........................................

You'll hear scouts use the phrase.  "Konerko legimitizes that lineup in Chicago."  What they mean is, as the pitcher throws to the three or four guys ahead of Konerko, they're thinking about Konerko.  You don't want to see him come up with two men on base.  If you can contain Konerko and the White Sox aren't all that scary.

Of course, while Edgar was here, the Mariners' lineup was automatically legitimate, whether Griffey and ARod were here or not.

......

My favorite thing about this article, admittedly, was the stampede of traffic it caused to this article, Enemy Pitchers Not Giving the M's Anything.  :- )  Do I read that wrong, or is Baker over 10,000 Twitter followers now?  Anyway, that was my fave thing, but notice these other things about the article:

1. Baker, the star writer for a major metro sports section, is totally unabashed to reference a 'net rat.
2. Baker, the star writer for a major metro sports section, is totally unabashed to imply that he learned something from a 'net rat.
3. Baker calmly starts his article with a mistake that he made on a podcast, and he underlines this mistake.
4. He references the pertinent blog not one time, one sentence trivially, but many times materially.
5. He has followed up on this line of thinking - low O-Swing% and punishing pitchers for taking too much plate - in an effort to propagate Truth.

Tell me who else does this.  I'm sayin', tell me who.

Other people try to convince you that they are secure.  Baker actually does know that he's great, and it comes across.  When trollers on his site try to harass him, he doesn't get fazed, and he also doesn't get fazed when they are right.  He shrugs and goes, "Okay, sure, that's valid," without panicking that maybe the shimmering bubble of his reputation has been popped and he's been, you know, found out.

You want a quick gauge for how good a hitter is, use RC/27.  You want a quick gauge for how confident a writer is, watch his reaction when somebody disagrees with him correctly.

Baker is interested in the subject matter, the baseball game, the Mariners' approach to hitting.  He's not into providing work samples to Jack Zduriencik.  He's writing baseball.  It's serving his career well, I'd say.

.........

Some of Baker's audience chewed his ankles, saying, "Hoo hoo haw!  Darvish walked some guys and it wasn't because the Mariners hit home runs last night!"

That's inane on ten different levels, but we'll just pick one.  If Blake Griffin hits three outside jumpers in the first quarter against San Antonio, that doesn't mean that the Spurs are going to jump up and deny the outside shot -- conceding the dribble-drive and backboard shatter.  They'll step up on Griffin if and when they buy in to his outside shot.  That's what, half a season of Griffin draining outside shots?

We are not talking about Mike Carp hitting a home run in the 2nd tonight, and then Matt Harrison throwing a bunch of balls after that.  C'mon.  How long have you Times readers been watching sports?

.

=== The Old 'Underwear In Front of a Crowd' Nightmare ===

Still and all, Darvish did seem to get rattled last night.  

He didn't start the game rattled; he threw three pitches to Dustin Ackley that brought tears to your eyes.  Darvish started the game with magic sparkle dust.

However, two things quickly asserted themselves and KO'ed a Yu Darvish who would have butchered the LA Angels last night:

1. The home plate ump squeezed him.
2. The Mariners were pressing Darvish the way a good Japanese team would.
3. Darvish was painfully aware of Japanese scrutiny during this game, as he was last time in Safeco.

No, I can't count to two.  Sue me.  Darvish doesn't worry about home runs.  Never did.  To him a "scary" situation is a team taking what he gives them.  The intelligent things that unnerve a Nippon pitcher is different from the macho things that unnerve an MLB pitcher.

The ump didn't call strikes, and the Mariners kept their strike zones, and struck the ball sharply when he came in with offspeed pitches, and the next thing you know, Yu Darvish was doubting himself.  And he's doubting himself in front of 9,000 Japanese cameras.

.

=== Dr's R/X ===

Zduriencik made a good offer to Prince Fielder, because if he's here he helps Ackley, Jaso and Ichiro in front of him.  A pitcher isn't going "oh, well, who cares if I give up a single here" when Fielder is third up.

Pat Gillick, possibly the wisest baseball executive since 1970, used to say about the Giambi A's.  They are a totally different lineup with him in there.  When he's out you can handle them.  When he's in there, the whole team is unstoppable.

.....

Hopefully Geoff Baker will continue to push The Truth on this, because the M's lack of walks are simply not Eric Wedge's fault.  As long as the O-Swing % is superb, it will never be Wedge's fault.  In the meantime, the M's could do two :- ) things to up their walk totals:

1. The Mariners could go get a lineup legitimizer.
2. Seager, Carp, or Montero could become one.  If Montero hit 8 homers in a month, the word would go around, "Don't let this kid beat you," and voila.
3. They could take advantage of the fact that pitchers are throwing incorrectly - over-challenging.

It is to the M's benefit, in a way, that the enemy pitchers are throwing incorrectly.  Anything that your opponent does that differs from your opinion of correct must be exploited.  You want your opponent to play badly.  Throwing 50% inside the zone is, at the end of the day, pitching badly.

Earl would take young guys aside and say, it's 2-0, it's 3-1, I want you going for the jack.  You're capable.  Get your dingers in those counts.

.

BABVA,

Dr D