“puts on his Hafner pants” is just an awesome phrase. Well done.

And pretty well done to the M’s for making these moves. We can argue all we want about choice of timing and who to send down, but I think all agree this will help, and that it’s a step in the right direction.

JV is currently 2nd on the Ms in RBIs and last year had one of the highest averages in the 2nd half of any player

Batting Average and RBIs are very much outdated stats. They’re the equivalent of using ERA to judge a pitcher. Teams who do that are behind the times and getting outsmarted by folks using better methods. Probably USSM needs a companion piece to Dave’s “Why ERA is bad” post dealing with BA and RBIs, but here’s the nutshell version:

Batting average is an ineffective measurement because it completely fails to account for walks and XBHs, which are very important. Edgar Martinez was a high average hitter, but his Batting Average alone only accounted for about 60% of his offensive value over his entire career. Walks, doubles and HRs were 40% of his game (triples too, all 15 he ever hit). For guys like Ortiz or Frank Thomas, power is an even bigger part. Pujols and Manny both clock in at about the same split as Edgar. Even Ichiro provides over 20% of his offensive value through something other than singles.

RBIs are a bogus stat because they depend more on luck than skill. Vidro has no control over whether guys are on base when he comes to the plate or not, and he (along with everyone else) gets hits with men on at about the same rate as not. Vidro’s career BA: .300. Vidro’s career BA with RISP: .297. He doesn’t get better with ducks on the pond.

He’s a .300 hitter with nearly 5,000 atbats!

Edgar’s a .312 hitter with over 7000 ABs. Age and injury take their toll on everyone.

P.S. Great McLaren quote for today: (about Cliff Lee) “He’s probably one of the best pitchers going right now.” Hmmmm…27 scoreless would probably make him one of the best right now. Probably.

But the Mariners aren’t ignorant of that fact – they just have a different set of beliefs about how that should affect roster decisions. You don’t have to agree with those beliefs (I don’t think I do, but I am willing to admit that they have something of a point on the lack of ethics of intentionally holding a guy down when you believe he’s ready), but you should be willing to admit that it’s not ignorance that drove that decision.

I actually think it’s a pretty honorable position that Bavasi’s taking here, but probably not in the best interests of the club. He comes across (Bavasi that is) as an insanely loyal dude, to the point that it harms the club – he hangs on to veterans until they’re past the expiration date, he defers all on-field decisions to the manager, the Wlad/Clement service time issue above, etc.

He seems like an ideal boss – the kind of guy you’d love to work for because he’d have your back but since no one else in the league is as decent a guy as he is, it comes back to bite him in the ass. It’s not like Clement and/or Balentien are that likely to reciprocate by taking ‘hometown discounts’ if they turn into stars but maybe I’m just being cynical.

What is Cairo’s value? He can’t hit or run and he plays less than WFB defense at fewer positions. They are the same player, but one is clearly superior for the given role.

My hunch is that he’s solely the insurance policy in case Lopez flops. The only thing I can think of is that they aren’t yet completely sold on Lopez, ergo they decide to keep Cairo on a bit longer.

I’d assume they’re very happy with Lopez thus far, so Cairo may not be around a great deal longer.

Given this is the only team geographically able to provide FFV with a daily dose of Burgerville, I can see why he likes it here.

Not to mention, a Dick’s Hamburgers or Kidd Valley on just about every corner as well.