to finish the season with a teamwide total of 0 errors. Physical mistakes are as much a part of the sport as are fans.
1. "What's the matter? Afraid of a little lightning?" :: Capt. stern, mystified ::
2. :: Loki looking up and around very nervously :: "I'm not overly fond of what FOLLOWS."
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#7 Starter should have been in the dugout. That's all fine and dandy. But right then, he chose to throw a "Quit" pitch -- sorry, but there we go; it was a first-pitch fastball that could not have been more centered -- to the lefty Aoki, who raked it easily into right field for the second run. This is the equivalent of hitting your approach into the sand, and then missing the ball on your first sand shot.
By "quit shot" we don't mean that you spin on your heel and walk back to the 19th hole to drown your sorrows. Nor do we mean that you try to do something wrong. What we mean is that your concentration drops from 99% to 80%, and you play an "Oh, what the hey" move and HOPE that something good happens.
Sometimes it does. Say, 50-60 wins per season's worth of the time!
Game in, game out, it's like the Mariners look up in the 3rd inning to assess whether the game is worth their full attention. :: vince vaughn :: But how do you FEEL about this syndrome?
#Montgomery is growing with every start he's made this year, both in the minors and now with the big club. Good get from #Tampa for Erasmo, who was never gonna get favor back with The Pencil. Here's hoping it works out for both clubs. Unless we face Erasmo again, then I kinda hope he falls down a little. Just sayin'. #G_Money #SSI<div class="indented">Reply - mickiholley - 10/4/15 2:59pm<br>sometimes it takes time to find the right groove when coming up to the big club</div>
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Yoenis Cespedes - hitting .285 with a .485 SLG for the Tigers, with a plus defensive rating in LF . Fangraphs has him at 1.5 WAR so far, in a bit less than a third of a season.
Josh Donaldson - slugging .596 for the Jays, leaving his OPS+ at 167. Another eight homers and he'd be in Nelson Cruz territory. b-ref.com has him on pace for anywhere from 9 to 10 Wins Above Replacement.
Derek Norris - slugging .450 in San Diego as a catcher. His OPS+ the last three years, as he ages from 24 to 26: 110, 118, 115.
Brandon Moss - slugging a relatively pedestrian .442 in Cleveland.
Jeff Samardzija - somewhere else, still running Fisterly control ratios.
Addison Russell - hitting well in AAA (.318/.326/.477) at age 21.
Billy Beane - sitting on a 19-33 record, with absolutely nowhere to hide from last year's implosion out of a 72-44 record.
In all fairness, though, we notice that Oakland's offensive OPS+ is a tick higher in 2015 than in 2014. The crash looked spectacular, but Beane knew that he never had a 100-win quality team.
This is an experiment.
If I can get to where I can whip out something like this in a half hour or so, then I'll try to do it frequently as part of the DOV2 family of networks.
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A quick saber-byte to go with yer coffee. As y'know, we live to serve :- )
Bill lives to serve also. In the public area at Hey Bill this mo'nin':
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Q. How important is this idea of a "Dynasty"? Should we even argue about it?
A. In one sense, it's the only thing that Dr. D thinks about, when he thinks about sports.
