Sandy Hook conspiracy theories
Every major event ends up trailing behind it a fog of conspiracy theories like the tail of comet, and the Sandy Hook elementary school massacre is no different.
Sketchy Sketches: It's Okay! It's Just Doomsday!
Glove And Boots takes the upcoming "Apocalypse" and turns it into a musical public service announcement. Sit back, learn and snap your fingers to the beat... before it is too late.
Surprise! Limbaugh gets America's psychiatry situation all wrong
The Sandy Hook shooting was extremely distressing to everyone, liberals and conservatives alike. We all need to come together to find solutions to this problem, not point the finger of blame. But Limbaugh, perhaps sensing that his vehement stance against gun control is too over-the-top even for his own listeners right now, is busy pointing blame at liberals wherever he can.
Pulling At My Heartstrings: Cat Scared Of Mario Jump
I don't know why this Russian individual found this little morsel of information out, but it appears his cat is really really scared of the sound Mario makes when he jumps. Take a look and feel free to comment all your theories about what is clinically wrong with this cat.
Pop Culture Happenings: "The Great Gatsby" Gets A Full Trailer
If you went to junior high or high school in America, you probably read "The Great Gatsby." If not, fortunately for you a film is coming out of F. Scott Fitzgerald's classic novel. Take a look at this nice full trailer and decide for yourself.
Oh No They Didn't: Craziest Goal Kick Ever
Futsal legend Falcao scored a rather amazing goal recently at "Futsal Fest." Skip to about :30 seconds in and be amazed.
Reading Pile: 12/19/12
Butcher Baker The Righteous Maker HC- I find the design choice on this package to be interesting because it’s very unassuming and I don’t believe it would draw in a random purchase at all. No artwork to hint at what’s inside and it arrives shrink-wrapped. This thing was pretty much just printed for the audience who already knew it existed, which actually makes a bit of sense considering the way Joe Casey thinks. The best part of the package (don’t get me wrong, I love the story and the art) is in the back matter material. This package reprints all of the rants from Casey that were the back-up features of every issues, and honestly I would pay $3.99 for just each segment of that over most mainstream comics. Taking that into consideration, this is a $24.99 package that is oversized (which highlights Mike Huddleston’s amazing artwork) and collects eight issues of dense storytelling. It’s a pretty solid chunk of comic book craziness and I would recommend it to anyone who wants a different type of superhero deconstruction reconstruction. Manly violence, great villains, an overweight law enforcement official, and plenty of metaphysical malarkey comes together to make for some pretty awesome reading. A
JSA Liberty Files: The Whistling Skull #1- This reads more like an incredibly delayed Image project (which it is, actually) instead of a DC Elseworlds book. There’s nothing inherently wrong with that either, except I care a little more about the characters from the original premise and a bit less about this new character that just feels shoehorned into the story. I suppose it’s more likely that I’m supposed to feel the reverse of that, but if that was the case this should probably have been a different project. Overall though it’s still amusing, especially if you like over the top pulpy action and Tony Harris’ artwork. Now you just have to decide on how the Tony Harris cosplay controversy informs your decision to buy this book. B
Locke & Key: Omega #2- Oh Locke & Key, I want to complain about how long we have to wait between issues, but then you let loose all these sad feels whenever I read you and I remember how awesome you are. A
Transformers More Than Meets The Eye #12- And then I read this and learn that Cybertronians have non-gender specific significant others and that they deal with death in so many different emotional ways. It’s….it’s a pretty emotional week for comics. A+
Kendrys Morales Scouting Report - Most Comparables
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=== Topics Du Jour ===
Nick Swisher, Alex Gordon, Billy Butler and Kendrys Morales are all cut from about the same cloth offensively.
Fill up a batting order with their ilk, and you're looking at 6.0 runs per game. If you stipulated, before the fact, that Morales would be feeling good in 2013 and playing every day in, Dr. D would take Butler first, Gordon last, the other two in the middle.
Kendrys takes a different road to Rome than the ones traveled by the other three. The other guys walk 70, 80, maybe 90 times per season, and lack dangerous home run power; Morales knew he wasn't going to walk his way off the island. So for hitters really comparable to Morales you've got to look at players with more power.
But, again: if you grant before-the-fact that Morales will play 140+ games, Dr. D wouldn't spit for the difference between Morales and the three batters that the Warts Spiders have been stalking. That's a big IF.
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=== Blasts From the Past ===
Truth be told, a couple of players from 100 years ago are the ones who come to mind. Remember Kent Hrbek, anybody? The swing, the kludgy body, the knack for an off-field RBI when needed, all that stuff ... the Big Hrbowski had a better eye and was a little bit better player.
Tino Martinez was quite similar to Morales as far as the compact swing, the stiff mechanical running, and the slash line.
As compared to Raul Ibanez, Kendrys Morales shares a knack for getting on top of the ball and a basically 290/340/500ish slash line. Kendrys has more talent in his love handles than Rauuul ever though of having, but unfortunately doesn't have 2% of Rauuul's desire. Nor Raul's durability, earned in the weight room.
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=== Weighted Means Approach ===
Throwing aside stylistic concerns ... if you search for batters in the period 2010-12 who echo'ed Morales' career slash line, you get players like
- Nelson Cruz
- Mike Napoli
- Jay Bruce (a bit more of a pitch stalker, tho)
- Adam Jones
There you go. If you want a quick feel for the value provided by Kendrys Morales, SSI nominates Nelson Cruz, if Cruz hit from the left* side.
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=== Counting Your Chickens, Dept. ===
It's a funny thing, though: compared to all of the above players, Morales has a more extreme LO scenario and a more extreme HI scenario.
The LO is provided courtesy of Morales' ankle injury, weight, and work ethic - hopefully all minimized by his contract drive. (For those who just joined us, K-Mo is a free agent next eyar and is represented by Scott Boras; Morales is precisely the kind of stock investment that will have visions of $80M paydays dancing in Boras' head. Morales will be in Seattle for one (1) season, give or take a trade deadline.)
The HI is provided courtesy of the fact that Morales, when last healthy, was in fact an MVP candidate.
For what the Mariners are doing right now, for the short term, you can certainly argue that a $4M Kendrys Morales is the preferred option. To Butler, Swisher, and Gordon. Obviously to Zduriencik, [K-Mo plus draft pick] is preferred to Nick Swisher.
In other words, if you were thinking Swisher, you're covered. For 2013. Ditto the Royals' guys, and whattayer know we didn't have to cough up a future 17-game winner to git r done.
Kendrys Morales isn't a grate in the sidewalk who blows Dr. D's skirt up; nix the "M's get their slugger" hype. The 35-homer, 120-RBI, .550 SLG scenario has what -- a 25% chance of occurring?
But the great thing is that he's a bonus. Or should be. He should be gravy on top of whatever else the M's do; he should be the third player in this winter. He's a rental and they just SAVED money on him.
In the M's dream winter, they just added a short-term Gordon or Swisher comp and now they can get started.
Naaaahhhhhhh....
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Kendry Morales Scouting Report - the Swing (HIT tool)
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=== HIT Tool ===
Kendrys Morales is like Jesus Montero: a natural hitter who just happens to be strong like the buffalo there, Tatonka.
He certainly puts a lot of steam on his bat accel, but the mechanics and swing shape are more Kyle Seager than Josh Hamilton. Here's a checklist: Kendrys ...
- Sinks his weight underside, with heavy thighs
- Keeps his hands verrrrry quiet
- Pulls his hands inside the ball and swings on the plane of the pitch (KBIZLT)
- Follows through compactly, and low
You might look at his EYE ratio and assume he's a hacker. He's not. If anything, his walks are low simply because he attacks pitches, and makes a lot of contact for somebody his size. Morales' swing-and-miss rate is at least as good as those of (say) Miguel Cabrera, Adrian Gonzalez, and Prince Fielder. And he swings about as hard.
Here's an off-field RBI double against Justin Verlander. You can check the video in real time here.
In the first pic, he twitches the bat around like a toothpick, displaying his Edgar-like forearms and wrists. He sticks his nose into the velocity and his front foot is poised to close the door and lock Morales in further.
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In pic two below, he comes to firing position and his hands find the relaxed, Seager-like vertical level that they will crisply maintain throughout the windup.
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Pic three below, Morales' hands have moved gracefully backwards an inch or two and his wrists have cocked the bat. He doesn't need shoulder turn. QUIET is the operative idea here.
The aiki principle is "keep weight underside" and you can see that Morales' wallet is made of lead. His extra physical weight actually helps him with this. There are times in sports in which an extra 25 lbs. actually helps your mechanics; for Morales, this is one of them. See our post on Mike Napoli and keeping weight underside. So, pic three:
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In pic four below: do you get a sense of the way that Morales is staying closed in front, as well as staying inside the ball? Michael Saunders, eat yer heart out:
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Pic five below ... Dr. D is guessing you can annotate this one for your ownself :- )
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THAT's the swing of a 250-lb. home run hitter? Or is it Ichiro and Evil Ichiro sharing a pair of pants out there?
Pic six below, Ko K'Mo stays on top of, through, and inside the ball wayyyyyy into followthrough. Slap me silly you got an offensive lineman putting on a clinic ... for placekickers.
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And pic seven, if you missed the Ichiro memo before, here y'go amig-O:
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We don't say that Morales is going to hit .320. But if you've looked at his EYE ratio, and assumed that he's an air conditioner, you've assumed wrong.
Morales has always carried an air of talent unfulfilled, of potential unrealized. You watch him play and you're wondering, why isn't he Adrian Gonzalez yet. Certainly Scott Boras is wondering that ... of course, Boras only needs for him to be AGone for one season. Say, THIS season.
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Kendrys Morales Scouting Report - the Swing (PWR)
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Morales -- we're talking lefty in all these articles, unless otherwise stated -- has effortless power wayyyy out to right field, and out to center. He takes a compact path to the ball, ssnnnnaaaps the bat into the hitting area, and immediately upon Mr. THOCKKK!, the followthrough dissipates into wrist-only decel.
Morales is physically clumsy by MLB standards, and the swing isn't graceful, exactly, but it's beautiful as measured by economy of motion. This was Dr. Emanuel Lasker's pragmatic definition of beauty: Everything in a system doing exactly one thing, nothing doing anything unnecessary, everything working together. No wasted motion - no "hypocrisy," as it were.
In this video, for example, watch how he FAILS to get his weight engaged with the incoming energy. Flat-footed, he just sort of whip-cracks those wrists, the bat hits him in the butt, and the ball leaves a dent in the bleachers. Edgar hands.
In addition to the outstanding wrists, and the natural big-boy strength, Morales also benefits from a certain amount of Nick Franklin stretch, hands to front ankle. As here, you can sense the tension in the lead arm:
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Nobody who's ever watched Morales play for long, has any doubt about his HIT tool and nobody who's ever watched him play once, has any doubt about his PWR.
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=== Not That He's Got 635 More Homers In Him ... ===
From an aiki standpoint: Morales sinks his weight very well to the ball, and he stays behind it gorgeously. The compact arm finish, with wristy followthrough rather low, reminds you of Babe Ruth, a lot of the swings that Babe took on those grainy videos.
Check the video again, the side angle, 0:39 to 0:45 -- the little sink-and-swat, doesn't that remind you? We're not sure that Kendrys is going off the Hit It Here sixty times next year, but it's a swing conducive to reliable power.
Since 2009, Morales has averaged 32 home runs per 162 games, and about 40% of those games have been played coming off a career-threatening injury.
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=== The Plot Thickens, Dept. ===
Alas, our great prophet Shandlerius writes about Morales, "Disappointing PX index except for 2009," or somesuch. Kendrys Morales has always had a somewhat low flyball ratio, and the last two years it has been really low. What's going on?
Here's another chart, this one from TexasLeaguers.com, and it gives you his LEFT hand scatter from his glory year, 2009:
In case you're having trouble following the point to date :- ) Kendrys Morales is a hitter. The power is an afterthought. (But a rather profound thought.)
As we've preached for about a year now, HR's pulled to right field aren't usually "accidents." It's not like the ball just happens to go in the air sometimes, and 11% of balls in the air just happen to go over the fence. No, sometimes a pitcher makes a mistake, the batter's eyes get big, and then the ball goes high and far, over the fence. That's a certain subset of fly balls.
As time goes on, a hitter like Morales anticipates these mistakes more reliably. He had a little over 600 pro AB's in America when he was promoted to the Angels; when 2009 came calling, he had 127 major league games under his belt. In other words, he had one real good minor league season out of Cuba, and then he had most of one major league season, and then he was #5 in the MVP voting.
Then he got catastrophically injured.
The point isn't that Morales is looking at MVP votes in 2013. The point is that his stats last year, those understate his talent. His talent is to hit .300, zapping bolts all over the field on a game-in game-out basis, zapping 30+ dingers when his pitch arrives.
Whether he'll hit up to his talent, that's for him to decide. But the guy's a hitter.
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