Seattle Sports Insider

War of Attrition

Many Denizens here are more literate in the U.S. Civil War than I am. Have heard, though, that towards the end of it the North was more able to afford losses than the South, so Grant was able to employ tactics that implied even losses. This "War of Attrition" game theory applies itself in many battles, sports and otherwise. An NBA team that is up 14 in the 4th quarter can trade baskets.

In chess, if you're up two pawns, the side that is behind cannot afford to trade pieces -- and the corollary is that the winning side can move his Queen and Knights up the board, secure in the knowledge that the enemy Queen and Knights cannot oppose them in face-offs that result in trades. This advantage is prohibitive. It's almost impossible for the losing side to salvage a draw when the winning side has carte blanche to pick even 50-50 fights any place he wants to.

The position above is a more subtle example. You can see the White pieces facing-up the black pieces with impunity - here, not because White is ahead material, but because any stripped-down endgame leaves Black defending his many weak Pawn islands.

In boxing, if a 230-lb. heavyweight is boxing a 150-lb. middleweight (?) there is one of the combatants who seeks a position from which he can trade blows 1-for-1. This creates all sorts of tactical disadvantages for the smaller man -- disadvantages that themselves seem to have little do do with size.

In golf, if Moe is up on you by 4 strokes with 9 holes to play, he has strategic options open to him that will allow him to "close you out" with the greatest of ease. And so on. "Attrition" is a powerful force in Game Theory.

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M's 7, Orioles 6

WORMHOLE 1 --- > the MLB standings have the M's at .500, same as 122 games ago. The Royals are +2 despite a -17 run differential, the rodent Angels at +3 despite a -5 run differential. Forthy games left.

Whether the Mariners, with all their injuries, deserve to have a shot at the playoffs is one question. Whether they are in fact in position to take a shot at the playoffs, that's a separate question.

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Ms 3, Orioles 1

The question on Andrew Albers is not whether he could feasibly make a #2-3 starter in the big leagues. (That's a question for Marco Gonzales, who pitches Wednesday.) The question for Albers is whether the Mariners can go 2-2 in his four starts here. Since they've now gone 1-0, logically they'd have to go 0-3 to avoid that. :: wry smile ::

Here is some video of the dude.

Pitch 1 - 69 MPH change curve outside corner. (But here is an awesome earlier look at his weird overhand high-60's change curve.)

Pitch 2 - 77 MPH slider, garbage swing LH-on-LH. Cool that the lefty couldn't see it, even though it "hung" stomach high in the center.

Pitch 3 - 88 MPH center cut fastball, whiff.

Pitch 4 - 88 MPH fastball thigh high center cut, batter's timing messed up.

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Readage

Here comes Thyago Vieira. The embedded video has a high fastball ... an outside fastball ... an outside slider. His stats are okay lately, 10:6:0 ratio in 11 IP since going to Tacoma. They must like the way he's throwing.

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TJM on Neuroscience and Pattern Recognition

A few cubicles over, we had summarized James' (and my) suspicion that "injury prone-ness" could be the brain getting overzealous about stitching pattern labels onto a perceived syndrome that may not actually be there (much). Terry added a 112-MPH launch-velocity anecdote. With his permission I'll annotate. With your permission you'll throw a potato into the comments pot about pattern recognition - how much RBI's have a real basis, or whether it takes us too long to assign a new pattern (Dipoto vs Armstrong), etc.

Terry says

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Monday Afternoon Macchiato, 8.14.17

The word "revolting" gets thrown around a lot. However, it's not usually used as so appropriately as when you throw 4 straight to the rodent Angels on Edgar weekend.

re * volt * ing

adjective

disgusting; repulsive:

a revolting sight.

re * volt

to turn away in mental rebellion, utter disgust, or abhorrence (usually followed by from):

He revolts from eating meat.

to affect with disgust or abhorrence:

Watching Mike Scioscia trying to look like a tree full of wise owls revolts me.

Origin

1540-50; (v.) < Middle French revolter < Italian rivoltare to turn around < Vulgar Latin *revolvitāre,

frequentative of Latin revolvere to roll back,unroll, revolve; (noun) < French révolte < Italian rivolta, derivative ofrivoltare;

1960-1961 "The revolting Angels began playing in 1960"

synonyms

disgust · sicken · nauseate · make nauseous · make someone sick · turn someone's stomach · be repugnant to · be repulsive to · put off · be offensive to ·

[more]

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Korner: Sir Nicholas Winton

I hadn't even heard of Sir Nicholas Winton, the "British Schindler," before a 90-second video re-circulated on Twitter following his peaceful death at 106. It's tastefully done and emotionally/spiritually nourishing.

Here is my favorite version of the video. We advise watching that original piece, before reflecting on it (below if so desired). :- )

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M's and Rodent Angels Tied, -0.5 Back of Twinkies

Scott Servais made some unorthodox pitching changes Friday, they didn't work out, and the press shamefully tore him apart.

/POLITICAL DISCLAIMER SKIP THREE PARAGRAPHS IF YOU WANT NO "LIFE" WITH YOUR "SPORTS"/

This syndrome in all its forms -- "Hey! Why didn't you follow the mob and cover your keister!" -- is one of the things that keeps mankind from advancing intellectually, faster than it does. Ask any Goolag employee who deviates from the groupthink. (That's not a cheap shot out of proportion; however bad you imagine the thought enforcement is at Goolag specifically, we assure you it is many, many-fold worse. Their employees are literally afraid to "like" Facebooks and Tweets in offhours privacy.)

We could go a whiiilllllllle longer on that. :- ) We'll just leave it right there, two paragraphs for one of the most critical Sports Is Life topics you'll ever find. As for you, Dear Denizen, feel free to encourage human beings who dare to expand the idea exchange of the moment. Fill in comments below if y'like. :: innocent smile ::

Frying a manager to a crackly crunch because they didn't like him thinking for himself on a pitching change, that's as old as baseball, yeah. Doesn't make it right.

...

The whole idea of "bullpens" was once a new thing; I think it was about Lou Gehrig's day that the first "relief aces" began to appear, like the first swallows of spring. The whole idea of 5-man rotations was really weird when that idea was launched. Was it the early 70's when the Dodgers added Al Downing for the first 5-rotation, DaddyO? .. it was weird when people went to 12-man bullpens. etc., etc., turtles all the way down.

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Is Zeus Injury-Prone?

On the one hand, kudos to G-Money who was gracious about no "I tolja's." :- )

I'm a Dilbert/Scott Adams fan ... well, not in the sense of considering him an "authority" as one wag asked me in his Twitter feed. The goal is to benefit from everybody's wisdom, to gather ideas from each person, as opposed to picking a few "authorities" who speak from On High. Personally I find the tree of Adams' writings to bear handfuls of low-hanging fruit.

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Paxton vs Skaggs

It pains Dr. D to see saber pieces that are wealthy in mathematics, but poverty-stricken in logic and common sense. When diverse views pain Dr. D, his reaction is not to call for firings and safe spaces, is not to take a mental health day off work. His reaction is to express ideas that he sees as the refutation. Thusly:

This article, "Nobody has ever made the playoffs with a rotation as bad as the Mariners," you knew before you clicked on it that the logical construction would be dubious. This turns out to be the case. In a midpoint statement and in the final paragraph, it's clear that the title was not overstating the author's reservations:

Their starting rotation has been terrible, injured, and one of the worst units in baseball, yet Seattle remains in the playoff hunt. Is there any precedent for a team like this being a playoff team? As you can surmise from the title of this article, the short answer is no.

Looking at what has happened helps us gauge what is likely to transpire in the future. Like the birth of a star, however, sometimes we are lucky enough to glimpse something entirely new as it bursts into existence. The Mariners will have to surpass precedents as old as professional baseball itself.

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