Happy Zeus Day - Apr 21
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BLUE FUNK
Mojo sez -
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Happ had blue funk. It is a disease that saps 100 percent of professionalism, manhood and ability out of its sufferers, and is fatal to a career. The only cure is to trade or DFA the infected player. Usually, as soon as the player takes off the Mariners jersey, he has a complete recovery. Blue funk is mostly known to affect hitters, the most severe case being Kendrys Morales, but it can and does affect pitchers as well. When a player is suspected of blue funk, it is important to quarantine him, usually via the 10 day DL, to make sure the infection doesn't spread. I'm not sure why Danny Valencia isn't being tested and quarantined. Maybe JeDi is so confident in his trading abilities that he thinks he can handle a full blue funk epidemic, or maybe there were so few people left over from the Z regime that they didn't leave notes about blue funk.
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This disease is nonexistent in the Americas, wherein High School players receive their DPT shots and Blue Funk shots on the same Office Day reporting to 10th. In America you sign a deal and you throw your best pitch until the inning immediately preceding Free Agency.
In English Premier Soccer, however, the Funk is as much a part the fabric of the sport as is chewing an opponent's arm off at the elbow if he's been stepping on your foot all day. There, if you have 18 months to go on your contract and demand out, the club flushes you out within 10 days maximum. This is to prevent clownish, half-hearted "ok, let's see if you like lousy performances any better" displays from spreading to other players on the pitch.
In baseball they will occasionally see a Taylor Motter flourish and rather than say:
1) NOT CORRECT The Tampa Rays sure didn't know what the deuce to do with THIS kid, now did they
2) CORRECT That head case Motter sure benefitted from a change of scenery, didn't he
The 'net rat "Book" on Taylor Motter is that you couldn't throw an inside heater by him any more than you could throw a Steelix evolution stone past a Pokemon Go pedestrian. It then becomes a finger-trigger game whether the SP can hit a called strike on a low-away slider vs. falling behind in the count, is 'cause Motter already has shown very little inclination to chase those pitches.
Right now Dr. is leaning a little more, and a little more, and a little more, forward in his seat on Taylor Motter. He's at .253/.333/.629, as opposed to Zack Cozart's LIFE .243/.293/.390.
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Mojo seems to be crediting Dipoto with the Carroll-type magnetism that brings disaffected players into The Happiest Place on Earth. 's worked for Maniger and Motter. Perhaps a Moyer-Moore bromance is in the cards next?
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10% OF THE WAY INTO THE SEASON
20 - Wins for Zeus, pro-rated
220:40 - CTL ratio for Zeus (but check this space tomorrow)
10 - WAR, Zeus (but check this space tomorrow)
10:160 - Rectangular EYE ratio for our catcher
150 - Runs scored, Maniger
150 - RBI, Maniger
20-10 - Won loss record for Felix, in front of this catatonia-inducing batting lineup
200:10:50 homers for Felix, setting about 14 records across various Almanac columns (e.g. "most wins per BLS")
131 - Runs for Jean Segura, deducting his 10-Day jaunt to Vegas for some R&R
0.69 - WHIP allowed by Rzepczynski, leaving him solidly in the 8th inning for the ALCS
UP - stock of every single RP chosen by Dipoto, except perhaps Fien and Scribner (but Scribner is just the 10% thingy)
SLIGHTLY UP BUT UNCHANGED IN STRATIFICATION - the stock price of He Who Must Not Be Named
WAY DOWN - the stock price of the Mariner starter that Dr. D would most like to go to Benihana's with
EVEN STEVEN - the stock price of the #6 starter
13:1 - M's stolen base record
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NOW THAT'S WHAT I CALL SCRUBS
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The guys banking $1,000,000 every biweekly paycheck have been well aware of the nerd baling the season out during their post-WBC hangover. This road trip it's time for them to throw in.
Nice to not have to NEED your stars, huh. By the way amigos ... "Stars & Scrubs" does not refer in any way to the performance of a player. It refers to his initial cost. Thus if you were drafting a 23-man rotissirie team, Felix Hernandez at $27 would be a "Star" but Mitch Haniger at $8 would be a "scrub." Still more would Taylor Motter be an "uber scrub", probably available for $0 on the waiver wire. The fashionable thing is to tank up on $10 Steady Eddies but this doesn't allow you to swap the $2 player in and out as they get hot.
James Paxton's cost going in to the season was $9, per Shandler. Gallardo's was -$4. It's not like Dr. D was alone in his trepidation here.
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MANIGER
Yes, we saw the Ancient Chinese Secret in which he decided to hit the bottom half of the ball, into the middle wedge of the field. You'll pardon me for getting stuck on the fact that about 90% of minor league players have tried this at one time or another. Starting at least as far back as Carl Yasztremski.
I know I'm being stubborn here, but great players show FLASHES of stompifying lower leagues at younger ages. Still don't get when it is he was supposed to have flashed hit talent.
The question is moot. He's on a 12-game HIT streak and HIT is not his strength. PWR is. It's like you told me Ichiro was on an 8-game homer streak. What's that tell me? That his mother was visited by aliens?
Maniger and K-Pax are the two most vital assets to hit the Puget Sound since, oh, Michael Pineda if not even back to 2005 when Felix got here.
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MANIGER'S ROY
About half of Denizens will remember the 88-74 1974 Red Sox coming up with Fred Lynn CF and Jim Rice LF. In 1975 those two as rookies finished #1 and # in the MVP (not ROY) voting, and then we had that Best World Series Ever Played against the Big Red Machine.
This could no longer happen today -- the WAR voting, not the great Series -- because we go by WAR and Trout will win that. But you have Dr. D's blessing to keep us posted on the ROY race. Is here is where you find that, and Maniger has lapped the field. Especially on that East Coast darling, Andrew Benintendi.
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BACKUP SP's
Both the beat writers continue to insist that the fastest Moore and Povse would be promoted is AA in July and maybe MLB in 2018. I don't see why, do you?
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HIT THAT THUMBS-UP BUTTON
Or if you can't find one, throw us a comment to us-all to read in the morning :- ) We are wayyyyy behind the curve on M's news. SportSpyder us into a fare-thee-well Wednesday morning. Probably live-blogging the Paxton victory in this Shout Box, too!
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Happy Zeus Day,
Dr D