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(That's Robinson Cano behind Rodney.  Cano slugged 5.000 during the WBC.  The Mariners also have Hisashi Iwakuama.  And Michael Saunders.  And I bet James Jones hit six homers for Brooklyn.)

("Mr. Magic Closer," a term that Dr. D has used for 20 years to deride the weird ideas that have developed around baseball's 9th inning.)

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White Knuckle, Bab-Eh.  And Lovin' It

You guys know where the scouts sit in the stands at Safeco, right?  If they're not behind the plate, they're (often) back on the concourse, directly behind home, where they can see the ump and the tiny monitor they've got.  Like Dr. D, they keep one eye on the players 150 feet away, and one eye on the CF camera.

The Mariners keep those five seats clear, in case opposing scouts want them.  In addition to the tablets and/or scorecards, they're usually wearing giant badges that say, proudly, ML SCOUT.  Hey, man.  Small enough props for a life's work.  Give it up for 'em.

.........

So Iwakuma blisters the Royals for 8 innings and then blithely informs McClendon that he's out.

Dick Williams (M's manager in the 80's):  never speaks to Iwakuma again, other than to sourly take pot shots walking by.

Lloyd McClendon:  "Having a legit #2 like that is like having your feet in a warm pair of bunny slippers."  Or something.

Give Lloyd credit.  He's done a whale of a lot of things right, too.

......

Back on point.  In the 9th, there were three scouts sitting back there in Row 32, the most I've seen.

1) Rodney walks Escobar on 4 or 5 pitches to start the 9th.  This in a 1-0 game.

2) Rodney throws a ball to Nori Aoki.  The count is 1-0.

3) Rodney throws a strike to Nori Aoki - who successfully bunts.

4) The scouts then, in their likeable, exaggeratedly grouchy way, jump on Ned Yost's backside, Big Time.  One of 'em shakes his head in exasperation, "The guy has thrown one clean strike, and he BUNTS it! [to bail Rodney out of an obvious meltdown]".

The other guy agrees.  "I'm rolling my dice there."  Exaggerated look of disgust and shaken head.

4a) Bill James couldn't resist letting us know, Those scouts in the Moneyball movie were an absolutely genius bit of casting.  I thought one of these guys actually was from Moneyball for a second, the lead guy, the one who told Billy Beane he was "listening to the wrong people."

4b) You listen to all people, by the way.  

4c) The scouts might have been right.  But I doubt it.

5) Dr. D, in street clothes, is standing approximately 24 inches behind them.  He says to his son, making very certain that the scouts can hear him, "Rodney does this.  He takes half an inning to dial in, and then he starts with the unhittable pitches.  Giving him three more pitches to Aoki just gets to Unhittable Rodney sooner.

6) One of the scouts rolls his eyes loudly.

7)  Rodney throws a 96 MPH fastball that Billy Butler, the Royals' best hitter, swings through horribly.

7a) Butler fouls off two more hellacious fastballs.  0-2 count.

7b) Rodney busts out the changeup and humiliates Butler for a K.

8) Rodney gets the third out on a painted fastball, 6-3 groundout.

9) Dr. D can absolutely guarantee you that our good friends the scouts went away disgusted at Yost's strategy, blaming the wasted out.  :: shrug :: Maybe they were right; Alex Gordon was up next.

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Dr's Prognosis

Rodney's super-glorious 2012 -- he saved 48 of 50 games! -- was a fluke.  You ain't getting that year from Rodney.  

• But then again you didn't spend $40M+ to land Rodney.  You spent only $14, over two years.
• Rodney's strike zone stats are down - not down from 2012, but even from 2013.
• But notice that Rodney, a hot-weather immigrant and an old man, was terrible in April and May of 2013 - he walked 19 guys in his first 22 innings last year.
• Then, his K/BB went to 53/17 as the sun came out in June.

A super-closer he is not; he's an excellent setup man who has been promoted to his level of dubious competence.  For $7M, two years, he was the right fit for this team.

And, yeah, he'll scare you but over the long term, just go with him.  We're actually pretty lucky that he's 10-for-11; now he's liable to go 40-and-6.

And you thought I was getting soft,

Jeff