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HEARD ON THE SOUNDER TRAIN, ON THE WAY TO THE BALLPARK
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Mon 10:26am: OBF Doc... here you go, smooth and effortless... yet a "marginal" ball that a lot of CF's don't get to, certainly no Mariner since Guti was a gold glover... I like how his sprints at 20 mph for the first half of the path and then down shifts into a nice job as he catches it :)
http://m.mlb.com/video/topic/73955164/v723492383/seacin-martin-reaches-20-mph-on-outstanding-grab/?game_pk=447511
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Gracias amigo. You guys can link me up to StatCast any time! Hate missing Mariner plays on that thing. This was an especially good one; you can bet Dustin Ackley does something gruesome on that play. Martin was a pleasure to watch.
And, for the record, nobody has gotten any pushback from Dr. D on this point for a month now.
It's a delicious irony: in 1975, we baseball fans had nothing to say to the GM's and managers; the rational thing to do was to believe everything they told us, as opposed to forming our own opinions. In 2005, we believed them on absolutely nothing. But here we are in 2016, and there is an area on which the rational thing is again to believe whatever they tell us -- and that is on internal defensive metrics.
Jerry DiPoto informed us that Leonys Martin was one of the best defensive CF's in the game and that was that. Dr. D shrugs and sez, that's great. But a 50 OPS+ doesn't carry a glove. We just been there, did that.
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One week in, we did mention, in a bemused tone, that we hadn't yet seen Leonys Martin dominate in center field. You know, like Pete Carroll tells you Michael Bennett is great but after one or two games you haven't seen him dominate. Or, that we haven't yet seen Martin's historically-great arm in center.
Well, a few more games solve such a problem. Martin's range is obvious. He is a worthy successor to Mike Cameron and the young Franklin Gutierrez. That's all.
Footnote: John Dewan has Leonydas for only +2 plays this year in center field. UZR has him as a +10 center fielder. Inside Edge, like Dewan, has him about average - making all the plays that are 90% plus for every center fielder, but nothing much that's difficult. Personally I would just say this is the numbers lagging the reality. I'll take Leonys Martin as my center fielder any time. Put this another way: as a GM, I'll play Leonys Martin cash in exchange for -15 runs he saves me defensively. Maybe more.
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Why more?
Think about it. Leonys Martin was practically the only thing Jerry DiPoto did to "get athletic" or deploy a "run preventional model." Right field has Jack Zduriencik players in it. Left field has a butcher in it. First base has two guys who are twelve furlongs less athletic than the Greek god Logan Morrison. And yet DiPoto's Mariners sit at #3 in all the land for defensive efficiency. Which, in Safeco, can be the key to a huge surprise contender.
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You know what it reminds me of? Omar Vizquel and the John Hart Indians. The 90's Indians always used to talk about how ONE defender held their game together. It was a whole paradigm in itself. The 90's Indians fielded a raft of WAY bat-first players -- Thome at 3B, Manny in LF, Albert Belle, Baerga at 2B, etc etc -- but as long as Omar was out there in the middle of the field, they were fine.
In fact since the 1970's Big Red Machine, I've always enjoyed the template with --- > one truly great SS, or CF, or both. Surrounded by hitters. I do in fact believe that sometimes a great defender at SS or CF can provide margin for error with the bats.
It's just that I'm surprised to watch > Leonys Martin < lead the M's to a tremendous DER in front of my eyes.
Omar coulda been paid more money than he got in the 1990's, don'cha think?
Huh,
Dr D
And Cano. All three of those guys are bringing the mitt. Up the middle defense (and Iannetta too for that matter) is what the Mariners have. Seager is a pro, but not a gold glover...just...average skill and never makes stupid mistakes. At first, we have a big target (Lee) who doesn't move, and pretty good mover (Lind) who's a smaller target (but still pretty big)...and of course our COF is lousy. But hey...up the middle defense, babeh!
Josh Hamilton is out for the year for Rangers...AND Shin Soo Choo just was put back on the DL as well.
I wonder how Ranger management views the Martin trade now?
Hamilton has been paid $60 million over three seasons in which he's played a total of 139 games. Ouch.
if you're an actual GM I wonder how you deal with the investments that you know to be boom-or-bust.
Hamilton might (1/4 chance) provide you with an MVP candidate, but is more likely to provide you with an Excedrin headache, as in 2016 (thanks Rain). Choo has been fairly healthy up till now, but no telling how many game he'll play from here out for his $20M per over the next five.
Rangers' OPS+ 97 and ERA+ 101 to date. They're pretty lucky to be within a series of the M's.