Mister MC sez:

Did you happen to notice what type of pitch Wilson hammered that homerun on? Curveball, the great nemesis of Balentien. I am predicting a breakout year for Wilson right here and now.

It is highly doubtful that Wilson makes the travelling 25, so what that does is make for a very, VERY powerful team down in Tacoma.

Watching Mike Wilson play the man-among-boys role ... well, it kinda reminded me of some of those WBC games, like the Korea-Venezuela game.   Some big 1B from some league you've never heard of just steps up, grins, and pulverizes all that weak slop the major leaguers throw up there.... didja get the name of that truck?

You have to remind yourself that this guy repeated AA last year, at the age of 25.  And at 24 he was way over his head.  There's *some* reason that he wasn't able to handle minor-league pitching any better than he has...

Like Bill James l'arned us back in 1985, hey, the guy looks great, but if he's so talented, why's he in AA?  Why wasn't he in the major leagues by now?

Have no idea, from what we've seen, what the holdup has been on Wilson.  But like Lonnie says, if he goes to AAA and busts out, the M's patience may just get rewarded.  Wilson is a TRUE physical freak and, as mentioned earlier, there are any number of Conines, Jordans and Berroas who didn't get it rolling until 27-28.

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IceX

I always remember Cammy looking blindingly fast, but at the same time, I always thought Cameron was also the benefactor literally looking that way. He’s built like a sprinter and his movement has an element of deception with regard to physical exertion, whereas Ichiro looks like he’s straining to reach his top velocity (though even he makes it look easy).

True enough sempai ... Mike Cameron looks like 10.5 standing still... great point.  And that can definitely change our perception of what a guy's actually doing out there.  Raul Ibanez the other way:  he looks kludgy and slow, but actually runs a lot faster than people think he does.  So, yeah.

Just the same, if Mike Cameron hits that two-bounce high-hopper to 3B that led off the game, he's across the bag by the time the ball gets there, not three-four strides short of it.

Mike Cameron steals 20 bases a year now, in his mid-30's, and stole 35 a season when he was younger.  Franklin Gutierrez has stolen only 10 bases per 162 games in his career.

Mike Cameron's offensive SX is 130 -- now that he's 35 years old.  Franklin Gutierrez' is 100.

I'm telling youse guys right now, F-Gut is no track guy by any stretch.  And that makes it highly dubious that he's a great outfielder.  That's not to say that he MIGHT not be a PLUS center fielder.  But plus-plus-plus?  Um, no.

Once again, plus defense at CF and SS is worth sacrificing offense for, and F-Gut's bat looked better than we expected.  So, kewl.

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

Nobody is going to compare well to Ichiro when you're talking acceleration.  :- )  The man's power-to-weight ratio exceeds that of Wetteland's Countach.    What you're getting at, with Ichiro straining to hit fifth gear...  Carl Lewis once said that the secret to his gold medals was making sure that he did NOT try to hit fifth gear.  He realized that when he put extra muscle into it, he actually slowed down...

Something similar may go on with Ichiro.  When he's rounding second flying into third, running naturally, he's probably AT top velocity with no effort ...

Ichiro once admitted that he could be beaten in a footrace by a lot of ML players, if it were on a cinder track, but also protested that baseball speed is a different question.  Ichiro's nimbleness and agility allows him to accelerate to top speed very quickly.

Just the same, there are no 5'8" sprinters winning gold medals.  Their strides are short.  Ichiro's gig is standing-still-to-20-yards-away before you saw him move :- )

My $0.02,

Dr D