I don't usually watch much of the M's pregame shows, but I caught a bit of one recently and Wak commented on this subject. He revealed his reasoning when he said that the guys who had played all season had earned the right to September playing time. Sounds like single-season entitlement has replaced career entitlement. Hopefully Jack Z has other ideas and influences Wak's decisions on this subject. When you're out of the race but you've engineered a wonderfully respectable and surprising season, you need to balance two goals. (1) Avoid frittering away all the positive vibes with a disastrous W-L record. You've got to finish .500 or above. (2) Take advantage of the opportunity to get a good look at heretofore bench players or minor leaguers that could play a key role in the upcoming season.
Here's hoping the team of Z and W do this successfully.
=== Walk the Light ===
Jason and his fiancee' are doing a walk for leukemia and lymphoma. Very cool. Why not head over and clink the jar? You even get his very worthwhile premium info as a bonus.
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=== Seahawks ===
Two books are needed to understand the NFL locker room: Out of Their League by Dave Meggyesy and North Dallas Forty by Peter Gent. (The movie was nothing like the book.) Long story short: a losing NFL locker room is a lot like Cellblock D: dark, dangerous, and not the most harmonious spot in town.
Chemistry is important in baseball, but it's much less important than in basketball or football. In football, your teammate needs to be pretty much where you expect him to be, at the right split-second, and in basketball, your teammate needs to be exactly where you expect him to be, at exactly the precise split second.
Defensively, you must anticipate your teammate. That cannot be done if you hate him.
.................
Chemistry, it says here is roughly this much of the game in each pro sport:
Basketball -- 60%
Football -- 40%
Baseball -- 20%
The 2008 Seahawks were playing under a lame-duck coach, and that incoherency was the difference. You could see it in their terrible turnover differential, for instance.
Already in preseason, the Seahawks *look* like they're playing up to their talent again. They've got the quarterback with the West Coast Offense in his head, they've got a legit feature wideout for him, and they've got talent around the both of them. Don't be shocked at a radical turnaround.
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=== PBNW on the Draft ===
Jon Shields has a comprehensive article on baseball's amateur draft. It's one of his best, which is saying a lot.
Selig is of course angered at teams who exceeded slot, which I believe would include his former-staunch-supporter M's.
Jon notes that for many players, such as Rich Porcello, going directly to baseball out of HS is a great thing -- whereas stiffing the amateurs would trend them into colleges that tend to exploit the HS players.
He also notes that an international draft could blunt the only real sword that a lot of poor MLB franchises have left.
Good read.
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=== September Callups ===
Sodo Mojo has a one-stop shop for all your September-expansion needs. Gracias amigo. :- )
Wakamatsu has indicated that he'll take fewer, rather than more, guys from Tacoma in September. Doesn't want a lot of guys just hanging out.
I'm not complaining, but that's odd, coming from a guy who himself spent so much time trying to get into an ML clubhouse. Maybe Wok will be one of those few managers who doesn't take out his playing frustrations on his desk.
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=== Matt Tuiasosopo ===
Tui's rampage continues.
His last 10 games, he's .351 and now he's running a 1.00 EYE on top of everything else. He homered Saturday and homered Sunday.
The second half, he's come back and hit 310/410/570 ... and very importantly, on the year he's hitting RHP's (.524 SLG) better than LH. We harp incessantly on the fact that Tui will lean out over the plate and pound a slider off the RF wall.
He's a natural 6'2", 225 lbs. He's got the family-bequeathed, hard-wired self-image that he belongs in pro sports. He is a former SS and a 30-homer third base prospect the way you engineer him in SkyNet's factory.
This is your third baseman for the next six years. Is Adrian too entitled for Tui to get some acclimation time in September, or ...
Do we get to bogue on Tui, Morrow, Carp and Mike Wilson for the last month?
It'd be a nice cappuccino finish,
Dr D
Comments
I just don't see it with Tui. I would love to hand him 3B for September, but I see a Hall/Hannahan platoon at 3B next year, and I see Beltre getting consistent play down the stretch this year. The recent comments at the USSM event about not being sold Tui can handle 3B is not good news. If he's pushed to the outfield, he pretty much is useless to Seattle given the emergence of Saunders, Ichiro showing no sign of decline, and Mr. Ackley now being in the fold.
I just have a hard time envisioning Tui's role in Seattle for 2010 and beyond if they don't believe he can handle 3B defensively.
But I'm with you Doc on the guys potential. I love the makeup. I just wonder how limited defensively he is. I would think a super athlete like Matt would be improving quickley each and every day in that department, but without being in Tacoma, I have no idea what the deal with that is.
It's like, you back me up in changing this clubhouse, I owe you later. I can appreciate that.
And if Tui is going to walk into a bunch of guff like Lopez did on Boone, you might as well keep him clear of it for 30 more days. But like you say, then you don't get to see him play in 09 for ST.
that, being at the event, he didn't think Capt Jack was nearly as dubious about Tui as he was later reported to be...
Jack spoke very, very generally about him and didn't mention his defense. It was simply a matter of Z's team not having a chance to see him much this year due to all the time he's missed. Considering that Tui hasn't played a single game in the outfield, I wouldn't be too worried about the org souring on him just yet.