Ah, spring training, season of news
Newcomer Vidro in for tough assignment
The team’s bringing in all kinds of people to talk to Vidro. Including Edgar! Sort of!
What horrors await Vidro as DH?
“It’s something where Jose is going to have to find what works for him,” Mariners manager Mike Hargrove said. “You see some guys who sit on a bench, other guys who ride the bike the whole time and then they’re too tired when they have to go hit.”
But Hargrove quickly added: “Jose has been a good hitter for a number of years, and cream rises to the top.”
So Jose Vidro is a congealed dairy product. Awesome.
Have I mentioned lately how awesome it is, as an angry M’s fan, to have Hargrove regularly quoted in news stories? I don’t even have to write a joke there. Hargove statements are self-contained jokes-with-punchline. All you have to do is laugh.
I do have a question, though, related to that.
If cream rises to the top, how come you’re possibly the worst active manager and you haven’t been displaced by someone better?
Anyway, yeah yeah yeah, he used to hit, he was injured, everyone thinks he’ll be awesome. We’ll see, obviously. We hope for success.
Baker, 2: Ichiro passed his physical! And Mike Hargrove’s pondering what he’ll say to the team next Tuesday!
“We did a lot right all year except for 11 days,” he said, referring to an 11-game losing streak that sank Seattle’s hopes in August. “A lot of good things happened here last year that obviously were overshadowed by 11 days we spent on that road trip.
“But last year was a good season for us.”
Bwahahahhahahahahaha. Ooooh, Mike, you kidder.
Believe me, the guy on the mound isn’t running through his K/AB ratio or his VORP at a time like that. And it’s that type of psychological edge that doesn’t show up on paper. I agree that Sexson is too inconsistent at times and strikes out in some key situations. But every successful team needs his fear factor in the lineup. Try to replace it with a platoon of less-feared guys and chances are the other hitters in the lineup would suffer.
Soooooooo…. I can’t let that go by.
You know what teams need? Tall guys. Tall guys give the team an intimidating appearance, and pitchers can’t look down on them. It rattles them. I agree that talent’s important, but teams need to be tall. Try and replace tall guys with shorter guys, and production drops. Maybe not in any way you can measure, and it might even go up, but the tallness factor is there, and it’s real.
And hard-to-pronounce names. If a batter’s name is too hard to pronounce in the prep meetings, a lot of teams just skip them. It’s why some of the best hitters have strange names. Teams need to make sure that they have a couple of guys in the lineup with crazy names to force the other team to expend more effort. Now, I know you’re thinking “You’re just saying that because your last name is Zumsteg” or “I’ve looked at this, and that’s just not true,” but while it may not show up in the statistics, or win column, or production, there it is.
Also, sunglasses. The sunglasses a lineup wear have to be balanced. You want at least two, three guys in full wraparounds, and two or more without any sunglasses at all. You need to mix it up, but keep the intimidation. On average, you want one lens per batter, which is tough with nine in the lineup. And you can’t have guys with monocles up there, don’t talk crazy.
The PI writes about Brandon Morrow. You may remember Morrow from the hilarious “AP writes story about Morrow not pitching, we post story, he immediately throws two innings” post back on 7/28. Ahh, memories.
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Of course you forgot the most important factor: chemistry. Without chemistry a club is, well, actually, non-chemistrated. And, you need a team that plays nine innings. I went to a game where they only played 5 innings, and those guys quite frankly, were not very good. They didnt have any tall guys and they wore, like, regular glasses that you would wear to grade school. They were very small, but they didn’t play small ball, and while they were little, but they didnt do the little things it takes to win ball games.
I note with great interest that Vidro isn’t going to ask Martinez about hitting, only about preparation.
Yah See I think that if the Mariners can win more games than the rest of the division there gonna..there gonna..there gonna..there gonna..there gonna..there gonna..there gonna.. win some games there.
What about tall guys….with tattoos who rattle beer bottles together?
“warriors….come out to plaaaaaa-ay….warriors….come out and plaaaaa-ay”.
Hargrove has also made it clear that it he believes it is easier to DH doing it every day, so expect to see Everett redux–Vidro will be in there day after day no matter what he is doing, even if Broussard is rusting on the bench.
ok, so we are looking for the baseball equivilents of Turkoglu, Gelabale, Stojakovic, Cabarkapa, Krstic …
I like Baker’s stuff. I sense a lot of hostility toward his work on this site, there’s no reason he shouldn’t be free to express his opinions. He doesn’t do so under the pretense of reporting them as fact — he’ll say “I think the Angels are the favorite”. Cut the guy some slack.
Eastern Europe and Central Asia are the future of MLB
Perhaps the team can bring in Joe Rogan to help them improve their fear factor. can’t wait for future game tactics like releasing spiders into the opposing team’s bullpen and replacing their Gatorade with cow brain milkshakes.
I don’t think there’s any hostility towards Baker here – we’ve written many positive things about him since his arrival, he’s a huge upgrade over what Finnigan was giving us, and he’s been pleasant to deal with in the limited interaction I’ve had with him.
That doesn’t mean we’re not going to point it out when we think he’s wrong, though.
You are so right about the name thing. I am yet another Johnson, and always hit like crap.
Now I know why. (Damn you, Dad.)
All of this talk from Baker about “intimidating” and not one word about the power of SCRAPINESS?
I don’t think he’s right for the Seattle market.
(I also don’t think Baker understands the arguments against Sexson. It’s not about his VORP, it’s about the probability the M’s will be left with $11M old player with rapidly declining skills.)
Baker’s blog on the Times is much better than the PI’s offering. I feel that he is a good reporter and gives better info than other beat writers. I am not as impressed by his analysis or commentary. One of the main complaints I have about his “Sexson is intimidating” paragraph is that there is no way to prove or disprove its validity. Even if it is correct, there is no way to quantify “intimidation inflicted upon opposing pitchers,” otherwise known as IIUOP.
Of course, I prefer to use IIUOP+, which takes park factors into consideration.
Intimidation issomething that exists, but I don’t know why people think that its so intangible (BBs, IBBs).
Well, by Manzanillos’ quantificaiton, Sexson was not all that intimidating last year (64 BBs). And I would tend to believe that BBs are determined more by the hitter’s patience than their ability to intimidate the pitcher. Does Youkilis draw BBs because he is patient, or because he is an intimidating presence?
One of the main complaints I have about [Baker's] “Sexson is intimidating” paragraph is that there is no way to prove or disprove its validity.
I agree there is no conclusive proof, but the fact that the player who hit immediately in front of Sexson tripled his career high in intentional walks (Ibanez: 15 IBB in 2006 (7th best in AL); previous career high 6) puts a dent in any Sexson “fear factor” theory.
I think that too much is made about Richie Sexson’s lack of offensive intimidation. Could we please have more blogs about his horrendous defense? Thanks bye
I still think Richie was victimised by lousy umpiring last year. They kept calling low strikes that were far too low for him to hit. They might have been strikes thrown to Yuni, but not Richie.
Definitely no monocles, if you wear one you should be playing cricket instead.
But Youkilis and someone like David Ortiz get walks for different reasons. Ortiz and a lot of other power hitters are purposely pitched around, while Youkilis might just be very patient. I agree, just because you draw a lot of walks doesn’t make you intimidating. However, if you claim someone is an intimidating force in the lineup and they don’t draw a lot of BBs, than I probably won’t believe you. (Vlad Guerrero is probably an exception.)
I would pay admission to watch an all-monocle team. Especially if they wore flip-down sunglass monocles in the field. After a strike call they didn’t like, batters would let the monocle drop and stare at the umpire with bemusement. And the intimidation factor! That one eye would look SO BIG to opponents!
I agree with Manzanillos Cup in #21. Although a good number of BBs drawn by the likes of Ortiz and Bonds might also be the result of their own patience as hitters. Again, my main problem with Baker’s original assertion about intimidation was that it seemed too vague and undefineable, thereby making it unprovable. Manzanillos at least offered up some possibilities to quantify intimidation. And I agree with other posters who say that the major complaints about Sexson, at least on this blog, stem from his salary and defense rather than K/AB or VORP.
Wow. Just, wow.
Reporters are reporters, not analysts. Baker is rightly criticized for doing something he is not qualified to do, analyze baseball. He might be quite well equipped to report the facts, but that doesn’t mean he has the requisite intellectual disposition (I did *not* say capacity) to analyze what he observes.
Look, the Enlightenment is a period that began what, 300 years ago? There are still people, often sports writers, who haven’t caught up.
On that note, it’s a beautiful irony that the Times ran this AP story:
It discusses how more and more people *understand* science, but more and more people *believe* in pseudo science like astrology or “intimidation.”
OK, you don’t agree that Richie got victimized by bad umpiring. I don’t agree with that either. But could you stoop to explain why you feel that way rather than just saying “wow”? Just saying “wow” isn’t discussion, it’s ridicule.
Yes, my apologies for the “wow” comment. Here is why I don’t agree with that statement:
1. There is no evidence provided – statistically, visually or anecdotally – that Richie was getting repeatedly jobbed by the umpires such that it significantly would impact his performance.
2. By stating that those “strikes were too low for him to hit” indicates that they were so far out of the strike zone that he couldn’t even reach them. Seems like quite an overstatment, considering #1 above.
3. Without concrete evidence, the statment sounds like an easy excuse (and borderline conspiracy theory) without offering any rationale for why the umpires were “victimizing” Richie last season. And why would they decide to victimize in 2006 and not in prior seasons when he was more productive?
4. Even if they WERE calling lower strikes for Richie, couldn’t he have adjusted for this if it was happening throughout the entire season? I admit this last argument is a bit shaky, esp. if you believe the notion that those strikes were simply unhittable (which obviously I don’t).
what, the sight of Big Richie turning and looking at the ump with an expression of stunned disbelief, before yet again trudging back to the dugout isn’t visual or anecdotal?
It’s the NHLification of baseball — put an enforcer in the lineup. Bat George Laraque fourth.
Richie’s BBs decreased and his Ks increased. This may be related to bad umpiring or bad pitch selection on his part. Sexson’s K/BB ratio worsened from ‘05 to ‘06, so one of those things, or a combination of the two, probably occurred. I suppose if one wanted to watch every Sexson AB in ‘05 and ‘06 (and who doesn’t!), one could use a visual accounting to determine the extent that umpiring did or did not contribute to his K/BB ratio.
Vidro mentioned wanting to talk with Edgar during his first meet-the-press day back in January, talking as a fellow Puerto Rican about both the DH-ing and Edgar the person.
Baker and Hickey are both reporting that Sean Burroughs has a separated shoulder and that Lowe’s 2nd MRI (”to gauge Lowe’s progress at this point in his rehabilitation.”)happens tomorrow.
oh, and the NY papers are wetting themselves over whether Alex & Derek are still BFF.
Let me play devil’s advocate for just a moment, though. QuesTec has been in use since 2001. The NL and the AL use the same umpires. Is there some reason to believe Sexson is getting a different strike zone now than in the past?
Successful hitting is about making adjustments. The strike zone is supposed to go from the batter’s knees — meaning that the bottom of Sexson’s zone ought to be higher than a shorter batter.
If he isn’t getting that he needs to be able to make adjustments. Presumably he’s made those adjustments in the past, when he hit better. Why can’t he make them now?
That’s just so…..unfair.
I hope pitchers/umps don’t do that to him again this year.
If he isn’t getting that he needs to be able to make adjustments. Presumably he’s made those adjustments in the past, when he hit better. Why can’t he make them now?
One could say that his June1-on stats were the adjustments.
And yeah, that link about managers is, um, instructive. The Mariners are in a winnable division, but it would probably be a lot more winnable if Piniella was the manager and actually ADDING to the chances of team success instead of Hargrove being a boat anchor for them. I still think the AL West this year shapes up to be like the NL West of 2005, where there isn’t a team without some warts on it. but there also isn’t a team that has no shot at all, and everyone’s going to cluster around 80-90 wins. 2-3 games you win by good managerial decisions/lose due to poor ones might be EVERYTHING in this division.
I’ll preemptively state that yes, I know about Lou in TB- and counter with “go look at Casey Stengel, Connie Mack and Sparky Anderson’s records with THEIR bad teams”. Managing cannot turn lack of talent into a pennant winner.
I’ll admit, anecdotal evidence is all I have. I wish I had access to pitch location data for the entire 2006 season, but I don’t.
But I do remember (and I saw a lot more games in the early season than the late season) seeing Richie take low third strikes far more than I remember him doing it in 2005. And these pitches were LOW. He was taking pitches that were only strikes if he was 9 inches shorter, and he was getting called out for doing so.
We also don’t know what instructions on this sort of thing umpires get from the league. At the start of a recent season (I think 2005), umpires seemed far more likely to called a checked swing a strike, even if teh bat came nowhere near the hitting zone (Ichiro got called out on one of those – he even argues it). Since it came right after the big steroid scandals, it struck me that perhaps umpires were being told to penalise behaviour commonly found in power hitters in order to bring down overall power numbers, thus making the drug progam look successful.
Do I have any reason to believe that’s happening? No. But I wouldn’t put it past them.
Ichiro! gets things bubbling, talking to the reporters in AZ.
Hmmmmmm. The hot seat just got a little more toasty.
Intimidation issomething that exists, but I don’t know why people think that its so intangible (BBs, IBBs).
Somebody want to do a regression analysis of BB rate vs height in inches?
Richie and Eddie Gaedel would be the outliers on that analysis.
I think it’d be interesting to see the % of pitches a given hitter sees that are actually in the strike zone. That might be a decent “intimidation” stat.
I’m tall. Perhaps the M’s should sign me. I could stand up there and intimidate the pitcher.
*pseudo-cowering and waiting for Ralph to insult me for being tall.
anecdotal evidence = eyes lie
Why would I insult you for being tall? I am tall. I am very intimidating.
I guess that’s why Randy Johnson, with his noted rep for intimidation, had such an amazing batting line in the NL….
Maybe, if Ryan Anderson has finished cooking school, he’d be available to DH.
hey, another spring training blog– Shannon Drayer has one, too
she has a few new notes, such a description of the clubhouse layout, that the M’s are finally losing the rookie bus, and that there may be even more restrictions on the medical info imparted to the media ….
there is also a link to the KOMO footage of the Ichiro/media meet today
a haiku:
intimidation
is in the eyes of the one
beholding the tall.
and apparently, coming in March on KOMO radio, “Mariners Baseball Primetime, a new 30 minute wrap up of the day’s baseball action every weeknight at 7pm (featuring recaps the day’s game, highlights, sound bites, interviews and a discussion about the Mariners).”
dang, I want a game. Even the charity game vs the Pads.
one more link– Dreyer on Felix:
RalphMalph, I was talking about the “Ralph” that is ONLY “Ralph.”
Take a look at the post from yesterday about Washburn and leadership– “other ephemera” I believe.
Toward the end of the thread, he lashes out at DMZ and myself. Incidentally to what was said there, I was named to the 50th anniversary team for Boys “A” Southwest Washington Basketball District Tournament and recieved the letter in the mail just today. A little vindication there, proving perhaps I know a little about competition and motivation.
And being tall.
As I said, sign me up, M’s, I can bring some decent height to the team.
Cream rises to the top of milk, but decaying gas-bloated pigeon carcasses rise to the top of cream. The author of the original cliche’ assumed that people were smart enough to remove the dead pigeons from their drinks. Oh, if only he were alive to see us now.
Bill Stoneman is on KOMO right now