Austin Bibens-Dirkx' mom wrote in at Detect-O-Vision on Aug. 25th. The Cubbies have made him a starter and he's rocking to the tune of a 41:7 control ratio in 58 IP.
AB-D was smokin' along in the M's org with a 90+ sidearm pitch -- almost unheard of to generate that power from that angle -- and then he was derailed by a project to raise his center of gravity (to get more action on his pitches).
He immediately got injured, but since he's healthy and pitching very well right now, we assume the Cubbies let him get back to his natural Gimli-esque release point.
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=== Chicks Dig the Long Ball, Dept. ===
So that's 20 home runs for Jose Lopez, and 20 home runs to straightaway left field. Don't you score a "Century" wicket or something for that?
Has that happened before? 20-for-20 home runs to one field in a season.
Come to think of it, it's probably not unusual: we heard that every one of Dustin Pedroia's 17 homers last year went Adam Dunn had 16 balls > 400 feet that were NOT homers.)
When Jose got his pitch in 2007, he turned on it, and smoked a sizzling ground ball to one side of the third baseman or the other. (You could look it up: his GB% was verrrrrrry high in his early years.) He has since learned how to loft it on purpose.
Don't miss the lesson learned! Guys were wondering, "how will he ever hit home runs with a 50% grounder rate?!" We sez, back then, "They learn to deliberately yank the mistakes when they're older."
Right?
Grounder rates can be changed by a hitter's choices. Guys learn to swing fo the fences. Baseball isn't all Strat-O. :- )
.................
The 20th homer came on a fastball that was in off the plate, both too far inside, and too high, to be a strike. When a pitch is a ball if he doesn't swing, and a HR if he does, the pitchers call that "not fair."
Real quick here, pitchers will have only the outside half of the plate to pitch to.
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=== Forty Homers, Sayonara ===
Herniated disc. 33 years old. Yuck.
Pretty soon, Capt. Jack is going to be signing a fistful of Bedards, Branyans and sundry M*A*S*H* stars for the league minimum in 2010. :- )
Annnnnd .... as Baker pointed out, the entire M's lineup including Snell was making less than $5M in salary on Saturday. (Standing O for the single-minded, grandmasterly focus on the objective: figuring out the best 2010 players.)
But! The guys who were going to make money, now can't. Who's Jack going to spend the jack on? Dunn dee dunn dunn DUNNNNNNN...
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=== Just 'Cause I'm Such a Positive Guy Dept. ===
On an unfathomably great scoreboard day, about $12 per base that Jack spent... we noticed another 0 BB's and 6 K's offensively.
Last we checked, the M's 30-day scan had their EYE at 0.30. Has it gone up or down since den?
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Cheers,
Dr D
I didn't realize it was this bad...makes it all the more amazing that Branyan was still hitting for power during this stretch.
If we can't put Branyan into the line-up next year, then we DEFINITELY need to acquire someone with power at first base or DH and we'll be starting Ackley or Carp at first. :\ Very bad news. It also means we're probably not going to make any sort of run this month. :(
Lot of players compete with back pain, especially in golf and baseball....
Herniated disc was Randy Johnson's injury and the reason that the front office didn't want to "risk" a 3-year deal for him ... J.D. Drew, Eric Chavez and a host of others have had the same injury ... they play through the pain...
The fact that Branyan was still hitting for great power bodes well for his being ready to go after 6 months off, but still... he's getting up there a bit in years...
There's at least the possibility that the Mariners could get both Bedard and Branyan on the super-duper cheap, DH Branyan (to keep his back healthy), work Bedard in when he's ready, and find another player to plug another hole (3B? LF? SP? LHRP?) with the cost savings, no?
If Branyan doesn't play any more this year, and then the doctors clear him this winter, you'd think they could bring him back for, like, $3-4M and a promise that he's the starter.
Till Billy Beane gets involved, I guess...
I love Branyan's contribution to the team this year, but is this another example of a player playing hurt to the detriment of the team (Sexson, Beltre...)? Maybe with more time off during the season, he could have kept his back in better shape. Or maybe not. A herniated disk may happen from a single event. Maybe it is just hindsight, but he's been slumping for some time.
Man, I remember Bibens-Dirkx... The whole "I'm not a side-armer anymore" thing was mind-boggling.
The Ms nearly tweaked him out of a career (led to many arm injuries as well). I hope he has some success with the Cubbies.
Churchill has an interesting comment on ABD in one of the comment threads on PI.
AB-D and I talk regularly. He's low-90s, touching 94-95 over the top, and sitting 86-89 when he drops down.
Seems to point to ABD having two separate arm slots that he's pitching from. If he can incorporate an over the op delivery with the sidearm delivery (Cuban style?), then he could be fearsome.
...if he does become fearsome because he can change arm angles, then he owes some of his success to the very guys DOV has been ripping on for the very reason Doc has ripped on them.