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At Slack, Lampoon writes:
the other day Dave Valle was remarking on the importance of bench players in a "chain is only as strong as the weakest link" sort of way.
As I recall, he said there would be about 15 games in which the performance of bench players would be critical to the outcome. Where the margin between playoffs, or not, is about 1-3 games. When the benches play there can't be a big drop-off. Is that a reasonable analysis?
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ROB WHALEN
The Giants used Johnny Cueto and Derek Holland to lock down the M's the first 6 innings, so we're talking about a rather dreary game.
As Max Povse has separated himself (in the Mainframe's motherboard, at least) Rob Whalen has separated himself as the #9 starter. His line was 3.0 ip, 4h, 2 r, 0 er, 1:3 CTL but as you can see by the ER he deserved better.
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The controversial shtick seems to draw the 25-50 comments. The postgame impressions seem to draw the nods and the scarce potatoes in the pot. (Fun to write though!) So we'll have to see if we can splice the two, I dunno. Maybe we can work Oakland's anti-ICE shenanigans into the baseball shtick :- )
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DAVID PHELPS = POOR MAN's TROY PERCIVAL
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... or else, Mike Leake is going to spend a couple of years as an Opening Day starter in the American League. Of course Dr. D expects something WILL change. We're just commenting on how well this guy has been throwing the ball.
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Malcontent has been tacitly pushing for the job of "Editor" and he's two posts away from being so anointed. After Dr. D had scoffed at the utility of a pitch the way F/X portrays it, Mal politely (as is his wont) pointed out the reality of the situation:
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Dr. D is becoming transfixed by this pitcher. The original graphic above shows the movement of Leake's six pitches, all 6 of which he can throw to spots in the zone. The F/X spin deflections are from the catcher's POV and can be found here. There are several Dr. Strange oddities about these pitches:
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The videos on Shohei Ohtani's pitches are wicked scary. The kinetics on his swing are Bryce Harper-class, and then some. That's Point A.
Dr. D has been pleasantly surprised to find that there do exist Points B, C, and D. He would still give the fillings in his teeth for Ohtani, but ... there is a counter-perspective also, and we're only too glad to run it down for yer.
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Superb discussion from the Think Tank. When we see 24 hours as frantic as this, it's usually July 31 :- ) Denizens have jelled into several well-formed camps: the I Like Heredia camp, the Where's Our Bench camp, there is an Ichiro camp, and a couple other camps are out there.
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LAST STAND OF THE DRAGON flick
gnatto phrased the problem well:
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For some reason the Hey Bills dried up in February. There was a little period Feb 8-9-10 when James answered some questions, and then on Valentine's Day he answered some more ... then he went the rest of the entire month answering not a single question. Meanwhile, he quipped on Twitter that he spends "an hour and a half a day" on it. :- ) Also I think his last article was Feb. 8. For a fan as rabid as Dr. D the sensation is not unlike crawling through the desert on all fours, thinking about the water you may never taste again.
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Greg Johns makes it sound quite possible or even probable, while Jon Heyman makes it sound like a done deal. Ben Gamel's oblique has him out for an admitted 4-6 weeks and you know what the consensus of the Denizens is on this injury.
Dr. D had always thought this would be a fun solution to the M's outfield depth, provided of course that Ichiro doesn't insist on 550 AB's. Obviously he doesn't, since he's been at 215-438 the last four (4) years.
The Mainframe warns not to let Ichiro's slash line (.255/.318/.322) in 2017 fool you. For one thing, he went .309/.398/.393 in the second half, which full-season would have been his best since 2007. For another thing, he's been bouncing up and down on the batting average for 5 years. A return to his original MLB home could be just the thing to energize him.
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JAMES PAXTON KO'ed - NOISE he's got a history of two things: (a) needing time to build up to the overwhelming 97 MPH thunderbolt, and (b) needing time to find his touch for the foshball and the yakker. When he is walking guys, falling behind, coming in 3-1 with a 93 MPH fastball that is centered and up, he's not above getting KO'ed. Many times we've watched him search for his touch on the foshball/slashball and get it rolling with his 96 MPH fastball.
