Love Smoak's potential. He's flashed (last year, early) some of it already. But he's lost lost lost. I think it looks like he's unable to look for a pitch/zone, intending to punish it. He looks like he's flailing away at whatever gets chucked his way. His real job is to dent the cheap seats with 30 big fly balls this year. The best way he does that is to sit on pitches, not wail away. I'm sure Chambliss has passed along that incredible secret, but he sure isn't bringing it to the plate. Announcers said last night that his swing looks too long, but it isn't any more so than last year. He's just lost the ability to look for his pitch and lay off the junk. A golfer who stands over the ball and doesn't have a clue as to what shot he's trying to hit is done.
Has anybody done a pitch analysis to see if he's seeing different pitches since he was DL'ed last year?
But the thought of a Tacoma stint for him occured to me, too, last night. I'm not all in yet.....but I'm close.
I'm interested to see if we just won't see Figgins in the lineup for about 4 or 5 games. Will that be Wedge's move now? Jaso him, to the end of the bench.
Carpy will get the start today, I imagine. Liddi, too. Seager, of course, Ackley has set enough. Let him hit his way out of it. Not much room for Figgins any longer.
But, was there ever? Wait, let me rephrase. But there wasn't ever.
Seager at SS: We've advocated that before. Give it a go and let's see. It would be a bold move, however, for Old Time Baseball Wedge. Not sure he doesn't see SS's as having to be in the mold of Buddy Harrelson or Blade Belanger.
And I continue to love what I see in Ramirez. Easy heat, a bit of a cross-throwing action, ton's of poise.
Give him a start.
moe
There are some people in here whose swings aren't as quick as we'd like
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=== Fizzlers: Timmmm-berrrrrr ===
In Ball Four, Jim Bouton has a funny scene in which the 1969 Astros gave their team cook grief all night over his menu. "Man, Whitey, here we are fighting for a pennant and you serve us 4th-place food?" After hours of withering scorn, things settle down for a few minutes. But then one of the ballplayers walks by, looks at him with contempt, and says, "That's a horse puckey shirt you're wearing, too, Whitey."
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I'm a big fan of Justin Smoak's, and there are positive indicators. But there is a 23-car pileup on Wedge's bench. Two or three months in AAA -- wouldn't that get the M's another year of club control? And trust me, kiddies, there have been many cleanup hitters who needed several years for the light to come on. James' comp for Smoak was Carlos Pena. It's a Shandler roto maxim that you want "Post-Hype Sleepers," a John Benson maxim that you want "Age 26 With Experience."
Smoak is 23, and Zduriencik pegged this season - publicly - as a developmental year for Smoak. He was right. That's all. 2012 turns out to be a developmental year for Smoak, and at age 23 that is nothing to worry about. So why not bank an extra year?
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And that's a horse puckey commercial you've got, too, Justin.
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=== Sizzlers: Alex Liddi ===
Outside-zone swing ratio still at 19.2% - that performance would have led baseball last year.
And his inside-swing rate is at 58.6% .... average is 63%, lowest in the league 50%, so Liddi is swinging a lot in the zone. He's not just sitting there with the bat on his shoulder; he's distinguishing between balls and strikes. He's letting the balls go by, and he's attacking the strikes. He worked James blinkin' Shields for two (2) different walks on Wednesday.
His natural HIT ability - his contact ability - is not great. He swings through pitches that Ichiro wouldn't. So sue him. He's a physical freak with massive power, and he's making the pitchers throw strikes.
That makes him a sizzler, kiddies. That's several miles of progress in a very short period of time, like when you walk out of the lab for five minutes and Algernon the mouse is bar-pressing for pellets. Somebody make sure we're not in a movie here. Psyched up to see where this goes next; if the kid won't swing at a ball, well ... count me in, Lonnie.
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=== Fizzlers: Brandon League ===
Not to pile on, but this 5-game losing streak is brought to you in part by four 1-0 and 2-1 fastballs to end Felix' start.
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=== Sizzlers: Felix Hernandez ===
If Jason Vargas added a 98 MPH Justin Verlander fastball, we'd track that with interest. If Tom Wilhelmsen started throwing a Kazuhiro Sasaki splitfinger, we'd spend some time scoping that out. If Ichiro started switch-hitting or relief pitching, you could plan on a boatload of shtick from Dr. D.
If Felix Hernandez added a 92-MPH Mariano Rivera slider, er, cutter, we'd track that with interest also. Hold on to yer lug nuts, it's tiiiiiiiiime fer an overhaul.
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Comments
That makes his awful production very worrisome. I still think he can become a real good hitter, and Alex Gordon (another prime college bat) didn't click until he was 27. But it does put the organization in a tough situation because they've got other players who could use playing time and it's hard to justify two whole years of "development" time when you aren't desperately thin on talent like Kansas City.
Simply accept that there are going to be a lot of called strike 3's.
I disagree with the general consensus against Wedge's "get your pitch and do something with it" preaching. Teddy Ballgame taught the same. Wedge isn't telling his guys to swing at balls.
But Smoak is the one guy who probably should be left alone to leisurely wait for a pitch he likes.
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Nothing different in the pitch mix that Smoak is seeing. Here's a link. But he can't see low pitches and he can't get around on jam pitches. That won't show up on F/X.
Next year he is still on the top 10 of my yellow sticky note, "Age 26 with experience," or "Post-hype sleeper," or whatever you want to call it.
We fans blow off the Gordons and Penas and figure that if they're not hitting at 24-25, they never will. Actually ages 27-28 are the point at which we can really say that.
This year I'm thinking AAA time. Wonder if the M's are considering that.
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Bryan Lahair BTW is starting at 1B for the Cubs at age 29, hitting .381/.459/.794 :- )
I've also really noticed the issue with low pitches this year.
I remember henry Aaron saying once that all great hitters were mistake hitters.
Make a mistake in the wrong place and they smack you around. They look for that mistake.
It just looks like Smoak wants to mano up against the pitchers best pitch.
Olerud is a nice target for Smoak.
Yeah, I really miss Olerud. Just such a solid player.