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I/O:  Art Thiel with a washbowl of wit and wisdom about the M's roster changes.  

CRUNCH:  Thiel always had more than his share of wit, and a good dose of wisdom, but Dr. D hasn't read him in quite a few years.  This had a triple dollop of both -- quite a few laugh lines, and several things that we hadn't quite noticed.  

Hm.  Must be hustling to keep up with the internet...

That's cool.  Most of us in our '50's stop trying to grow, and start coasting in to the finish line.  Especially sportswriters.

.....

Hasn't lost the cynicism, though.  He tries to coin a verb, "jamesjonesing" it, which means that an org had something good happen when it had no idea what it's doing.

Is that 100% unfair to the M's, or just 99%?  They had Jones queue'd up long before I did.  How about you, Gentle Reader?  How about you, Art, did you recognize Jones before Jack Zduriencik did?  (We're not talking to you, Jim and Gordon.)

C'mon.  He was one of the last cuts of spring training and one of the first guys called up.  Jones made their final 28. 

.....

But!  It's a good read.  The man can write, I'll give 'im that.  "And that's probably, like, his whole job."  :: sullytribute ::

.....

Jones has an OPS+ of 148 (!) and his BABIP isn't absurd.  His EYE ratio is 5:7 ... compare Stefen Romero's at 1:23.

Thiel points out, very generally speaking, that "scouting reports caught up to" Miller and Franklin.  That's part of Thiel's wit and wisdom; that's a great way to put it.

Dr. D points out, very specifically speaking, that James Jones is taking comically-reduced swings and covering the entire strike zone.  Both Miller and Franklin had super-aggressive swings and the corresponding rookie holes in them.  

Also:  few MLB hitters can get away with such reduced swings (pitchers go up the ladder, inducing safe popups).  But Jones can sting such pitches.  Jones' game is looking, anway, like it'll fly, As Is.

It's not a guarantee.  It's just part of the thinking man's pre-game program** for Tuesday's ballgame, the fact that Jones' game is theoretically much harder to find holes in.  

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I/O:  Auto5guy with a crisp little comment titled, "To use big board's language, it's about process."  /irony

CRUNCH:  That line, "It's about process," is a HUGE favorite in the Seattle blog-o-sphere.  

As Inside Pitch pointed out, that line is very simple code for --- > "I predict X, Y, and Z.  Whatever happens, I'll still be right."

Zero accountability, baby.  Eventually people realize what's up, and your stock plummets.

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I/O:  Bat571 sez,

Bat571: M-Pops: ICYMI From Gordon's Shout yesterday:Carbonell looks GREAT coming off the bus. On the field, a little less so. However, his baseball was played by age 22 in Cuba, so he's not exactly a finished product. And Cuba made hitting more difficult a couple years ago with a mound change, so those past crazy numbers are coming back to earth. But his career ISO is about .110 in parts of seasons since 2011 (mound change was 2012 IIRC). Puig's was like .250 and Cespedes was almost .350 (again, with a mound height more favorable to hitters). *shrugs* Fast guy, not a HR hitter yet... James Jones? If you think you can get his pre-game power into actual games, he gets interesting. I wouldn't consider him a plug-n-play hitter tho - we don't sign him, hand him an interpreter, and send him out against the As. 

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CRUNCH:  I think that's from Bat, which is from Gordon, which is from Mt. Sinai.  I have no idea why we didn't marquee one of Bat's actual star-level shouts...

Daniel Carbonell isn't among BaseballHQ's top 20 international prospects for 2014, which could feasibly be related to the fact that Carbonell was a citizen of a Marxist-Leninist "republic" at press time.***  

If you just joined us, Cuban hitters and Japanese starting pitchers ... the evidence is coming in on their side lately.

/Cuba freeflow

.....

Two quick reactions from Dr. D:

(1) You hear that he's a leadoff guy, but that is an EXTREME power hitter's swing.  Way uppercut righty, falls over the plate lefty, etc.  A power swing like that, and a .110 ISO in short data?  Refer back to Gordon's comment.  /cosign

(2) The Mariners are bidding ... they are way into physical freaks, as opposed to Kyle Seagerses.

(3) Very fast center fielders who remind Dr. D of Carbonell, physically and swinging the bat...  Cameron Maybin, Eric Davis, Byron Buxton, the high schooler the M's wanted in 2012.  I guess Zduriencik is still chipping his teeth over having to settle for Mike Zunino with the #3 overall.

We said two reactions.  As you know, we live to serve.

BABVA,

Dr D

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**Not that others don't think.

***Or so recently liberated that they didn't take him seriously as a near-term Int'l Prospect.