Mo' Dawg

It would take a couple of sea changes for McClendon to de-lineup Almonte and re-lineup Montero (on a platoon basis). Two of the three great pronouncements the Skip made early in ST, or as we came out, were that Almonte was his man and that Smoak owned 1B (the other being that Ackley wouldn't play CF "because"). That's a lot of movement on the Skip's part. I'm with you. I would do it. But then you and I haven't "invested" in the statements above.

Odd that I take Moe's name in vain, about 50% of the time, to zig against his zag.  That creates a false impression of the actual 92% ratio of agreement here.  Hope he'll accept all apologies.  He's been pitching to within 6 feet all year long on the lineup debates.

That said ... Lloyd's "marriages" to his March prophecies are subject to Zduriencik Divorce Court.  

B'lee DAT.  Zduriencik will watch X number of strikeouts (okay, X plus twenty, it seems) and then he'll wander into McClendon's office.  Lloyd McClendon does not own the Mariners.  

Cheery thought, no?  As y'know, we live to serve.

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I did it again.  Patronized Mo', and left a too-harsh impression of my McClendon vibe.  One of these days, he's going to cut me into little pieces.  Mo', hopefully, not Lloyd.  Or Floyd.   Well, it would be kind of cool if Pink Floyd did.  

.......

And on TV tonight, they were making noises like Michael Saunders has been given the leadoff spot.  As y'know, the ROOT sportscasters are extensions of Zduriencik's foreign P.R. policy -- and there's not a thing wrong with that.  Who in their right mind would resent a look into the M's future plans?

Saunders is like 6-for-12 in the leadoff spot.  But more importantly:

• The leadoff role seems to have caused Saunders to re-think (and cut down) his ambitions in each AB ...
• ... for example, his 103 MPH bases-clearing* triple* Saturday came on a pepper swing (it really did)
• The bench role seems to have caused Saunders to re-think (and cut down) his ambitions in each AB

Lineup positions seldom affect the team much, but they can certainly affect a hitter's approach much.  You can't kill our Ackley-Smoak-Montero-Saunders fans without using a stake to the heart region.  Maybe the bench time, and the leadoff spot, is it for Saunders.

It's like deja vu all over again.  

But yeah.  Real baseball people are still watching Michael Saunders.  It's not time to pull the plug on him yet, as Gordon has (fortunately) /cosigned.

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Gordon

Interesting article by Neil Paine over at FiveThirtyEight / ESPN. Talks about how the best hitters should hit 1st, 2nd and 4th per sabermetric analysis from our friend tango, with "the most balanced hitter in the #2 hole" instead of the hitter that makes the most contact (which the #2 hitter traditionally has). The article is looking to see which parts of SABR analysis are filtering down to implementation (like all the shifts we're watching). There's a reference to "Hey Bill" there too, so maybe if Doc gets a minute he can riff off either item.http://fivethirtyeight.com/datalab/the-spot-in-mlb-lineups-where-manager...

Yes indeed.  James, following Tango made the interesting point that --- > Using a Bat Control Hitter In the #2 Spot Is Both Very Traditional, and Clearly Wrong.

James realized that you could create a "sabermetric index" if you had 6-7 of these items, and you could rank the orgs from 1-30.  That's pretty clever, no?

Two quick points:

(1) Justin Smoak -- against RHP's -- would be a good choice for a #2 hitter.  Like the Angels used to lead off Brian Downing.  You realize that Smoak's OBP was .361 against righties last year?  In Safeco?  

(1a) Robinson Cano needs SO badly to hit with runners occupying first base.  He is SUCH a tough man to pitch to.

(1b) The number two slot, with continued "Screen Drill" work and continued Cano coaching, could be a cool "change of scenery" for Smoak.

Do you think the M's would be one of the first, or one of the last, ballclubs to consider Justin Smoak as a #2 hitter?  Me too.

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(2) It would be hard to measure, but the second item in this list could be --- > how fast are organizations to use RP's whose xFIP's are running better than their ERA's?

In other words, Yoenis Medina had a dubious K/BB/HR, but a great ERA, and he took over the 8th inning for McClendon.  Farquhar's staggering K/BB/HR, by contrast, impressed Lloyd very little or not at all.

I don't say that's the gospel truth against Lloyd.  He intended to let the bullpen shake out naturally, and that's what it's doing.  Give or take a couple of Felix W's that were squandered along the way.

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