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Yeah. I'll take 9 guys with 20 HRs to go with their tough ABs!
Zuuummball
Zunino blasted a long double AND hit a long home run on a swing so short it made Richie Sexson look slow. After he hit it, Blowers praised him highly for his ability to abuse Safeco's upper deck in batting practice -- if you live out of town, lemme tell ya, Safeco's LF bleachers are a mile away and real high.
A picture's worth 1,000 words. Zunino took a real short swing, got on top of an 0-2 fastball and showed you that he's talking 30 homers some day.
..........
His OPS+ has been in the 70 range, roughly what Miguel Olivo would give us. We remarked, in the first week, that Zunino looked surprisingly comfortable and competitive at the plate. He hasn't looked overmatched, not at all. And the plate numbers bear that out:
| O-swing% (LO is good) | Z-swing% (HI is good) | 1st Strike % | Swing and miss % | |
| Zunino | 31 | 71 | 63 | 14 |
| AL Average | 31 | 65 | 60 | 9 |
The one thing that annoys me constantly: the odd way in which he swings through fastballs, even in hitters' counts. But hey - he's giving us Miguel Olivo already, and the guy had fewer than 500 minors at-bats!
Blowers remarked, his first few weeks he seemed passive, and now he looks like he's starting to go after pitches. Tonight he sure did.
.............
It says here that Zunino looks remarkably comfortable at the plate, albeit with a lot to learn. It's not just our opinion. Wedge has had him in there 8 days a week almost from day one.
(You remember the screaming match, that we assume, between Wedge and Kelly Shoppach the night that Zunino came up. Shoppach went two weeks before anybody gave him a AAA job, so we'll gingerly guess that it wasn't pretty that night.
And you contrast that with the fact that Brendan Ryan is sunk without a bubble, but apparently not even burbling his protests up to the sunlight through a straw .... what is Ryan's trade value this week? Are any good NL teams hemorrhaging defensive runs at SS?)
.............
Mike Morse played a rehab game for Tacoma on Monday night and went yard, first AB out of the gate.
If you re-racked the season right now, which Mariner starter wouldn't have a shot at 20 home runs? Ackley wouldn't ... he's our 4th OF, though, right, if you start today and Morse is healthy. Zunino, you wouldn't expect it, but you get what we mean. The M's have hit homers in what, 25 of their last 26 games?
Get you a well-pitched game and those homers are liable to win it for you.
Cheers,
Dr D
Comments
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When we got down 1-0 and got eaten by the luck monster in the first few innings, I was thinking, "yeah...but we're battling Ubaldo HARD...eventually, he'll make a mistake and give up a homer or two." Then about the fourth inning I realize "wait a second...I'm expecting GOOD things to happen offensively? I'm sticking around to watch a games where we're behind? Ain't THAT a novelty!"
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"wait a second...I'm expecting GOOD things to happen offensively? I'm sticking around to watch a game where we're behind? Ain't THAT a novelty!"
That's absolutely starting to take root as I watch the Mariners the last few weeks. I keep reminding myself that if history is any guide, the wheels will come off and we'll be reminded that this kind of expectation is fool's gold, but doggone if my expectations while watching games aren't shifting.
Note to self: Franklin is starting to go through the trials and challenges of the league adapting to him. The big, BIG key to what's going on is that the kids have to continue to play like they're playing.
Another note to self: Ibanez is cooling off after an extended bout of Babe Ruth-itis.
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Todd Dybas of the Tacoma News Tribune in his write up of the game wrote:
(Zunino's) hits came off Cleveland starter Ubaldo Jimenez and his lurching delivery.
“You have to find that window where the release point is coming through and not get caught up in everything else,” Zunino said.
What does Zunino mean here? Did he know what the pitcher was throwing?
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Ubaldo stops and starts several times in his delivery. It looks ugly, it is ugly, but it can throw off batters expecting something resembling a normal motion. Zunino's just saying he doesn't worry that Ubaldo pauses with his wrist cocked part-way through his delivery, eats a sandwich, continues til he puts a foot down, throws away the sammich wrapper, then blisters a 95 MPH fastball up to the plate.
Zunino was just looking for the ball coming out of the hand, and the ignored the Bugs Bunny spasticness of the rest of it.
~G
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Had a recent debate over whether the Mariners recent offensive improvements were just a hot streak or something longer term. I made the argument that, although one might expect Ibanez, Franklin and Miller to cool off some in the short term (since they'd been hot before), one would also have to expect improvement from Ackley, Zunino and Smoak and to a lesser extent Seager (on a bit of a low stretch after the hit streak ended). I think I shall not worry so much about slumps and streaks as I did when the Mariners weren't well constructed offensively. With a line-up full of guys who CAN hit (instead of 5 guys who can and 4 guys who cannot)...you don't need all your hot guys to stay hot to score.
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It's longer term improvement AND a hot streak.
The TEAM has hit: .271/.349/.480 (.829) over the last 28 days. The best team offense this year is Boston, (hitters park), with a .787.
Yes, Seattle's hitting is MUCH improved from earlier in the year, (which coincides with Morse going on the DL as much as Miller's arrival - but I digress).
No, Seattle cannot possibly "maintain" an .829 team OPS. Not going to happen.
But, neither is the current .714 aggregate team OPS for the season painting the proper picture.
While the recent offensive explosion has exceeded MY expectations, it was pretty easy to look at the club and predict (as I did in April) that the offense would be league average AND it would improve as the year progressed.
The stellar Harang outing from last night notwithstanding, the club still has major pitching concerns. Even as the OPS+ continues upward, (104 today), the pitching ERA+ is still dropping (89). Erasmo *should* help. But the entire bullpen has control issues. Even the successful pen arms are walking 4 a game.
The offense won't keep THIS pace up, but .750 - .770 ... yeah, that's sustainable with this talent. The bigger problem is on the pitching / defense side. It's great the club has managed double digit run totals 3 times this month. Problem is, that is the same number of times the opponent has manage double digit runs this month, (which is about how many times the opposition has scored double digits EVERY month).
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I think we're going to be closer to the high side than the low side of your comparison, if only because we replaced all the bad bats with young and talented ones with upside and because Morse is about to be back and healthy to help us with our problems against lefties. And I would certainly agree that our pitching is problematical to say the least. THough We just suffered a rare Iwakuma slump (that seems to be ending) and we're about to get Taijuan Walker up here along with E-Ram...so the pitching should improve some in the last two months. We'll see.
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... that the hitch in the delivery makes the timing MUCH harder. I could see that.
Classic case, Hideo Nomo ... am I remembering wrong or did he have two awesome years and then the league adjusted by quite a bit? ... Iwakuma's best years may be last year and this year, but doesn't mean he wouldn't still be solid...
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Last night was the first game I remember in .... ??? ....
We're down 1-0, enemy pitcher with nasty stuff, and I'm thinking, we'll get something going for sure. Figured at least one, two homers.
I guess 20-25 games of **EVERY-NIGHT** performance will condition you.