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Mike Leake is 3-1, 2.53 in 32 Mariner innings; he's got a 7.6 strikeout, 0.6 walk, 0.3 homer rate with us.  Again we remember his sky-high grounder rate, his ankle-low BB rate and the prospect that a league change could freshen his results for at least a few trips around the league.

In 2008, the Lincoln-Armstrong crew ran a squadron of MLB(TM) starting pitchers out there, all nicely paid, all Respected(TM).  Jarrod Washburn, Miguel Batista, Carlos Silva, who else... Dickey or somebody.  Before AND after, I thought it was everything LincStrong about the Seattle Mariners in one neat little package.

In other words, I hate MLB(TM) decisions.  Normally Leake would hit me this way.  But for some reason he didn't, and I can't quite put my finger on why.  Still can't.  It's elusive.  ... for some reason, Leake seems to me a bit of a variation on Doug Fister.

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Last winter, we gingerly predicted Nelson Cruz for a strong 2017 season based on the way he looked as he finished the 2016 season.  The last 28 days of 2017?  He has hit .284/.382/.523 with an 0.50 EYE.  He's got to be nicked, dinged, and tired.  I just can't believe what I'm seeing, can you?

We should ask Mo' Dawg.  If memory serves, Dawg has tabbed Boomstick as THE most extreme player of his type in all of baseball history.  (What "player of his type" means exactly, I don't know.  In chess there's a self-deprecating figure of speech, "In positions of this type you must trade Knights" and everybody knows you couldn't define what you mean by "positions of this type.")

So, going into 2018, Cruz gets roto-drafted as if he were 32 years old.  :: shakes head ::

Here are Cruz' on-base averages:

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The man just posted an OBP of .376 in Safeco Field, from the right hand batter's box, with about zero infield hits this season.  Ten years in Safeco, Ichiro was better than that 4 times and worse 6 times.  You remember who Ichiro was?

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Mariners who had terrible Septembers, actually last-30-days'es:

Guillermo Heredia, .134/.202/.146 in 82 at bats playing ever' day in center.  Lessee if Zoom was right about Dyson for $10.5M per year.

Danny Valencia, hitting .156 (5-for-32) in an obvious show of team spirit (Alonso was 15-for-68 also).  Does Otani like the idea of first base, you think?  Boomstick mebbe?

Other than that, no hitters really went South

Rzepczynski had a WHIP of 3.38, that being 5 hits and 4 walks in 2+ innings.  But he's locked up for 2018

Marc-O posted a scintillating CTL ratio of 16:4 but maybe his 23 hits in 15 innings had something to do with it

How does Andrew Albers fan 28 guys with 8 walks in 29 innings?  He went 3-1, 3.04 as the bridge guy to Dipoto's "dice rolls."  (Which of these things in this section is not like the others)  What do you do with Andrew Albers in 2018?  Okay, facile answer is, check him in Arizona.  All right, he continues to show Tewksbury-esque command of the edges of the plate.  Whattaya do then?

I dare you.  Tell me what to do with Albers if he spends March 2018 hitting triple-20 on the dart board.

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Mike Zunino just hit his 24th homer, of which this is a visual representation.  A lazy little swing and a lazy little fly ball off the facade in center field.  Shout-out to BaseballHQ, which forecast "UP:  30 HR."

Zuumball was the one Mariner that opposing scouts praised in that little anti-Dipoto gloat-fest the other day, "looks like he figured it out."  Since his return, just before June 1, he's hitting .266/.344/.554 in about 350 plate appearances.  His EYE has only been 0.24 over that time and his BABIP is .377 since the callup, but his raw physical PWR is tippy-top of the majors.  Hitters with terrible EYEs are not Dr. D's kind of player.  But, you know how SSI and Capt. Barbosa about guidelines and absolutes.  Other players who have excellent PWR and EYEs below 0.30 (recently) are 

• Salvador Perez
• Rougned Odor
• Adam Jones
• Matt Kemp
• Mark Trumbo
• Michael Morse
• Pudge and Igor for the Rangers, pretty much

Juan Gonzalez is sort of the boundary line for this kind of hitter; he had a lot of years where he'd run a 35:143 EYE while hitting 43 homers.  It's kind of cool to remember that Igor really had to swing from his wallet to hit the ball 420 feet.

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Felix had another good game, a 2-hitter against another ballclub that has quit on the season.  Here's the story on it.  His slash line is 9:5:1 in 13 innings since his return and he's doing a much better job of starting the ball in the zone to break out of it.

Hey, I'm likin' the Zeus-Felix-Leake-Otani-Darvish rotation to take into war next year.

Be Afraid,

Dr D