Reboot
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Dr. D, sitting in the GM's seat, DOES and DOES NOT:
Does NOT throw up his hands and say "well, we knew were were going to be Texas' girlfriend anyway." There are 122 games left and when it comes to pain, he'd rather give than receive. Rather, he does a Billy Beane on the clubhouse soda machine and tells his club This Stops Now.
Just FYI.
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Dr. D DOES remove Brandon League from short relief. For tomorrow's game. This is not a knee-jerk response. It was more than two weeks ago that SSI called for League's jettison.
It would have been nice to see it before the entire ballclub was in a power dive, but we sympathize that Wedge has political issues to manage.
He doesn't have those political issues any more, now does he?
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Dr. D DOES NOT ask Steve Delabar to continue in his role and reproduce, pitch for pitch, Bobby Ayala's 1997 season.
Lou was asked what he liked about Bobby. That Bobby challenged hitters, of course. Bobby had a great fastball, a great split, a sky-high K rate, a great CTL ratio, and gave up one homer every third game.
Delabar's in AAA learning how to not center fastballs.
While we're at it, Dr. D is not going to let Charlie Furbush reproduce Paul Spoljaric's 1997 season, either. The guy is a live arm in search of a pitching motion. He ain't throwing when I got leads.
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Dr. D DOES call up Stephen Pryor and Carter Capps for tomorrow's ballgame.
Things could go wrong, you say. Oh, okay, that would be in such stark contradistinction to what happens when the M's current relievers pitch.
There are no guarantees, ya mooks. You don't have them now and you won't have them with Pryor. But the M's control Pryor and Capps for this season and six more. Get them in there already. REBOOT.
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Dr. D DOES call up Taijuan Walker for tomorrow's game. Taijuan might pitch in the bullpen for a while, as Johann Santana did when he came up.
Walker is 19 years old, a teenager about to turn 20, and there isn't a thing you can do in heaven or earth to guarantee that he'll be throwing 98 MPH in eight years.
He's throwing good now, take advantage of the bullets while he's able to fire them. Felix was 19.
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Dr. D DOES NOT blame his current young hitters for anything. They are fighting like lions.
Kyle Seager, for instance, is 4-for-26 ... with one strikeout. Dustin Ackley's OPS+ is over 1000 the last week. Michael Saunders is trying too hard.
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Dr. D DOES relegate Justin Smoak to the same 13-to-make-9 job competition that everybody else has to fight through. Smoak's slugging .500 the last week, good on him, but as Sully pointed out at LL, the distance on the fly balls are enough to make your stomach do a slow roll to the left. Nobody says you have to give up on Smoak, to pencil in 450 AB's for him.
Alex Liddi needs the time. The kid has shortened his swing, his EYE is within reason, he's playing a nice 3B, and he could be a poor man's Mike Schmidt one day. Liddi gets some of Smoak's AB's instanter.
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Dr. D DOES pursue 6-for-1 Adrian Gonzalez trades, now, but that goes without saying. Moves like that are Acts of Congress. Can't expect miracles. But if it's a question of one extra Andrew Carraway thrown in, you wouldn't even see my hand move.
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