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Youse mooks probably read through all this stuff as it comes down.  Dr. D, in his curmudgeonly fashion, is just now reading Jan. 13 stuff as he types.  (More fun to simul-type-read.)  Hmmmm, this Shannon Drayer piece has quite a few DiPoto quotes...

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"Most will be taught through development," he said. "The younger you can get with a player and give him a plan at the plate, the better off you are going to be. You don't hit very effectively in the big leagues without a plan. We're trying to instill that in our players, particularly our young players. It's something we are going to demand from them. We want to see them control that line of scrimmage and create advantage for us."

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Last week, Bill James Online was controlling the line of scrimmage on a related point.  If a 17-year-old is drafted at the same slot as a 19-year-old, the 17-year-old will have a better ML career even though the drafters are trying to adjust for age.  

It makes you wonder just how young you have to get to a kid.  And DiPoto conceded that you're not going to do much with ML veterans:

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Once you have reached a certain point in your career you kind of are what you are," Dipoto pointed out. "You might be able to get subtly better in some areas but you are not likely to see a dynamic shift in the way guys play."

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Dr. D fancies that, sometimes, the Grok-a-Tron(TM) can infer things out of the mouths of shot-callers.  Via free association.  DiPoto covered his previous tracks by saying he HAS batters who are good at the specifics of Line of Scrimmage Control:  Kyle Seager is good at it (first tier).  Robinson Cano (second tier).  Aoki, Iannetta and Lind (third tier).   Seth Smith "does these things" - well, so does Mike Zunino when setting world records for Bugs Bunny throughswings.  DiPoto meant it well, but Dr. D himself is not delighted by this kind of backhand compliment...

ANNOUNCEMENT WE'RE TONGUE IN CHEEK HERE someguyz you just gotta watch .... Personally my impression is that Seager does think more at the plate, despite Cano's superior EYE ratio.  Talent enters in.   On 3rd-and-6 with the linebackers blitzing and a runner on second, Seager will hit a 7-yard slant pass whereas Cano might overthrow the fly pattern long.

So I kinda like DiPoto's listing, in sequence, which bemuses Dr. D because Nelson Cruz is nowhere within it.  Cruz had just become saber-ly famous for "pulling the ball in the air" at times and moments of his choosing.  But if DiPoto was disinclined to give Cruz props for his in-box strategies, well, we are talking about a guy who fanned 164 times last year.  Vlad Guerrero could zing the ball anywhere he wanted, but wasn't known for his bulging brain at the plate.  It's possible that Cruz is in the Vlad-Kirby-Yogi category.  After all this time, Dr. D can't tell.

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Dr. D also appreciated DiPoto's willingness to buffer his vets.  Again looking at this line:

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"Once you have reached a certain point in your career you kind of are what you are," Dipoto pointed out. "You might be able to get subtly better in some areas but you are not likely to see a dynamic shift in the way guys play."

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Well, okay, but ... don't some teams win 95 and others lose 95?  Didn't DiPoto quit the Angels in large part due to some big thing about Mike Scioscia not relaying the pregame Strike Zone(TM) reports?  Does Mike Zunino really come up with as good a plan against Dallas Keuchel as Edgar Martinez can?  We presume that Jerry is probably just being a little modest here.

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Drayer quoted Taylor saying, "The meetings we had where we got to hear Scott Servais, Andy McKay speak, all the new staff, they really had a couple of things that they brought into the meetings that I hadn't heard in the past," he said. "One of the things that really hit home with me was understanding what type of hitter you were and not trying to do too much. Andy McKay talked about there are three types of hitters. There's a contact hitter, a gap-to-gap hitter and a power hitter. There's a lot of times in the game where we can forget what type of hitter we are, if we are a contact hitter we can convince ourselves we are a gap-to-gap hitter depending on the count and situation of the game, and that's where we get into trouble and get ourselves out."

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Certainly, "staying within yourself" is something that clutch players -- all sports -- talk about.  Letting the game come to you.  Kyle Seager, with two out and the tying run on, is more likely to chip one into left field than he is to lunge for a gloryball.  Tony Parker, in the last few seconds of an NBA game, is going to insist on finding a shot that's in somebody's money zone.

But I've never heard hitters broken down into these 3 categories:

• Contact
• Power
• Gap-to-Gap!?

Some stats sites will give you a batter's results vs "Power," "Finesse" and, um, Neither or whatever they call it.  But the above?  You ever seen that?

Sounds to me like a reminder:  if your Nori Aoki, look to wait on the ball and click it solidly, perhaps the other way.  If you're Dustin Ackley, focus on going up the middle.  If you're David Ortiz, be thinking in terms of a pitch you can drive...

But here's the question.  What current M is a gap-to-gap hitter?

BABVA,

Dr D