These 10 pitch at bats in classic Kyle Seager or Seth Smith style is some of the most entertaining stuff.  It is much preferred to inning ending ground into double plays and one hoppers to the first baseman.  That's bad baseball.  My eight year old kid can get into an 11 pitch at bat.  "What happens if he fouls it 75 times"?  "Nothing, the game goes on." 

There is such a thing as boring yet effective style.  Check the MMA career of Cole Konrad.  He wasn't a good interview, his muscles didn't bulge, he didn't hype a crowd, and he never lost a bout.  He was the Bellator champ before he retired, and the UFC stayed well away from him in favor of more exciting brawlers. 

We like moon shots, swinging strikes and doubles down the line, but at the end of the day, we will take our winning however we can get it.  If the Mariners win boring or ugly, then so be it.

I've always thought that winning was fun to watch!  

Nicholson is a funny guy for BJ to mention.  He played for three good White Sox teams ('63-'65) but he was only a fulltime player in '63....a year he hit 22 homers and K'ed 175 times (leading the league in the later).  Other than that, he was a part-time player throughout his career and generally not a very good one. 

From '04-'12 Dunn hit 46, 40, 40, 40, 40, 38, 38, 11 and 41 homers.  He K'ed a bazillion times and walked nearly a bazillion times.  He basically played his entire career on lousy teams.  They weren't fun to watch, but I have a warm heart for guys who hit 40 homeruns like clockwork.  He would have been fun to watch.

Reynolds K'ed even more, walked less and hit fewer homeruns.  He was the classic slugging CIF/dual position guy.  I always thought he had value.  He was individually less fun to watch than Dunn, but he played for several pretty good teams.  I would have thought he was valueable, whacking 30 homers.

I'll gladly take a bunch of K's, along with a bunch of BB's and an boatload of homers.  

Were Adam Dunn a LF'er and playing for the M's, we would all be in love with him.

Rightfully so.

Winning makes a bunch of imperfections somehow attractive.

moe

I find him frustrating, obnoxious, and stupid.

Sorry, Doc.  He makes too many really dumb mental mistakes while hitting, while fielding, and while running the bases.  I *hate* players who player like morons.  Cano is annoying me a lot this year, for example, even though he is not normally the type that does.  What I want from players is that they be dynamic, skilled, and sharp.  That they take every moment of every game seriously as much as humanly possible, and that they not beat themselves.

I loved watching Brendan Ryan playing. Sure he could not hit but many times a game he would do the most amazing things you'd never seen before.  There's definitely something to be said for watching someone be the best in the world at their position.   It's just too bad for him that he didn't play on the Red Sox or something. Where his bat would play.

But I see the spirit of your point, Doc.  For me, the bigger issue with Bone or Cammy was simply that they were sometimes asked to be more than they were (Cammy was asked to be a legit #5 hitter, for example, though Buhner probably had less of an issue with that given how deep the M's lineup was during his peak).

And yeah, the idea of exciting > excellent is one that has resonated with me since I was a kid.  Watch the UFC and you'll see TONS of guys who grind their way to a victory (this accusation used to be exclusively leveled against white wrestlers, but many Brazilians are playing the same game these days by sitting back, waiting for their counter opportunity, and when it never arrives they sulk off into the corner and blame their opponent for not hanging their chin out and making the result 'exciting for the fans').

Heck, watch Floyd Mayweather if you need any more examples of this.  He's *NOT* fun to watch box, but he *IS* fun to watch simply master everyone that steps into the ring with him.  The style is utterly abhorrent, but the body of work demands respect even from casual fans like myself.  He's not undefeated because he's been lucky (though I still thought Oscar got him...*grumblegrumble*), but rather because he's simply better at this than every other boxer on the planet.  What Floyd's done is cast himself so effectively as the Bad Guy that everyone *WANTS* to see him get his mouth shut, so they buy the PPV in spite of the rotten taste he left in their mouths the last half dozen times they did the same thing.

This is part of why Mike Tyson still generates a positive reaction from fans.  He was excellent *AND* he was exciting.  It's a rare combination (like Bonds was, or maybe could be still if they'd let him back into the game...*grumblegrumble*) and when we see it, we all recognize it.

Bonds' collusion complaint is legit.  He states that no team would sign him for the 2008 season.  Including the Mariners. 

This was our team in 2008:

So in 2008, Barry Bonds couldn't beat out Brad Wilkerson for a job?  He is tied with Raul Ibanez for longest hit in Safeco history. I think he only played a couple of games at Safeco.  In fact, Bonds holds most hitting records everywhere.  He's Barry Bonds.  He had an OPS that exceeded 1 in 2007, the last year he played.  Banning Bonds from playing in 2008 and thereafter was wrong.