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BJOL gave us permission to excerpt from the archives, so ... here's a light bulb that is particularly helpful in brightening the understanding of the 2012 Mariners:

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the Orioles called up a pretty good pitching prospect and will give him the start against the Yankees. Since the Orioles are out of it would it make more sense to call up an older 4A type starter and give him that start against the Yankees and to give the rookie his debut against a weaker hitting lineup with total consideration giving to the CONFIDENCE of a young starter? Also do you agree with the Earl Weaver philosophy of working in rookies in the pen to give them confidence instead of just throwing them out there?

Asked by: Anonymous

Answered: 6/9/2010

It used to be kind of a current idea that you should throw the young pitcher directly AT the Yankees.   That way, if he beat them, he'd know he could beat anybody.

You have simplified Earl Weaver's idea to the point at which I'm not sure I could endorse it, but in its full flower I absolutely believe in it.   It's not simply giving the pitcher confidence.  It's acclimating him to the major leagues without exposing him to things that he can't handle.   It is a very large step up for a pitcher, from AAA to the majors, and if you're careless about it, your pitcher is over his head.  

Suppose that you. . ..do you play poker?   Well, there's a difference between playing poker with some buddies three Saturday nights a year, and playing poker with a bunch of sharks in a high-stakes game.    Suppose that you had the opportunity to play in the high-stakes game.   Which do you think would be better:  To hang around for a year or two, watch and listen, figure out who's who and what's going on, or to walk in cold and start bidding?

It's the same thing.  Major league at bats are worth like $10,000 a pitch. You watch and learn.   You watch how the major league pitchers prepare for a start.  You watch how the major league hitters work an at bat.   You PARTICIPATE in it, sure, but in small portions and with not too much on the line, just see how things go.   Then, if they go pretty well, next year you can start making those $10,000 bets. 

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Have a coupla friends who play at Diamond Lil's, including one of the dealers.  In Saturday night poker, for matchsticks, I can do fine against either.  Poker online, no problem.

But if I were to go to Diamond Lil's and play for money, I would get destroyed.  By everybody.  Bill's characterization of the situation ... well, it sounds like he has indeed sat down.  And gotten destroyed.  Not for $10,000, but for $1-5 bets and $200 bankrolls, maybe.

Standing around the table a time or two, chatting with strangers, they try to get me in there  (which I wouldn't, for lots of reasons).  But the ones who are real friends, they warn me to only bring a few bucks the first time.  "EVERY. BODY. gets blasted the first time," they'll tell you.

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In another space, James was asked -- and remember, he has been a Red Sox executive for a decade, now, with access the game from inside -- "What is the adjustment period for a AAA player?"

His reply:  typically 60-90 games.

That's not an improvement period.  That's not a development period.  That is assuming that your game is fully developed -- THEN figure the 60-90 games in order to adjust to your surroundings.  That's when you'll have your bearings soundly enough in order to start thinking in a relaxed way, and have your bearings enough to become aggressive, to really dive into the pitcher-batter chess game.

This is all talking about position players, fundamentally, anyway.

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=== Picture's Worth 1,000 Words Dept. ===

In training camp right now, there are some gorgeous examples of the Diamond Lil's principle:

MIKE CARP - Spent the last two years hitting 50! minor league home runs in 176 games.  But he bounced up and down to Seattle three separate times, failing for 50 games to adjust to the AL.  The fourth time he sat down at Diamond Lil's, he cleaned them out.  Carp is now Age 25 With Experience - the John Benson rule for getting roto overperformers.

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TOM WILHELMSEN - Did you observe any manifestation at all of this, in 2011?  There is a fashionable little cliche right now among sabermetricians:  "Real things leave evidence of their existence."  Okay, if it was a real thing that Wilhelmsen was petrified, sitting down at the AL table, then the evidence of that was his 1H, 2H splits.  In the first half, 9 strikeouts, 8 walks, and a demotion.  In the second half, 22 strikeouts, 4 walks, and sinister, knowing little grin.

You see where I'm going with this.  The Mariners have a super-young team, but ... count and see how many of the players are acclimated.

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