March 2009
Posted by jemanji on 03/31/09
5 Comments
You knew it was coming :- )
And, you can infer from my timing (POTD long after everybody and his brother has already written up Jaka) that this isn't my type of pitcher. Hey, until Tuesday, the guy was running a lousy K/BB this March, even. I'm hardly biased in favor of the guy.
Full disclosure dept: It isn't often that I read the Seattle cyber-sphere in order to broaden my mind on a player. By "not often" we mean, this was the first time. Would much rather consult Shandler, scout.com, minorleaguesplits.com and my local aiki shaman. Top it off with anything from James, preferably pre-... Read More
Posted by jemanji on 03/31/09
2 Comments
=== Strike One, Strike Two, Strike Three Dept. ===
If Jaka had a sloppy BB rate -- let's say he walked 3.5 or 4.0 men a game to go with the rest of his profile -- I wouldn't give him another thought.
Similarly, if Jaka were an 89 mph pitch-mixer who wasn't a battler, if he nibbled in Gene Nelson style, I wouldn't give him another thought.
Tangentially, if Jaka's K rate were soft -- let's say he were fanning 5+ men a game or fewer, like Roy Corcoran -- I'd fire off a "fuhgeddaboudit" POTD faster than Erik Bedard scurrying away from a microphone.
But Jaka IS showing good precision, and very... Read More
Posted by jemanji on 03/31/09
2 Comments
Two homers today. Off a lefty. Who's in the Indians' rotation. One of them came down with frost on it, according to Neihaus.
.314 / .360 / .714.
Paying closer attention to Branyan on TV this March, I was struck by how non-TTO his swing is. He's balanced, controlled, gets homers more by nice torque than by a Dunn-, Deer-type lumberjack swing.
More to the point, Branyan doesn't seem to merely "stalk" tater pitches the way that Adam Dunn will do. A guy like Dunn walks so much, more because he's simply WAITING. For the pitch he can drive. Branyan, by contrast, is working the strike zone... Read More
Posted by jemanji on 03/31/09
Interesting player: he was essentially 20 unbroken years' worth of Edgar Martinez. With a glove.
Yet he's strangely underrated and ignored, for a player of his magnitude. His (legitimate) comps include Junior, Reggie, and Mickey Mantle, but who thinks of him like they do of those men?
As usual, we've got our three cents on why that is. :- )
POTD Sheffield at NY Sports Insider
Posted by jemanji on 03/25/09
8 Comments
The muscled young toughs of the barrio protest that Russell Branyan maybe CAN hit lefties. Good stuff, amigos. :- ) Even while spray-painting my warnings about bringing RB into the LHP house, we were laughing wondering whether half the local monstas would argue that maybe he can hit lefties.
Maybe he can. Wouldn't that be cool, to pull a .380 OBP, 35-homer, 110-RBI star off the shelf at Branyan's salary... If Oakland can do it with Jack Cust, why not us with Russell Branyan?
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1. If a thoughtful analyst, let's say Don Wakamatsu or one of you amigos, believes that... Read More
Posted by jemanji on 03/24/09
2 Comments
Morrow took the mound in Tuesday night's TV game. Dr. D had no objection to this.
Casey Blake, impressively, hit an HR to center field on a 96-mph aspirin tablet. That's major leaguers for you, especially when they're nothing but dead red .... Morrow started out 94-95 and quickly loosened up. His fourth hitter, he threw four consecutive screamers 97-97-96-97. That was from the stretch. After not having pitched.
Quick reminder, for the M's fan in all of us, catcher Dave Valle's observation re: Morrow -- there are fastballs and there are fastballs. Some of them, sez Dave, get to about... Read More
Posted by jemanji on 03/24/09
3 Comments
=== 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... Read More
Posted by jemanji on 03/24/09
12 Comments
Spec
Doc, FYI, from Shannon Drayer, what do you make of “he calls pitches right”?:
[begin quote] [Felix] enjoyed throwing to Ramon Hernandez.
“He is unbelievable. He calls pitches right. He told me you have to get ahead, and if you throw the fastball for strikes the breaking ball will be better.”
He spoke about the importance of his fastball, both the 4 seamer and 2 seamer but when I asked which of his pitches he would least like to see if he was a hitter he said his curve or slider. No doubt after a well established fastball. [end quote]
LOL :- ) I make of it, that IFelix was part of the... Read More
Posted by jemanji on 03/21/09
5 Comments
Mister MC sez:
Did you happen to notice what type of pitch Wilson hammered that homerun on? Curveball, the great nemesis of Balentien. I am predicting a breakout year for Wilson right here and now.
It is highly doubtful that Wilson makes the travelling 25, so what that does is make for a very, VERY powerful team down in Tacoma.
Watching Mike Wilson play the man-among-boys role ... well, it kinda reminded me of some of those WBC games, like the Korea-Venezuela game. Some big 1B from some league you've never heard of just steps up, grins, and pulverizes all that weak slop the major leaguers... Read More
Posted by jemanji on 03/21/09
7 Comments
Matty with a very intriguing opinion on J.J. Putz:
Doc…I’ve been saying that about Gutierrez since we traded for him…that he has Cameron’s Disease…a deadly condition which prevents a hitter from swinging at close pitches with 2-strikes. That’s why his K rate is very high despite obviously having a patient approach.
Hmmmmmmmmm....
That is a VERY interesting suggestion. :: taps chin :: It would explain a lot...
If true, personally I would think of this as "Olerud's Disease." :- ) I actually admired this about John, that in his humility he wasn't embarrassed by a called third strike. And... Read More
Posted by jemanji on 03/21/09
4 Comments
A little ping-pong with our D-O-V partner in crime:
Jeff Clement is starting to worry me. I was very high on him breaking out this year before last night…but watching him take ABs was PAINFUL. He still can’t hit a breaking ball inside…got tied up on Cha-Cha’s luke warm cutter twice for big Ks.
Ya. Again, notice how horizontal Clement's bat is on the inside pitches, and contrast that to what y'see from good ML lefty hitters. It's a mechanical flaw more than anything, IMHO.
For all of our scout friends who missed the cross-reference, Clement needs to go study Jim Thome and his way of... Read More
Posted by jemanji on 03/19/09
19 Comments
=== Mike Wilson, Sizzlin' OF ===
Very rare to see a guy with a true football frame, who has legit baseball-fast hands.
Reminds of a young Sammy Sosa, though the swing (very loose and confident, short path to the ball, low hands, long followthrough, weight goes to the ball wherever it is) reminds of Andre Dawson, Dave Winfield, Vlad Guerrero.
Freakish natural strength by the standards of baseball players; the man is legitimately powerful enough to be a "thumper" linebacker in major college football. Yet, as mentioned, he has the snake-tongue hands that you won't find on Lofa Tatupu, and... Read More
Posted by jemanji on 03/19/09
4 Comments
=== Jeff Clement, Fizzlin' C ===
Is no closer to solving his problems on the inside offspeed pitch, than he was last year. He's over the top of every single one of them, and the pitchers (even the NL pitchers!) are just abusing him with it.
It's a funny thing, because lefty hitters are supposed to be deadly on low-in pitches.
What is going on is that Clement's bat is far too horizontal on these inside pitches. Most lefty hitters, who have more fluid swings than Clement's bludgeoning motion, naturally slide the bat vertical (like a golf club) on inside pitches. Clement doesn't naturally... Read More
Posted by jemanji on 03/19/09
2 Comments
=== Russell Branyan, Sizzling 1B ===
Y'might not have noticed just how much of an experiment this is going to be. Russ Branyan, for six (6) years in a row, has had fewer than 250 at-bats a season. The man just hasn't played.
And it's one of sabermetricians' (that includes me, now, so don't write in!) worst foibles that they assume every benchie who runs nice stats in 175 AB's can do the same thing in full-time exposure. Remember after 2006, when David Dellucci was going to be the next value "promotion" to starting status? The Seattle blog-o-sphere debated that one relatively even-... Read More
Posted by jemanji on 03/11/09
1 Comments
Cool Papa sez:
Fangraphs has a short post on his outing against the USA team (click on my name). There are some charts using the Pf/x data that illustrate how he did. My favorite is the one showing the velocity of each pitch; his fastball was consistently 95 mph (which is awesome for a sinker!) while his slider/slurve was around 80. That’s really impressive- how many pitchers have a 15 mph differential between their fastball and primary offspeed pitch? That’s an honest question.
And Fett found this: http://www.fangraphs.com/blogs/index.php/phillippe-aumont-dazzles-agains...
In Aumont's case... Read More
Posted by jemanji on 03/06/09
5 Comments
Jon at Bleeding Blue and Teal has a convenient video of, as well as some interesting thoughts on, Aumont throwing his patented sidearm slider that breaks 12-6.
As you know, Aumont's front leg would send an Aiki-shihan screaming out of the dojo in his bare feet into the forest night. Medieval warriors used to plant their halberds into the ground against charging hordes, who met less-abrupt ends than Aumont does over the pike of his front leg...
But lemme say this about his motion now, too. If you can get past the flop over the leg, there are all kinds of things to admire about his motion... Read More
Posted by jemanji on 03/03/09
4 Comments
Q. Can Griffey play left this year? Is he capable?
A. Well, he played 144 games last year, all but 6 of them in the outfield.
At Mariner Central, there's a cool thread on Junior's knee. http://www.marinercentral.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=1823 He's already icing it the first week. What's the mainframe crunch on this?
It wouldn't surprise me if Griff's legs don't hold up to everyday play any more. That's number one. If it all boils down that in his late 30's, he just can't do it, I won't be even 01% surprised.
Remember, Dr. D is on the wrong side of 37. That year was exactly the... Read More
Posted by jemanji on 03/03/09
7 Comments
Q. The 2001 Mariners did not have a terrific pitching staff. They had a league average pitching staff…below average rotation, well above bullpen.
A. This is key, because it goes to the broader question of: what happens when you have a sensational DER?, because the 2001 M's had a DER that was, quote, "eerily better than the rest of the league" as Baseball Prospectus put it in their 2002 annual.
I'm a fan of DNRA+ and always like to know what it says. But all defensive (and defense-oriented) metrics will have their fliers, and this is one of them. Any metric that accuses the 2001 Mariner... Read More
Posted by jemanji on 03/03/09
15 Comments
Intuitively, is it possible that the 2001 Mariners had a "below average" rotation, one that offset their sensational relieving to cause a net "average" effect? When you just look at these guys like a kid looking at baseball cards... , were they Felix plus four lousy pitchers? Were they AAA pitchers filling in for injured stars (as many ML staffs are every year)? Were they four mediocre pitchers and a guy with 82 walks, 69 strikeouts, and a 1.7 flyball ratio in the #5 slot?
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1 Jamie Moyer is becoming a fringe candidate for the Hall of Fame. In 2001, he was in his... Read More