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Dr. D resumed watching the Mariners a week or so ago, resumed watching from his chair placed at eight inches' distance from the monitor, as it were. Last few games he remembered to check Saunders' mechanics. Huh! Haven't noticed a single swing, this week, in which he pulled the front hip.
We've discussed before, but for those just joining us: Saunders is a "long-lever" athlete, a giraffe type. He gets plenty of torque with a cut-down swing. If he tries to get those giraffe arms going in the same arc as Kyle Seager's, he's late to the ball. He needs to trust his natural leverage and not overswing.
Moe can correct if we're wrong here, but the 60-yard pitch shot in golf is what we're talking about here. You take the club back to 10 o'clock and you make sure you don't swing it past 2 o'clock, either. That's what Saunders needs to do. When he's done swinging, his bat needs to be no further than the 1B foul line, and his belt buckle needs to be pointed at the shortstop.
In aiki terms, his "ki" needs to be directed straight out to CF. The imaginary ray of light of his intentions, that needs to beam straight ahead. Not be wrapping around a corner and then zooming out to finish up on the 1B foul pole somewhere.
Anyway, after a hiatus in TV time of our usual magnitude, here we come back in September and yowza. Saunders looks very cool.
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=== Let's! Go! to the Video! Tape! ===
A bit queasy, Dr. D wondered why Saunders hadn't been raking, then. Doesn't the mainframe have any predictive validity any more?
We checked the splits and .... found our happy place.
| AVG | OBP | SLG | |
| Last 7 days | .333 | .400 | .556 |
| Last 14 | .318 | .375 | .500 |
| Last 28 | .348 | .412 | .696 |
And the last 28 days or 13 games, a 4:10 EYE, right smack dab exactly where he needs to be as a budding 30-jack center fielder.
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=== Meet Your New Center Fielder ===
One TV broadcast this week, the Canadians up north axed about their native son. Eric Wedge laid down the law. "Michael Saunders is just scratching the surface of what he can do." Wedge is sky-high about his attitude, his ability, yada yada yada.
Well, what Michael Saunders is doing, 2012 overall, is playing a quality CF, hitting for a good 103 OPS+, and running the bases very well (19:3 stolen bases). That's a solid 3 WAR for the league minimum.
On the road he's already hitting .265 with 40 doubles and 20 homers, pro-rated, and 30 steals.
............
As to scratching the surface: the .696 SLG finishing burst here is very provocative. Check him over the last few weeks.
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10-2 0'clock is a standard golf trm. That is how you hit pitch shots.
By the way, make that 9-3 and you can get plenty of whallup. Doug Sanders-type whallup.
If M. Saunders can keep finishing with his "ki" (is that the aiki word for belt buckle?) pointed at CF when he's done, he's a heck of a hitter.
More and more I like this guy. My goodness I've come a long ways.
moe