Sizzlers and Fizzlers, 5.22.19
A LH catcher with a life OBP of .366? Howzat grab ya

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DANIEL VOGELBACH - SIZZLER

Ripping along at a cool .270/.400/.659, which gives him a 186 bat for the season.  For amusement's sake, Mike Trout's is 175 and next in line career, Joey Votto, is at 153.  Slumping the last two weeks, he's hit .240/.340/.660 there.  Widening out to his career, with the false starts he's still at 130 for life OPS+.

If his power seems a little bit high-ish, it's probably because that compact swing is getting to hot fastballs.  Here's a stat; tell me what you think of it.  "Home runs off fastballs 95-100 MPH."  'Bach leads the majors in that category, with 5 despite his short season.

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Is it Dr. D's style to put a permanent ballplayer in the Yahtzee DH slot and clog it for 6-8 years?  My own thing is that a permanent DH, like Edgar, must have a high OBP.  Otherwise, if it's a Steve Balboni type with a .299 OBP and thirty homers, then when he's not catching a mistake on the barrel then there's nothing much happening.  I'll take Vogelbach and his near-.400 OBP, and the who-knows-what PWR, at DH for the next 5 years.

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DEE GORDON - FIZZLER

His slash is okay, I guess, at .281/.310/.369 for an 87 OPS+ in Seattle, especially with a gold glove in the middle infield.  But he's only got 16 runs on a ballclub that's scoring them by the scads.

This is what I imagine would happen if somebody offered me a GM job.  That I'd make super-logical moves which crashed and burned for absolutely no reason that I could perceive.  It seems to me that over the last 40 years, the Mariners have had way more than their share of these.

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DYLAN MOORE - SIZZLER

.... in the org's eyes, anyway.  Check it out, one cubicle to the left.  He's got a bat of 108 and a position array like Ben Zobrist.  I could see him filling a McLemore-type role on a championship team.  But see Dipoto's remarks in the attached link.

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OMAR NARVAEZ - SIZZLER

Hitting .288/.362(!)/.477 he's WAYYYYYYY above low watermark for a starting AL catcher - or even for a MOTO hitter, if you want to go there.  The EYE is a strong 0.50 and the last 14 days, it's .353/.353/.647.  Here, this is kind of amusing:  pull up Fangraphs' leaderboard, isolate to catchers, go to 100 PA's, and sort by wRC+.  Narvaez is rockin' and rollin' the league.

Fave stat ... wait for it ... a lifetime OBP of .366.  Wowza.  With an EYE of 0.68.

I always assumed he'd run into a Miguel Olivo problem, where the org pronounced his defense to be prohibitive, but the signals coming out of Mariner Central are very positive.  Word is that he's "really putting in the work" to improve and that "the pitchers like working with him."  If that's the case, then slap me silly maybe the Dipoto Mariners have found a catcher.

Sizzle On,

Dr. D

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