=== Carlos Peguero ===
Ripped two hot-shot base hits that evaded fielders by only a yard or two. A single to the SS's right, and the big game-tying RBI to the second baseman's right.
You know, when Richie Sexson came up as a rookie, there was a lot made about the fact that it was hard to get him out on a ground ball. His one-hoppers whistled through the infield with topspin, and infielders' range was cut in half, it seemed like...
Peguero hits the ball so blinkin' hard that the infielders get two, even one, step. Not four steps. The middle infielders are playing Hot Corner Step And Dive out there.
I don't think my heart can take it, son. That kid is gonna scatter people like rabbit pellets.
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=== Adam Kennedy ===
Who was it again that pointed out the topspin factor?
Sure enough, that hot-shot RBI in the 8th off the bench ... Kennedy's bat came through head-high, and then wrapped around down low, like a Pete Sampras topspin backhand.
His OPS+ is back up to 120 (!) and it's becoming clear to me that Adam Kennedy should be a Seattle Mariner until he is too old to play baseball.
Seriously. I like Kennedy's topspin. I like him at 1B, 2B, 3B*, and as a pinch hitter. I like him hitting lefty. I like his Fightin' Irish fisticuffs. Kennedy can play on my ballclub any time.
There is only one problem -- you can only have two of these three players:
And the M's will have a LOT of outfielders the next few years. Kennedy doesn't play SS, so if you keep him, either the 12-man staff or the 5th infielder has to go.
Easy call. This rotation is under club control, isn't it? Prepare for the 11-man staff in Seattle. From now on.
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To me, he is a Russell Branyan type find for Zduriencik, and SSI hopes that Capt Jack will proudly display him for the next year or three.
Adam Kennedy is a championship-level 5th infielder.
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=== El Kapitan ===
Kudos to Eric Wedge, who selected Kennedy to PH in the 8th. And who immediately pinch-ran for Justin Smoak in the top of the 9th. And who sent Michael Saunders on a gutsy SB in the 9th. Allowing Peguero's heroics.
Wedge on a hot roll, boys.
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=== Part Time Glover Dept. ===
The hitting stats for selected Mariners the last seven days:
Would be nice if Saunders, carried out of the blazing desert sun of overexposure, suddenly rehydrated on the bench. So far, he has.
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=== Brendan Ryan ===
It's a funny thing. Several times this year, Dave Sims has relayed Eric Wedge's intuition that Brendan Ryan or Miguel Olivo or whoever had been swinging the bat well, and was about to bust out.
He said that about Ryan, and now Ryan is 9-for-his-last 24, stringing a bunch of two-hit games. He's smacking the ball around like it was the wiffleball patio in St. Louis.
Okay, I unsay the bit about LRod for Ryan. See how easy?
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=== Jack Wilson ===
1-for-5, no walks .... three runs scored. Like a senator riding to office on the coattails of a 60% president...
Hitting is contagious, to some small extent, and the M's offense is no longer cadaverous. Wilson's night an indication.
.......
Did you see the little blog-o-sphere article a few days ago, in which Wilson said he and his wife were packed and ready to leave Seattle?
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=== Chris Gimenez ===
Am sure he's a nice guy. And he's richer, better-looking and younger than me. See next article.
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Over last 3 games: league average (80.0% on 30 pitches)
Some quick/dirty math says, for reason of season: about 50% (took a ton of swings Sunday so the avg. is pretty heavily weighed toward recent games)
Another good stat:
First 8 games back, Seattle: 6 K
Last 8 games, w/ Tacoma: 17 K
What is going on?
He's on pace for about 120-130 K's over the course of 155 games, which would be quite low for a hitter like him.
He hasn't started walking yet, so his EYE is unacceptable at the moment. But the next stage would be for ML pitchers to show respect and start pitching him more carefully. ... he's gotta do some damage first.
So far, he's passing with flying colors, as far as being able to cover the pitches.
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Nothing unusual at all for a GOOD hitter (if that's what he is) to show a funky change in his EYE as he goes from AAA to the majors.
The scouting reports, etc. etc. are so advanced in the bigs, that a hitter's game warps under the pitchers' decisions whether to challenge them or not.
Ryan Howard, for example, walked 40-50 times in the minors with a poor EYE, but then got to the majors and started walking 100+ times with a good EYE.
.........
Peguero lowering his K rate... I imagine he's staying within himself now, bearing down, taking the challenge seriously .... simply elevating his game to the level of his opposition.
Lots of guys evolve quickly upon getting to the ML game, getting to the coaching, the video, etc. Peguero is, so far, one of them.
..........
We see this constantly: saberdudes assume that you take a AAA player, take his 15 stat categories, make them all a notch worse, and that's what you'll get in the majors.
Then Kerry Wood or Tim Lincecum get to the bigs and stop walking people, or Ryan Howard gets to the bigs and his whole game morphs, and they can't understand why.
Projecting a AAA player is definitely not as simple as ---> assuming his MLE stats across the board. This is one of the areas in which the pro's and the 'net rats talk past each other.
Did the M's have the "right" to promote Michael Pineda? The stats said no. The pro's said yes, and .... THASS UNPOSSIBLE! Pineda is better in the AL than he was in the PCL! CAN'T BE!
Saberdudes are a long way from getting ahold of that idea. MLE's get overemphasized.
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How you gonna walk him? He's golfing balls in the dirt, he can reach the opposite batter's box and there's no top to his strike zone?
I think it was Bill James who said eons ago, in one of the first widely distributed BB Digests (IIRC), that some hitters get better in the majors because (he speculated...again, IIRC) that MLB pitchers tend to be more around the strike zone. You'll get fewer real "mistakes" to hit...but see lots fewer 55 ft curve balls and balls 2 ft wide.
It sure seems I remember reading that in one of his old digests. I have several still laying around...will see if I can verify. If I can find them!
Was it just me, or did it look like there was a bit more effort to bust him in on the hands lat night? He's hit the yakker...so now pitchers are throwing inside heat.
What do the pitch and location charts say?
And...I must say that I was disappointed that with a one-run lead, a runner on third and two outs...with a lefty on the mound, Wedge went ahead and hit Cust instead of M. Wilson. I know that Cust had hit one out (and got good wood on that last line out), but there was your chance to use the R/L scenario that Wedge seems to have adopted in LF.
"We see this constantly: saberdudes assume that you take a AAA player, take his 15 stat categories, make them all a notch worse, and that's what you'll get in the majors."