In this article, we mentioned the subject of good wrists in the context of hitting mechanics ...

If there were two places you'd want to start, in judging a hitter's ability to adapt to new pitchers, they would be (1) EYE ratio and (2) wrists.  That is the front end and back end of reaction at the plate.

Let's put on the Elton John glam eyeshades and check a couple of M's through this lens:

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=== Jack Wilson ===

It's fine to hinge your wrists at the plate, but the question is whether you give away power doing it. 

You've heard scouts say about a little infielder coming up, "you can knock the bat out of his hands."  That's because the hitter is hinging his wrists, but has weak forearms and fingers, so the bat clonks into a heavy sinker and sort of rebounds back.

Middle infielders learn to keep the golfer's triangle, to hit with their shoulders, using locked wrists.  This shoots their reaction time all to shreds, of course, but ... guys like Jack Wilson compensate by arm-slapping the ball over to right field.

He's a guy that Zduriencik praises for being a "pesky" hitter.  Wilson gets as creative at the plate as he does in the field.  He can't go mano-a-mano with the Big Dogs, so he plays a little hit-and-run, maybe bunts his way on, maybe looks for a pitch in a particular AB and tries to surprise the pitcher with a gapper.

It's an illustration of the problems that MI's face when they lack upper-body power.  If you're not strong from the elbows down, well...

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=== Jose Lopez ===

If you've been paying attention the last three years, you've seen closers whistle 98 mph fastballs inside to Jose .... and you've seen Jose SNNNAAAPPPP those wrists and smoke the high-90's pitch foul down the left field line.

Jose Lopez and Adrian Beltre are at polar ends of the quick-wrists spectrum.  Amazing to me that they're also at opposite ends of the cyber-popularity spectrum.  :- )

Jose Lopez is a supremely talented hitter.   Granted, he doesn't walk.  Neither did Ivan Rodriguez or a hundred other hitters.  But one of these days he's liable to do something pretty special.

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The thought has been floated that nobody, none of the other 29 teams, want anything to do with Jose Lopez.  This can't be true.

Leaving aside whether you'd like more BB, or whatever -- Lopez is a solid ML second baseman, making $5m per year, two more years.  By any standards he's taking 50 cents on the dollar.

It makes as much logical sense, that Lopez be untradeable, as it would that Felix Hernandez be untradeable.   You know what I mean.  Can you name any other average-solid ML veteran, making $5m multiple years, that nobody will take in trade?

Name o-n-e.

Jose Lopez is very tradeable.  What, teams no longer play defenders who are middle-of-the-pack in the majors?  Isn't that an oxymoron of some type?   Wouldn't it be impossible for nobody to be playing middle-of-the-pack defenders?  :- )

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If the M's have signalled that they're not getting the offers they want on Lopez, I suppose that means the market is soft -- that right now, teams want Lopez at a discount off his real (and considerable) value.

Zduriencik would rather retire than get pushed around by another GM.  I interpret this as, the M's can't get full value for Lopez.  So are cooling their heels for the time being.

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Safeco might not be the right place for Jose.  I dunno.  But let's not kid ourselves about his talent.  You oughta be able to see this guy's talent in one weekend series.

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=== Greg Halman ===

G-Moneyball brought up the point that Halman has huge, powerful hands.

This is the "holding a magic wand" effect, where the guy's just up there flicking the bat like a cat's tail before the pitch. 

Dave Winfield, Jim Rice hands get scouts all excited.  The wrists are the reason.  You have that, the rest can often be taught.