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Wednesday, July 24, 2019

Doppelgänger


Watching the Texas Rangers is much like observing the Seattle Mariners.  Both score lots of runs when they hit, only problem is they don't hit consistently.  Both have some good starting pitching, but it too is inconsistent.  Relief pitching for both teams is pretty consistent, mostly for the bad.

There's not much good baseball to see here and some truly bad examples of the game.  My conclusion is hardly remarkable but bears repeating: in baseball, in all sports for that matter, the skill to be mastered is to work to achieve consistent levels of performance.  And here's the important part... performance doesn't have to be at the highest levels to win, it has to be consistent enough to structure one's (or a team's) full game around it.

In other words, a team with bad pitching can win, if it is predictable and consistent.  Consistently bad pitching can be adjusted to by consistently good hitting.  Vice versa is just as true (look at the Koufax and Drysdale Dodgers).  

Anyone who has ever played golf seriously understands the truth of this principle.  Bad off the tee?  Better have a good short game?  Lousy putter?  You can overcome that by hitting balls that get on the green as possible.  The secret here is to overcome inconsistencies in one area with absolute consistency in another.

The worst circumstance is what is seen in these teams, inconsistency everywhere.  And Dipoto better figure this out quickly.  

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