State of the Lefty Socks
=== Ken Griffey Jr, Sizzlin' Lefty Sock ===
TV game tonight showed highlights of Junior, quicker to the ball than the other night, smoking two rockets to center field. One of them hit 20 feet up a wall that was 410 feet away, meaning that Griffey hit the ball 425 feet to center. If you're just joining us, the bathead is moving faster as it has traveled farther through its swing arc, which is why long home runs are hit to the pull field. Griffey once tried to teach Darren Bragg how to hit. He said, "Get the bathead out here," holding it out in front of home plate, "not back here," he said, holding it parallel to the plate as if hitting a ball to CF. "Back here (to LF, CF) there's no money, no production."
I'm not sure any current Mariners are CAPABLE of hitting a ball 425 feet to center field, ever, unless you count Jeff Clement as a current Mariner. Maybe Russell Branyan. In any given year there are only a handful of pitched balls hit over 435 feet in game conditions -- to any field.
In other words, Griffey's swing looked better; on the highlight reels it also looked quicker and shorter to the ball.
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Why hit to center field then, Junior? Classic groove-your-timing concept since the days of Teddy Ballgame. "Start out hitting to center; then the pull takes care of itself." In other words, once you're squaring up the ball with authority, your natural reactions create the home runs.
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On TV, Mike Blowers and Bill Krueger were talking about spring training, and about their discussions with Junior this week. As the story goes, Griffey has been hitting BP homers at will, "but I'm not there yet." That's how it goes with the greats, sez Blowers: like pro golfers, they can tell you when they get their groove on, by a little feel in their own bodies.
Where's Griffey, then? Getting closer, sez they.
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The moral of the story is: yes, it's just spring training. And yes, it's a little early to be judging Griffey's or anybody's form by what happens in a given March game. True dat.
What's interesting to me is Griffey's own confidence. If he didn't feel right, if he felt himself losing it, I'd expect him to be saying things other than what he is. But that's just me.
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=== Russ Branyan and Jeff Clement, Lefty Socks ===
Both were in the game against the hard-throwing lefty Kershaw. Undoubtedly Wok's idea is to get a personal look at them "see what they can do" against a star lefty, when the games don't count.
I could tell Wok what Branyan can do against lefties, because they keep statistics on that stuff these days. Career OBP of .284, with a pitiful 34/127 eye ratio.
Last year, Branyan was 0-for-14 against LHP, with 8 strikeouts and 0 walks. It's a little weird; Don Wakamatsu is supposed to be a graduate of the Oakland A's 21st Century School of Sabermetrics. Why's he judging Russ Branyan's L-on-L ability by watching a couple of March games? And it's not like Wok hasn't been in the same league with Branyan before.
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This isn't a jump-at-shadows thing on Dr. D's part. Blowers and Kreuger were talking darkly about Branyan being the fulltime 1B, playing against both RHP and LHP -- even with Shelton/Sweeney on the team.
I understand Capt Jack's enthusiasm for Branyan; hey, it encourages US, because Capt Jack had Branyan in 2008 and is a True Believer. That much more reason to believe that Branyan can survive 450 ABs' exposure.
But what's with the talk about starting Branyan against the Kershaws of the game, when you have Shelton / Sweeney / Wlad / Johjima available? I mean, why?
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As Blowers neatly pointed out -- even if Branyan were a platoon player, you'd still have the issue of all those AB's he got late in games after the bullpen came in. And you'd better believe that if the other manager is EVER going to make a platoon switch, Russ Branyan is going to be exactly the time he makes it. Game in, game out.
Wok needs to be willing to swap in Sweeney/Shelton DURING games, never mind BETWEEN games. Am not sure how a couple of March games are supposed to help him determine whether that's the right policy. Are we short on data here? What's the confusion?
Go M's,
Dr D