1
...I am not worried about Paxton...I'm worried about Iwakuma (and to a lesser extent Walker)
... and he's checking the runners in the dugout, if you'll observe the background
.
It's always better to be down here wishing you were up there than up there wishing you were down here. - Ancient flying proverb, ca. 1200 BC (attributed to Icarus whose wings melted from the sun at 30,000 feet)
.
Funny how Seattle baseball responds to a little preseason love from ESPN.
Just f'r instance ... after a retarded (look up the word) spring training, James Paxton has 12 strikeouts, 3 walks and 3 homers in 15 innings with a 5.40 ERA in t-h-r-e-e starts. You ask Matty, or Mac-ky, about him? and you get the maniacally homocidal stare you would normally expect from Ndamakong Suh on a passing down.
We sez, threeeeee starts. Not twelve.
.....
You would expect this from fans, who wanted a 10-4 start. What's odd is to get it from Seattle baseball people. But then, Seattle baseball has never been exactly Atlanta baseball. :- ) If the menacing "Pilots" moniker has already been taken, what other transportation workers might we call ourselves after, to frighten our enemies?
.
Every takeoff is optional. Every landing is mandatory. -- Icarus again
.
Dr. D does relish the emotional attachment the amigos have to what's going on. When you get to be his age, any emotion is good. But where's Pat Gillick when you need him ...
Jay Buhner laughed about a Mariner tragedy in the Tuesday game. Literally laughed. "Baseball's great, isn't it?" It beats working, Jay.
.
When in doubt, hold on to your altitude. No one has ever collided with the sky.
If you push the stick forward, the houses get bigger. If you pull the stick back, they get smaller. That is, unless you keep pulling the stick all the way back, then they get bigger again. -- I guess there's no way to attribute this to Icarus
.
If this were Strat-O-Matic, then SSI wouldn't be even 1% worried. And the Shout Box has been complaining about luck. Dr. D won't quibble. These stats are from memory (browsing stats sites for five minutes during breakfast). Like they say, a mental note isn't worth the paper it's printed on ... but pretty much:
.
| STAT | WE | THEY |
| Hits on balls into fair play | .278 | .314 |
| Hits with men on 2nd/3rd | .229 | .316 |
| Hits when DaddyO woulda liked one | 1 | 89 |
| etc |
.
When Robinson Cano botches the first two defensive plays that blow your latest loss, you know you're snakebit. As Spec pointed out, you do have 8-game losing streaks. (And streaks in which you lose 14 of 18, just to head quibblers off at the pass.)
Similarly, there's an old saying about young pitchers ... on any given day they look like 25-game winners or they look like they should be two leagues down. Baseball teams, well ... Gordon keeps chuckling about the rotation. Not as much as Dr. D does. The turnaround might very well begin tomorrow might have begun last night.
....
We sez, in Strat-O-Matic our worry factor is 0. But in real life ... Objectively Speaking, you've got the question of whether the M's will Lose Confidence. (Lemme read that last sentence again.) In about 27 of their 40 seasons, their chests have collapsed in May.
This team does have Robinson Cano. As it did last year. Was it Spec again who pointed out that the M's went 80-62 after a lousy first 20 games in 2014?
.
A 'good' landing is one from which you can walk away. A 'great' landing is one after which they can use the plane again. -- I think that one was Orville, Wilbur, or maybe Joe Schulz
.
.
So you're playing ten backgammon games against "Mochy" Mochizuki for a thousand bucks, and you get the dice rolls to win the first one? Does that mean you unnerstan the Golden Point better than Mochy does?
No, and it doesn't mean Houston has better players than Cano and Felix, just because they won the first two weeks. The M's aren't yet to the 10% mark and here are four differen' ways they coulda turned 5-9 into 7-7:
- The hits on BIPs, RISP, general luck thingy
- The bullpen has blown two games it wouldn'a in 2014
- James Paxton might not'a been held out for three weeks in March
- Iwakuma or Taijuan mighta started hot
- The teams they played might not have been as good (Houston's red hot)
- Like Grizzle sez, they mighta played crisper
Okay, that's like seven or something. Point's the same. M's have botched several games in the first two weeks. So sue them.
When would Dr. D get worried? As a general rule, not before 50 games. "Check them in July," Dave Concepcion once said about a '70's Padres team that started hot.
50 games... with this franchise, admittedly, it gets late early.
.....
Got a SOLID article on Taijuan, but gotta run. You mooks enjoy the game, cuz there isn't one tomorrow.
BABVA,
Dr D