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Drayer says, "The Mariners brought 16 hitters - including Mike Zunino, Chris Taylor, Jesus Montero, Boog Powell, D.J. Peterson and Alex Jackson - to Arizona to participate in the hitting summit."
And here we thought Montero was circling the airport until his flight could be diverted down to Oakland. ... no, more seriously, Montero does look like the kind of hitter who has been reacting on instinct. If you took a shot in the dark, find 10 players around baseball, who could leap a big plateau through better anticipation, Montero would probably be on the Post-It Note.
....
Chris Taylor was one of the guys you'd thought was already doing so. But you -- and by "you" Dr. D means "himself" -- may not want to assume too much, judging by
"They got into a little more of the specifics," he said. "Things we need to get better at as an organization. Our walk-to-strikeout ratio was one of the numbers. They pulled up every player that was there and this is the stat that they have that they have found the good Major League players have a good BB/K ratio. It's something we all needed to improve on. The drills we worked on, some of that stuff was to help improve that going into the season."
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Ahhhhh... ok, we've got to create player buy-in as to the esoteric K/BB stat. That's a cheery thought. And here Dr. D would have imagined that, when a hitter whiffs and trudges back to the dugout head down, he'd have noticed that it's less fun than being on the bases. It's a little bit disquieting. Baseball hitters have been through a LOT!! of neural conditioning on the difference between a strikeout and a triumphant jog to go get onto those base thingies.
It's a funny thing, though; relief pitching on the field changed, when the stats started revolving around "Saves." And walks are far more glorified than they used to be; when Sandy Alderson had Rickey Henderson, he started posting OBP inside the stadium. What if that were the only stat you posted on a hitter, on that big Jumbotron up there, was K:BB ratio? Well, Edgar Martinez hit exactly as if that were the case.
No, of course the specific details involved in --- > targeting Sonny Gray for termination are nuanced, and proprietary. The question is this:
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"What struck me in talking with Taylor and Dipoto is that both focused on hitting at the big league level. It's one thing to put up numbers in the minor leagues, but what the Mariners are looking for as an organization is what will make a hitter successful in the big leagues against big league pitching. According to Taylor, that was the focus of the cage drills."
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OK, sounds great. But here's the thing. Let's say Luis Liberato takes all this seriously, and starts focusing on tough (MLB-worthy) pitches and showing he can hit those. At cost to his easy taters on hanging sliders. How does the organization, systematically, reward those hitters who attend to "staying within themselves" when some other yoyo on the same bench is hitting 35 homers by whaling away?
I dunno.
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DiPoto also sez,
"It is essentially trying to lay a foundation," he said. "Alex Jackson just turned 20. Tyler O'Neill is in his 21-year-old season. D.J. Peterson is still just 23 years old. We still have some time to lay a foundation that they can build a career on. Some of them have done things very well over time, for instance. Tyler O'Neill has shown the ability to hit for power -that's uncommon. He's athletic and he can hit the ball over the fence."
So they've brought up Tyler O'Neill quite a few times now. The M's also had O'Neill in the Winter Fall League, where he slugged .700+ ... and fanned an 11:0 EYE ratio in 30 AB's :- )
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We're also told that Chris Taylor will compete against Luis Sardinas and Shawn O'Malley for the 25th roster slot. Well, not quite, but that's almost what we're told. You're talking about a guy who could very feasibly become a quality major league shortstop, competing against two players who are the definition of fringe/zero upside. So there's where we find out who's listening, it seems.
BABVA,
Dr D
