Whale

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Q. Can we call Peguero's spring "intriguing" yet?

A.  After today, I'm intrigued.  Bear in mind that Zduriencik and Wedge believe that Peguero could learn to hit.  They've had a good long look at him, and this is what they do for a living, and they can visualize a leap.

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Q.  Would there be any precedent for a guy with an EYE like THAT?

A.  Peguero's EYE so far in the majors is 0.11, which is gasp-inducing.  You saw the strikeouts.  

Also very important is the fact that Peguero's EYE in the minors was 0.22.  We are not talking about a good hitter who was called up too early.  We're talking about a guy who has never been able to cover the strike zone, or else has never been able to see pitches correctly.

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Q.  Still -- do players come back from EYES that are lower than 0.20?

A.  Lots of them.

Carlos Gonzalez, 2008, had an 13:81 EYE and an OPS+ of 71 ... Peguero's OPS+ in the bigs is 70.   Gonzalez' intro to the big leagues was comparable to Peguero's.

CarGo had a lousy minors EYE too, though not as lousy as Peguero's.  I doubt that the difference is fundamental; CarGo had serious issues in the minors.  Whether you can take a scalpel and find out why CarGo's minors EYE was real bad, vs Peguero's EYE terrible, I don't think you can make sense of that via stats.

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Dr. D splashes the pot with a huge bet ...  is Brandon Mauer now part of a Big Five?  To which Pros-Spec 66er Extraordinaire shoves in about four towers' worth of chips, rolling the table over:

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Sanchez is #6.  Pike is #7.  Is Gohara #8?

 

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Amigos reply to my Morales and Morse question with the counter, "That's what they're HERE for.  To help develop the kids.  Pressure's off them, they can benefit from the example, etc."

The explanation is eminently *logical* on the face of it.  And without a doubt that IS part of what the Mariners are thinking - that if Justin Smoak hits 7th, in a lineup that is ahead 6-3 that evening, that Smoak will relax into this game.  For sure that's included in their thinking.

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Couple things, though, once we look at it in 3-D...

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Okay, so Justin Smoak is finally pulling out the Big Guns.  If you told me that he went to the Old Testament Prophet Elijah, and Elijah his ownself told Smoak the key to success, I wouldn't be a whole lot more impressed than I already am.  

That's quite a statement, but you know what the difference is between my statement and "hyperbole"?  The difference is that I told you precisely why I think so, told you exactly what my grounds are for saying so.

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That said:  supposing that Justin Smoak now has baseball's best, cleanest swing.  Well, in 2010 he already had a beautiful swing.  Granted, it was a long one, and granted, he had no pitch recog to go with it.  But his swing was fluid, and he had excellent plate coverage.  In 2010, Smoak could get to all 9 sectors of the strike zone, as Jesus Montero could in 2012.

Supposing that Smoak's slo-mo training has given him calmness of mind, and reaction time at the speed of thought.  Slo-mo training frequently speeds up an athlete, slows down time for him.  Frequently?  It always does.

Supposing that Smoak's newfound balance increased his power.  We've explained why better balance means more power.  In 2010, Smoak seemed well capable of hitting the ball out to every field.  In 2011 and 12, his power seemed gone.  Maybe this restored his power?

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This from BJOL.  

Before diving in, a couple of prereq light bulbs:  (1) James has demonstrated, to most people's satisfaction, that the current use of the super closer -- a great pitcher coming into a 5-3 game to blow away three hitters in the top of the 9th -- is inefficient.