At the Bakery they want a nickname for Kanekoa Texieira. They need one, too, 'cause I'm well-and-truly tired of typing his name. :- )
Did you youngsters know that the QWERTY keyboard was designed, supposedly, to slow down typing so that levers wouldn't tangle? Kanekoa Texeira takes this principle to a grotesque extreme. Kanekoa Texeira is to typing speed what Adam Dunn is to outfield DER.
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How many of you kiddies ever watched Dragonball?
Kao-Ken* is the signature attack of the star, "fist of the worlds," a weird attack (like Teixeira's) that allows its user (Goku) to power up far beyond what the scouting-scanners read his power as actually being before the fight. Goku's enemy at, say, 18,000 hit points reads his power at only 8,000, but then Goku cries Kaio-Kennnnnn! and boom, he's at 24,000 and throws the beatdown.
Much like those pesky Angel rodents will be rejoicing that they got to Texeira in the 6th inning.
So you've got:
take comfort in the following:
Don Wakamatsu is advertising Lopez as a capable third baseman. Wak has been down there watching it 12 hours a day. You give Wok credit for knowing more baseball than we do, even if time invested were equal. Why not count it as an important piece of data, that Wok judges Lopez capable?
(Same goes for Tui.)
Second basemen, in general, can play 3B if they have the arm. This isn't a LF moving to CF and hoping it will work out. This is a CF moving to LF. Keep that in mind.
Lopez has always moved around the diamond. He has played significant SS in the majors. He was born-and-bred changing positions: Third, Second, Short, and First.
It's not at all like you were suddenly asking Junior to play 1B.
Lopez doesn't want to move back to 2B, even for a day. That was the thing that really caught my eye: Zduriencik's idea to revisit was resisted by the players themselves.
Buy-in is 90% of the battle...
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In any sport -- soccer, basketball, football, whatever -- you want your best players CENTRALIZED. You want your thoroughbreds in the middle of the field.
You're moving the premium defender into the epicenter of the baseball diamond. In principle, that's the Tao thing to do. Karma will reward you for it.
Heh,
Dr D
Dragonball is a LITTLE obscure? Just a LITTLE?
Rollerball with Jimmy Caan (Circa 1975) would be less obscure than Dragonball! :)
Rollerskating with Raquel Welch (Kansas City Bomber...Circa '72) would be less obscure! :) :)
But you're right...Tex just flat out gets folks out. Case closed.
BTW...Do you remember Maud Adams? She was flat out HOT in '75...Case closed!
Keith
I've got kids who have gone berserk for Dragonball for 10 years, and all their friends are up on it, so maybe it's a generational thing :- )
The Raquel Welch thing, I'll give you that one :- )
Doc, why am I not suprised that you're getting into Dragonball past the age of 40? :-)
Dragonball was the first manga I ever got into during grade school, and I'll still pick it up and read it from start to finish every few years.
Kaio-ken (closer to "fist of the king of worlds") works for me. :-)
I'm getting to the point with the position switch where I'd just like to see how it pans out. If its a disaster, I'm sure they'll switch back.
The fact that Lopez prefers 3B is news for me and its a good thing since we wouldn't want him in the wrong mindset.
I think its a bit questionable, but as long as it doesn't hurt these guys at the plate its worth seeing where this goes.
OK...OK...Now the Dragonball thing makes great sense! As for me (with two daughters)...What do you want to know about SpongeBob & Hannah Montana?
Well Montana native Kam Mickolio is now with the Orioles. And SpongeBob, he went on to manage the D'Backs for a while. Not sure where he is now. Sadly our attempts at an all-cartoon roster have fallen short.
It's pretty clear that virtually all the M's - players, GM, coaches - looooves them some Figgins at 2B. Z on the radio this morning was gushing about his play there, describing one play in particular that wow'ed him. He stopped short of calling him gold glove caliber, though...
I think this is just a real focus to leverage the best defenders and put them up the middle.
And apparently they all see Lopez as adequate. I'm guessing that in their minds, they've (defensively) taken a step back at 3rd, while taking a couple big steps forward at 2nd and 1st. So it's a net gain.
Also, I would hazard a guess that the consensus in favor of the move is due in no small part to a gentle but insistent campaign on the part of the coaches & management. I bet they've made it clear to everyone that they want it to work and having everyone behind it will make it that much smoother and more successful. At least that's the vibe I get from such a coherent public face on the situation.
on the run today, but great stuff amigos...
Taro, you'd go with Kao-Kan which is closer to KaneKoa, or Kaio-Ken which is undiluted Japanese (translation)?
Kanekoa Texeria with the Kao-Kan attack on ARod for the three-pitch K ... no doubts that Kao Kan ... yeah, Niehaus is sure to exploit the possibilities on a nightly basis.
"I like the way [Kotchman] swings the bat, especially with those two guys in front of him and maybe backing Milton up a little bit," Wakamatsu said.
Does Ichiro's and Figgin's speed on the bases somewhat negate the need for a power-hitter in the 3-hole? Seems that, by stacking another avg/obp guy at the top, the M's take greater advantage of Ichiro and Figgins' speed on the paths and Bradley/Griffey's xbh.
I wonder what the RBI delta in orders is between Bradley and Kotchman in the 3-hole if you include these factors...
What about Jack Hannah-Montana-han
Kao-kan works. :-)
Ugh..
"It could be,'' he said. "I'm looking at it. It gives us a guy, with Ichi and Figgy at top of the lineup, who is not a double-play guy in general, a guy who can move those runners along. And for me, it backs up Milton to the 4-hole and gives us a little more depth that way."
I'm sorry, but that is amateurish. Somebody needs to inform Wak that Kotchman grounds into a ton of double plays and isn't a good baserunner either (another thing I've heard mentioned recently).
Its also important to note that Kotchman isn't a good OBP guy. Hes league-average or slightly less accounting for the baserunners he erases. Unless of course he breaks out this season (unlikely, but you never know).
That's a rather spectacular mistake on his part...the guy hits a blizzard of grounders and runs about as fast as Edgar and somehow, Wak thinks he's not a DP candidate.
I think we're trying others in the 3 hole because Bradley is not comfortable hitting third, but Kotchman is most assuredly not the answer. My vote would go to Franklin Gutierrez.