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Paracorto converts a 6-3 assist off our Gameflow fungo:

"Then Alex Liddi took one of those little Mike Schmidt half-swings, and hit a ball that ended the game on the spot."

You know I'm not a great fan of comparison with past players but I should admit you gave us an impressive picture right now. Am I dreaming ? Of course yes but the kid is just beginning to show what he could be. Give him more AB's, give him more AB's...

It would be dreaming for ANY player to aspire to be Mike Schmidt, who had the #16 WAR of all time. :- ) It would be dreaming to ask Evan Longoria to be Schmidt.

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But Liddi visually looks like Schmidt. And Schmidt was a dubious player until age 24; Big Blog would absolutely have considered the age 21-23 Mike Schmidt a fool's errand, for the same reasons they are scoffing at Liddi now. At age 23, Schmidt played 132 games in the National League and had a .196 batting average and huuuuuuuge strikeouts for the era.

Honestly, kids, it is naive to rule out any player, Trayvon or Liddi or Schmidt or anybody, based on strikeouts alone. Bill James just ran an article in which he pointed out that baseball in 1900-1925 was not yet fully major league .... one major indicator: the talent evaluation.

I think the quality of play continued to ascend very rapidly until about 1925.    For one thing, it is absolutely amazing how many minor league organizations in that era (1900-1920) didn't know a baseball player from an opera singer.

One minor league team released Walter Johnson.    One minor league operation had Ty Cobb under contract for a month, and cut him.   The New York Giants had Tris Speaker in spring training, and cut him.   The Cleveland Indians had an option on Pete Alexander; Alexander had a huge year in the minors, and the Indians didn't pick up the option.    These people didn't have a CLUE what they were doing--and because they didn't, many of the best players in baseball played out their careers in the minors, while players had substantial major league careers just basically because they were were in the right place at the right time. It wasn't until post-1925 that scouting and player evaluation was professional enough that you can be fairly confident that the best players will in the majors.

Regarding baseball 1900 to 1925 as major league ball is troubling, and imperfect, and a compromise.     But regarding 19th century baseball as major league baseball is just plain silly, but people do it all the time so they assume that there must be some basis for it, or they wouldn't all be doing it.

You'd be doing the 1905 drill if you cut Mike Schmidt, or Alex Liddi, because of strikeouts alone. A scout's job is not so simple. A real scout has to be able to look through Mike Schmidt's strikeouts, not simply wave him off after-the-fact as "one of those things."

=== Good Beginning Makes a Good End?, Dept. ===

Liddi's lifetime SLG, in 21 games, stands at .542. He's starting to remind of Jay Buhner a bit, in the sense that Jay used to slug .500 in small chances and Jim Lefebvre wouldn't let him play.

Now, the first 20 games aren't everything; we all, 100% of us, know that. But you know what only a minority realize? That a player's first 20 games absolutely do mean a lot. Ask any of the 30 General Managers in the game. An "F" in your first 20 games means quite a bit. And Alex Liddi's "A+" means quite a bit too.

His career wRC+ is 149, his wRC+ is 192, and it's not ALL luck. He's swinging at a piddling 16% of OOZ balls, and he's helping himself to huge production inside the zone. He's rough to pitch to right now. He won't swing at a ball, and if it's in the zone you're taking a risk.

=== Scout's Clipboard ===

Blowers was talking the other day about Liddi at shortstop. "Actually looks good there." Liddi is a physical freak. He is a freak when compared to other pro athletes. As was Mike Schmidt. Liddi played SS a good bit for the Rainiers.

The compact swing slows the game down for Liddi, as it did for Schmidt, and for Johnny Bench, who had a similar swing. On the dinger today, Liddi barely moved his knees. You know the Saunders swing we talk about? Liddi takes it. Knees go nowhere fast, and the followthrough is amptuated. Reminds also of Alvin Davis.

Needless to say, Liddi could be on a Casper Wells hiccup career path. But Casper Wells wasn't slugging .550 in the majors at age 23 ....

The greatest living expert on Seattle Mariners prospects is Jack Zduriencik. Not blogger A or B or C. We talk about Zduriencik's demonstrated ability to assess ML-ready talent. His ability to assess 30-year-olds can be debated; his ability to assess 22-year-olds cannot be debated.

In what category is Alex Liddi? Remember how everybody sat stunned as Liddi made the 25-man? Who knows. Maybe Jack Zduriencik can assess a 22-year-old better than can Big Blog. No snark intended at all: Alex Liddi has gotten no end of grief from that direction and it is worth compensating. With Jack Zduriencik's angle.

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Dunno whether it's 1-in-100, or what it is, against Liddi becoming an echo of Schmidt, but I would say that it is not yet ruled out. The things that would rule it out have not yet occurred.

Is Alex Liddi a future Mike Schmidt or Eddie Matthews? It would be unwarranted to even talk about it (but fun, maybe). Is he a quality MLB prospect? Of course he is.

Baseball is tough without home runs. How do you suppose Wedge can resist playing Liddi right now? :- )

Interest locations:

Seattle

New York

Cleveland

Seattle Sports Insider

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