Q.  You're kidding, right.  What is the story.

A.  Laffey has an option left, and as Baker explained, if Laffey "ties" the race with anybody like Nate Robertson, Laffey goes to AAA. 

And they work on him for a year.  See if they can help him leap a plateau.

Baker emphasizes that Zduriencik volunteered this info right out of the gate, here's a guy with an option left.  We're mixing some corn starch in, thickening the gravy in the AAA talent pan a bit.  Don't get too OCD about this one.

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Q.  That implies that he has a possible plateau in him somewhere.  Does he?

A.  He doesn't, no.

Aaron Laffey is verrrrrrry similar to Luke French, in about 23 ways, which we'll detail in a sec ... at the time that Zduriencik accepted Luke French for a red-hot Jarrod Washburn, we fell out of our chairs in disbelief.  We mean it in a good way.

In case you thought Jack was kidding about Luke French, here's your double feature. 

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Q.  Sabermetrically, where's French, er, Laffey?

A.  Here are his Shandler BPV's - "Base Performance Value" being a single index number that captures K, BB, HR, hit rate, GB, etc.  ... Remember, these are mostly minor league equivalencies, and 50 being acceptable here, the trend is:

• 2007 - 86
• 2008 - 40
• 2009 - (-15)
• 2010 - (-29)

It is reallllllllll blinkin' hard to score minus BPV's.

Remember:  sabermetrics is more about 3-5 year trends than about trying to cut single-season data finer and finer.  This has been true since 1990, for those paying attention to James and homeys.

For a long time, James made a good living simply pointing out which pitchers' K's had gone from 7 to 6 to 5 to 4...

Nowadays that's gotten lost in the shuffle.  Aaron Laffey's 4-year trend comps to that of a computer virus.

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

Every time that Zduriencik makes a move like this, I remember his Year One, when he was painted as some kind of neo-sabe DePodesta type...

The Mariners' interest in Laffey is one more illustration of the fact that the Zduriencik regime, while 101% super-saber-literate, is fundamentally a tools-scouting platform.

Which can be good.  When you're deciding whether to pay James Paxton and Taijuan Walker.

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Q.  Maybe they have a mechanical fix in mind?  See any room for huge improvement?

A.  He hides the ball well as it is ... he doesn't have 92 mph in him if you gave him Bane juice ... he is not a graceful enough man to develop Moyer balance and command.

Hey, it's just a baseball chat.  But I can't see Aaron Laffey, no way no how.  Black is busted in all variations, Vladimir.

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Q.  What would it take for Laffey to fool us, and justify the year's worth of tinkering?

A.  Honestly can't imagine what his path to quality is.

His motion is CG-disassociated - it's all show and no go.  How is he going to develop Beuhrle command?  ... his fastball is 86; if he "regains arm strength" what's he at, 89-90 with no command?

SSI has no problem with a project, but this is a freeway on-ramp built into the side of a hill.  Pass-a-dee-na.

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Part 2

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