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Jason Churchill doesn't really consider it feasible to keep a pure 1B as your #4 benchie. Lots and lots of people agree with him, especially scouts. Churchill leans toward Stefen Romero to platoon with Adam Lind, on the basis that he is your #6 OF also.
Dr. D's view is that --- > conventional baseball wisdom on this point, can too often be either (1) lazy, or (2) a cover-your-backside approach. Dr. D has little sympathy for a manager who fears the "embarrassment" of, in the late innings, losing his DH for two innings once a month. He also has little sympathy for a manager who thinks he needs 8 relievers, as Lloyd did. SSI joins Bill James in believing that the proliferation of RP's, and switch-hitting utility infielder benchies, to be an indulgence.
Instead, the Earl Weaver approach gains in Big Platoons Batting Sixth, at the tiny cost of making the manager think more in the late innings. Does Scott Servais fit this bill? We can hope. But as it stands, the Mariners have Big Platoons Batting Sixth at three different positions: 1B, and RF, and C. This gladdens Dr. D's heart.
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You don't think chicks dig the long ball? Here is Lee's wife:
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Dr. D firmly denies all charges that he is a lecherous old goat, but the above human person defines feminine beauty for him. Strictly on a conceptual basis, obviously.
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Lookout Landing imbedded an HR reel which features Lee taking a long string of LHP's to the gallows. And the HR at 1:05 comes off a 94 MPH fastball. This visual is of considerable comfort because:
1) Left hand pitchers in MLB have lower velocity to start with. They're drafted from a thinner pool of Americans; more lefties pitch in MLB than occupy breathing space in our society. It's a natural selection thing.
2) When Lee is RH-on-LH, he gets a good extra tick of time there too, which you add to 1) above. Often an aging slugger will cobble out an extra couple years, hiding in the shadow of a platoon advantage.
3) At the moment there are few hard-throwing lefties in the American League. ... okay, Chris Sale and David Price, we'll give you those two. But who else is 93 and up? Name them. Lee will not have to bat against James Paxton.
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Here is a very fine stats breakdown of Lee by LL's Jake Mailhot. His takeaways are that (1) Lee has a surprising CT% (contact) tool, and (2) a good projection has Lee >> Montero, but that (3) we should worry about how SLG from Asia will translate generally. It says here that Lee's sheer size and strength address the last point.
Once, Cindy and I got a Safeco suite and the host walked us around the buffet, proud of all the avante-garde food. Then she sort of shrugged, "Here's the baseball food" - hot dogs, popcorn, etc. From what Dr. D sees on TV, noodles are in fact a very popular stadium food in NPB. He wishes that were true here also.
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Dr. D first became enchanted with NPB --- > MLB power hitters when Cecil Fielder came over and hit 51 homers against offspeed pitching. On the video reel linked above, Lee swats one Buehrle-style hook after another. Without a doubt, Lee has the ability to keep his hands back. Your SSI Guide to the HR Derby:
0:20 = low-in RH fastball lasered over the LF wall like that one Nelson Cruz hit off Felix
0:30 = out-and-over LH "fastball" punished, over the right-center fence on a line
0:45 = Lee steps in the bucket against a LH slurve down and in, keeps the ball just fair
0:60 = quality, sharp RH change curve blasted in Cecil Fielder style
1:10 = 94 MPH RH fastball destroyed, into the 2nd deck straightaway CF
1:20 = see pitch 1 above. Ball ricochets off the facade back to the SS :- )
1:30 = just an 87 LH fastball inside. Cruz-style 100-foot apex
1:50 = lousy hanging RH curve. Babe Ruth mini-step HR trot
2:00 = low-away RH slider, mebbe off the plate, pulled out to LF
2:20 = again a mushpitch, but nice 2-second hang time
2:35 = check out the pitcher :- )
2:50 = Mike Piazza-style punishment of another mistake. The M's have had a few players who didn't
3:00 = well-located 87 RH fastball hit past the Mariner bullpen
3:15 = 91 RH fastball, another low missile into the 12th row
3:30 = Serious Vladimir Guerrero action on this FB way outside the zone
3:40 = etc
Enjoy,
Jeff
We have a catcher who can play 1B (Clevenger), a SS who can play multiple other positions (Marte) in a pinch, a platoon RF who can play all three OF positions (Guti may not be a regular CFer anymore, but he can play there for three innings...sheesh), and will be carrying a utility player for the infield spots. I don't get it...why wring our hands over a 1B platoon?
Smith/Gutierrez + Martin + Aoki have got it covered, and Cruz is ready for some play in right. Carrying O'Malley rather than Taylor may have some merit until we know what we got.
Thing is, if Lee makes the club and Montero upgrades the bullpen, whose to say we don't discover our boy can mash in the bigs? What if we find we want Cano/Cruz/Lee in the middle of the lineup EVERY DAY with Seager at #2?
VS RHP that means Cruz in RF, Lee at DH, Lind at 1B and you've got two of Smith/Gut and Aoki/Martin on the bench for pinch-hitting duty.
I love the etc comment! Way great stuff.
The 3rd homer, the one at 0:45 had me giggling like a kid. That's the slurvey/bendy/slidery stuff that he's going to see from LHP. Here's the alert to LHRP....miss that pitch by just a bit and go ahead and turn your head early to watch it curve around the foul pole.
I'm pretty sure that I've been one of the most consistent voices about having flexibility in your lineup, maybe the most consistent (which = obnoxious). I'm fairly confident that I've been among Romero's biggest supporters. I still like the guy.
But just based on his Asian-ball pedigree and the vids weve seen, I would pick Mr. Lee, right now.
I would be more concerned about our CF vL guy, because Mqrtin is pretty terrible in that regard. But, just perhaps, you can weather a .580 Martin in CF vL if you have Cruz and Lee as a Dynamic vL Duo.
I like Montero, too.....but I think Lee is Our Guy Friday. And the contract is, evidently, so user friendly that we can bide our time.
You da' man, Dipoto!
...for the highlight reel of him playing first. That may be equally entertaining.
as Lee's partner so ably demonstrates.
. . . and beer are the only things served in some Korean ballparks. So far as I'm concerened, what else could you possibly want?
On the platoons: Carrying the guys to do this isn't better or worse than carrying 8 relievers. It's just a choice. Most of the MLB teams now platoon pitchers, not hitters. Given the prices you pay for middling relievers compared to really good platoon bats, seems to me Dipoto is trying to determine if this is a fresh market inefficiency. That's what good, modern GM's are supposed to do. And, of course it would be scouts who object. That's so far out of their expertise you should be barred from blogging if you quoted one to that effect. It'd be like quoting Dr. D on politics!
Splitoons disappeared from bars before they disappeared from dugouts.
It's the quality of who you have to platoon that determines how many of these or how many of those you need.
How many times did our previous manager complain about his bullpen guys needing work, or being overworked, to cut into his "strategy" at any given game?
This is not a blanket insurance policy which covers everybody, equally.
It is about the capability of any player in any given situation maintaining as much flexibility as possible, especially in the last couple innings.
Look at the AB's on Lind ... or, did anybody look at the splits? ... or were they forced to use him against both lefties and righties? He'll only go against the one siders with the M's a huge percentage of the time.
Good splitooning should allow you better balance on the high wire when the wind picks up.
I'm just hoping Servais is a good weather forecaster.
zoom
Is a great thing, where the manager is going to use that flexibility actively, to deploy weapons, so he can win games in the late innings. An Earl Weaver would have flexible bench bats and then he would pull the trigger and actually PINCH HIT once in a while ;- )
Where flexibility is used passively, to provide 100.00% insurance that the manager is never embarrassed by one inning of Kyle Seager at shortstop, Dr. D is less enthused about it. ... Granted, major league managers have to pick their media battles carefully, and their professional lives can depend on that kind of perception...
I still love the manager who takes the game to the other team, and if the media doesn't like his moves, the players often will...
Good stuff Zoom!