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=== All Apologies ===

When there's anything going on the Land Of Rocking Horse First Basemen and Broken Bat Ties, Dr. D reads ... not much.  Usually he hits the Bakery, and often he reads Lookout Landing, and he's not completely unfamiliar with Prospect Insider.  Mariner Central is an old friend we check in on.  Nowadays Bill James Online serves a Brendan Ryan-esque throwback function of addicting Dr. D.  His skin feels itchy if he misses anything over there.  Once a month he gets lost among the trees at Tango's site.  Fangraphs op-ed pieces are interesting if over a month old.  MLB Trade Rumors in December or June.

With nothing goin' on in late October early November, Dr. D is dangerously liable to Low Ride over to just about anyplace, up to and including hot spots like this one.  His own taco truck does better when serving its own original fare, so it's best if he just writes his shtick up first thing on computer boot-up.  But once in a while he gets caught up in the raging rapids of the current Seattle discussion.

It's not expedient, but it's what I feel like doin'.  You're welcome to try and stop me.  I've been in smaller rooms with bigger men.

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=== Giants 2012, Talking Points ===

1.  San Fran has been a fave SSI sister city --- > since the Tim Lincecum draft at least.  At SSI, we noodle around talking about the G'ints all the time.  Whatever San Fran can do, we can do.  

The M's following on the Giants? :: John McClane chucks perp carcass out the window onto hood of car :: WELCOME TO THE PARTY, PAL!

:: Anthony Hopkins winning smile ::

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2.  Commendable that this article would argue that its last three years' worth of offseason Honda Civics plans were feasible.  That's a rather less ambitious debate proposition to sign, than all the ones that argued the opposing propositions were (1) incorrect and (2) worthy of ridicule.

The question is whether past Big Blogs Offseason Plans were feasible?   The answer is, Yes They Were.  Wow.  Sometimes the threat of a really healthy state of discussion around here seems perfectly serious.

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3.  Odd to title an Offseason Plan something like "A Championship Offseason" and then deploy the 2012 San Francisco Giants as a QED.  "Here's how you can aim at a CHAMPIONSHIP team."

SSI denizens note well.  The 2012 Giants weren't very good - at least, they weren't [a Championship Team In Principle And Execution].  They had a 95 team pitching staff and a 107 offense.  They would have won 88 games if they'd been true to Pythag -- and that was only due to a handful of fluke circumstances like Buster Posey outhitting Babe Ruth and Melky Cabrera outhitting Albert Pujols.  The 2012 Giants weren't anything you'd want to aim at as your best-case scenario.

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=== 4th and 2 from the Enemy 35 Yard Line.  YOU KNOW WHAT TO DO, POKEY ===

That's about 10 degrees off subject, though.  Let's get our sense of proportion here ....

Do the 2012 Giants prove that the 2013 Mariners shouldn't punt their season, which is the thematic appeal of this fine LL article?  They are a compelling picture that is worth 1,000 words, ya youbetcha.  

:: John McClane WELCOME TO THE PARTY, PAL! ::  Fact is that we've had 2,800 degrees Fahrenheit worth of heat over the question of whether past Mariner teams should have punted their seasons.  Present LL company emphatically excepted.

Remember the Erikkkk debates?  Wrong team, wrong time, remember?  This 3rd-and-12-quick-kick strategy took eleventeen different forms.  Gotta build an A-W-E-some team and THEN go add the last expensive piece... as the finishing touch on a masterpiece.

The arguments are just about over, praise the hallowed name of Bud Selig.  In Seattle we've climbed over the last mountain peak and found Bill Bavasi sitting there with a lozenge-shaped cranium, grinning at us.  

A GM has the right to try to win.   BRAVO!  

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Do the 2012 Giants single-handedly validate the M's Honda Civics model that has been finishing with 90+ losses, as is the thematic appeal of the other article?  Ummmmmmm ..... we're not going to point to one playoff club, one year, as validating or invalidating any roster theory.  You wouldn't point to one bunt play that worked, or didn't work, as validating or invalidating any macro offensive strategy.

But ....

NEXT

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