PROPS TO MANLY MEN DOING MANLY THINGS.
Dan Wilson, in the booth, said he met Olivo before the game and gave him a hug ... Wilson, in the booth, had been taken aback by Olivo's physical power.
My own (Jeff's) first stepdad was a guy with a 50 coat and 34 pants, a bouncer who could pick up engines out of trucks without cherrypickers. I know all about guys who are like leather wrapped over iron...
Think about the different people that Dan Wilson has been around, in hockey and in baseball, and think about his reaction to Olivo. And think about Olivo's little half arm-swings delivering the home runs.
Think, by the way, about the fact that Olivo owes his 2005 Seattle tragedy to Wilson's fanboys. Be glad that Olivo wasn't incarcerated for terminating Danny's life functions by applying sufficient pressure to Wilson's cranium to cause its collapse.
***
Out of the 1900s-1910s, and out of the old Negro Leagues, the alumni would talk about old teammates this way. "Ole Josh, you shook hands with him and you just didn't know whether you'd ever get your hand back. I saw a guy bounce off him at home plate one time and the guy cracked the roof of his mouth..."
They might or might not talk about 3-homer games. But 50 years on, they'd talk about that great team, and what a specimen the catcher was.
In gym clothes, Miguel Olivo is a championship catcher. See next...
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PROPS TO FRANKLIN GUTIERREZ.
In the booth, Blowers pointed out about his diving catch up the middle... "Franklin always seems to give himself that little sideways angle."
I've never seen a more graceful center fielder. Around the wall, coming in on the ball, navigating oncoming infielders... the man's elegance and body control is beautiful to watch.
In Olivo, in Brendan Ryan and in Franklin Gutierrez, the M's have painted in the background scenery of a baseball dynasty. Now if they could only mark off the tourist attractions of one.
***
PROPS TO GREG HALMAN'S INNER CALM
... about which we've geeked out previously. That was an 0-2 pitch he crushed. In a 2-1 game. Late. As a sub. And he waited on it and hit it up the middle.
From the side angle, we noticed that he has an Alvin Davis 450-foot backswing, balanced against an exaggeratedly compact followthrough.
Weirdly, Halman doesn't rotate his uniform number past "flush to the pitcher." He lets go top hand, but doesn't turn his body past dead-center. This gives him wonderful finish to the pitch and creates the sickeningly-on-target eyes all the way through.
I wonder if this was his big breakthrough mechanically. To cut down the followthrough to stay on the ball.
***
Then Franklin Gutierrez stepped up next, and I was floored by how similar his swing was to Halman's :- )
Very quiet, waits on the ball, very poised, actually quite pretty to watch once you (finally) catch the parallels.
Gutierrez caught one pretty much on the button, and the left fielder came in to get it at about 320 feet. Some guys just have the forearms and wrists. I'll bet you Greg Halman's waist is 32.
***
SLOPS TO CATCHING HAREN AND WEAVER TO LEAD OFF THE SERIES.
In a 162-game season, that will happen. Against the M's enemies, it will happen a lot.
I bet you that the M's didn't want Ackley's first week to start against Haren and Weaver, followed by the Phillies. Yeah, the Phillies are tough, but we miss Lee and Halladay. Against the guys he faces, Ackley can fight. I like the decision to skip Haren and Weaver.
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PROPS TO JACK WILSON
.... who ran 100 mph and sooooooooaaaaaaared nine miles in the air to just miss a clean base hit late in the game.
LRod's down for a reason. ... yeah, I know, that reason being to cobble some trade value out of Jack, and then LRod's back up. B'lee DAT.
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PROPS TO THE RAINIERS OUTFIELDERS
...who parachuted out of the C-130, hit the ground in a somersaultand came up firing full auto on the trot:
.
In particular, Mike Carp is cat-quick at the plate and has a 100% reliable strike zone.
I can't think of any political reason to keep Jack Cust around. You just say nice things and point out that we're moving forward with players who are our future. Am I missing something?
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AND PROPS TO THE RAINIERS INFIELDER
Parachuting in with the 50-cal mini-gun. Get that set up quick, soldier. We're taking fire in here.
Remember the knock on Carp? Couldn't field a lick! Huh!
I suppose if we ignore the tater robbing grab, where he looked like some kind of a polished OF, going back to the wall, finding it with his free hand, and going skyward.
They guy can play.
Guti's spring training is almost over so his average should start increasing. He had some good AB's last night from where I was sitting.
Mariners much maligned minor league system is showing that Baseball HQis more on the ball than the other rating sites. Halman, Carp, Peguero, Ackley and even Wilson have contributed or will contribute to the Mariners season on the offensive side of things.
I love the Bedard quote from last night, " I'm a loyal guy". The Seattle sports scene with the Sonics, Arod, Griffey et al all leaving for greener pastures it sure is nice to have the Hasselebacks, Paytons and Bedards saying this is a good place to play in their actions as opposed to there words.
Key to the season (outside the pitching) is how Wedge is manipulating the lineup. When Brendan Ryan was hotter than a fire cracker Wedge placed in the 9 hole to bat. I told my son that the reason he's doing that is so when he puts Figgins in the 9 hole soon Figgins won't be able to complain after seeing Ryan handle it with much aplomb. Then the day before he sits Ichiro Wegde has Smoake and Olive sit to make it the Ichiro more palatable.
With Wedge Ichiro finally has someone that he can look up to in terms of power. When Wedge spoke with Ichiro about sitting, Ichiro said he was fine with it because Wedge's spirit was stronger than his in this particular instance.
It sure is a lot of fun to have a team in the thick of things in mid June.
I was a little concerned when he appeared to square one up and have it die in the middle of left field for an easy out yesterday...but the macro-trends all appear just fine to me.
In terms of knowledge of the strike zone, his EYE over his entire career:
0.10/0.26/0.34/0.39/0.39/0.67 (probably not going to stay that high..but the macro trend is clear)
In terms of contact results, his K/PA:
20%/26%/20%/20%/22%/7% (!) - no trend here...his essential batting approach has not changed, although this year, something is different...he may be going with a purely pepper swing more often this year while he tries to get his timing back...that would be my first guess.
In terms of contact skill, his BABIP:
.336/.321/.297/.333/.297/.197 (!) - this is clearly just bad luck...or a temporary bit of bad skill caused by him feeling a bit over his head while he adjusts back to the game after so much time with stomach problems
In terms of his approach, we can look at both his pitch-stalking tendency (P/PA) and his trajectories:
P/PA - 3.77/4.14/4.22/4.10/4.20/3.91 - even if he IS using his pepper swing while he gets his timing back, he's still stalking pitches just fine and I expect this number will come back up
GB/FB - 0.78/0.80/0.770.84/0.74/0.95 (yeah...looks like the pepper swing is out right now...hitting more grounders...and they're finding gloves...which is the opposite of normal...normally, grounders are harder to turn into outs, not easier.
LD% - 20/14/16/19/17/12 - so he's not hitting the ball quite as hard...which tends to happen when you use your pepper swing...but...
SwS% (how many times he swings and misses) - 14/19/14/14/17/12 (he's covering the ball better)
F/S% (strikes fouled) - 25/24/25/24/24/27 (he's fouling more off...his timing isn't right yet)
O-Sw: 26/24/24/23/29/35 (he's swinging at bad pitches more
O-Ct: 55/47/56/58/61/79 (! - he's making WAY more contact)
Z-Sw: 62/61/59/59/58/64 (swings at good pitches more too...)
Z-Ct: 87/84/86/87/84/88 (and making just as much contact...so...)
Ct% - 80/74/79/79/77/85 (making a lot more contact in general...)
Meaning his BABIP should go up...not down.
He needs to relax a bit and chase fewer bad pitches and his BABIP will take care of itself. Otherwise, he doesn't look any worse right now than he ever did.
Ackley and that Erikkk quote you note, Merks.
Will Zduriencik exploit a hometown discount? Well, he waited a whale of a long time for Bedard to get to this point. Let's hope that the two of them can work out something genuinely fair for both sides.
Those are five pretty fresh points there amigo. Ya, let's hope the M's hitters start clicking in one by one like Major League II ...
I don't notice that Guti's using a pepper swing. Maybe he's ratcheted it down a *skosh.*
EYE is primarily a pitch recog issue. Your macro trends, IMHO, provide all kinds of reason for optimism on Guti.
Supposing that Guti's strength is zapped a bit ... he used to flash 420-foot power. Even if he's lacking a little juice, there are plenty of good hitters with 7 homers.
:cpoints:
I used to love to get things on your front page, Doc...your viewpoint carries more weight with me than the other bloggers, mostly because your viewpoint includes a lot of what the other bloggers say...and with respect. But I am only a guest here..I lost my membership card for well-justified reasons...which means I can't post on the front page. LOL
And I do better just reading and responding with infotainment rather than leading discussions.
Well, if you want something pasted into the middle column, just lemme know amigo...
We definitely have been hitting a nice stride here ... using the SABR dude like Bedard, high output, 100 pitches and ice the arm... :- )