.

There has been a spirited debate this last week or two about the disappearance of Rod Carew and Ichiro types.  Guys who could hit .300-and-plenty while chipping the ball in front of the outfielders.   They are rare nowadays, perhaps because nobody launches the bat quickly and then drags it through the zone in Wade Boggs fashion.  A few guys lately have hit .300 with low power, Jose Altuve, Ben Revere, Marco Scutaro.  It will be fun to see if Ketel Marte can make a run at this.

...

A corollary is that --- > when you stack a lineup with HR hitters, they may bump into each other, for lack of elbow room.  When Nelson Cruz cleans 'em off with a 3-run shot, Kyle Seager's homer threat is devalued in the next at-bat.  But!  On the other hand, a lineup full of Ichiros is always working together in a coordinated fashion.

In chess we call this the "two Bishops" principle.  One Bishop running on light squares and one on dark squares, it is impossible to waste motion, to cover one square redundantly.  They slide back and forth like twin saws for you; this is true whether you're a Grandmaster or a patzer.  So it is with Kansas City's lineup.  Like Earl said, give me a lineup with eight Wade Boggses and I'll show you how simple managing can be.

Okay, he said eight Frank Robinsons.  But Earl's teams never hit 200 homers and scored 600.

...

Here yesterday James found a stat, after somebody asked him about the 1930 Cardinals who had all 8 of their hitters bat .300.  Last year's Mariners (he brought 'em up, not me!) hit 198 homers, but scored only 656 runs.  The 1930 St. Louis Cardinals hit 104 homers, but scored 1,004 runs.   Slap me silly and call me Shar-Pay :- )

Yes, Egbert, there were several other variables at work.  It was the 1930s; you have to consider the quality of the hitters; you have to consider the walks and SB's, yadda yadda yadda.  But 650 runs vs. 1000!

We can safely say that the 200-homer M's of last year could afford to slide some offensive energy from the "homers" column to the "hits" column.  Jerry DiPoto talked about "having our big game hunting done" so that we needed to "raise the floor around them."  Maybe he'll benefit from a factor that had escaped him, too.  Could be that, totally inadvertently, he'll get some benefit from subbing Ichiro-type players in for his LoMo-type players.

• Aoki = .287 AVG life (leadoff)
• Marte = .283 AVG (bats #2)
• Clevenger = .287 AVG (last year, heh!  So sue me.  I like 'im)
• Lind = .291 last 3 years, since his bustout - same as Pedroia, Hosmer, and Span

Adam Lind, despite his power and walks, is actually an outstanding pure-AVG hitter.  Top-10, top-15 in the league.  'course that is with skipping out on some of the LH-vs-LH matchups, which is fine.  Stephen Curry and Klay Thompson look for their favorite shots too.  It's a rather important part of sports.

Back in the 1970's they used to speak in terms of a "balanced ballclub."  The term is long obsolete.  But if it were still in use, there would be zero doubt that the 2016 M's are much better balanced than they were last year.

Enjoy,

Dr D