=== Kanekoa Texeira ===
Pro Ball NW's comprehensive 40-man series has freshness for yer on Texeira. Jon found that Texeira -- a sinker/slider guy -- not only has a worm-burnin' groundball rate, but that he also, um, strikes out tons of left hand hitters.
I will cheerfully admit that I don't remember seeing this kind of platypus before. Apparently neither had the M's, who spent a Rule 5 on him and, by definition, gave Texeira a real good shot to be a Seattle Mariner in 2010.
Here is a Yankee-fan's report on the dude. Jon's site has one pitch of Texeira warming up, which contradicts Tex's reputation of being a near-sidearmer; the one pitch on the video shows Tex short-arming the ball, not sidearming it. Sidearmers don't get that many groundballs unless, in Kent Tekulve fashion, they throw it shin-high every pitch.
Tex looks to me very much like a RH analogue to George Sherrill, but Jon notes that Tex's results are not that of a ROOGY.
But people assumed Sherrill was a LOOGY, right? Half the M's org was chuckling into its sleeve about Baltimore thinking Sherrill could close.
Indeed, this video confirms that Tex is a short-armer, with all the Sherill-iffic deception that implies.
Color me intrigued. ... so far in ST, Tex has pitched in 5 games, with a 1.80 ERA but a reverse 3 BB, 1 K control ratio.
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=== Dead Cat's Bounce ===
If you haven't been getting enough basketball penetration to suit you, we can assure you there's at least one place you can. We learn that Arkansas Pine Bluff faces the daunting odds of 1,055,521.6 to 1 that it won't make the final four. I was really thinking they'd have at least a 1,055,521.3 shot at it.
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=== Compass Rosy ===
With a nice catch as to the fact that Texeira is one more plebe who just luva-luvs the M's frat house, and would rather be a Mariner than a Yankee.
Of course, if he's an M he's a big leaguer, but you can remember when you didn't hear this kinda thing.
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=== Hot Stone League ===
Gives some wallpaper as to how serious (or not) and common (or not) the Lee brushback incident has been.
I used to think that some of this baseball stuff was pretty intense, but that was before I started watching DragonBall Z, where Kakarrot and Vegeta lay waste entire planets in the collateral ... whoops, talking to the wrong people in the room here for a second. ... That was before I started watching Euro soccer, where Stoke City and Arsenal burn down stadiums in the collateral when not busting each others' legs in half.
The sheer malice you see on a daily basis, the elbows-to-eyebrows, the wild kicks if-it-kneecaps-you-so-sorry, the tears, the threats, the punishments and suspensions, it all defies belief... and that's just in the stands.
Watch a couple of dozen Premiership games, and the quotes afterward on a game-in game-out basis, and the baseball pushing matches seem like coed tennis. Which is all for the better, I guess.
Americans think their sports are hardcore, and true there are a lot of injuries in the NFL. But we're actually quite genteel compared to the rest of the world. (Hockey is Canadian.)
............
In baseball what matters is whether the batters will step in and challenge a pitcher who is willing to throw inside, and the Mariners didn't used to have that. Between Lou and 2009, the M's were wussies.
I wish there were a way to correlate "wussiness" against Pythag.
BABVA,
Jemanji
Really interested in the collective take on the Baker pieces with Bill James. The hour long Vlog is pretty amazing and the follow up blog post is interesting in it's own light. Interesting, James' take on Rob Johnson and team chemistry.
Talk about a guy that has embraced the "life-long-learner" paradigm. Pretty impressive.
Since posting that, I had a quick chat with Ryan Divish asking him if he wouldn't mind finding out how the team is like Texeira so far, and he mentioned that he talked to Blengino and Blengino focused on the lack of a platoon split. Given that Wak also dislikes specialist relievers, I think it's definitely Tex's job to lose. The walks could do him in, though.
That would make the bullpen:
CL) Aardsma
SU) League
SU) Lowe
MR) Kelley
MR) Texeira
LR) Pick one from Fister, Olsen, White, etc
You could, in theory, go with 7 relievers for the first few weeks while the starters get stretched out and then call up the 5th benchie...not sure how the Ms intend on working it.
Have got some grunt typing to do, and when we do we'll run the audio in the background... if you can't get attn from SSI for James, where can you get it :- )
Yeah Grizzly. It's amazing how often folks fail to get the difference between James and others.
Among other things, James instantly got along very well personally with the Red Sox shot-callers, in no small part because he has absolutely no problem learning as well as teaching.
Jon Shields - news you can't get anywhere else. :- )
Texeira is an exciting pitcher. Agree with Matt - right now Tex is more interesting to me for the next spot in line (after the big 4) than anybody else. That's just day trading, of course.
As LL points out, apparently Texeira throws a cutter.
Sweet.
Dragonball. lol
That was the first manga I really go into when I was a kid. :-)
And that slider is sick.
Your analysis was up miles before any others I saw. Tex is headed north with a bullet here.
I was a big fan of the Tex pick-up when it happened...love that minor league GB rate and K raate combo. I think Tex is at least as good as Sean Green was when he was on his game already, if not better...and there's nothing wrong with having a guy like that around who can rubber-arm you 75 innings of average-solid relieving.
He look like a durable arm to you Matt?
in 41 appearances. Made 6 starts as well.
(Sorry to butt in)
He's been bopping around between MR and SP just like Byung-Hyun Kim did early on in his career. He can take the abuse. If you have Tex and Kelley in your bullpen eahc capable of going 2 or 3 innings when needed, you don't need 12 pitchers the whole year.
"Hey G" always means "hey G or anybody with two cents" ...
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If Tex is a Hasegawa-type rubber-arm as well, then this is shaping up to be one whale of a Rule 5 pick by Zduriencik...
...get someone who actually fills a role for your club if thinks work out in ST...get someone you can get a lot of use out of. Don't go for high-upside prospects you can't use now.
The benches are too small for that any more.
There is a reason why 14 of 17 picks this year were pitchers, and two of the three position players were flipped after the draft. Unless you're a team like San Diego who has nothing to lose and can afford to stick with an Everth Cabrera, pitchers are the easiest way to go. Beyond being able to contribute without high level experience, it's easy to claim pitcher injuries as well.