M's 12, Yank$ 2
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Rauuuuuuul, Dept.
After "HR - Ibanez 2 (6)" in the Bronx on Wednesday, he went on ESPN's Quick Pitch and praised his teammates highly. "We've got a bunch of gamers and fighters, and we're enjoying playing together," he sez.
Granted, Rauuul has always been an org guy, a leader in this respect. But his statement is also accurate. The Mariners do have gamers now. Kyle Seager is a "gamer." Obviously Rauuul is. You can name your own list, and it isn't a short one.
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The average fan, like you and me, probably has no way to comprehend what it's like going from AAA to ... well, to being on ESPN, to walking out into triple-deck stadiums, to playing in front of 12 slo-mo TV's, to going up against all of the computers and scouting reports that tear a player's strike zone limb-from-limb.
It's got to be another thing entirely, to go into the city of New York and play in Yankee Stadium.
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Going into Yankee, Eric Wedge decides to put Raul Ibanez into the lineup. Ibanez is a man who is completely at ease, playing under that level of pressure and scrutiny. And if you've ever played a team sport, you know that when the pressure is on, the way your teammates carry themselves affects your own confidence.
I don't know why we make so much effort in Seattle to minimize this factor; in other cities, they really don't. It's hard to understand why we want so much, in Seattle, for baseball players to be nothing more than Strat-O-Matic cards. But they're really not.
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I wasn't supportive of the Raul Ibanez addition. I argued what I so often do: that there is a case to be made for it, that it was not an unintelligent decision, that few such decisions are. But I'd rather see young talent than a retread.
But this is a fact we should acknowledge, in the name of objectivity: Jack Zduriencik intended to build a roster full of "gamers and fighters." Since Eric Wedge flipped over the buffet tables in Texas, that's exactly what Jack Zduriencik has.
Every GM wants gamers, you say. Well ... some of them take flak for going overboard about it, for carrying guys like Raul Ibanez. They used to say about Pat Gillick, that the best thing about him was that he had a fine feel for a 25-man roster and the way guys would interact. At the moment, that is precisely what you are seeing in Seattle.
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Another subject.
Dr. D doesn't give two flying flips about lineups. But THIS one, the one with Saunders #1, Seager #3, the two RBI men #4 and #5, and the kiddies down in the lineup, THIS one rocks. You even get a mosh position in the #2 slot, a chance to put your OBP Man Du Jour there. Bay against Pettitte, right?
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WBC-san
On TV tonight, they said that Iwakuma has, since he became a starter, THE lowest ERA in the American League among qualified starters. That's #1, as in. Then they said something much weirder: they said that he has made 25 career starts -- and has allowed 3 or fewer runs in 23 of them.
That can't be right. Can it? (Phil Hughes just had a career start in which he gave up 7 runs before leaving in the 1st inning.)
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Three starts ago, we said you had two starts left, during which Iwakuma would remain your little secret. Today in the Times, they reported the New York buzz...
At this point there is one (1) question left. It would be nice to hear from Taro, or IcebreakerX, or somebody, how much mileage he has left in his shoulder. He's feeling real good at the moment.
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Iwakuma pays attention to his center of gravity. Over the years, he has thought about where his CG is, how his weight moves under him. And he's become as balanced as Jamie Moyer.
He has made a technique, a method, out of his balance. He's not groping in the dark for a release point: he is method-izing his release point, by method-izing his "hara," his one-point. This is the single idea around which the entire sport of aikido revolves.
In Japan they consider it important, in sports, to know where your weight is. In America that's still considered slightly zany, slightly New Age or something. Aren't you lucky that the only "One Point" blog in sports happens to be in Seattle.
:: winning Anthony Hopkins smile ::
It's hard to predict that Iwakuma won't go 23-for-25 over his FUTURE starts, isn't it? Just how good is this guy?
Game on,
Dr D