Thanks for the uploads Brian. You da man.
Amigos called our attention to these, full well knowing we wouldn't be able to resist. You guys are sick in the head.
We'll resist the temptation to rebuild every Mariner's swing and throwing motion :- ) and just sightsee for a bit. If dat's okay witchoo. We'll enjoy a few points-of-difference on each vid -- things the player is doing that is different from the way things are usually done.
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=== Milton Bradley ===
Brian L was filming at the moment of Bradley's 3-run shot. Slap me silly, what happens when the man is both lucky and good, Yogi? You get one of the posts of the year, I guess...
The pitcher complained that he missed with this pitch -- that he was intending to go outside. Yuh-huh, suuuuuure. (For those who just joined us, pitchers never admit that they made the pitch they wanted, when they got beaten.) The very pitch before, he missed wayyyy low and in with the same pitch, because he was pounding an area that is supposed to be a hole for Bradley.
On 2-0, the pitcher executed perfectly - check GameDay and you'll see that the pitch was right on the inside line of the strike zone and right on the bottom line of the strike zone, both. It was at a very corner of the zone, down and in.
The pitcher sort of hedged his absurd "I missed" protest by adding, "But the real mistake was getting behind 2-0."
The real mistake was being on the mound when Milton Bradley was in the batter's box.
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Watching Brian L's video of the 3-run jack, check MB's center of gravity and head as they both move to the ball and smother it. Bask in the glory. Run it again and again. This is what it means to stick your nose into a pitch.
Occasionally you'll hear a hitter saying "You have to get on top of Verlander's fastball." See why hitters phrase it that way -- and not "you have to get your bat on top of the fastball"? To an ML hitter in rhythm, the bat is just a subtle extension of his inner being. MB's swing demo's this as well as I have ever seen.
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By the way, MB's windup looks about as much like Ichiro's as you'll see. Bradley is a supremely talented baseball hitter. It's not clear to me why he hasn't had a ton of seasons that were like 2008.
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The smother-the-ball-with-your-bellybutton effect can also be perceived in BrianL's video of MB's double. Watch him drop his head down into the strike zone, for example.
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=== Man with a Capital M, Dept. ===
There is an obvious toughness involved in bringing your face close to a rock thrown as hard as a grown man can throw it. MB's toughness is not an outward facade. It's reflected in his CG and it's reflected in the way he stays calm with two strikes, refusing to swing at pitches that freak out other ML hitters. Milton Bradley is not scared when the baseball situation is scary.
Bradley's swing, in combination with this HBT wisdom and other things .... this athlete has me entranced right now. Have never seen anybody quite like him.
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Cheers,
Jeff
I think he's locked in very nicely...and will stay that way with this club backing him up every day. Had a weird first week swinging at pitches out of the zone, but now that he's locked in, expect a monster cluster of XBH and BB.
In this case I can buy that to an extent -
By the way, MB's windup looks about as much like Ichiro's as you'll see. Bradley is a supremely talented baseball hitter. It's not clear to me why he hasn't had a ton of seasons that were like 2008.
It's completely clear why to me. 2008 was the the only season of his entire career in which he was healthy and productive to his full potential.
The guy has had all of 3 seasons in his life where he played 120+ games. In one, he was a 5/6-time DH and the other two, he was so banged up from "Day-to-Day" injuries that his power was so sapped, he couldn't crack an .800 OPS
Just glancing at the Baseball Injury Tool (http://baseballinjurytool.com/injury-tool.php), you see the guy is constantly rung up with constant aches and pains -- far beyond those of the 99% of other players. He's a guy who on average misses 30 games a year just from "Day-to-Day" injuries and has never missed less than 20 -- even when he was a full-time DH. He's also just about as guaranteed at least one stint on either the 15-day or 60-day DL
Which makes it very enticing to chase after those ephemereal Eric Davis seasons that are buried in there somewhere.
Milton Bradley is a special talent. That guy is gifted.
So there's zero risk.
It's OK if he gets hurt a few times here...as long as it doesn't sink our playoff hopes...we need to make sure we have a whale of a good 4th outfielder and some good spare DH bats to hold the fort when he misses time, and just recoup value when he's in there...it's like with Bedard. Enjoy your half-year of awesomeness and pray some of that awesomeness is concentrated in August/September/October when you need it to run down the Rangers. :)
But as it stands right now, forget shedding Carlos Silva, I'd give you around 2 / $20m for Milton Bradley as a free agent.
I like his chances. He'll *probably* be the only legit MOTO bat on this club in 2010.
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This has a chance to be a genius move with a capital G.