Once again, Ms. Hagy's seed article lieth here ... 5 more ways to BE INTERESTING! ...

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Minimize the Swagger

"Egos get in the way of ideas.  If your arrogance is more obvious than your expertise, then you're someone other people avoid."   And which blog among us cannot relate to that...

Funny thing:  Robinson Cano and Kyle Seager are non-greedy, non-entitled Warriors.  At all times they are ready for a fight, a FAIR fight.

So is Kendrys Morales.  So, that's good.  (So are Mike Zunino and James Jones, but ...)

.........

This has its Steering Committee application, also.  Ms. Hagy provided the following CGI to get across the point of this section:

As Dr. D might put it, you can't focus 90% on the price and only 10% on the item you are buying.  All you can do is make very sure you will be VERY happy with what you buy.

:: shrug :: Buying Kendrys for 7 cents, yeah, I'm happy.   But in this case "WHY YES" might also be applied to a pennant race.

...........

Also, let's not be too hard on the M's for an offhand "If we're in it" comment.  :- )   Sweet Lou would run screaming into the night, but .... Billy Beane sez "Two months to see what you got, two months to get what you need, two months to play hardball."

But yeah.  The rest of the world thought "If we're in it" was resolved by the $240M thingy.  Cano didn't think this?  Cano signed with a clear understanding that "we'll try hard if we're within 2 of the Wild Card in July"?

As an overarc'ing strategy, though, I'm not going to bash it as absurd.  A string of 30 straight seasons played this way, maybe.

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Give It a Shot ... Hop Off the Bandwagon

"If you don't get out of your comfort zone," Hagy writes, "you'll never grow."

We'll leave the Committee out of it, and turn our heads over to Felix' 13-game "Ultra Quality Start" streak, in which he hops off the bandwagon of allowing runs.  13 games is, we understand, an all-time record.

All time?  That defies logic.

got his method down.  Assuming that your offense were better than Felix' ERA, you'd win very, VERY consistently.

The M's are 10-3 during Felix' streak.

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Grow a Backbone; Ignore the Scolds

Okay, this one doesn't fit too great but :- ) Logan Morrison has been the best at "doing his thing" despite the bad luck and the Safeco Field.

An amigo asked what happened:  about 10 days ago, Dr. D pointed out that Morrison was swinging great.  As in:

• Two strikes on him (nervy situation)
• Pitcher rocks and fires
• Logan sets his foot down light as a feather
• It's a slow curve!
• Logan holds the hands back and calmly drives the curve for a screaming meemie

He was swinging great.  And for two weeks (June 23 - July 5) he hit .398 with a .581 SLG (as the M's went 8-3 with him in the lineup and took over the WC).  But he's gotten ground down a bit the last 10 days -- by the park and luck -- and the timing isn't as pretty now.

Morrison looks like he's swimming through sand in Safeco.

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

Sigggggggggghhhhhhh.  During the losing streak, 3 Mariners have hit well:

• Robinson Cano
• Kyle Seager
• Dustin Ackley (and a 27% line drive, to boot)

Were Ms. Hagy a Mariner fan ... she might recommend that the M's brass acknowledge their need for offense.

BABVA,

Dr D