The Glaring Weakness - USSM - 美國職棒

簡單翻譯版，有錯請指正。
主要在談水兵打線上的問題，投手部分倒沒有著墨。

13-9, first place in the AL West at the end of April. Everyone in Seattle
would have taken that if offered at the beginning of the year. The first
month saw more good than bad, and the M’s have put themselves in a position
to be contenders for the division this year.

水兵開季大驚奇，變成競爭力十足的大黑馬。

As contenders, then, the requirements change a bit. If you’re serious about
winning, then you don’t get to wait until problems manifest themselves as
huge black holes before you fix them. You have to be ahead of the curve,
acting before disaster strikes rather than trying to react after it sinks
your season. Contenders have proactive mindsets when it comes to shaping
their roster. So, if the M’s are going to take a run at the AL West this
year, they have to be willing to adjust some preseason plans in order to
maximize the team’s chances of winning.

真正有競爭力的球隊應該見微知著未雨綢繆，在問題浮現前就把他解決。

For me, the biggest glaring flaw with this team is the quintet of
right-handed bats that all have the same basic approach at the plate. Adrian
Beltre, Jose Lopez, Yuniesky Betancourt, Franklin Gutierrez, and Kenji
Johjima/Rob Johnson occupy five positions as everyday players, and they’re
all cut from the same cloth - right-handed, aggressive gap power guys who can
hit a fastball if you make a mistake but are more than willing to get
themselves out by chasing pitches out of the zone. There are different levels
of abilities within these five, but they’re all the same type of hitter. And
they all struggle to hit right-handed pitchers, especially righties who have
a decent sinker/slider combination.

水兵最顯著的問題就是，占據五個每日先發大位的右打者都具備相同攻擊型態

─積極揮擊、能給失投速球予以痛擊、太常追打壞球─

包括吹哥、J-Lo、β、Guti、JJ捕手組合在內，面對伸卡/滑球型的投手會被欺負得很慘。

It doesn’t even have to be a good pitcher. Jered Weaver and James Shields
shut us down, but so did Rick Porcello, Edwin Jackson, Bartolo Colon, and
Trevor Cahill. When the M’s run into a right-handed sinker/slider pitcher,
they’re in trouble, because odds are they aren’t going to get much from the
Beltre-Lopez-Betancourt-Gutierrez-Joh/Johnson part of the line-up.

例如織織公主、聖盾、Porcello、E-Jackson、科隆、Cahill 都壓制過我們的打線。
面對伸卡/滑球型的投手，就別期待這五人組能有什麼貢獻了。

That leaves an enormous amount of pressure on the four LH bats, one of whom
isn’t much of a hitter. Two of the LH bats are vulnerable to left-handed
relievers as well, so our offense can be fairly easily neutralized by any
team with a right-handed starter and a halfway competent left-handed
reliever. That’s a big problem.

這將帶給打線上另外四個左打者很大的壓力，其中三個不是不會打擊就是被左殺，
（這段意思是指 Ichiro 是唯一倖免的那一個嗎？ XD）
對手派出右投先發，後半段祭出左手牛就能把我們解決，問題很大。

In addition, the entire bench is right-handed. If any of the four left-handed
bats need a day off, they get replaced with a right-handed bat. If you want
to inject Balentien into the line-up to add some more power, you’re simply
adding yet another hitter who struggles against that same pitcher type. The M
’s just have too many right-handed, free-swinging, fastball-oriented
hitters.

縱使不說先發五人組，板凳上也全都是右打，
如果要讓左打者輪休，遞補進打線的是巴冷天 ─ 一樣是個球來就打派右打者。

If they want to win this year, this is going to have to be addressed. One of
the five is going to have to surrender their everyday spot in order for the
team to get a more patient left-handed bat in the line-up and give the
offense some balance.

如果我們想在今年有所作為，右打五人組當中有人必須要讓位，
打線上需要一個有耐心的左打。

What are the options? I see three, personally.

以下有三個選項：

1. Try to trade for a middle infielder who bats left-handed or switch-hits.
There aren’t a lot of them, and most of the good ones just aren’t
available, but you might be able to talk the Braves into a deal that involved
Jose Lopez and Kelly Johnson. Maybe. Probably not, but it’d be worth
exploring, at least.

雖然左打或左右開弓的內野好貨難尋，但可以考慮 J-Lo ←→ Kelly Johnson。

2. Bring up Jeff Clement and give him significant time behind the plate. This
is almost certainly not going to happen, as the M’s have made a conscious
decision to value defense over offense behind the plate. If Clement can’t
get out of Tacoma when Johjima’s on the DL, he’s certainly not going to
take over the job when both Joh and Rob Johnson are healthy. We can complain
about this one all we want, but Clement doesn’t have a future behind the
plate with this organization.

拉上 Clement ，讓他變成主戰捕手。
不過球隊認為捕手的防守價值比打擊價值還要重要，
喬治馬受傷他都搶不到位子了，未來他大概也不會是水兵的捕手人選。

3. Trade Beltre, move Russ Branyan to third, and replace him with a
left-handed hitting first baseman. This one is extremely unlikely and
probably wouldn’t work anyway, because Beltre is one of the reasons this
team has a chance to make the playoffs. But, if we’re throwing out ideas, it
’s at least in the realm of possibility. As a free agent at the end of the
year, the M’s could conceivably get an offer for him that they felt was
worth pulling the trigger on, and then attempt to patch the hole they just
created by acquiring someone like Nick Johnson and shifting Branyan across
the diamond. It’s almost unheard of for teams in contention to make radical
shifts like this, which would involve getting away from the defense-first
orientation of the roster, but it’s at least possible. A ridiculous
longshot, yes, but maybe one worth exploring if the right situations present
itself.

利用年底到期的合約賣掉吹哥，補進左打一壘手（such as Nick Johnson），
Branyan 拉去守三壘。

As you can see, of the three options that I can come up with, two of them are
basically non-starters. That leaves the M’s shopping for a middle infielder
who can bat left-handed. That doesn’t seem particularly likely either,
honestly.

不過後兩個選項是天方夜譚，交易 J-Lo 說實在話也不大可能。

That’s why this is such a problem. It’s not easily resolved. This team was
constructed poorly by the last administration, and it leaves the current
front office in a predicament. Perhaps the best test yet of Jack Zduriencik’
s abilities as a GM will be to see if he can solve this rubix cube.

這就是水兵苦手的大問題，面對上任 front office 留下來的爛攤子，
這將是大 Z 總管嚴苛的考驗。

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