Add new comment

.

What do magicians call that dealio, where you (and your audience) look at your right hand twirling a pencil, as your left hand palms a coin or something?  6-year-olds can do that.  Also Jerry Dipoto can do that, as he just did at first base.  Pay no attention to the names listed at RF or SP.

.

Q.  Does the Mainframe see a 10% possibility of Ryon Healy becoming a big star?

A.  The Mainframe notes that Billy Beane much preferred Matt Chapman at 3B and Matt Olsen at 1B, shedding Healy to make room for them.  Weird thing to do if you think you're looking at 40 club-controlled homers.

.

Q.  Does the Mainframe see a trend of Jerry Dipoto going for 25-year-old "rookies" who change the scoreboard for free?

A.  What'd he call it, "balancing the payroll."  Chuckster used to call it "keeping the powder dry," although the Armstrong powder stayed in a barrel between about 1986 and 2014.  Dipoto's powder could blow at any moment.

Nice to see the M's "canceling the fractions" at 1B while they train their snake eyes at RF at SP2.  With every passing day, Dr. D grows ever-more unbalanced about the chances of a big add on the rotation front.

.

Q.  How much difference between Healy and the other 1B's we'd got from Oakland?

A.  Between Healy and Valencia, prob'ly none.  Between Healy and Alonso, probably a very discernible OBP difference, but perhaps not $10M worth.  We remember the days, circa 2005, when at USSM this was the Holy Grail and then some.  To get moderately-inferior performance for 5-10% of the salary cost.  So if you're in a time-warp mood, break into your 2005 happy dance.

.

Q.  Maybe a platoon with him and Vogelbach, depending on how things shake out?

A.  Until proven otherwise, Dr. D is assuming that Vogelbach said something he really, REALLY shouldn't have.  Also, Dipoto made it a point on Wednesday that Healy can hit RHP and is the everyday 1B.  Sorry, Keith, we did give away Mike Montgomery as an act of sheer altruism.

.

Q.  What is a "Scrub" in your "Stars & Scrubs" paradigm?

A.  We're pretty sure that D-O-V coined this term (circa 1997), that it spread to USSM, to BaseballHQ and then to everywhere else.  :: shines fingernails on vest modestly ::

A "scrub" is NOT a bad player.  A "scrub" is a CHEAP player who OVERPERFORMS HIS CONTRACT.  A Civic is a vet who will absolutely play to his contract, exactly.  A Star is why you find scrubs - so you got money left to pay them.  The Stars give you a shade the more, a shade the less, you don't care.  You pay him $27M and he gives you $22M worth of bases, that is peachy keen.  You just don't want them hurt.  You want them to play, is all.  Get it?  "Got it."  Good!

Stars & Scrubs teams all have Civics.  Stars... Civics ... Scrubs.  I'm not sure what you call James Paxton.  The reason to follow sports, I guess.

.

Q.  Doesn't Billy Beane realize that you can manufacture middle relievers?

A.  Shows you what people think of Emilio Pagan.  The insiders are way, WAY ahead of us on middle relievers, trust me on that one.  Usually some guy is throwing the stuffing out of the ball in AA or AAA and they already Know.

.

Q.  What's SSI's position on this fad comparison between Ryon Healy and Mike Zunino?

A.  Nobody and nothing compares to Mike Zunino, and this includes the various iterations of Zunino himself.

But Healy has shown some pretty long stretches of .500 SLG type power, real natural juice in his swing.  An off-and-on ability to hit 13 homers in six weeks.  We can see why the two would be connected in that way.

...

We might also note that a 111 OPS+ is better than your average Mariner gets in his first 800 at bats.  B-ref's comps for Healy include - wait for it - Jim Edmonds (cough), Jason Giambi, Ivan Calderon, Bobby Higginson, and my personal fave, Aubrey Huff.  Why they compare a bunch of .375 OBP players to Ryon Healy and his 35:202 EYE, you'll have to figure out for yourself.

You get back to asking whether Healy (with Edgar's help) can push his EYE up to .25, .28, something like that, in which case his natural power throws him into the Mark Trumbo, Adam Jones, Corey Dickerson range.  Jerry Dipoto thinks he will, and that Healy will give us a 110, maybe 120 OPS+ at first base for several years - for peanuts.

That's what Dipoto's advertising.  :: shrug :: Healy pencils in as a Quality Scrub in terms of bases per dollar.  Personally, I'm already thinking about RF ... or SP ... or whether Healy's moving on in a shock swoop for Giancarlo Stanton or something.

BABVA,

Dr D