Mojo at the bat, er, bar:
3. The Athletics want Chone, Billy Beane is not a dummy, and he has no interest in making the Mariners a better baseball team. Last I checked, he was still the sworn enemy of Mariners fans. The reason that the Mariners did not have more division titles in 2002-2005 is that he took them, by force. When you trade with Mr. Moneyball, you should check your hand to see if your watch, jewelry, or fingers are missing.
Dr. D studiously attends to his 8x14 yellow pad, while hoping that the jury was asleep during this point.
Still ... might it be possible that Beane believes that a move away from Safeco would fire Chone up again?
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4. Chone makes Ichiro happy. Ichiro likes hitting, and running in front of a methodical hitter who takes long at bats. The reason that Ichiro's stolen bases skyrocketed from 2009 to 2010, is that he was running in front of Chone, and not Adrian Beltre.
Let us not upset Ichiro by dismissing one of the few teammates that he finds synergy with. If he is happy with how the team is developing, who knows what he has saved away, now that he has set almost all of the hit records. At any point, Ichiro could get into a groove, and hit .400, or go four for five for a month straight, or hit a three run home run. It would be fun to watch him close out his career in style.
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Hm :- [
I might ask for a re-phrase away from "Chone makes Ichiro happy" -- I doubt that Ichiro appreciates the 'little p***ant' act that Chone applied last year, the refusal to back up bases if he was ticked that day, etc...
But the re-phrase is a quibble.
Ichiro was publicly disgusted with Beltre's utter selfishness in the #2 slot, and we can be sure that Ichiro enjoys having a professional hitting in the #2 hole.
And, Wedge needing to build a clubhouse in his favor, we can also be sure that Mariner Figgins would appear approximately 161 times in the #2 slot in 2011.
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5. Chone is not the reason the Mariners were lame. Do you recognize the following names: Franklin Gutierrez, Casey Kotchman, Jose Lopez.
These were mostly former Mariners players were they not? Mostly, these guys comprised the middle of the order, did they not? In 2010? This is a motion to tender these three names into evidence as "Defendant's exhibit A". Do we need to get into their slugging percentages, or will the Plaintiffs stipulate that they were really really bad?
True that bad clubs tend to focus their frustrations on their best players, and this certainly applies in Figgins' case to some extent right now.
Bad blogs, not bad clubs, we mean.
Plaintiffs stipulate that Chone Figgins is being held culpable by association. Had the M's deployed Adrian Gonzalez and Justin Upton in 2010, we likely wouldn't be having this conversation.
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6. Who is the second player? Is it one of the A's awesome young pitchers? I didn't think so.
Nothing further, thank you for your time.
Dr. D heartily digs the legal satire, counselor :- )
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=== Closing Argument Dept.===
Figgins in the second half last year: 3.89 runs created per 27 outs.
Compare Figgins' 88 wRC+ to the leaders at third base in 2010. Four players in the majors had fewer, one being Jose Lopez. Mark Reynolds, of all people, had many more RC than Chone Figgins in 2010.
Granted, one of the four 3B's who hit worse than Chone Figgins was --- > Kevin Kouzmanoff. :- )
Cheers,
Dr D
I'm all for making Ichiro! happy.
That's why we just bat Ackley behind him.
Ichiro has has greater year, great years and just good years....I highly doubt that who hit behind him influenced it much.
He hit .315 with Figgins hitting behind him last year. He hit .352 with Beltre hitting behind him in '09. Huh?
He must have been unhappy in '09.
moe