Mariners Baby!
Comments
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They are already 6 back in the wildcard, and we are barely into June. I saw somebody compare the Mariners to that Atlanta team. Got to be kidding me! This Mariner team doesn't have remotely close to the amount of talent that Braves team had.chuck said:
Funny that the bullpen would stick out as the biggest weakness at this point. Shows how fast and easy a lineup can fall apart. Giles, Swanson and Sadler being hurt has been a blow. Steckenrider sucking was not surprising.RoadDawg55 said:
What else do the M’s have worth watching? I didn’t mean they have no other decent players. They have Crawford, Lewis (when healthy), and France. By the end of the year, Julio will have had the best season besides maybe France.chuck said:
Thats not true. Not even close.RoadDawg55 said:Julio winning Rookie of the Year is about all the M’s have going. He had a slow start but is probably the best hitter on the team already.
You're always too quick to jump to conclusions about individual players. You got one right on Kelenic though.
Julio winning ROY is the only thing the M’s have going because they aren’t sniffing the playoffs. Even if they started hitting better, the bullpen is terrible. TSIO.
They aren't out of the playoffs. TSINO Roadie. Their best hitting is ahead of them, as is a stronger bullpen.
Or not. I won't lose sleep either way but I'll still be interested in individual performance even if they keep sucking. -
When a young Chuck Knox was an offensive line coach for the New York Jets, a rookie named Joe Namath was struggling terribly during a game. Knox went over and grabbed him and said, "Forget all that bullshit the coaches are telling you. Just pick a guy and let it fly."CuntWaffle said:It's been very clear to me with Kelenic it is 100% mental. He has 2 or 3 instances where I have seen reports of him "changing his swing" because of the slump. Hes a MLB player, he doesn't need to be doing that. Tweaking stuff? Sure but changing your swing is just weird and reeks of finding an excuse why he hasn't been hitting.
When Kelenic squares a ball up he hits it harder than almost everyone on the team. His issue is that his at bats are fucking TERRIBLE. His mental breaks after the first pitch. Watches a fastball right down the tube, swings at off speed way out of the zone... great now you are at 0-2 and have already mentally folded. The at bat is over at that point.
Someone just needs to slap him and tell him to play fucking baseball and not hero ball.
Namath said it was the bet advice he ever received. Knox made a man out of him that day.
ATBS, Kelenic still sucks. -
Cue the "Just rip it" and "sounds like trust issues" posts... 3....2....1....
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There are no problems there are only opportunities for a solution- Chuck KnoxDerekJohnson said:
When a young Chuck Knox was an offensive line coach for the New York Jets, a rookie named Joe Namath was struggling terribly during a game. Knox went over and grabbed him and said, "Forget all that bullshit the coaches are telling you. Just pick a guy and let it fly."CuntWaffle said:It's been very clear to me with Kelenic it is 100% mental. He has 2 or 3 instances where I have seen reports of him "changing his swing" because of the slump. Hes a MLB player, he doesn't need to be doing that. Tweaking stuff? Sure but changing your swing is just weird and reeks of finding an excuse why he hasn't been hitting.
When Kelenic squares a ball up he hits it harder than almost everyone on the team. His issue is that his at bats are fucking TERRIBLE. His mental breaks after the first pitch. Watches a fastball right down the tube, swings at off speed way out of the zone... great now you are at 0-2 and have already mentally folded. The at bat is over at that point.
Someone just needs to slap him and tell him to play fucking baseball and not hero ball.
Namath said it was the bet advice he ever received. Knox made a man out of him that day.
ATBS, Kelenic still sucks. -
"Football players make football plays"RaceBannon said:
There are no problems there are only opportunities for a solution- Chuck KnoxDerekJohnson said:
When a young Chuck Knox was an offensive line coach for the New York Jets, a rookie named Joe Namath was struggling terribly during a game. Knox went over and grabbed him and said, "Forget all that bullshit the coaches are telling you. Just pick a guy and let it fly."CuntWaffle said:It's been very clear to me with Kelenic it is 100% mental. He has 2 or 3 instances where I have seen reports of him "changing his swing" because of the slump. Hes a MLB player, he doesn't need to be doing that. Tweaking stuff? Sure but changing your swing is just weird and reeks of finding an excuse why he hasn't been hitting.
When Kelenic squares a ball up he hits it harder than almost everyone on the team. His issue is that his at bats are fucking TERRIBLE. His mental breaks after the first pitch. Watches a fastball right down the tube, swings at off speed way out of the zone... great now you are at 0-2 and have already mentally folded. The at bat is over at that point.
Someone just needs to slap him and tell him to play fucking baseball and not hero ball.
Namath said it was the bet advice he ever received. Knox made a man out of him that day.
ATBS, Kelenic still sucks. -
Hitting is 99% mental for guys who already have the tools. I agree completely that Kelenic is damaged goods as a Mariner now and there's a very slim chance he recovers. Get him hot at Tacoma and trade him has been my take on this since he was sent down.CuntWaffle said:It's been very clear to me with Kelenic it is 100% mental. He has 2 or 3 instances where I have seen reports of him "changing his swing" because of the slump. Hes a MLB player, he doesn't need to be doing that. Tweaking stuff? Sure but changing your swing is just weird and reeks of finding an excuse why he hasn't been hitting.
When Kelenic squares a ball up he hits it harder than almost everyone on the team. His issue is that his at bats are fucking TERRIBLE. His mental breaks after the first pitch. Watches a fastball right down the tube, swings at off speed way out of the zone... great now you are at 0-2 and have already mentally folded. The at bat is over at that point.
Someone just needs to slap him and tell him to play fucking baseball and not hero ball. -
You just described an affliction referred to as "High School Harry"...take the first pitch heater for a strike, swing at shit in the dirt, and either swing out of the zone, or take a cock-shot for strike three.CuntWaffle said:It's been very clear to me with Kelenic it is 100% mental. He has 2 or 3 instances where I have seen reports of him "changing his swing" because of the slump. Hes a MLB player, he doesn't need to be doing that. Tweaking stuff? Sure but changing your swing is just weird and reeks of finding an excuse why he hasn't been hitting.
When Kelenic squares a ball up he hits it harder than almost everyone on the team. His issue is that his at bats are fucking TERRIBLE. His mental breaks after the first pitch. Watches a fastball right down the tube, swings at off speed way out of the zone... great now you are at 0-2 and have already mentally folded. The at bat is over at that point.
Someone just needs to slap him and tell him to play fucking baseball and not hero ball.
He's chasing hits, rather than trusting his process, and that is completely mental..."I struck out last time, now I'm gonna hit a six-run homer". Last night, France took some horrible swings, just ridiculous...and ended the night 3-4. He let the last pitch go, and made the adjustment. That's a big league approach.
I've worked with guys like Kelenic over the years, and am amazed in retrospect that I have any hair left...
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They won't trade him, because they gave up so much in the trade to get him (Baseball Econ 101). Diaz is a legit closer, and they had to pay a shit-load of Cano's salary to dump him...if Dip trades him now, that is admitting that he fucked up.chuck said:
Hitting is 99% mental for guys who already have the tools. I agree completely that Kelenic is damaged goods as a Mariner now and there's a very slim chance he recovers. Get him hot at Tacoma and trade him has been my take on this since he was sent down.CuntWaffle said:It's been very clear to me with Kelenic it is 100% mental. He has 2 or 3 instances where I have seen reports of him "changing his swing" because of the slump. Hes a MLB player, he doesn't need to be doing that. Tweaking stuff? Sure but changing your swing is just weird and reeks of finding an excuse why he hasn't been hitting.
When Kelenic squares a ball up he hits it harder than almost everyone on the team. His issue is that his at bats are fucking TERRIBLE. His mental breaks after the first pitch. Watches a fastball right down the tube, swings at off speed way out of the zone... great now you are at 0-2 and have already mentally folded. The at bat is over at that point.
Someone just needs to slap him and tell him to play fucking baseball and not hero ball.
One more jumped into my head about the mental approach to hitting. I spent some time years ago with Curt Schilling (I worked for his JUCO coach, and his JUCO catcher), and during adiscussiondrinking beer, I asked him who his favorite teammate was. I was surprised that he said Manny Ramirez.
He explained that when he got to Boston, Manny hit a rocket and an outfielder made a great play on it. Manny came back to the dug with a big smile on his face...Schil (ILTCHS, IWILTD) was intrigued, expecting a helmet throwing melt-down, so he asked him what's up. Manny told him, "My job is to hit the ball hard, not to get hits. I control my swing, not the defense. I did my job, and that makes me happy"...He fucked up a lot, but that was the day I became a Man Ram fan...
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Guys like Manny can be great in baseball because they are almost unbothered but anything. They just go and perform.
Baseball is a weird sport in that guys can overwork themselves. If you want to become a better shooter in basketball, firing up hundreds of jumpers everyday will very likely lead to shooting better in games.
Putting more work in the cages doesn’t always lead to more success in baseball and often seems to not have the intended benefit.
I even experienced it in the baseball days. I was a good hitter but one year, I started struggling and was always rolling over curveballs and hitting weak grounders. I put in more work, but the slump continued.
The next season, I started out red hot and it was like the struggles the year before never happened. -
The cage can be a blessing, but more often it is a curse. Several years ago, when guys were pressing or struggling and wanted extra BP, I started shutting them down for a day or 2. The hardest thing was pushing back against the "more is better" philosophy. A struggling hitter with a batting cage, unlimited baseballs, and an "I'll swing my way out of it" attitude is a recipe for failure.
A standard baseball bucket holds 44 baseballs. I ask kids, "When is the last time you had a 44 pitch at-bat?". My iron law became 7>balls per round, and you MUST be working on a specific skill/technique...no "driving range, grip and rip"...
I tell my players, first day, that the cage "is not a driving range, it is a laboratory". Then, to prove my point, (up until my late 40's), I would get in the cage and hit a bunch of balls out, turn and say "I am a fat old man, wasn't even a hitter in college, and I can hit balls out in BP. I can do that, but I can't play the game, and couldn't hit when I was your age".
