.... M's 7

 ................

=== Sizzlers ===

Unlike in Japan, Chone Figgins swung the bat with authority.  On his line drive single, check his leading hip, his golfer's lean into the hitting area, and especially --- > the way his bat hits his back on the followthrough.  When Dr. D saw the bat come through like that, he's like Tigress.  THAT was pretty hard core.

The melodrama here is always about the level of enthusiasm.  Drayer asked Figgins about the game after and he's all like, "I tolja, when I got that phone call that I was gonna lead off, what I was gonna do..."

So do it.  :- /   Tonight he definitely did.

.

Nomar gave us quite the game at shortstop.  Tucking the lead shoulder, loading way up on the ball, he crushed a double into the power alley and smoked another fastball down into the LF corner.  Ryan was Right. On. Everything.  The ball looked like a volleyball to him.

For those wishing to dream ... you could always hope that he's acclimating to the AL.  He did hit .292 with authority for St. Louis in 2007.

.

Dustin Ackley had three hits:  one to LF, one to CF, and one to RF.  Just 'cause he wants 30 dings does not mean he's going to forget how to hit.

Oh yeah.  And one of his outs was crushed, 8' off the ground but it still held up for Reddick hustling over to the RF line.  Usually that ball is two or three bags.

.

Justin Smoak hit balls to LF, CF, and RF, and best of all he caught a 3-2 tease pitch from Brandon McCarthy juuuuuust outside.  He took it.  Ball four.  Excellent stillness, grasshopper.

SSI can sense the storm on the horizon...

.

Kyle Seager wins our Flying Fickle Finger of Fate for his game-breaking two-out RBI.  It was a four-hop seeing eye ground ball that, two yards either way, was a double play ball.  And we'd have never noticed Kyle Seager tonight, as we never noticed Jesus Montero because his frozen rope to RF happened to hit Reddick.

wn a lotta teams, but the M's put some serious Yankee/Red Sox footage to his keister and knocked him outta the chair.  The way they beat a #1 starter, throwing great, 13 hits?  Good on yer.  That's the stuff we saw in Arizona.  

.

=== Fizzlers ===

In spring training, Michael Saunders was using that 60-oz. bat to hit in the batting cage and it was keeping his knees real quiet.  Now, they're opening way up again.  He had a long double to CF and that's great.  But I don't like the way his compactness is unraveling.

I don't say it's the gospel truth.  I'm just telling you what I look at.

On the other hand, Geoff Baker reports that Gutierrez is down another month because, says Wedge, "He didn't have a spring training."  So Mickey gets a month to win the job.  

Hey Geoffy, could you ask for us whether Saunders is still swinging with the 5-lb. bat every day?  The knees and followthrough aren't tight like they were in March.

EDIT TO ADD that the comments in this thread have some interesting technical back-and-forth about the lead knee and toe, starting with Malcontent's post.  And thanks for the traffic Geoff. - Dr D

.

Jesus Montero has nuttin' to worry about, honey.  He lined one hard to RF for a sac fly and is staying well within himself. Balls will start falling.

You compare Montero now, to Smoak last year, and the state-of-mind is quite the contrast.  Montero just looks born to play hardball.

.

=== FIZZLERS:  Rotation ===

Felix pole-axes the A's again on Saturday.  But then it is 4 ugly games in Texas and the Rangers get absolutely no Felixes, Fisters, Bedards or Pinedas.  Looks like a cruel overmatch.

Meanwhile, K-Pax with 5.2 innings, 0 runs and 10 strikeouts?  Three months on, he'll have a 1+ ERA, and everybody will go "Great!  He learned something!"

Um, no.  Three months on, everybody will have grokked what James Paxton is.  That's all.  Meanwhile, we get the Texas Rangers and we got yer four verrrrry comfortable starting pitchers right here, Nelson.

.........

The 7th year of club control is understandable.  It just ticks me off to pull the magazine out of my rifle before I wade through the water after the alien.

Comments

1
ghost's picture

I did yell at Saunders in his third at bat because I noticed he'd gone 0-2 again...three times in one game he get into pitchers counts. Remember that from last year? Him being too passive trying to get into deep counts? That was the main problem last night with the Mick. His swing...when he did swing...was inconsistent, but the hammer stroke was still there on the double and on his final out of the day.He needs to work on consistency with that approach, but he's so talented that if he does it half the time, he might still hit .260 with 20 dongs.

2
ghost's picture

I know their line-up is scarier than ours...but their rotation isn't that much better than ours IMHO. Yu Darvish is talented but prone to bouts of wildness, Colby Lewis is highly inconsistent and frustrating to own from a fantasy perspective...way too many longballs...Holland is their best pitcher secretly...beyond that their guys aren't head and shoulders above our comfortable starters. It's their BULLPEN I am worried about being an ugly mismatch. If the games are close late at any point...they have a huge edge over our mushy middle relief corps.

3

He's playing the outfield correctly, he's running bases correctly (for now) with a bunch of hustle and determination and he's swinging hard at the first pitch he likes. He won't be able to keep doing that so early in the count - guys are gonna start hitting him up with curves and changeups early to mess up his tempo - but everything about him still screams "aggressor dictating terms" instead of "passive lamb at the slaughter." That slide into first base was a microcosm of Fighting Saunders.
So I'll take some open knees to maintain that approach, especially after seeing Oakland's Opening Day starter twice in three days. If he gets too far out of synch, like you said, send him to the cage with the 60 oz bat for a coupla days to get his rhythm and control back.
Saunders has a month to make it VERY hard to insert Guti back into the lineup.
And Carp had better hurry up too. Seager wants to keep playing, and Figgins for at least one game actually showed up. If Figgins is a chump then Seager steals his playing time no problem. Figgins has a couple of good weeks and Carp is gonna be the one fighting for at-bats.
The good news right now is that we're 2-1 with the King about to step onto the mound, and our MOTO isn't doing much. Ichiro-Smoak-Montero are all swinging fine, but the results are lagging a bit. And nobody's panicking up and down the lineup. Smoak and Montero are going about their business exactly the same way, and the non-MOTO (plus Ackley, who has to be considered part of it even though he's #2) is picking up the slack no problem.
==============================
My concern is still the bullpen (and the BOR), but I was glad to see Delabar come out with fire and mow down Cespedes. The As announcers didn't seem to know Delabar's story, but were very impressed by his "slider that breaks straight down like a fork ball. Hard to hit." We really need bullpen people to step up.
Or we could promote one of these fellas:
- Paxton (5.2 IP, 1 hit, 10 K / 0 BB) - major control issues, I see...
- Capps (1.2 IP, 2 hits, 4 K / 0 BB)
- Carraway (6 IP, 2 hits, 6 K 1 BB)
- Furbush (3 IP, 1 hit, 5 K / 0 BB)
- Jimenez (2.2 IP, 1 hit, 4 K / 1 BB)
Or any of the half-dozen other arms that are about to do special things this week in the upper minors. I still don't understand going with the bullpen we have, but we'll see how it works out.
If they struggle, there ARE reinforcements. We haven't had those in the past. And I love that the Mariners took the heirarchy out of The Big Three by having Carraway pitch Opening Day so that none of Paxton / Walker / Hultzen got bragging rights. Same reason they're all at AA. Their competition is each other more than the opposing hitters. "Anything you can do I can do better..." Maurer is pitching tonight for Jackson. That staff is just monstrous...
I really want to see Noesi, though. Campos did very well in low-A in his first start, but the point of adding Noesi (for me, anyway) was to advance a Campos-like arm several years up the ladder to be of use to us NOW. If he can stay as a starter that's terrific. I think he can.
But he's an arm we need to work out for us, either in the pen or the rotation. It's so frustrating to have SUCH good pitching that's almost here...
Must. Be. Patient.
And not grit my teeth too much as the Pitchers of the Future demolish the minors while the Pitchers of the Present have a bit rougher time in the bigs.
The offense is starting to look Major League Approved. Can't wait til the entire 25 man is. In the meantime...Happy Felix Day. Let's get a couple games over .500 for the first time in a while, shall we?
~G

4
Nick's picture

Good comments on Mickey, G. It's his approach that counts, maybe more than his technique. That's why I think he really needs a fast start, so that he can build up a little buffer of confidence so that when he hits a little slide, he's not looking at an .077 average and going "great here we go again." Through all his wacky swing permutations in the minors he was still a hitter, the numbers essentially always being there, so if the confidence is there to stay, I'd feel much better about the results coming. And Doc, here's a dunce's question: if he's clearing his knees but still crushing to dead center, is that an issue? Or can we say "hey man more power to ya if you can pull that off." The failed versions of Saunders the past couple of years only had a prayer's hope of ever going away/center with authority.

5
Lonnie of MC's picture

..., and has always been, between his ears. If he can stay in a good mental state then there is no telling how good he can be.

6

Not to be argumentitive, but the pic on the left is last night's double, the pic on the right is a double from March 15.  It seems like his knee, hips, and feet are in almost the exact same place?

7

I only really noticed what Doc was talking about on one early swing, but I wasn't paying serious attention either. I thought the double was ripped and I like the visual evidence that he's carrying not just his attitude but his swing adjustments through to game situations.
But then, it's such a better approach for him that you'd think most of his hits would come from using it.
Just have to make sure he's using that approach the vast majority of the time.
~G

8

Actually it wouldn't be a shock for Lewis and Darvish to disappoint, I guess, Lewis' 49% fly balls and whatnot.
Yeh, could see the rotation dropping off.  And like you say, you don't want to be behind in the 7th.

9

Thanks for putting 'em up!
1.  You could be right.
2.  On the left, that was one of Saunders' better swings.  On one of his swing-thru's early, his knees were WAY more open than that.  I slo-mo'ed it several times.  Am surprised to see that tight of a swing during last night's game, but there it is.  Thanks.
3.  Here too you can see a noticeable difference, from an aiki standpoint.  For example, on the right, notice that his top hand is off the bat, because he needs to let the bat go despite the lower half staying closed.  Compare the feel of the left arms in those two photos.
Also, if you imagine a clockface on the infield, catcher at noon, then the ray extending off his right toe, it's about 4:00-4:30 last night and about 3:30 on Mar. 15.  
The ray extending out of the top of the right kneecap, low on the lead thigh ... last night it's pointing at 5:00 and on Mar. 15 it was about 4:00.  Study carefully.
That would be an easy fix:  keep the right toe pointed at the 3B on the followthru.
..........
These seem like subtle differences, but you fail your aikido kyu test based on less than that.
.........
4.  See (1) above.  The swing on the left is perfectly fine for Saunders, and if he swung that way every time, I'd be cool.  It was other swings I didn't like.
The swing in your pic is much better, so maybe it's off-and-on for him.  Very encouraging to see that particular swing.
Thanks for the pics man!

11

And Doc, here's a dunce's question: if he's clearing his knees but still crushing to dead center, is that an issue? Or can we say "hey man more power to ya if you can pull that off." The failed versions of Saunders the past couple of years only had a prayer's hope of ever going away/center with authority.

If he's hitting the ball back through the box, well, that's one of Teddy Ballgame's four golden principles.  Highest margin for error that way.  In a vacuum, hitting up the middle ... that's one good thing.
Earlier in the spring, Saunders was all like "I'm a long-lever guy!  I need to stay compact!" and now he gets away from that and everybody goes, "Who cares.  He has two hits."
It's like a basketball player is shooting with his elbow flying out and his forearm at a skewed angle, and he shoots 7-for-11, and people go "As long as he's making the shots!"  Soon he won't be.
Coach's nightmare:  the kid goes back to street, has a good game that way, and starts styling to his buddies.  Two weeks later he'll be crying on your shoulder.
...............
The shot to CF ... well, I'm not saying that Saunders is back to square one.  I'm just a little tweaked that things are STARTING to revert for him.
Would simply like to know if he still spends time in the cage with the 60-oz bat, and if he's still focused on keeping a "short-throw" dynamic in the knees.

12

Looks like both Baker and Saunders agree as Jeff gets the call out!

13

But maybe not as gracious as Geoff's shout-out :- )
Usually he just has to mention somebody to send about 2,000 new readers your way.  

Add comment

Filtered HTML

  • Web page addresses and e-mail addresses turn into links automatically.
  • Allowed HTML tags: <a> <em> <strong> <cite> <blockquote> <code> <ul> <ol> <li> <dl> <dt> <dd><p><br>
  • Lines and paragraphs break automatically.

Plain text

  • No HTML tags allowed.
  • Web page addresses and e-mail addresses turn into links automatically.
  • Lines and paragraphs break automatically.

shout_filter

  • Allowed HTML tags: <a> <em> <strong> <cite> <blockquote> <code> <ul> <ol> <li> <dl> <dt> <dd>
  • Lines and paragraphs break automatically.
  • Web page addresses and e-mail addresses turn into links automatically.