M's 7, Sox 6 in 10 innings
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SOX 6 ...
No excuses for Andrew Moore. He was never going to throw 100% quality starts. And if he doesn't actively impose a sense of confusion on hitters, he is subject to getting beaten soundly about the head and shoulders. As is Hisashi Iwakuma.
We talked last week about the fact that most pulled fly balls are off 'tasty' pitches. The first two homers off Moore were not tasty ... as such, in a vacuum. They were executed exactly as Zuumball called them and set his mitt. So how could a nicely-executed pitch wind up scattering the peanut hawkers?
Bill Krueger, aptly I thought, tut-tutted about the pitch selection as opposed to the pitch execution. For example, the two-run jack that put Moore down 3-0 early? It was a fastball thrown perfectly into Zuumball's mitt ... but down-and-in, right into the "loop zone" for lefties. Almost the only place that Omar "83 MPH Launch" Narvaez can hurt you.
As Krueger pointed out, finesse pitchers have to be aware of individual hitters' games. This guy wants to extend his arms, that guy needs the ball down. Moore at the moment is pitching without any of this knowledge. "Know both your enemy and yourself and you will win the majority of battles. If you know yourself only, you will lose one battle for each one you win. If you know neither you will always lose." - Sun Tzu, Art of War
Dr. D is put off not one whit. If you play roto, this morning is the time to push in an offer on the lad.
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MARINERS 7
So that's three nice wins out of the gate. Based on:
√ a three-run bomb by Robinson Cano in a close game
√ a monster CF homer by Nelson Cruz to turn around the lead (425 feet to center off a 96 fastball)
√ a game-winning overtime blast by Nelson Cruz
Like Ground Chuck said, big games are won by big players. Well, Chicago in July isn't Monday Night Football but at SSI we love seeing rich guys deliver succulent hors d'oeuvres for the home town hungry.
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No sooner do we talk about the inevitability of Daniel Vogelbach than Danny Valencia drags us back into the middle of the Wild Card race, only -1 to mister 500. The M's loaded the bases in the middle innings, down 5-1 and Blowers warned, "they have to get at least two out of this." Segura smoked a ball that took Melky's glove off in deep left and then Valencia took a big leg kick ... "There it is." said Blowers quietly almost on the throughswing. He has taken to injecting a quick phrase when something interesting is happening. We approve of this. It's fun to get a major leaguer's quick eye on the action as the ball is in play.
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One time when Ben Gamel was up, Blowers talked about how grimly the kid sticks his nose into the zone against lefties. Right on cue, Holland came at Gamel's earhole with a power slider that broke back and nicked the outer edge ... which Gamel stayed with, and flipped into left field for a hit.
The formulas give him credit for a .260, .270 batting average. That's fine, but the formulas aren't setting his career arc based on plays like that.
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Guillermo Heredia check, especially since he's about to get some PT in place of a dinged-up Haniger. Heredia has got a 16:29 EYE and a "subpar" 84 MPH launch velocity. Heredia's 1.31 groundball ratio is zapping his power; he's not getting many of the Back Leg Specials that we want from a fireplug like him.
But! Heredia is a glove specialist -- AND -- over the last month, he's got the very best fish rate on the ballclub at 21%. His swing and miss rate is only 6% over that time. Baseball's about the strike zone and Heredia is plus with the strike zone. We don't say that Heredia is going to create 90 runs a year, but we like his chances going forward. It's my club, we'll commit some time to him.
At Bill James Online, an argument rages about whether Launch Velocity should replace OBP and SLG and all that. Dr. D finds himself wondering what Boggs and Gwynn would have "launched" on all those little flips into left field -- and what Dave Kingman and Rob Deer would have averaged on their launches. Launch Velo is only apples-to-apples if you compare 1B-to-1B and SS-to-SS, right? Well, y'know.
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That's +3 games out of the break which gives a lot of impetus to Dipoto's trade gusto. You would think? Cinch up your harness, though, cuz
Five Thirty Eight thinks the Astros are better than the '27 Yankees. ;- ) A record of 4-5 or 5-4 is just peachy keen over the next nine games. Looking forward to seeing Aaron Judge, though.