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 handling jam pitches, because Thome has the same swing. To me, it looks like he (1) stands farther off the plate, (2) gives away the called strike inside, and (3) leans his hips back to get to the ball. When he gets a pitch that misses a little bit over the plate.
Jeffy isn't making progress on that inside pitch. Gotta go get some Thome vids, babe.
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Wike Wilson reminds me a lot of Wladimir Balentien. And in case you missed the fine point…I hate Wladimir Balentien. AAAA slugger with little to no chance of being an impact hitter despite natural ability.
Bill James didn't like strong guys with low BB/K's when he first started out either ;- )
Matt's comment on Wlad notwithstanding, and not referring to his comment or analysis, I can't believe how early people give up on players like Wlad Balentien. Sigh.
Quick reminder: the guy was great in A+ at 20, great in AAA at 22, and was called a 40+ homer guy at 18. Now, 250 AB's and ahhhhhh, we knew he wasn't nothin' anyway.
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Griffey is done. Old and crappy. Got his bat broken twice by Cha-Seung Baek for cryin’ out loud. On 86 mph fastballs inside that he would normally have hammered all the way to Tuscon as a kid.
Well, we'll see amigo...
M's fans from the '80's remember, Griffey was always VERY long to the ball. It is because he's so loopy to the plate, that his swing has always looked so sweepy. He's had that arm-swing, bat-through-water look to his bad guesses since he was 25.
And he's been compensating to this for three years now: it's why he can't handle LHP any more. We agree that Griff's launch time has slowed, but disagree as to what he can do with a pitch when he gets one.
D-O-V has to go the other way on this one. As much as I rolled my eyes about Griff's cheating, you can still mark me down for a 125 OPS+ this year. When he has the platoon advantage. The walks are a given, and IMHO the homers will be too.
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I have Beltre pegged for the big year this year and he did nothing to convince me otherwise last night.
Matty and I are indeed tracking with each other more than usual... who should be more worried, him or me?
His swing is quick and powerful, notably quicker than it has been in the past. His swing looks like 48 homers to me :- )
More seriously, Shandler has him pegged for 30 dongs, even in Safeco, and I wouldn't doubt it. Contract year, baby...
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Branyan and Sweeney may be one of the most productive platoons in the game this year. Sweeney surprised the heck out of me with his decent batspeed last night…he looks really good up there. And Branyan is obviously seeing the ball well right now.
Forgot to put Sweeney in the Sizzlers. His first AB, he swayed out after the ball, and I worried that he was protecting the back. But his second AB, he stayed put and turned on the ball, with a long followthrough, and looked comfortable.
Like we mentioned before, Mike Sweeney had 7 walks and 1 strikeout (!!!) in April 08, before his overuse had his back hurting again. The back robbed him of his power, but he has never lost his Edgar-like ability to cover the pitch and line it hard to RF.
If Sweeney's healthy again, he could pull a Shaq-type renaissance in part-time play, because he's an elite talent. 'course, everybody's loving the way that Chris Shelton is looking...
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Shawn Kelly is ready. Now. He’ll never be better than he is right at this moment…pitching him in AAA is a waste of everyone’s time. He should make the club immediately if the Mariners were objective about it. He looks poised, polished, hs better command than anyone (AANNNYONE!!) in the entire Mariner organization, and he misses bats because there’s good deception between his 93 mph fastball and his 83 mph change-upy-looking-thing. I don’t see him as a closer, but he will have a long Paul Quantrill-like career IMHO.
Josh Fields is also ready now. Just as much as Morrow was, except in his case, he was never going to be a starter so it’s not a waste of his time to pitch him in the pen. He’s got the unhittable fastball and a show-me off-speed pitch and he can win as a set-up man with nothing else.
These two guys I didn't see, so gracias.... did Fields pitch in the Pads game? Can Matty or anybody else give us the scoop?
Cheers,
Dr D