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Gordon sez,
This ain't how I'd draw it up, but that's why prospecting stinks. Gold can be a long time coming. It doesn't mean you stop looking for it and blow up the mine.
Spot on. The 'failures' of Smoak, Ackley and Montero make a spectacular trifecta of embarrassment; the Mariners expected each of those three kids to become MOTO hitters.
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I don't know what Jesus Montero is on any other night. But tonight, he was a Major League (TM) catcher. He ran a good show back there, man, and who was pitching?! Watch a game! If it had been Jason Varitek or Mike Zunino in his uniform, you wouldn't have been able to make a distinction. Not with your fan's eye, you wouldn't.
People are laughing at him and they seem to have little idea why; honestly, as best as I can follow the situation, Big Blog told them to, so they do it. If Big Blog told them to stop laughing, would they?
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Q. How likely is it that Michael Saunders is going to bust out? Show your work, Doc.
A. The problem is, whatever "sabermetric stats" you run on Michael Saunders, they're all going to show the same thing regarding his STRIKE ZONE CONTROL.
You can compare Saunders to a bunch of hitters like him -- these would (now!) include Justin Upton, Andre Ethier, Adam LaRoche, and even Nick Swisher now. But! Those players would have career arcs that are nothing like Michael Saunders'.
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Q. Why does the career-arc factor prevent pattern recognition?
A. EVERYTHING in sabermetrics is based on pattern recognition. Sandy Koufax had a K/9 that was xx% better than league, and he turned out to be good. Some other pitcher also has a K/9 like Koufax' ... hey, we predict he'll be good.
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Sandy Koufax used to say that he started every game with the thought, "you're not getting any hits today." After the first hit, he went to "you're not getting any runs." If the other team scored a run, he locked in "NO WAY you're beating me."
Napili is a perfect, crescent shaped bay just beyond Lahaina on the Hawaiian island of Maui. There one blustery morning, I met with Nate Cloud, the Director of Aloha or KUMU of Tiki Man SUP, (Stand Up Paddle Boarding). He’s lived in the islands for decades and as an instructor in SUP technique, has found the exercise great fun and an easy core workout.
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As Geoffy writes today (and yesterday), M'sTV will change, or should change, the landscape of Seattle sports. The blog-o-sphere, right on cue, erupts in a hail of cupcakes thrown across the tables. LOL.
Baker writes, okay, the local nine now has big time dinero. Let's see them act like it. (They already have, to some extent, with the Hamilton and Fielder offers, and the Felix contract. Things are showing signs of change.)
Another, notable blogger writes, the Mariners have always wanted to win every bit as much as anybody else ever did, so SHADDAP about it already.
Others fall in line, usually not according to logic, but usually according to how much they personally like one author or the other.
Young Frankenstein's view of the situation?
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The word "Thesaurus" comes from an old Latin word meaning "storehouse" or "treasure." In 1852, Dr. Peter Roget published a treasury of "English words and phrases," apparently to be used as a toolbox for writers.
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It became clear what Bazooka Joe was talking about, that Montero didn't "get" Saunders' game last time around. The typical inning has around 15 pitches, and in those 15 pitches his Monday mix was:
| Pitch | # thrown per IP |
| Fastball | 11 |
| Gloveside slider | 2 |
| Armside changeup | 2 |
Saunders pitches even more like Jarrod Washburn than we gave him credit for. He wants to "pitch to contact," to challenge (right hand) batters to do something with a located fastball. In theory, that's fine, provided you're not missing out and over the plate, allowing two home runs to mess up an otherwise pleasant evening.
Bazooka Joe wants to mix only enough offspeed to keep the (right hand) batters from cheating on his fastball. I didn't get this before tonight, and I kinda doubt Jesus Montero did, either. Montero favors offspeed pitches, but tonight it was almost like "Okay, pal, you like fastballs so much, I'll just put down the 1 every time."
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Q. The SP Stack role would buffer Ramirez' IP, too, right?
A. Nah...
In a vacuum, you could say, maybe it's a good thing to buffer Ramirez' innings a little. If you let him go one, two months out of the pen, then he can go full guns over his last 25 starts. He'll be fresh for our October stomp through the postseason, right?
I might apply this to some pitchers. I would NOT apply it to Erasmo Ramirez. If he's not ready for 200 in 2013, there's no such thing as a pitcher his age who is ready. We're talking sabermetrically, not physically.
The BaseballHQ "rule" is not to increase a pitcher more than 50 innings per season, and especially not twice in a row. BaseballHQ doesn't want to see this:
Late in 1992, Nigel Hamilton's book JFK: Reckless Youth appeared in book stores and book clubs.
