The five dreadnaught units process their latest download, "sell your turrets when you get to the Rockies - the U.S. West is unwinnable" -- and turn their fire on the Mothership

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=== Sorry, Son, Had to Put 'Im Down ===

Not often that my reaction to a sports game is empathy for my victim's suffering.  Nobody forced him to be there.

But at times like Sunday's, to avoid getting caught up in the enemy's anguish, to maintain the ol' killer instinct, we have to remember a piece of advice from Jack Nicklaus:  "When your opponent quits, pile on the gap as much as you can.  Sympathize after the game."

..........

Dr. D did not see the usual fist-pumping and screaming from Felix.  He fancied that Felix was in a silent rage that transcended yelling.

I don't buy into Valle's idea that the Juggernaut Onboard Crew is feeding off each other, challenging each other, and comparing new sets of Pings on days off like Mad Dog and Glavine and Smoltz.

But I do buy into the idea that Felix kinda resents the ooh'ing and aah'ing over Michael Pineda, in a sorta good way.  The fangraphs interview that Anonymous points out, contains a drop of sour grapes, "Well, I used to throw 98 too, but you do that and you can't go eight innings..."

So we fancy that Felix has been going out there wanting some 10-K detonation games of his own.  Hey, man, who you fear, him o' me?

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=== Three Strikes Yer Out at the Ol' Ball Game ===

Felix didn't fan 13 by accident.  (Part was the Padres, no question.  Felix would fan many more hitters in the NL.)

Felix fanned 13 hitters because he threw 50.00% offspeed pitches, a huge number, and because he threw 95 MPH challenge fastballs **UP** after those offspeed pitches had gotten into the Pads' heads.

The Brooks chart - read it and weep:

• 57 fastballs, average 94 mph (high for Felix), (3 swinging strikes)
• 57 offspeed -- 14 change curves, 22 changeups, 14 sliders (9 swinging strikes)

Felix gets his K's off his Tri-Headed Breaking Pitch Hydra, and Sunday he decided to throw it.  The Hydra, that is.

SSI has whined for two years that Felix could be Pedro Martinez if he wanted to be.  Sunday, you saw the Pedro sim.  What did you think?

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Felix now has what, 77 K's in 77.2 innings, and threatens to join the likes of Michael Pineda in a K > IP orbit over Daryl Dawkins' Planet Lovetron.

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=== Miguel Olivo ===

One way of evaluating the Olivo acquisition was to count his projected WAR, count Adam Moore's, and subtract the numbers.

A better way was Zduriencik's:  factor in the little baseball reality that --- > no contending baseball team has a rat's nest behind home plate.

Before the season, the mainframe fed you out the report that [the difference between Olivo and Moore] was [the difference between --- > having the possibility of being a good team, and not having that possibility].  

You think Zduriencik saw it one inch differently?  You can't (completely) capture baseball with math.  Real life isn't simple.

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You think these pitchers are going into the 8th inning a hundred times in a row with Adam Moore behind the plate in 2011?

Sabertistas say, "No evidence exists that any catcher is better than any other catcher in helping pitchers do their jobs well."  Actually, anybody watching the Mariners' amazing rotation in 2011 has evidence in front of them nightly.  

It's just that people judge that to be weak evidence, so they call it no evidence.  We cheerily presume that Counselor Mojician will take our backs on this little distinction.

Yeah, I know there are arguments back and forth.  Sure there are.  Maybe Gimenez' two games happen to have a lower CERA; I dunno.

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Olivo's pitch selection:

• 11th - % of fastballs thrown, Mariners' staff, in American League
• 5th - average velocity of fastballs thrown, Mariners' staff, in American League

Bill James used to say admiringly of Weaver's Orioles, "they've got a staff full of guys who have 95 mph fastballs, and absolutely refuse to throw them to you."

A take-charge, call-breaking-balls catcher is frequently a sizeable part of a run prevention unit.  Olivo's hard-to-measure contribution isn't being measured on fangraphs, yet, but you're enjoying the benefits on a game-in, game-out basis.

Miguel Olivo calls for floating curveballs, snips them out of the air, and fires thunderbolts down to Brendan Ryan to eliminate cowardly rodent base stealers.  Don't leave Miguel Olivo out of this "9 lockdowns in 9 games" talk.

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=== Be Afraid, Be Very Afraid ===

As the Mariners rotation went through one calendar week allowing a total of four runs ... Dr. D's two (heavily bat-first) roto teams featured these starting pitchers in the same week:

• 20-Team Mixed:  Felix, Pineda, Bedard, Ricky Nolasco, Ivan Nova
• 12-Team AL:  Bedard, Fister, Liriano, Nick Blackburn, Phil Coke

If you haven't ever fielded a team that swept hitting in the draft, and then scrounged a rotation consisting of Pineda, Bedard, and the like, well, you're just missing the finer things in life.

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Curse Matt for grabbing Michael Pineda two picks before me in the AL league.  I should'na gotten greedy and taken Pineda's slide for granted.  Would have both championships locked up in May :- )

Only guy in the world I can't beat at roto is that Taro guy.  He's 6-and-oh again in SSI 12-team.

...........

This week, in the 20-team mixed, a guy kept making me offers on Felix that I kept politely turning down.  He kept bidding.  Anybody ever seen him and Tom Hicks in the same room?

Finally the offer, in a hitter-friendly format, was Albert Pujols, Chris Carpenter, and Jordan Walden for Felix and S. Drew.  

Really hated to break up the cyber-M's, but Justin's in that league.  Now that we've converted Dunn into Felix into Pujols/Carpenter/Walden, his loss is guaranteed.

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Life is sweet,

Dr D

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