Jack Wilson and the Yankee Template
At Mariner Central, TopCat (who was a third baseman himself IIRC) has a great little post on Jack Wilson's powerful DP turns. C-points.
Jack is the kind of guy who takes about one series to win over all the dyed-in-the-wool hardball purists.
... Jeff Nelson was on the radio postgame tonight, and was asked, as a ballplayer, what are your thoughts on Jack Wilson? And the first thing that occured to him, stream-of-consciousness: you have a lot of confidence in him, just because of the way that he gives you 100% on every play out there.
It didn't occur to them until later that this is the thermal-inversion of Yuniesky Betancourt.
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=== Well, I'll Go the 27 Flags Part of the Template ===
After we comp'ed RRS to Pettitte the other night, Kelly pointed out that the Yankees would have a lot of templates the Mariners should use, considering the two stadiums.
Jack Wilson is a Yankee-style shortstop: for one thing, you figure on your shortstop being right-handed,* but in Safeco and in Yankee, he can't be a pull hitter, greedy hitter, first-pitch hack away guy like Betancourt. He's got to do something else.
Wilson, and Jeter, and Rizzuto, are / were RH hitters who took the ball the other way, who scrapped their way on base, who were effective against tough pitchers.
We're confident that Wilson's slap-the-ball-around, bunt, hit-and-run game won't lose much in the NL-AL translation. At any rate, I'd much rather take his skill set (defense and scrappy, tough, modest offense) than one that won't translate into Safeco.
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The Yankees feel that their shortstop is their 155-, 160-games on-field captain. That they take their personality from him. Wilson's personality is to challenge the other man.
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=== Now THIS Guy's Glove Carries His Bat ===
A game or two ago, the bad guys had the bases loaded and then the batter rifled a grounder directly into the 3B/SS hole. Wilson screamed over there like a shot, scooped the ball easily, and whipped the ball over to 2B to end the inning. He has done this several times, turned clean 3B/SS singles into outs.
=Chv9rtYe" />One DP he'll come through low and aggressively, like TopCat says, and flip his feet up towards the OF so he's parallel to the ground ... then right himself like a cat again, do a 360 to regain his balance, and trot off the field. Another DP he'll hop straight up over the runner, glove in the air. He uses whatever body position suits him at the time. It's amazing.
His feet will be turned in any angle, his arms will be in any position, but one thing's always the same: Wilson's got his weight moving in the right direction, because he's so light on his feet. Guess that's the soccer player in him.
Wilson drives forward so powerfully, because he is playing like he means it. He's the opposite of Betancourt. And he perfectly illustrates Jack Zduriencik's feel for what a real ballplayer is. The Betancourt-Wilson transition is a transition from theory and speculation, into baseball the way the Big Dogs play it.
Omar was asked, "That Wilson guy has a lot of flash, doesn't he?" Omar: "For an American."
Jack Wilson is one of those guys who is such a dominating athlete, that he was put at shortstop just because there's noplace harder to play.
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Assuming his bat holds up okay in the AL, you could win your next pennant with this ballplayer.
Cheers,
Dr D