1
With apologies to Johan Sebastian, maybe Vogelbach will display A Well-Tempered Bat.
I sincerely hope he does not wield it with a G-String, however, even when he hits the ball in the Air.
Byte Sized SSI Prospectus
.
PLAYOFFS
Fangraphs has us at 23.7%. Like DiPoto sez, we're one winning streak away.
Frustrating of course to watch all the "key turnaround games" flare up in smoke like magicians' flash paper, but objectively speaking, the horror show Sunday merely canceled the fraction on the miracle of beating Aroldis Chapman the day before. After the Red Sox, we enter a long stretch of enemies who are not Jake Arietta? And they have their King Talisman back.
OPS+ 108, ERA+ 100, ERA going forward to be forged sans one Wade Miley. See you at the ballpark.
.
DECONSTRUCTING THE TRADE
When the M's coughed up Carson Smith, plus a starting pitcher more valuable than Miley himself, SSI called the deal a howler. It turned out to be exactly that. Refreshingly, Jerry DiPoto owned it with his classy nod to the fact that "we made the trade with high hopes; thanks to Wade for his efforts."
But: (1) we also called the Bartender-Leonydas deal a howler, and that was exactly wrong. So ... the two deals wind up as [our franchise HOF center fielder plus Roenis Elias] for [Carson Smith plus Roenis Elias]? We cancel the fractions and get, pretty much, Carson Smith for Leonydas Martin, who in context has been a defining piece for Jerry DiPoto's 2015 offseason.
Early returns on the Texas + Boston trades are nicely plus for me. And I don't have to tell you that I'd deal Miller & LoMo for Nate Karns in a heartbeat - even ignoring the fact that we needed Brad Miller out of that blinkin' locker room.
Hey, amigos, you and I moaned and groaned and prayed for death over the Seattle Mariners' lack of OBP. DiPoto actually did something about it, both tactically and strategically. It says here that his subtle trade approaches have been ahead of, not behind, SSI's perceptions of what was best.
Or not :- )
.
'BACH
Forget who coined the term. Gotta love it though: (1) Vogelbach is definitely an artist in the batter's box. (2) Johannes Bach was, in my imagination at least, not an athlete. He was a piano player.
'Bach has a low BABIP the last week, hitting .147 despite a 7:8 EYE. But what's fascinating is that his grounder ratio went from 1.30 pre-Mariners to 0.5 after he joined the M's. Guess the Edgar Crew started in early on him.
Interesting the M's held on to Adam Lind, as opposed to clearing the decks Miley-style. He sits at .235/.273/.508 since May 8th, with the .221 BABIP. About what Jay Bruce woulda done :- )
.
Enjoy,
Dr D
Comments
2
In Bach's day it was the harpsichord, or clavier, not the piano. But that point is moot, because J.S. Bach was an organist. Piano is hard, organ is harder. Organ means you're playing notes with your feet at the same time. Put another way, if piano is chess, organ is 3-D chess.
By the way have we a definitive pronunciation for Vogelbach? I say it like the composer, but Curto is always going with Vogel-BACK.
Love the puns, DaddyO. :)