1
...we don't need Cordero to be a closer. We need him to eat 60 average middle relief innings.
Spring Training, 3.12.10
=== Wally Pipp dept. ===
For those of you who were born after the era of Super Mario Bros. ... in 1925, Wally Pipp was an aging, 32-year-old, MLB(TM)-entitled first baseman for the New York Yankees. He'd had some good years in his 20's, but had been mediocre for several years and at 32 was off to a slow start.
Stories vary as to whether Pipp went to Miller Huggins and asked for a "flu symptoms" day off, or whether Huggins wanted to shake things up. Seeing that the Yankees were 16 wins, 26 losses in the middle of Babe Ruth's prime, I'll take the second explanation.
Anyway, Lou Gehrig stepped in for Pipp on June 2. ... it's one thing to be a backup; it's another thing to back up a guy who always starts. Gehrig didn't miss a game for 13 years...
...............
You and I wouldn't decide a roster spot based on a two-week injury. But pro teams do. They're down there; we're up here.
Word on Jack Hannahan's groin is 7-10 days at least, maybe more, and he's supposed to be nailing down the backup SS job.
Dire for Hannahan? It's not a death sentence, but it's very alarming from his point of view. Enough so, that the writers' reaction is that Josh Wilson is now the frontrunner for the backup SS job...
Josh Wilson now bats for -20 runs per year below replacement. Not below average: -20 runs below Willie Bloomquist. We're going to need some irrational numbers here to represent the offense, SABRMatt.
It's not like Josh Wilson is Pokey Reese out there. But even if Josh Wilson were a tremendous defensive SS .... 20 runs better than a quality AL SS ... that would make him replacement level, now wouldn't it?
.
=== Your Serve, Josh ===
Tui hit two home runs today, one of them intercepted by a silly 30-foot-high wall in center field. Well, I guess if you can't afford the two thousand bucks for a batter's eye behind the wall...
GameDay was working. The first homer, the one that went off the batter's-eye-in-play, came off a 91 fastball on the inner third and was dispatched out of the ... um, playing field ... to center field.
Read: Tui did not get his arms extended. You can get the barrel on the ball if you lean back and pull it. How do you hit an inside fastball out to center?
...
The second homer, according to GameDay, was a true jam pitch:
- On the inside 4 inches of the plate
- Slightly ABOVE the waist
- >90 mph
- Second pitch following a 77 mph breaking ball
The pitch was executed perfectly. Tuiasosopo didn't get his arms extended on this one, either. Didn't matter. Four more bases.
Recent Mariners have not been able to hit pitcher's pitches for singles. Tui hit a gorgeous pitcher's pitch for a home run. Physically and mentally, I trust the Tuiasosopos to battle.
I'm not saying one good game ices the roster spot. But somebody count the number of current Mariners capable of this performance, on a good day. Tui is capable of things that ordinary major leaguers are not.
.......
The classic whipsaw that ML vets use against young power hitters, the one that Jay Buhner and Jim Lefebvre fought so viciously about, is .... soft stuff outside edge, hard stuff inside the barrel. The hitter has to slow down his bat to catch the outside stuff, and speed it up to do anything with the inside stuff. Just when the hitter gets the feel for waiting to hit the slow-away stuff hard, BOOM the jam pitch is on him way too fast.
You see why it's important that Tui is blasting hard stuff inside. He's proving that the standard antidotes are no avail to the poison in his bat.
.
=== Chad Cordero ===
Not meaning to be a wet blanket, my complaint about Mr. Cordero is not that he's hurt. It's that Boyz II BABVA would not have drafted him in his prime. Some closers are mirages.
SSI would move on, here. My opinion, plus five bucks, will get you any drink you want at Starbucks.
Cheers,
Dr D
Comments
2
Asked about Tui, "He's doing what he needs to do. That's the bottom line."
Not declaring victory, but am encourageder.
3
My SS projection is going to include Tuiasosopo as the primary back-up SS, not Josh Wilson. I sincerely hope the Mariners do this correctly.
4
It's just that I don't care for him doing that either. :- )
He's always been 88-90, smoke and mirrors.... the BB and HR problems started early for him. He had to nibble very early in his career, especially as a reliever.
Could be wrong. I see him as an innings-eater, and in the bullpen why not use Colome or somebody like that, as opposed to Ismael Valdes or Carlos Silva for 60 IP?
5
That Tui is a .500 SLG hitter right now?
6
Then Jack Wilson ends up on the bench in short order, and trading away Mr. Triunfel no longer causes ANYONE concern. :P
7
Let's say -10 runs below the median in the AL, then a .270/.360/.500 bat would give us a whale of a club-controls player. You'd have a Miguel Tejada profile at SS.
Thing is, I don't think Zduriencik would play a .600 SLG guy at SS if the player were -10, -15 runs on defense. I think he'd move the guy somewhere else.
Even the substitute role won't be over until April 6 no matter how Tui hits ....
8
I'm almost to the point of projecting Tui to be the nearly everyday 3B. He's going to get a whole bunch of AB's.
Here's my over/under bets.
1. Bradley implodes.......by July 1.
2. Kotchman leaves us asking, "Why?"......May 1.
3. Lopez throws a hissy fit.......May 2.
4. Garko hits his way into a bunch of 1B AB's.......Mid-April.
9
Whaassup with #3? You mean hissy fit in the abstract, because Tui is chewing on his starts? :- ) Always took Jose for the nicest kid in class...
10
I love the guy, and have been lock-step with Doc on him since he was drafted. The problem is, what do you do with him if he ISN'T a SS?
2B is presumably undergoing an Area 51-esque transformation into Ackley Town over the next year or so, 3B can have Chone over there doing his best Brooks Robinson impersonation and SS has Wilson. I suppose you could turn Tui into a mega-McLemore for awhile, but isn't he worth the most as a) starting SS or b) starting SS/3B elsewhere?
This is one of those times that there is NO complaining about the guy. No matter what he does, it seems like our management is actually CAPABLE of leveraging his value properly, if not outright maximizing it.
.270/.360/.500 and -10 defensively would have ME putting him at SS for sure. But I'd imagine SD or maybe even Milwaukee would appreciate his profile a little more than our FO.
11
You know and I know that ML organizations are a lot sharper than we fans are.
If Tui's star potential is real, not illusory, and if we are perceiving it, then ML teams will also perceive it.
There will come a point when other franchises buy into Matt Tuiasosopo. When they do, Zduriencik has an opportunity to configure.
................
Choo Factor 101 on that trade. :- ) Tui could hit 300 home runs in the major leagues. Don't take Ken Phelps for him.
12
and what he's been able to do recently, I don't think it's unreasonable to place his upside as that of Mike Piazza at the dish. 400 dingers is probably out of reach, and I'd say he's not going to present a very good chance at a bunch of .600 slg% seasons like Piazza did, but I can definitely see his upside as a .370 OBP with a long peak in the .550 slg% range.
Good call on Choo. I still shake my head over that one.
13
Piazza himself was a freak ... at one time posting 170-180 OPS+'s like Albert Pujols does now...
The template, ya, that's the jackpot you're rollin' for with Tui IMHO....
Oh, you prob'ly meant Piazza in his 30's. .280/.360/.500+. OK.
..............
If Tui goes for .360 with 40 homers I'll cheerfully admit I botched his projection :- )
14
Why does Tui have to start now or get moved now? The Angels have been tormenting the west with a flood of young position players that come up, play a few positions, get 350-400 AB's per year for a year or three and then settle into a position. Heck, the M's just picked up the prototype in Figgins. Why can't Tui be the super-sub utility guy for a couple of years before being slotted into a permanent position? Is there really an issue with having a cheap Aybar-type player on the roster?
15
Your org has arrived when a bunch of deserving players are frustrated about their PT.
A decade or two ago, I always associated this with the Braves, who seemed to annually have four of the game's top 50 prospects three-peating AAA :- )