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Sigmund Freud said, "The energy released in laughing at a joke is the energy normally used to repress hostile and sexual feelings." The latter being his obvious goal. In all the archive of Sigmund Freud photos, there are none in which he has any expression other than the one above.
The M's TV broadcast crew doesn't share Herr Freud's philosophy. The laugh track on Martin's homer is the best part.
Well, the best part for Leonydas is actually that his OPS+ is 820. That's higher than Kyle Seager's or Seth Smith's. He's on pace for 6.1 WAR and nobody's laughing now, least of all Dr. D or the Texas Rangers. (Tom Wilhelmsen's ERA is 9.98 -- sooooo close! -- and he has 6 strikeouts against 6 homers and 8 walks in 15 innings.)
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NEUROZIS ISS ZE INABILITY TO TOLERATE AMBEEGUITY, sez Dr. Freud
It's never a great idea to Mainframe a player who is the middle of a glory run or in the middle of death throes. Still and all, Martin has been covering the strike zone so (relatively) well that we thought it was high time for a 201 Scan.
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bzzzt
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whrrr
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bedeepdoop
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::WORKING::
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bzzt
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CONCISELY, NOW
The Mainframe doesn't see much in Leonydas' swing-or-take decisionmaking that has changed to cause his recent little hot streak. If you look at his O-Swing rates for the year, or the last month, or during his hot streak, he's around 25-27% for the year.
But! That used to be 35%, so Edgar and Robby do have him tightening his zone. And it was 28% earlier; now it's constricting even a little more, to 24% or 25%.
For the rest of it, like Matty sez, the SwStr% and so forth, it's not that big a deal.
....
What IS interesting, the heatmaps. First the 2015 strike zone map, by ISO, and then the 2016:
Much better in 2016, of course. The minor thing is --- > he's surprisingly okay with high pitches, as we'd kicked around earlier. But what really strikes you is his ability to get out to the black, and pull it around the corner, the way Michael Saunders used to ... hm. Check out his spray charts, first 2015 and then 2016:
As you watch Leonys swing ... the way pulls his ki around the corner, gets to the painted fastball, and falls out onto the plate with his back foot... then gets his taters right into the foul pole, is he reminding anybody else of the Condor? Maybe the fact that Martin's hand is healed up, and the fact that he's getting coached up on his pitch selection, is pushing him up into the bottom* of Michael Saunders' offensive game.
Hitting the outside of the baseball.
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| Center Fielder |
AVG |
OBP |
SLG |
BB |
K |
OPS+ |
| Saunders 2012-13 (25-26) |
.240 |
.315 |
.420 |
50 |
140 |
107 |
| Saunders 2014 (27) |
.275 |
.340 |
.450 |
50 |
120 |
128 |
| Leonydas 2016, 45 games (28, missed a year) |
.259 |
.337 |
.483 |
50 |
150 |
130 |
| Leonydas realistic upside (?) |
.240 |
.315 |
.420 |
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107 (feel free to rage) |
| but ... Saunders this year |
.322 |
.288 |
.570 |
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160 |
Want an interesting statistical oddity? Last year Leonys' EYE was 16:69, while this year it's 16:43. That's neat symmetry in the scale, and in Shandler terms, that's serious progress. But right now Michael Saunders' EYE is ... wait for it ... 16:43.
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Players do benefit from change of scenery -- usually that means a swing key and a positive environment -- and maybe there was a latent Saunders-type in there. Saunders is a long-lever guy, very centrifugal, whose natural movements create a sort of duck-hook 105 MPH danger for the pitcher.
If Edgar and Cano and the wrecking crew can steer Leonys onto some variation of Michael Saunders' career arc, it'd be okay with me. Here is Mickey's b-ref card.
BABVA,
Dr D
