1
...home field advantage, and the skill of the offenses and team defenses as well as the SP match-up, but yeah...looking at that match-up I went "well that's an L"
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ON ARIEL MIRANDA
That was without a doubt the best game I've seen him throw, and the most encouraging. He seemed to take about -1 MPH off the fastball, at the gain of locating it in critical moments. Here are his first 2 strikeouts in the 7th, this previously being his 3rd-trip bugaboo:
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To Ben Revere: Fastball outer third strike one (the hitter wants more of a hitter's pitch to open the AB). Fastball above the hands, inside, strike two. Slider breaks below the knees. Slider sails (safely) wide - Revere wants it, swings, fouls it off, still 1-2. Last pitch, 93 mph heater, inside black right on the hands, Revere doesn't even offer, hoping the ump will bail him out.
Miranda will roll over any batter with that execution.
Graterol: they're all fastballs. (1) paintball. (2) knee pounder. (3) jam pitch. What is this, Doogie Fister?
Kole Calhoun was the third K (!!) of the 7th (!!) Four fastballs letter high, nothing anywhere near the wheelhouse.
Bill James always said, stop swapping out your pitchers every two weeks. You got 15 starts invested in a kid with talent, see if you can build something. Who knows: maybe Ariel Miranda is gaining command. If so, he's going to be quite a #6 starter...
...
Also fancied that he kept his hands closed late into the delivery, keeping the shoulder back, which is how Dr. D personally likes to throw the ball. Gathered in a spiral around the CG and the ball until the very last moment. Maybe it was our imagination?
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ON JEAN SEGURA
Wish sez:
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Segura is at 10.1 UZR/150. Considering the fluctuation and questions of his defense there I'll take that. He's looked pretty good to me. Motter -16.1 there this year, BTW. He's looked better than that to me.
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Segura LOOKS average-solid to me at shortstop; who's going to confuse him with Jack Wilson, grabbing a hot shot over the bag and firing to 1B in the middle of a 720-degree somersault? Motter has looked average-below average. Cross-checking it just a bit ... John Dewan has Segura for even steven, +1 play in the hole and -1 to his gloveside. +1 going back and -1 coming in. Total 0.
Motter he's got for -3 plays behind a big league shortstop, which is a high bar ... -2 right, -2 left, +1 going back. In the equivalent of 15 games. In both cases the gloves are about where Wish and I would guess, and about what you need from a bat-first shortstop and his bat-first utility backup. Nothing hurting us there.
Jean Segura is hitting .329/.379/.493, correct me if I'm wrong, this being precisely what he hit last year down to the 1000'th decimal point. To me he looks like Jose Lopez done right: he can pull a bullet. OR he can blonk a right-center fline drive off the dirt.
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ON BEN GAMEL
Now hitting .333/.444/.567, which is a Peter Plichta Magic Reciprocal of 81 if I'm not mistaken. He's off to one whale of a start in 40 at-bats. But his OF spray chart makes Ted Williams look pedestrian. Nice to know that he can turn around a fastball, and nice to know that he can decelerate his bat into a corner shot, like Cano and Segura can. But they're going to start throwing everything low-away to make him roll those over. He needs some clean singles up the middle.
Way too many doubles, keeed!
Jen Mueller said something about the Mariners getting a fantastic line out of their #2 slot all year. (It's .351/.463/.658 in 163 AB's, in part because you don't want the 4 stars to beat you.) Gamel shot back instantly: "Ask Mitch about that."
:- D
Assuming that Gamel can diversify his spray chart a tadbit, I agree with Matt that the ideal OF is --- > LF Gamel CF Heredia RF Haniger #4 Dyson #5 Motter.
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DIPOTO'S KIND OF OFFENSE
On TV they said something about "this is how Dipoto's offense is supposed to work." Yeah, his and Miller Huggins'. Eleven runs a game works for Lou and the Babe, right. With Segura going nuts, with Mitch Haniger exceeding our wildest dreams, with Boomstick in the top 10 for BATTING AVERAGE, with our bit players Gamel, Heredia, Dyson rolling, this offense is at 111 and as the summer warms up, I'm wondering how close it could get to 120.
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DARVISH VS HE WHO MUST NOT BE NAMED
538.com has the odds as exactly 50-50. Yep, that makes perfect sense. Do YOU get baseball odds?
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BABVA,
Dr D
Comments
2
I gotta believe Gamel/Heredia aren't quite THIS good, but as they cool off, Seager and Cano heat back up...and Valencia...and you still have Motter if anyone goes into a slump...and then we get Haniger back...
3
But they are solid MLB OF's all the same, CF-glovey, w/bats that can hurt you and Eye good enough to make a pitcher earn his living.
And they both can run.
Doc, they aren't Don Bufords, but they do have some Paul Blair in them, minus the multiple GG's.
And they both whip Cesar Geronimo.
4
The best hitter on the Rangers at the moment seems to be Joey Gallo, who strikes out at Zunonian levels.
5
even once they get Beltre back, they are a .450 team at best. When the dust settles, I expect the Angels, Rangers and As to all settle in below .500 to varying degrees, the Astros to win 95+ games and the Mariners to play some baseball. No idea if they get roaring hot and pace the Astros or stumble along a flawed team with bad pitching and finish the year around .500
6
Because why not. What else WOULD happen to this benighted joke of a franchise?
7
...we'd acquire Segura, and trip into Haniger, and see Miranda keep raising the bar EEEEEVER so slightly, and watch Gamel/Heredia take steps forward, and suddenly find Motter very interesting, and...
Heh. There's a counter-balance to that, too, no? This seems to be the year in which, if you're a Mariner, you either A.) break out, B.) start slow, or C.) get injured. Some mixing of letters permitted.