Seattle Sports Insider

M's 5, Rangers 0

M's finding their inner At-Bat child now

Posted by

8/26/14

Here's where the M's lineup stands, last 30 days, in terms of "Weighted Runs Created Plus." League average is 100, so a "110 wRC+" means that a guy created 10% more runs than league average.

Remember the James axiom: most of a player's value consists of being average. I think of "Austin Jackson" as being -- sabermetrically and especially in the actual batter's box -- as the model of league-average hitting.

To a living, breathing baseball GM, "average-solid" is a very good thing. Even if you're NOT in firm possession of a handful of Abraham Almontes and Corey Harts, casting about for an upgrade to something rather less than "average-solid."

Oh, yeah, the table:

Hitter	wRC+, last 30 days
Cano, 2B	148
Ackley, LF	135
LoMo, 1B	133
Taylor, SS	124
Zunino, C	113
Seager, 3B	112

Morales is at 79; Jackson is at 66.

So the Mariners' lineup has reached Critical Mass. In my mind it is not (yet) because of Jackson and Morales; it has because of Ackley, LoMo and Chris Taylor. Supposing one or two of them drop off, perhaps Morales and/or Jackson will pick them up. And! Seager hasn't been hot during the run. Yeah baby.

Chris Taylor gives you the distinct impression that he is hitting the ground running, that, as with Kyle Seager, he's not going to need 3-4 years to mold his game to fit.

He is a "see ball, hit ball" player
Who has proven his ability to turn around good velocity
Who reacts well to offspeed pitches
Whose ability to "control the strike zone" is gaining visibly

True, his BABIP is .448, so his Mariner slash line is pretty lucky at the moment. But usually, sabes hit this normalization and Full Stop Right There. Let's move on: the man did hit .328/.402/.497 in the cavernous Cheney Stadium this year, and his game -- whatever his game is -- seems to translate very well to the majors.

There was a remark during the game tonight, that the M are doing a better job "up and down the lineup" of "taking control of at-bats." SSI would agree. Chris Taylor is doing a particularly nice job of this.

What are we talking about? Let's close it out with a Hey Bill that is superb even by his standards:

I remember Manny Ramirez as being the most relaxed hitter I've ever seen. Is that what you mean by "taking control of an at bat?" Or controlling the strike zone?

Asked by: manhattanhi

Answered: 8/22/2014

Manny was going to hit the pitch that HE wanted to hit. He had very, very few wasted at bats. A wasted at bat, you know, is when you get yourself out by swinging at a pitcher's pitch early in the count. Manny did that less often anyone I've ever seen, even the other great hitters that I've seen a lot of like George Brett and David Ortiz. He just didn't get himself out.

His ability to spoil a pitch was exceptional; we think of that as being something that a little guy who doesn't strike out does, but Manny was a power hitter who struck out a lot, but he just had remarkable ability to spoil pitches and force the pitcher to keep making good pitches. Sooner or later, the low fastball that is supposed to be just outside the strike zone is going to wander over into the strike zone by mistake, and Manny would crush it.

The MOST amazing thing about him was his ability to force the pitcher into a 3-2 count. I don't know how many of Manny's at bats wound up at 3-2, but it was a huge number, because he was comfortable hitting 3-2 and he liked to hit 3-2. He knew that the pitcher had no margin for error with a 3-2 count and David Ortiz or Kevin Millar on deck, so he would foul off pitches until it got to 3-2, and that's when the at bat really began. Then he was ready to go to work.

Blog:

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I read that "Hey Bill" post a few days ago. Thought it was one of the best I had ever read.
His stuff about Manny reminded me of stuff I read years ago about Dick Allen. Somebody once wrote about his relaxed dominance of the game when he was at the plate.
Manny's career line: .312-.411-.585 = 154 OPS+
Richie's career line: .292-.378-.534 = 156 OPS+
Manny had the benefit of playing in a juiced era for much of his career. No accusation intended. Dick Allen was penalized by playing much of his career before 1969.
I think I've written this before, but one of Dick Allen's teammates wrote of watching him whiff on purpose in games that were already put away. He would miss on a 2-strike slider, for example, in the 8th or 9th inning of a blow out, knowing that the catcher or pitcher would remember the slider whiff next time around. He would be sitting on it. He deked 'em.
Sounds like Manny stuff. I wish I had seen more of Dick Allen.