Dr. D smiled wryly when Mike Carp moved to the head of the Cheney line and pole-vaulted senior Rainiers into Safeco Field. Well, who can blame Capt. Jack. He's bringing in his own crew and he's enthused. More power to him.
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=== What, Me Worry Dept. ===
Some guys just have It, as Silentpadna says.
We remember Alvin Davis being called up from AA baseball to the big leagues in (?) 1984. Funny thing about Alvin, he was completely, totally comfortable in his very first game as a big leaguer. We were sitting in the third deck, 1B side, watching the rook (hit #6 IIRC), and had a perfect angle for Alvin's titanic HR into the third deck in RF.
In his first week or so, Alvin had like three doubles and three homers, a bunch of walks, and it was the league that had to figure out how to play him. Not the other way around.
It was the WAY Alvin did it. From his very first game, he looked like he didn't care whether he hit or not. He was visibly calm -- and visibly in the zone.
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Mike Carp, in his first two games, showed the same -- very rare -- complete lack of self-consciousness. The Japanese call this "mu shin," the no-mind, the mindset in which you sincerely do not care who is watching and hence do not feel any pressure. You're free to concentrate, when you aren't thinking about the results.
Carp wasn't pressing, and he wasn't afraid to fail. He simply went out and hit. That is blinkin' impressive.
First AB, as you probably saw, Carp not only walked but *worked* the walk in exactly the same way he would at Cheney. Who in the world shows that kind of relaxation in their MLB DEBUT? .... can you imagine what you would feel like, inside, if debuting in the major leagues? It's as if you strolled out onto the stage at Carnegie Hall and shared a few friendly jokes with the audience before you sang "In Bloom." Never happen.
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For all of the swooning that young sabermetricians do over Jack Zduriencik, it sure seems to me that a lot of his best decisions are based on seasoned baseball judgment. Do you doubt that it is this "presence", this "It" factor, that led Capt Jack's team to single out Carp as the guy they wanted -- despite the Mariner logjam at 1B/DH?
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=== WAIT and WEIGHT, Dept. ===
Also very impressive is the studious way in which Carp reads each pitch before he decides what to do with it.
Anybody can hit a 90 fastball in the cage, if they simply swing at the same moment each repetition. That's how guys hit Brandon Morrow's fastball. And that's how most hitters, even most big league hitters, swing. You do it too much and it's "cheating," and leaves you wide open to the straight change.
Carp, however, didn't cheat on a single pitch in San Diego. He stayed coiled as he deciphered the pitch. He was able to swing very late -- and yet when he launched, he was very quick and swung EXTREMELY hard.
Let's not get carried away, because he was underneath everything. Alvin Davis with 20 bases the first seven games, he wasn't. But in one game plus one AB, Carp showed me exactly why Capt Jack is so hot on him. He's got some magic sparkle dust to him.
Cheers,
Dr D
GREAT judgement call by Z. I questioned how legit of a prospect Carp was, but man does he look like a hitter.
The Putz trade has been hilariously one-sided so far. Gut is one of our best overall position players in CF already and is improving with the bat. Then theres Carp and a legitimate BOR starter in Vargas. Theres other guys that could pan out as well.
What a haul for a declining closer.
...I can say with confidence that the Mets and their fans thought they robbed the Mariners BLIND in that Putz deal...and now they hate JJ with a passionate flame and would like to kill Minaya for doing this horribly one-sided deal...especially with Carlos Delgado hurt and no legit first base prospects in the Mets' system. :)
On MC, in the Q&A with Churchill, I asked him if Z's drafting with the Brewers gave us any clues regarding the type of player that he likes. We've seen the M's get fixated on a player archetype before - the all tools athlete, the soft tossing lefty starter, the low K/high contact hitter, the tall power pitcher, etc. Churchill's response is very insightful - and meaningful in retrospect. Remember, he answered this question in December, before the Putz trade and the recent draft.
JAC: If you asked him, he'd probably say he really doesn't have one other than that he wants hard-working, highly-skilled BASEBALL PLAYERS. I think the one thing you won't see is that affinity for the fast-twitch athlete who may develop power to go with his potentially plus defense and baserunning.
Jack leans toward baseball players - think of the scouting scale and remember that a three-tool total of 170 or better is ideal, but power and on-base skills are more valued than are the other three. Zduriencik's drafts reflect this. Round one and sometimes even two is deceiving, because the "five-tool" kids in the top 10-20 talents in each draft are much more polished than in the rest of the draft, therefore has a better chance to pan out.
But look at his tendencies in the middle first-day rounds,rounds 3-8... he drafts a good number of baseball players over athletes. You have to take some shots on the unrefined yet athletic kids, because every once in awhile an Alfonso Soriano will fall out of your back pocket. But drafting for raw tools is not Jack's forte in the least - nor should it be.
I do not believe Zduriencik has shown that he values any different type of hitter or pitcher then most successful personnel execs; power arms with the best chance to throw two or three pitches for strikes, power bats with the best chance to make contact and hold down a defensive position, and up-the-middle defenders that have the best chance to hit enough to warrant regular play. But he does dig pretty deep to make sure he's drafting character players, and I mean that in a baseball sense. He wants kids that will work hard to become big-leaguers, always try to get better, lead by example, which is why he's among the more successful executives in the draft.
If all else is equal - or even near-equal – the harder-working, baseball-smarter talent is going to be the better player many more times than not.
If I'm not mistaken, you can submit front-page articles yourself, just by hitting 'click to submit.'
In principle -- that is, as a general rule -- I don't like giving up the best player in a deal. Am guessing that Taro doesn't win his roto leagues that way, either.
But in this case, the "best player" was a mythological closer with health issues, and Capt Jack was overhauling the scaffolding, and it's working out awesome.
That last post was one of your funniest. :- D HEH!