COMPARE AND CONTRAST

Mariners' new shortstop Jack Wilson on his approach to fielding:

An odd thing happened for Wilson a few years ago. He said he found himself observing hitters in a different way. In a more … well … scientific manner.

“I started to watch a batter’s hands and feet, his elbow and shoulders, his swing pass. Then, depending on your pitcher and what pitch he’s about to throw, you know what the hitter is most likely to do,” he said.

“I got good enough that in Pittsburgh, they let me set the infield defense. I moved an outfielder one time and one of the coaches asked why. I showed him the video of the hitter’s first swing and said, ‘Look at that. There’s no way he was going to be able to pull a ball with that swing.’ After that, they trusted me.”

It was more than study in the field. Wilson read up on the opposition.

“If a guy is in a slump, for instance, what’s he going to try to do? Keep the ball up the middle, go the other way. That’s how you try to get out of a slump,” Wilson said. “Pulling the ball gets you into slumps, it doesn’t get you out. So if a guy is in a slump, it doesn’t make sense to play him to pull.”

Then, there’s the matter of the pitcher.

“If your pitcher has a good change-up, 90 percent of them are going to be pulled, because guys are going to be out in front of them,” Wilson said. “So you watch each pitch call and adjust, you let your third baseman know what’s coming.”

And now, an evaluation of the man Wilson replaced in Seattle, Royals' new shortstop Yuniesky Betancourt, and his role in the Royals' loss last night (with photographic evidence!):

Betancourt can't field balls hit up the middle on the shortstop side of second base, even if the second baseman can reach them. He can't field balls hit into the hole. I must be missing some of those "other factors" like defensive positioning and what not, although I'm not sure what positioning gives you problems with balls up the middle and in the hole.

I don't watch as many games as Dayton Moore's scouts or Willie Bloomquist's memory, though, so you should draw your own conclusions.

To be fair to Dayton Moore, however, it's not like Jack Wilson was available for the Royals to acquire instead of Betancourt. Oh, he was? Well, it's important to remember that if the Royals had gotten Wilson, they wouldn't have been able to keep Mike Jacobs or Miguel Olivo or Mark Teahen next year. Oh, noes!

Royals, our feelings about you at this point can be summed up thusly:



(Articles found via The Book blog.)

PRETTY BIRD, YEAH, PRETTY BIRD...POLLY WANNA CRACKER?

Does it get better than a talking mascot bird with an Australian accent? The third act of Funny People would have been a lot more amusing had this mascot played Eric Bana's character.

BIG TWELVE TWEETING

The Royals' season is all-but-officially over and the college sports season starts up in a month, so let's pull our attention from the train wreck and take our first look at the Big XII.

Rather than trotting out our season predictions right away, though, we're going to start by taking a look at the various basketball and football coaches around the Big XII who are using Twitter. We're following as many of them on our own Twitter account (@quickshotskc) as we can, and here's a short report on who's worth following and who's not.

The Good:

* Doc Sadler (@Coach_Sadler) may be fighting out of the bottom of the Big XII with his Nebraska hoops squad, but he's on top of the conference when it comes to Twitter. Doc seems to do his own Tweeting, and even has regular features like "Song of the Week," which tends to be classic rock. He thought Demi Moore looked good in Husker Red at the Espys, and seems to be especially fond of peaches. In fact, he registered his disappointment when "The ncaa enforcement staff ate all the peaches at peach jam."

* When OU hoops coach Jeff Capel (@jeffcapel) isn't focused on X's and O's, he's focused on X-Wing fighters. Or he's getting pissed at people who are analyzing his tweets. Sorry, coach!

* Scott Drew, Baylor hoops (@BUDREW). Not as interesting as the first two, but still provides some info about what the recruiting road is like and what former BU players are up to.

The Bad:

* Dan Hawkins, Colorado football (@CoachHawk). Unfortunately for Hawk, he set the bar high with his "It's division 1 football! It's the Big 12!" speech a couple of years back. His tweets just don't live up to it. Lately, it's been personal shout-outs to season ticket holders. BO-RING...especially when you consider there's no way those season ticket holders use Twitter.



* Bo Pelini, Nebraska football (@BoPelini). Started out strong, then faded. Although we have to give him credit for: "By the way - people need to get off Lebron - shaking hands is overrated." We would expect no less from a man who accosted Bill Snyder and called him an "a**hole" following K-State's 38-9 drubbing of the Huskers in Lincoln in 2003. A Nebraska football coach complaining about running up the score...whuda thunk it?

The Ugly:

* Gary Pinkel, Mizzou football (@mizzoufootball). Mostly stats from last year and a countdown to the beginning of the season. Hey, Gary...we've got a media guide and a calendar, thanks.

* Mike Anderson, Mizzou basketball (@MissouriBBall). Hey! Did you know that Mizzou basketball is having summer camps? Well, if you didn't, it's because you haven't been following Mike's Twitter. I bet those summer camps taught by Mr. "40 Minutes of Hell" are pretty fun.

* Travis Ford, OSU basketball (@CoachFord5). Two updates on May 14, announcing summer camp. That's it. Booooo! By the way, Travis, see if you can get Gundy to Twitter. He should be fun: