Add new comment

I also think Doc is full of manuer when he tries to claim that the 2010 Mariners are an indictment against a fielding-led dynasty lacking emphasis on hitting. A run saved *IS* as good as a run batted in. That's a *FACT*. The problem with the Mariners in 2010 is actually three-fold.
1) A bunch of the hitters they brought in to add OBP/driven offense failed to get on base (Bradley, Figgins, Kotchman) while a bunch of guys who had previously demonstrated they could hit had appauling years (Lopez, Gutierrez, Griffey)...it's not like they all had down years for identical reasons either. Lopez was being spectacularly lazy (a sign of a clubhouse with a losing attitude), Gutierrez was pressing and Griffey was done. Figgins hit well in the second half...just took him too long to get there. Bradley got hurt a bunch and had a nervous breakdown. Kotchman proved he couldn't hit in the AL. It happens. This isn't some proof that if you build a weak line-up, you get anti-synergy. If they ALL became overly aggressive and they ALL had increasing K rates and they ALL had bad contact rates etc...then you might have a case to make on the anti-synergy front. That's not what happened. It was a bad year. When you try to take away 50 offensive runs to add 50 defensive runs...and in the process you lose 180 (!!) offensive runs...yeah...you'll lose games.
2) Their vaunted defense was actually not as good in 2010. In their supposed zeal to add defense, their third baseman played only par instead of being Adrian Beltre awesome, their second baseman was attrocious (worse than Lopez!!), their first base combo was a good step worse than last year even with Kotchman, Gutierrez had a down year with the glove as well as the bat, Ichiro had a bad year defensively by his standards).
3) Their pitching got noticeably worse as well...especially their relief pitching.
The point is...the club did not suck out and lose 101 games because Jack's defense first strategy worked exactly as he expected and produced a 101 loss team. The team lost 101 games because everyone sucked...far worse than most of the casual and serious analysts around the web thought was possible. Worse than any of them had individually sucked before with the exception of Lee, King Felix, Jason Vargas and Ichiro. When you go for -50 on offense and +50 on defense and get -180 on offense and -25 on defense...you're not getting what you paid for.
The model of defense first, average offense, average pitching has worked in the past, will continue to work when you can get it, and will continue to win lots of post-season games when deployed properly. The 70s Orioles, 60s Dodgers, 80s go-go Cards, 2005 White Sox...I could keep reeling off teams with average offenses, great defenses and average pitching who won WS all day...but you get the point.
Doc is just as bad as the scouts sometimes regarding pounding on dogmatic "truths" that he thinks he's discovered.