Player Development - Public 'Failures'

Q.  What's Category II Quote in the newspaper, then?  that M's fans have seen day-in, day-out?

A.  Of the other 30% of the quotes that we have seen, day in and day out, percentiles 76-95 have been weirdness that is actually tailored to a specific prospect.

And from Dr. D's chair, it ain't been pretty:

WEIRD PLAYER DEVELOPMENT QUOTE, CATEGORY II

  • Austin Bibens-Dirkx needs to get on top of the ball so his slider has two planes
  • Matt Thornton needs to work on his offspeed pitch (not lower his CG)
  • Gil Meche needs to hold his glove higher in the stretch
  • Gil Meche needs to forget about his three quality offspeed pitches and just throw the FB
  • Miguel Olivo needs to forget everything else and just focus on his lousy pitch-blocking
  • Jose Lopez needs to hit to right field
  • Brandon Morrow needs to get angry and just huck the fastball in there nice and high
  • Ichiro needs to work the count like Mike Hargrove did (okay, that was just one manager)
  • Phillippe Aumont needs to work on upper-body mechanics; the locked knee is irrelevant
  • Ian Snell needs to throw the fastball knee-high every pitch
  • Young Player X needs to stop doing the thing that makes him special, and start playing like all the other MLB(TM) players do
  • etc etc etc

Go back and Google what shtick Dr. D threw down about each of these situations.  The list of protests, from our corner, has been a loud and long one.

I double-guarantee you that when Jose Lopez starts his string of .500 SLG seasons, he won't be taking the ball through the right side of the infield...

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

Again, notice that we're not talking Player Development as such.  We're talking adjustment to the major league game.  Player Development occurs mostly, if it occurs at all, in the low minors.

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