Sizzlers and Fizzlers - Bottom Half
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RYON HEALY - Only one "minus" because he is a good player and he will have a good year at 1B for Seattle. Did follow up his 2-for-23 start with a very painful ankle injury.
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Why Shouldn't We Root for Ohtani?
I never imagined I would wade into the waters of Doc's self-crafted "Konspiracy Korner" posting style. I'm more of a 'what is demonstrated to be' than a 'what might be' kind of guy and rarely take much of an interest in debates centered around unknowable things.
But, today, I will depart from my normal tendencies and suggest a conspiracy that I, personally and very passionately, believe is true.
This is in response to a great question Doc posed in our slack chat yesterday. He wanted to know why we wouldn't root for Shohei Ohtani?
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M's 1, Giants 10. and Paxton pre-game
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FELIX GETS SMASHED. SSI SPORTS IS LIFE, LIFE IS SPORTS DEPT.
Felix is a likeable, happy-go-lucky type. He's like a 12-year-old in many ways, which is a compliment -- from my point of view, if you are one of those interested in beginning a spiritual life, you have to start it with a childish mentality (Matt 18).
But it can be dangerous to give a home-schooled child -- with the emotional worldly sense of a 14-year-old -- an adult's job and $$ and resources, and throw them out into the water of the world, where there are predators who are only to happy to exploit them.
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M's 6, Giants 4
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TABLE SETTERS
It was what, about February 2010 when Chone Figgins grabbed his big contract from the Mariners and did a TV spot. "Ichiro and I will be one of the best 1-2's in MAJOR LEAGUE HISTORY :: laughs :: .... Hopefully."
So then ... 700 or 800 painful M's losses later?, we just saw Dee Gordon and Jean Segura rack up 3 hits a-piece in the Giants game Tuesday. The Denizens have run out of players, as far as asking "So what do you think this guy's upside is?" :- ) Well, except for with Dee Gordon it's no upside to hit .300 and steal 60 bases. It's what he does for a living.
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Giants Chat Thread
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Very excited to watch Marc-O take the mound. In case you missed it, last week Dr. D proposed Jamie Moyer as a comp for Marc-O, loosely, because he hadn't seen that type of command since Moyer. The Denizens called and raised, using his 92-94 mph velocity to plump for Cliff Lee (!!) as an upside comp instead. In any case, if Marc-O executes the pitches we saw in his last ST game, he will finish with an ERA in the 3's, end of story.
Oh, unless the Denizens are so entranced after the game that they want to go with "ERA in the 2's." HEH
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Batting Cleanup for Your Seattle Mariners ...
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In this Times article, Mitch Haniger explains something about slumps that I'd never thought much about. He reveals his swing key as this: if he gets his load (the raising of the hammer before it falls, the "cocking" of the weight trigger before it is pulled) timed right, he'll get the right feel at the plate. If he has precisely the right backwards windup, he'll be set for timing fastballs vs. offspeed stuff. Ryan Divish does a tremendous job in this particular article.
And by the time you're done reading you'll have two big takeaways:
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SSI Slack Chat
Let's start with this: Here is the updated SSI Slack Chat link that should never expire.
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Mariners 5 ...
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... couple of posts up within the hour. ;- ) April Fool's Belated, Dept.
In the meantime (1) please note the requests for invites to slack chat in the Felix thread, and (2) if a few users threw potatoes into the hobo pot -- one sentence regarding your own fave takeaway from the Cleveland series, I'd be thrilled to find the potatoes by the time I'm done. :- )
Make the Mariners great again ...
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Q. Pretty good series, eh?
A. That is the first time I recall, since the Piniella Mariners,* that a Mariner squad played like that against a great team. They stood toe-to-toe against Apollo in the center of the ring and swapped punches without a single step-back in three days.
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... Indians 4
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Q. Mike Leake 7 IP, 2 ER against a 100-win team. In the clutch, where we take the series. Not too shabby, eh?
A. Malcontent has the following theory about Leake:
So on that article I never wrote, I was going to say that I think Leake's success with Seattle was largely due to an adjustment he made against LHB.
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Follow-On Felix and the 1-4 SP
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Diderot sez,
New Felix? Maybe it's just faulty memory, but when he left the game, this is the first time I can remember Felix's body language and expression saying, 'Yeah...OK. I'm done. I'm good with this.'
Typically it always seems to me he's either mad because he doesn't think he should come out...or fiercely proud of what he's accomplished--the looks are kind of similar.
But if his demeanor last night indicates that he's altered his expectations of who he now is and what he can do...I think that would be good sign.
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