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PROPS for ROBINSON CANO

Accused:  on or about July 1, Edgar Martinez took over, and Nelson Cruz took over the #3 slot in the order.  Moving Robbie to #4.  On Or About that date, Robby has been murdering AL pitchers most foully.  

First half:  .250/.290/.370, or approximately Kolten Wong.  Or, Yunel Escobar has batted .270/.340/.370 over the last three years.  Second half:  .348/.412/.555.  The player to compare this to?  Perhaps "Robinson Cano."

His resurrection is deliciously and wonderfully confirmed in the stat that dominates baseball, the strike zone stat, his batting EYE:

• 1H = 17 walks, 64 strikeouts (say what?)
• 2H = 18 walks, 27 strikeouts

You guys are sabes.  You realize that the difference between those two EYEs are vast, vast like the difference between Earl Thomas and some dilwad who gets stiff-armed to his tummy by a runner 40 yards past the line of scrimmage.  Vast like the difference between Michael Pineda's K:BB and ... somebody else's.

Another one-off stat:  Cano's season-long OPS+ is higher than Kyle Seager's.  Nobody thought Seager was struggling at any time.

The point is, Cano's not old.  Nice to hear.

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SLOPS for FRANKLIN GUTIERREZ

He's slugging .643 and is posting a slash line well in excess of Miguel Cabrera's.  For the 43 games that he has played baseball games on our behalf, he has effectively given us one of the greatest players in baseball history.  Good on him.

And it's no accident.  The home run that he hit Tuesday was off a fairly sharp curve ball, one that dropped down out of the strike zone.  Guti went down and got it, golfing it over the LF wall.  One thing Guti has always been able to do is pull the ball with authority, we'll give him that.

And 11 home runs in 43 games?  What do you think Dustin Ackley would give, to hit 11 homers in 155 games next year?  Guti's got them in a quarter of a season?

.....

How is that a SLOPS, you ax.  Well, it's just that Guti isn't really an impact player.  He's just a guy who has gotten hot for forty games.  His EYE, even in that stretch, is 9:37, and it's impossible* to sustain hitting success with an 0.2 EYE.  But Guti's EYE has always been very weak, which is one reason he's a career .403 slugger.  Dr. D is just pointing out that the huge SLG is not for real.

Neither is he a lefty-masher.  True, he has slugged nearly .500 when iso'ed against LHP's in his career.  But!  That's not lefty-mashing.  Ten thousand guys have slugged .490 or something when they were right-on-left.

Neither is he a gorgeous platoon CF with Miller next year.  The Mariners haven't put him in center once, not a single time, and we'll take that as important.

.....

We're super happy for Gutierrez.  We are.  Enjoy, amigo.

It's just that the Mariners are going to come to their senses and hire Dr. D as GM in 2016.  And Guti either (1) won't be back, or (2) will just be a bench outfielder.  And that would mean there wasn't a dynamic option for bench outfielder.

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PROPS for BRAD MILLER

The last three games, there have been several "marginal" balls that were at the limits of a center fielder's range.

SLAP me SILLY that kid can eat up GROUND!  He's still disoriented; every other ball he does something weird.  He goes to his knees to smother a simple one-hopper, or he overruns (?!) a gapper and misses it, or he clushes gloves with Nelson Cruz as the ball settles into one of their gloves.  But, hey, that also means that he was running wayyyy over into right field to start with.  When you and Nelson Cruz overlap territory on smoked gappers?  You can pick 'em up and lay 'em down.

We guessed it would be fun to watch, these last 30 days.  It's been more fun than we bargained for.

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CHOPS for KETEL MARTE

There was a crisp two-hopper up the middle yesterday.  Brad Miller -- who is a perfectly decent major league shortstop, with the John Dewan =0 stats to prove it -- would have lunged and probably got it.  80% chance that Miller would have snagged it in the webbing.

It hit Marte in the stomach.

.....

Matty wondered why he was 1-for-17 or something like that.  Well, number one, because all baseball players go 1-for-17 or something like that.  Number two, because Dallas Keuchel kicked his keister all the way to Gotham City.  As Dallas Keuchel does to a lot of guys, up to and including Nelson Cruz.  It's baseball, man.  Lot of ups and downs for Marte even if he DID turn out to be the Real Deal.

He walked twice more last night.  As with Gordon and Matt, I honestly do not understand why he has started taking so many pitches, just at the exact moment he started playing Major League baseball.  But that is in fact what he's doing.  At the moment.

I dunno what to make of it.  Very rare, in my memory banks anyway, for this to happen.  I'm taking suggestions from the floor.  :- )

BABVA,

Dr D