Tampa

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"In theory, theory and practice are the same.  In practice, they are not." - Dr. D's Epic File Folder of Thunderous Paradoxes, mostly plagiarized from obscure chess books

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GLS sez, "Two hitters are better than one ... 

 "... And three great hitters are better than two.

"In the latter half of the 90's, we had Griffey, A-Rod, and Edgar in the same lineup and yes, there were some good teams, but not what you would call great. Not great like the Tigers are this year. But we had a legit murderer's row, and not-great pitching.

"And for these Tigers, it isn't just about those two hitters. Note that they have Ian Kinsler batting leadoff and having a pretty darn good year, and Rajai Davis batting ninth as a second leadoff man. Davis would be leading off on most other teams instead of batting ninth. Then there's that starting rotation, which is just flat-out solid. My point is that, as a team, the Tigers are doing well because they're strong in multiple dimensions of the game.

"The Mariners are basically the opposite of the Tigers. I don't see the problem as the lack of that second big bat behind Cano. The problem is that they're young and as team, they don't have any areas of strength like the Tigers do. As a team, they aren't really awesome at anything.

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"There was the hope that Paxton and Walker would do that for the starting rotation and maybe that's what we'll see in the second half of the season that we can point to going into 2015.

"Now, if the Mariners did go out and get that second really good hitter, you could point to that as an area of strength. Nothing wrong with that. But there are a lot of areas where they can improve which will help them win games. And they are doing that I think. This team is better than last year's team, and in Miller, Franklin, Romero, and Zunino, we have three rookies or near-rookies that probably aren't the players now that they will be two years from now, or so we hope. But then, that's where talent evaluation comes in, especially with your own players.

Okay, I think I said what I needed to say."

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From a sabermetric standpoint, I couldn't agree more amigo.

Theoretically you can certainly build a pennant-winner off of one Straw That Stirs.  That is our model in Tampa Bay, where they put Evan Longoria into the middle of the lineup and don't spend much $$$dinero except for him.

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Nelson Cruz went to the Baltimore Orioles for 1 year, $8M.  He is an unrestricted free agent in four months.

Pull up Baseball-Reference on the Orioles -- the team the Mariners are chasing in the Wild Card -- and it shows you that Cruz is the Orioles' best player, by WAR.  (He is not there for WAR; he is there to change the scoreboard.)  

He has 15 homers in 45 games ... let me divide 162 by 3 here real quick ... and 43 RBI in those 45 games.  (Cano and Seager lead our team with 28 RBI each; we feel very relieved to have Mike Zunino's 18 RBI, which pro-rate to about 70.)

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Needless to say, if Cruz hits 44 homers, drives in 137 runs, and the Orioles win the pennant, then ... the skeptics will still have been right about Nelson Cruz.  It's about process.  (And you know where to find The Right Process!)

Even if Cruz hit 200 homers from here to the end of the wire, they'd still have been right.  This is, as you are only too well aware, a peeve of Dr. D's.   

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SSI mosh pit!  :: crowd goes wild ::

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Yang, dept.

OKDan, an excellent poster, gives us a fun report from onsite:

I just cannot foresee any situation in which Montero makes this team, regardless of his xbh's. Been down here in peoria for a few days, and his lack of interest in the game of baseball is palpable. Watched him take grounded on a side field, where he bobbled or straight up missed 30-40% of them. Then watched him stand in the back row during some group calisthenics, and he was barely even trying. Half-heartedly bending over while everyone else was going gull tilt.

During the game, the crowd over by 1st was letting him have it all night. Might have been cubs fans though. He dropped a foul popup, botched a grounder, and nearly took his foot off the base on the 8th out. The next inning, I watched as all 3 other infielders stood out in the field waiting to do their warmups, while Montero was the last one out there, and they had to cut it short before the leadoff AB.

I dunno. Could be that I caught him at his worst moments, and am ascribing motivations where there aren't any. But from my perspective, the guy doesn't give a rip about the game, and it's obvious to the manager and the players on the field with him. If anyone else gets passed over in favor of Montero, I don't think it will go over well in the clubhouse.

- See more at: http://seattlesportsinsider.com/comment/137439#comment-137439

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Thanks Dan!  Keep da onsite reports comin' my man.

And DaddyO seconds this emotion.  :- )  He points out that "head cases are rarely worth their contribution."  If that's what Montero is -- a Manny Ramirez type before he's ever done anything -- then there does come a point where you can cheerfully wash your hands of him, and never worry about what he does anywhere else. 

Just as a f'r instance, we recall Bill James (a Royals fan) write up a long analysis showing that Danny Tartabull was (at the time) the #3 right hand hitter in the American League.  He finished with a short paragraph:  Who Needs Him.

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After the Buccaneers game, the News Tribune featured a couple of Dr. D's pals in real life.  Pictured above.  All the credit for this incident properly accrues to Dr. D, of course.

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On the NFL Network, they were marvelling at the way the Seahawks have developed such a distinctive "identity" so soon ... considering, said Rich Eisen, that he had asked Pete Carroll about his "identity" just in 2011 and the Seahawks had none.

Carroll inherited a pile of hot garbage, retorted Deion, and he needed some time.  Anyway, they went on to mention a couple of things.  Here are those couple things, as well as a couple of ours:

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"Competing."

The Seahawks' "Competition Wednesday," or whatever, consists of drill contests with 1's vs 1's.  Sounds cliche to us, but the ex-players were impressed.  Wow, they have a lot of fun with it, and wow, is it fierce competition.

Dr. D's reaction:  Michael Jordan was famous for this ... there's a story about how Phil Jackson wanted his side to lose a scrimmage, and switched Jordan to the losing side when down 8-0 (in baskets) going to 11.  Jordan started screaming, going for the freight-train dunks along the baseline, and his team won 11-8...  The Jordan Bulls thought of themselves as "attack dogs."

The Seahawks go bare-knuckle, every down, every game, every player, no quarter asked and none given.  That's what sports should be.  

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