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In South Africa, it is 100% legal to mount flamethrowers on each side of your vehicle, operated by a fourth pedal near the accelerator.  The government there has deemed this an appropriate response to their hijacking epidemic; no word on whether it is a viable response to hire Tom Hardy to drive for you.  A pesky rodent Angel steps up to your window and demands you relinquish your lead, you douse him in ignited propane until he loses interest.

In Seattle 2016, it's a 100% viable losing-streak response to have Cano, Cruz and Seager hit missiles through the outfield wall.  There was a lot of TV talk last night about the fact that it's cool to have all three players healthy at the same time.  Quick, would you trade our three Big Guns for any of the following sets of hitters?

• Edwin Encarnacion
• Manny Machado
• Buster Posey

Or,

• Jose Bautista
• David Ortiz
• Adrian Gonzalez

Or,

• Josh Donaldson
• Victor Martinez
• Yoenis Cespedes

Now that we look at it, there are a few other teams who have 125-150-150 OPS+ guys in the middle of their order ... the Blue Jays, obviously, maybe the Tigers, and this year the Red Sox are threatening.  But last night SSI found itself wondering whether the 2016 Mariners had the best offense in the league. 

Right now the Red Sox have a nice lead on the AL for hitting, but the Orioles and Mariners are 2-3 for OPS+ and the Mariners have the most runs per game on the road.  The shutout against the Angels didn't disqualify us from consideration; as you might have noticed, offenses as good as the Orioles' get locked down too.

Sparing you the details, Robinson Cano has headed his stats train towards a .300/.350/.525 finish in Safeco, for about a 150 OPS+.  Nelson Cruz is taking a higher-BB highway to Everett, with a .275/.350/.525 bearing.   Kyle Seager, at age 28, is showing increased power, angling towards .260/.330/.475 and a 130 OPS+. 

The above player-trios are not great comps for Cano, Cruz and Seager.  Interestingly, it is unusual these days to run a .350 OBP together with a .525 SLG.  Usually the pitchers walk you more.  Cano has always been an aggressive hitter, a Doberman straining at his chain to reach the mailman the first ankle that presents itself.

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SIGNATURE SHOTS

Tuesday night in Balmer, all three Road Warriors delivered signature attacks for the post-apocalyptic viewer's enjoyment:

Robinson Cano rifled a low frozen rope down the LF line into the corner for a double; he two-bounced a long double off the left-center fence, and he pulled a seeing-eye single through the right side.  He had another line drive caught by an outfielder, canceling out the lucky single.  You wonder how people can watch a guy like Cano, these days, and deny the existence of "hotness" in baseball while allowing it in every other sport.

At BJOL they're having a big debate over the term "Houdini," like when a pitcher gives up a single and double for 2B-3B 0 out but then escapes without a run.  What is the term for a game in which a player doubles twice the other way?  Would this not be an "Edgar"?  Just one more stat for the sabes to keep track of.  I'm serious.  The Edgar.

Cano is swinging the bat explosively, with "sudden" hip turn and authoritative bat snap. 

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Nelson Cruz hit a completely worthless 81 MPH wrinkle, er, curve ball, for a home run, not that there is anything wrong with punishing mistakes.  But he also hit a bullet to RF for a single - "not often you see a Home Run King do that" said Kyle Seager - and hit a very tough jam pitch into LF for another RBI single.  He walked, too, putting him on pace for 70+ walks.

Boomstick is swinging the bat rather cautiously, "steering" the bat a bit relative to his usual.

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Kyle Seager's big signature move is the long fly ball to the pull field.  Last night the long fly ball to the pull field netted the M's three runs, the three runs between #4 and #7 that told the Orioles is was over.  Oh by the way he added a walk and a hit for 6 total bases.

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WILL SMITH "THE NEW HOTNESS" Dept.

Cano, Seager and Cruz over the last few weeks:

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JeDi is getting plenty of his "collateral traffic" as well.  Second tier of hitting:  RF-SS-1B are going 122-89-63/122.  Third tier of hitting:  C-LF-CF are going 101-81-77.  Interestingly, King Leonydas has thrown a bit of a jake brake onto his downhill strikeouts slide and is now on pace for "only" 167 of them. 

Despite the Angel fiasco, the M's are 20-10 since the first homestand and their overall Pythag expectation (+175, -139 runs) is 23-15 which converts to 98 wins per season.  Not that a 10-0 win does a lot to hurt your Pythag.

If the Pete Carroll Seahawks throw a game away with a fumble in the last two minutes, it doesn't start a 7-game losing streak.  There are reasons for that.

BABVA,

Dr D