.

I heard it, I heard it, I heard it in the .... "Box"

Gordon Gross:  For anybody who's curious, Sickels is getting around to the Ms minor league prospect discussion now. I may or may not have been over there running my mouth. No comment.http://www.minorleagueball.com/2014/4/13/5610674/seattle-mariners-prelim...

Now that Jason Churchill has like a full-time radio gig, what is stopping the Seattle DJ's from getting Gordon on there?  Until somebody is paying Gordon what he's worth, we-all can do what we do best.  Wallow in his minors wit and wisdom for free.

Scanning down just enough so that we could get a teaser in here -- Dr. D wants to save the Sickels/Gross read for the perfect moment -- we see Gordon's high on Edwin Diaz.  The BaseballHQ guys have Diaz as virtually the top prospect in the Seattle system, not counting Taijuan, Paxton and D.J. Peterson.  

The only prospect ahead of Diaz is Victor Sanchez.  Also in there at HQ is Luis Gohara, one of only 8 pitchers in all the minor leagues with a tag of "Future #1 starter," and Tyler Pike ("excellent in each month" individually) along with Carson Smith -- not even mentioning Danny Hultzen.

As Gordon has also noted, if your #16 prospect is Abraham Almonte - who is shortly after a starting leadoff hitter in MLB(TM) -- your system is well-and-truly Milwaukeefied.

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mojician: This loss is Doc's fault. How are the Mariners expected to be tough when ChipenDale pics are being posted at SSI?

rick82: Lol. It was certainly....disturbing, Mojician. I think Doc is trying to get some women into the site.

You know, I used to be REALLLLLY good at snapping towels.  Like breaking stuff good.  When you're in an all-male locker room, the first guy who "forgets" that guys aren't sexy, gets a thunderous SSI snap.  Try not to weep.

;- ) Oh ... while we're on the subject (ha!) we notice that in the comments and shouts lately, we've lost the strike zone a little bit on the no-vulgarity rule.  It's my own fault; I say bad-a$$ once and, naturally, off we go.  :- )

Please too ...  no references to the Creator either (Lordy Lordy and such like) unless you are actually going to lay down a prayer mat and turn the topic to religion, politics and/or the M's yearly cashflow.

We thought that the picture of Palmer would be inert.  As you know, Dr. D's sensibilities are so naive that he often gets this kind of humor even more horribly wrong than his peachy expectations for Erasmo.  Wait, did he miss another innuendo there someplace?

Nothing whatsoever for Dr. D to do, but to admit his mistake and remove the illicit image.  :- ) Hope you all aren't going to make him sign a morals clause; Dr. D fears for his cyber-life should Mojician become involved.

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Maq-man called the Ross lockdown on Tuesday.  Dr D was dubious, but Maq took me deep!

Which the Mariners didn't (go deep), keeping alive their 13-game perfect correlation.  They always win if they hit a home run, and always lose if they don't.  How long will the streak last?  I'm setting the over-under at 44 games.

Justin Smoak let go another SICKENING!! procession of center-cut 89 MPH fastballs today.  You watch the game for 40 years and you still can't begin to comprehend it.  It was like watching:

• A man sit at a bar stool, literally praying with hands palms together, that a blonde would come sit next to him
• Jessica Alba sashay over, sit down, and ask for a light
• The man stare blankly, flit his eyes to the right, stare blankly, flit his eyes again, and ... pivoting to ignore Jessica, ask the bartender whether he serves garlic fries

If the man did this on Mondays, Thursdays, and Saturdays over the course of several years, you would conclude ... what, exactly?  The only thing that comes to mind:  I don't wish to become a friend of the man.

Smoak tenses his muscles so epically as he gathers himself to launch the bat.  Then, getting the 89 MPH pitch bisecting the plate and 8 inches above the knees, he reacts precisely like Jay Buhner did when he got a Pedro Martinez overhand curve ball.  "Ahhhh, man.  That pitch is so sick.  Maybe I'll get 'im tomorrow."

In Edgar's entire career, did he ever do that to 2 straight fastballs into an 0-2 count?  One time, maybe?

Except for DaddyO, you all think that Dr. D is being tongue-in-cheek, at least a little?  No, the above was his first AB Tuesday, the at-bat that Smoak had 24 hours to plan.  It's just an illustration.  He also frequently gets ahead 2-and-0, and then gets a Tee Ball, and takes that.  

Granted, on pitch 2, Smoak swung, and missed.  By a lot.  So in this particular at-bat, Smoak did swing at one of the Tee Balls when he got one.  Is that more depressing, or less, than it would have been if he'd taken the pitch?

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Gordon Gross:  Regardless of the tough loss, can I just say how great it was to see Chris Young pitching as a starter again? Also, for those who don't know, he had the same surgery Hultzen had (with the torn anterior shoulder capsule) in 2011 and came back from that in addition to his post-2012 thoracic outlet surgery. Fingers crossed that 2015 sees a dynamic return from Hultzen in similar shut-down fashion. And without any other issues.

Thanks for the catch, man.

Earlier today, another amigo asked about Young's scary (or is it?) fly ball rate.  His lifetime HR-per-fly rate is 7.9%, which means that Young allows 3 HR for every 4 that other pitchers allow  It's one thing to miss out-and-over, and let the batter plant the back foot and smear a tee shot to his pull field.  What Young does, is take the pitch that 4-6 inches higher, producing skie'd fly balls t0 center and the other way.

Young's velo looks back to where it was when he was a 3.0 WAR pitcher.  The slider needs a lot of work; the fastball doesn't, and some pitchers get 3 WAR with nothing but fastballs.  Young is, besides being a good pitcher, throwing in a good pitcher's park, in front of a quality defensive outfield.  We're talking about 14 wins here, gentlemen.

If Taijuan's out this year, but we get an epic Big Three along with Elias and Young, well, teams win World Series with a whale of a lot less than that in the rotation.  Most rotations don't have Felix Hernandez, for one thing.   

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GLS:  Do you guys this trend of using the Shift so much is good or bad for baseball?

Gordon Gross:  If people would just bunt their stupid way on base it would go away. Learn how to bunt, you lazy millionaires, and erase the extreme shift. If I was a manager I would have a bunting academy in the offseason and then we'd practice it every other game during the season. You get a shift like that, you BETTER bunt.

It's like asking whether Buddy Ryan's 46 Defense was good or bad for football, like asking whether the internet was good for the mainstream media.

A shift puts its fingers on a conceit in baseball, that Justin Smoak "is paid to drive in runs."  Which is nothing more or less than intellectual dishonesty - a firm refusal to accept reality, to believe the truth.

If an offensive coordinator is madly in love with running the ball, and says he's going to do it no matter what, then ... is a 9-man box good or bad for football?

"On the chessboard, lies and hypocrisy do not last long.  The creative combination lays bare the presumption of a lie; the merciless fact, culminating in ca heckmate, contradicts the hypocrite." - Dr. Lasker

Truth is good.  The open eye is always best.  Dr. D is warmed by the disinfectant sunlight that burns off the presumption of a lie.

As Gordon says, the game will be forced to change.  At some point, hitters will begin bunting.  Which team do you suppose will begin?

.

Reflect, also, on the inertia that is suffered by baseball as an industry, when Baseball(TM) tries to amoeba its way around a very simple truth.  Contrast it to the reactions of NFL franchises, when a truth is discovered.

There are a lot of things that I hate about MLB(TM).  Distantly related, its refusal to automate strikes.  The game would be so fun to watch that way.  It would immediately be obviously a lot more fun for the fan.  But baseball protests "TRADITION," uses tradition in the worst sense of the word -- a custom that we know to be wrong, but that we will continue because that's how we did it yesterday.

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I had no idea that all baseball wears #42 because it follows Griffey, who used to complain that he was usually the only black player in the dugout.  I don't know why that was.  

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rick82:  Groan. The big three is pulling a hat trick. It's getting like you need to pencil in 3-4 minor league seasons, and then two more for your Tommy John or shoulder surgery, before you can start your major league career.

Whatcha mean there Rick?  :: puzzled ::  Paxton's 15-day DL stint doesn't deserve alarm yet, does it?  Pitchers are going to be the 15-day DL.

And once again we muse about the need to factor health into prospect rankings.  It's not a guarantee that you want all the things James Paxton has, if you're going to project him as durable, and that blots out the sun for people.  That it's not a 100% guarantee to be old, lefty, centrifugal, a hard thrower ...

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Tacoma Rain:  So A Fernandez or Caraway next???

Iwakuma could go 5 IP this week.  We hope and expect that they'll get him in there pretty quick, and then Erasmo can hang around until Paxton's back.

But if you just need a start or two, I'd love to see Brandon Maurer get them.  A quick look at MLB hitters would amplify all the learning he's doing this year.

Doesn't hurt, either, that he's got 17 K in 8.1 innings (!!) and Lloyd McClendon likes him better than we do.  McClendon likes him better than we ever did.

Rock on,

Dr D