=== Play Five ===
In the 9th, Miguel Olivo throws out Coco Crisp trying to steal 2B with the winning run. Olivo's 90 mph laser beam preserved extra innings, and it was literally one foot off the ground and one foot to the 1B side of the bag.
Imagine Doug Fister standing 105* feet away on second base, throwing a 90 mph fastball to home plate, hitting the outside corner perfectly -- with no windup, and after having just caught a throw a split-second earlier. That's what catchers like Miguel Olivo do.
Johnny Bench's pitchers used to envy his arm, and it was not hyperbole. As an M's fan, savor the fact that your ballclub has one of the game's great arms behind home plate.
***
It's interesting, by the way, that Olivo's CS% is fair to poor in 2011, though it is superb for his career. Maybe it's that he is catching a bunch of pitchers who rely on offspeed stuff. Admire Olivo for sacrificing his CS stats.
***
The game in 10 plays: Felix got excellent defensive support all night.
.
=== Play Six ===
In the 2nd, Dustin Ackley rifles an 0-1 curve ball down the LEFT field line.
Normally a Trevor Cahill curve is going to be pulled foul for strike two. Ackley waited forever on the curve before crushing it down the LF line for a long single. This was a gorgeous exhibit of Ackley's ability to take a lonnnng look at a pitch, in flight, before he decides what to do with it.
Other hitters decide, during dead time, what they're going to do with pitch A or B. Ackley decides as the ball is in flight.
.
=== Play Seven ===
In the 7th, Dustin Ackley homers on a first-pitch changeup from Trevor Cahill, giving Felix an insurance run. The ball went over the fence in straightaway center field. Cahill's 79-mph pitch supplied none of the power; Dustin Ackley's insane bat wrap supplied all of the power.
After 15 games, Ackley now has an EYE ratio over 1.00, he is hitting .300/.368/.588, and most of his batted balls have been line drives or have been up into the air, hard fly balls. Verrrrrry dangerous batted balls.
Ackley was on the postgame. He said grimly, as though he were hitting .185, "It's been tough, not having any idea what anybody's going to throw."
:- O
Bear in mind: Ackley's homer was the only run the Mariners got in regulation, except for Ackley's single, SB and tagup. It's not like Ackley did it against an SP having an off night.
.
.
Ackley was on the postgame. He said grimly, as though he were hitting .185, "It's been tough, not having any idea what anybody's going to throw."
Wow. What is this guy going to be like once he's seen the pitchers a time or two?
...on Ackley's HR.
"That's going...long hit to center...against the walllll...and it's...out? A home run?" And you could see them take a long look at Ackley as he rounds the bases.
"Well, the Mariners love this kid" was their response, but still shaking their heads and talking about how the ball is NOT supposed to leave this park to CF that way. Think of it as hitting an opposite field home run in Safeco as a lefty in April. It's a feat.
So they went back to the tape, expecting to see him get all of it. "He's out in front there, on his lead leg" says the Oakland duo. "Managed to keep his hands back anyway." Another stunned pause. Camera pans to Ackley in the dugout.
"He's not a large man..."
And then they were out of reasons he could have hit that home run. It wasn't cheap, or lucky, he wasn't in perfect position, he's not big enough to "muscle" it over a fence...
For much of the game they were talking about how the first time they saw Felix they knew they were in for many years of dealing with him and losing to him.
Ackley just made that announcement to Oak-town that they're gonna be hating him for at least 6 years.
Loved it.
~G
Ackley is such a talent. When you watch him hit, you wonder how he ever struggles at the plate.
My one concern about Ackley in college was power. His sophomore year was power-limited due to the blown UCL and the Tommy John surgery. His junior year cleared up my last lingering doubt about him and I was thrilled to get him, but I think that Sophomore year helped in a different way: opposite field hitting.
Ackley has tremendous bat-speed, and as Doc says he waits til a ball is halfway to the plate before deciding whether to pull the trigger. I've seen plenty of guys with great bat-speed who are mostly pull-oriented.
And I've seen plenty of outer-half hitters who are better oppo hitters than pull (think Joe Mauer).
But I can't think of very many hitters who have great batspeed, hammer singles and doubles ripped into LF (not dumped, ripped) and then pull HRs and triples into the RF corner.
Mauer pounds the ball the other way and dinks it as a pull hitter, which is an oddity but has to do with his approach at the plate.
A lot of batspeed hitters are pure pull guys (Like Mr. Batspeed Gary Sheffield, King of the Pull Hitters).
Ackley is abusing the middle of the field currently, has pull power, and doesn't mind taking high outside heat hard the other way.
Oh, and he's gonna walk a ton as soon as he establishes the strike zone and his knowledge of it with the umpires.
How are you gonna get this guy out? I look forward to opposing pitchers crying in their milk about that for the next decade.
~G
Here's the video with the Seattle announcers: http://seattle.mariners.mlb.com/video/play.jsp?content_id=16651871&c_id=sea
I love how un-threatening Ackley looks in the batters box. Standing almost completely erect, Buhner-style... although you could see Bone all tensed up. Ackley just looks so ridiculously relaxed and loose.
I watched the HR replay a bunch of times too, trying to figure out where the power on that swing came from.
IIRC, Barry Bonds said he wasn't trying to hit HR's, he was just playing catch with the pitcher, except he was 'catching' the ball with the bat. Seems like the sort of approach/mindset that Ackley has.
Big fun G-Money... thx man...
That's a great visual there too GL. Totally apropos.
... Kevin Mitchell once said, "if the catcher can catch it, I can hit it"... problemo is, if the catcher and pitcher get crossed up, he can't catch it :- )
the ability to wait ... the bat hinge and wrists ... the ability to tell a ball from a strike... the lightning-bolt power from line to line...
It is genuinely rare, and right now the main guy you can think of with the same attributes is Edgar Martinez.
You remember Cito Gaston's quote, "You make a mistake to that guy and there is no telling where the ball will wind up."
There's the possibility of Ackley being 100% the hitter that Edgar was, but LH, and playing middle infield. Ackley, in his first few weeks, looks like Edgar at his best.
In the PGA this would be first principles. In baseball it's still opaque; on TV the Mariners' announcers still haven't mentioned it. I wonder why.
It would be like not mentioning Russ Branyan's loft on his home runs, or not mentioning Ivan Rodriguez' throwing arm.
I don't get why nobody talks about Dustin Ackley pointing the head of his bat at the pitcher as the ball arrives.
I seriously can't believe anyone thought Ackley would have hurt this team. Or even Kennedy at third. Talk about dogma.