=== Sizzlers:  Adam Moore ===

Moore also was on the radio this last week.  Clearly uncomfortable with the attention, he spoke hesitantly and was breathless for most of the segments.  Crossing the on-air nerves was his latent irritation with the DJ's questions about making the roster.  Moore evidently saw himself as the frontrunner to be the starter.

Moore was also commendably annoyed at the fact that catchers like him are pegged as either defensive or offensive players -- as though a young catcher who could do both, is so rare as to be too-good-to-be-true.

Defense is first, sez Moore, and I take a lot of pride in it...

But at the plate, you want to get your pitch and do as much damage as you can.  As you know, Dr. D loves Moore's compact, muscular swing on the ball, reminding a bit of the Bench / Schmidt type swings. 

Moore's aggressiveness comes across not only in the batter's box on TV, but came across on the radio... this is a kid who has been drawing raves about his presence since he was in A ball, and SSI buys into this characterization 100%.

Moore talked about his debut game, Rizzs gushing about what a thrill it must have been, and Moore shrugged, "the lighting is better, the video boards are bigger, but I can honestly say it was just another game."

SSI likey. 

.......................

Baseball America points out that Moore was actually drafted as a slugger, a MOTO hitter, more than as a catcher -- and that as Moore jelled defensively, he made the Jeff Clement trade logical.

It hadn't occurred, as BA noted, that "Moore has no notable shortcomings."

BA has Ackley 1, Saunders 2, Adam Moore 3.  SSI concurs.  You see Moore outside the top 10 on some lists, but if the M's have 10 prospects better than Adam Moore, they're going to take over baseball shortly.  :- )

They don't, and they won't, but Moore is definitely underrated going into ST.

.

=== Fizzlers:  Rob Johnson ===

As you know, SSI pegged Johnson to have a good chance at a Dan Wilson career.  He's evidently a nice guy, he will hit like Wilson did, and for a big guy Johnson is incredibly light on his feet.  Catching starts with nimbleness out of a crouch.

As San-Man pointed out, RJ had a spot last summer where his EYE spiked up to 1.0 for several weeks.  Show me a good defensive catcher with a 1.0 EYE and I'll show you a major-league starting catcher.

The problemo is that a new Dan Wilson is no ball of fire, and Johnson comes into spring pretty gimp at even being that.

.

=== Sizzlers:  Josh Bard ===

Going into camp, Moore would be my #1 catcher.  Zduriencik evidently is not averse to this, but would prefer that a rookie take over a #1 job only after beating out a Josh Bard type, over a month's heavy-duty competition.

The M's could easily have slotted Moore in there - he is 26 years old, with 1,500 minors AB's, a full year in AAA, and some time in the bigs.

But Zduriencik likes to make rookies earn their playing time before he hands it to them, and in this case, you gotta admire the wisdom.  An Adam Moore who had a great spring and won his job, would be a young player to be enthused about.

Cheers,

Jeff