Comments on: Strengths and Weaknesses

By: Paul B

Paul B — Sat, 31 Mar 2007 15:43:32 +0000

if you sign a half dozen aging veterans each of whom have histories of injury, or are coming off serious injuries, what would you logically expect to happen?

By: Eastside Crank

Eastside Crank — Sat, 31 Mar 2007 07:05:15 +0000

The lack of pitching will do in the Mariners by the all-star break. The starters will struggle to give 5 good innings and the bullpen has been neglected. I do like the depth of the lineup when the Mariners are at bat for the first time in a few years. Scoring runs will still be a struggle with so many station to station runners.

By: Eastside Crank

Eastside Crank — Sat, 31 Mar 2007 06:57:35 +0000

I grew up watching the Dodgers when they had one gold glove 1st baseman after another. Garvey made Russel, Cey, Lopes, and Sax look like all-stars (maybe not Sax). If he could reach a throw he would catch it. I wish the Mariners would get a competent 1st baseman so the comparison could be made. Olerud was as good as any I have seen and it is disappointing that they do not have a good defensive backup.

By: scraps

scraps — Sat, 31 Mar 2007 06:39:12 +0000

If first basemen have a substantial effect on the infoelders they play with, that effect should be measurable.

[Ibanez] could run up near-MVP numbers again

Ibanez has never put up near-MVP numbers. Last year was his best year, and he finished 21st in the MVP voting — and he didn’t deserve to finish higher. He was 26th in Value Over Replacement Player, and that doesn’t even take his subpar defense into account.

By: David J. Corcoran I

David J. Corcoran I — Sat, 31 Mar 2007 05:32:24 +0000

68: Quantative Analysis of Statistics could be anything. They could have been using the Veteran-Grittiness-ometer and used that as their judge. That’s just rhetoric.

By: Thom Jimsen

Thom Jimsen — Sat, 31 Mar 2007 05:27:30 +0000

I see the A’s picked up Todd Walker. Still the shrewdest Dumpster-divers on the block.

By: Eastside Crank

Eastside Crank — Sat, 31 Mar 2007 05:18:06 +0000

I really disagree about the relative defensive merits of 1st basemen. A poor fielding 1st baseman (Sexson) drags down the whole infield and a good fielding one (Olerud) raises the level of play of the infield. You do not want your infielders having to think about the throw to 1st and whether or not it is going to be caught. Olerud could save any throw coming his way which meant that the throws could be spontaneous and Boone could roll around on the ground, throw the ball in the dirt, and it would still be scooped up for an out. I almost could stand for called 3rd strikes if Sexson were an above average fielder.

By: terry

terry — Sat, 31 Mar 2007 05:15:29 +0000

To me, the biggest problem with the Ms last year was that their holes were blackholes (i.e. they were killed by their weak links really being truly, truly awful).

They fixed that by making their holes closer to the league average.. I suppose that’s an improvement. Dave pretty much nails it IMHO…now you cross your fingers…

By: B_Con

B_Con — Sat, 31 Mar 2007 05:05:48 +0000

“Factually, we’re a better team,” Bavasi said, “and if you do the quantitative analysis with statistics, we improved the most in our division. Unfortunately, we had the farthest to go.”

Is this a statement of fact? Just curious if anyone knows the concensus of “the quantative analysis with statistics”.

By: terry

terry — Sat, 31 Mar 2007 04:56:53 +0000

Basically his LD dropped a little and his GB dropped a little…. little losses there translated into a decent increase in flyballs. As it happened he turned more flyballs into HRs as well.

That 16.5% really jumps out and makes you wonder if Ibanez can repeat that…