.

We ain't doin' MUCH here on Feb 24, watching for baseball technique.  But when a dubious Mariner makes an appearance, we can at minimum file it as a BUY, HOLD, SELL appearance.  Did Marco Gonzales do good?  Was it a neutral appearance that changes nothing?  Did Andrew Moore perform in a discouraging way?  It's worth sorting socks, at the least.

.

ARIEL MIRANDA - HOLD

Everybody knows he's got the sharp fastball, and he used it to jam hitters like vintage July 2017 Ariel Miranda.

Secondary stuff?  There's a baseball cliche' that says "He flashed a plus curve ball."  It's way overused, but what they mean is exactly what Miranda did with his splitter.  To the second hitter of the game, think it was the second pitch, he came from 12 feet overhand and the bottom fell out of it.  Garbage swing.  The pitch looked like Chuck Finley's forkball, if you remember that.

Two or three other times Miranda "flashed" a gloveside curve or a huge split, but .... the good offspeed showed up so RANDOMLY that you couldn't take them into account as THREATS in any normal count.  That's kind of what they mean by "flashed."  Miranda "flashed" the pitches he needs to cut his gopher rate in half.

First appearance.  Maybe he'll start doing more than "flashing" the pitches.  That's why we say "hold."  A neutral appearance for me.

.

ANDREW MOORE - HOLD

All his offspeed stuff looked worthless to me - the curve was rolling and up in the zone, there was no diving change, et cetera.  Oddly, the spring training scrubs two-bounced them all to infielders.

But the fastball looked like Doug Fister midseason.  He jammed hitters mercilessly and to excellent effect.  He painted several CALLED strikes.  He went up and down in the zone, changing eye levels.

Another young pitcher who stung batters with his #1, but who has little to no feel for his other pitches yet.  Dr. D gives it a "HOLD."

.

DEE GORDON - BUY

That swing we talked about ... it looked about halfway between "BEFORE" and "AFTER."  He had some load, but not a ton.  

That first double ... they didn't have F/X but it looked INSIDE to me.  He kept his hands in front, used his knees, and absolutely smoked it over the SS's head.  Like Ichiro in .400 mode.  There's Malcontent's 95 MPH rocket for the day.

In CF, he looked comfortable, he looked like he was making up approach angles as he went, and he was so blinkin' FAST he made angles look irrelevant.  Honestly, you got the idea he could take balls from the RF or the LF in 3-second sprints.

We confidently will construe the early appearances of Dee Gordon as plus.  so, BUY.  Did you know he got 200 hits last year?  No reason he and Segura can't get 200 each this year :- )

Enjoy,

Dr D

.....

Image:  Bellingham Herald