Woof woof indeed (fellow Husky myself).
Oh, and you wouldn’t have to worry about the 40-man if you simply dumped Carrara, since he himself is on the 40-man. I also doubt they’d put Thornton on the DL at this point, since he’s back pitching and has already made three starts. No, seriously. He snuck up on me too. Dig it.
I know everyone’s going to be rah-rah about Freddy’s start, but while it wasn’t terrible, it really wasn’t that hot. There’s a rush to attribute everything to a cause and then wait for that to be disproved: in this case it’s McLemore’s mid-game yelling at Garcia last time that settled him down and made him trust his stuff, and we’ll probably see that cited until Garcia gets severely shelled again. This wasn’t a disastrous start, but it wasn’t that hot at all, and it could have broken open on Garcia as well. If there’s an upside it’s that Garcia’s head didn’t flip open and emit steam tonight before a horrific meltdown, and I’ll take my victories where I can get them.
Agreed w/r/t Carrara. He’s disposable, and it’s time for him to be tossed into the wastebasket of waiver wire players again. The M’s have better options, clearly. Putz’s the more likely option between him and Sweeney, since promoting Sweeney would require the Mariners to cut bait on one of their crappy down-roster Gillickisms like OF Cristian Guerrero, say. Or they could just put Thornton on the 60-day DL.
Also, a big “woof” to all my fellow Huskies checking out the U.S.S. Mariner. My years at the University of Washington were some of the best times of my life, or so other people who were present have told me.
Well, that was fun. Anyone remember when the Royals were the surprise team of 2003 after beating up on Detroit and Cleveland? Me neither.
4 earned runs in 7 innings for Freddy is some kind of weird improvement. The walk and strikeout rates still suck, though. Hard to call this a step forward, but its not a step back.
Edgar Martinez is just awesome. If given the choice between having to pitch to him or Barry Bonds right now, I’m not sure who I’d take.
On a day where the Mariners on base percentage was over .500, Willie Bloomquist managed to go 0-4, leave 6 men on base, and lower his season totals to .174/.264/.239. Coincidentally, I haven’t gotten any emails recently criticizing Bloomquist’s low ranking on the Future Forty,
The Giovanni Carrara experiment has officially failed. He’s been meat for the past month. The Mariners have 6 or 7 better pitchers in Tacoma. I’d like to see Sweeney or Putz get the role, giving the M’s a long man that they lack right now. Soriano and Taylor are better off pitching regularly in Tacoma, preparing for meaningful work later in the season.
Ben Davis now has an .865 OPS, despite his hack-attack at the plate. The Mariners ERA when he catches is 3.84. Dan Wilson has a .621 OPS. The Mariners ERA is 3.91 when he catches. People can talk about Wilson’s ability to handle the pitching staff all they want, but Davis should be getting at least 60 % of the at-bats.
For those of us who care about such things, the first year player draft is next Tuesday. The Mariners first pick is 37th overall and then they will select 19th in rotation in each round after that. I’ll go ahead and post a preview next Monday with the names that I’m hearing and some possibilities for future Mariner farmhands. I’ll post an analysis Tuesday afternoon after the first day has been completed.
In somewhat related news, the Mariners top draft-and-follow candidate, RHP Brad Rose led Walters State into their regional playoffs and prevented the Mariners from having an opportunity to sign him before the deadline last night. Rose was the Mariners 37th round pick last summer but has a chance to go in the top ten rounds next week.
The Mariners did sign 6’5 outfielder Bryan LaHair, who was their 39th round pick, and have assigned him to Everett.
Minor League Highlights for Monday, May 26
Tacoma 5, Tucson 2. RHP Rafael Soriano showed why he’s the top pitcher in the system with a dominant outing (7 IP, 4 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 1 BB, 10 K) in which he carried a two-hit shutout into the 8th inning. According to Corey Brock of the News Tribune, Soriano’s fastball averaged 93 MPH was clocked as high as 96. SS Mickey Lopez, RF Kenny Kelly, 3B Luis Figueroa, LF Jalal Leach and C Julio Mosquera each had two hits including a double for Lopez, who also stole a base and scored thrice. Kelly added two steals, giving him nine on the year. RHP Aaron Taylor worked a perfect 9th (1 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 0 BB, 2 K) for his 10th save.
El Paso 13, San Antonio 11. The Missions lost a slugfest Monday, though they made it close by scoring five runs in the top of the 9th. LHP Bobby Madritsch (4 1/3, 7 H, 5 R, 4 ER, 2 BB, 7 K) was rocked once again, but it was RHP Chris Wright (1 2/3 IP, 4 H, 6 R, 2 ER, 1 BB, 1 K) who took the loss in relief. Wright recently lost his spot in the rotation to LHP Matt Thornton, who’s working his way back from Tommy John surgery a year ago. C Jim Horner led the offense with a 4-5 day which included two doubles, a homer, three runs scored and three RBIs. Horner is now hitting a ridiculous .407/.448/.570 on the season. DH John Lindsey added three hits while SS Luis Ugueto, 1B A.J. Zapp and LF Jaime Bubela each had a pair.
Inland Empire 9, Lake Elsinore 7. The 66ers fell behind 5-1 after two innings, but then exploded for seven runs in the bottom of the 4th to pick up the win. LHP Glenn Bott (4 2/3 IP, 7 H, 3 R, 3 ER, 0 BB, 1 K) got the victory in relief of RHP Juan Done, making his second one-inning start (2 H, 4 R, 4 ER, 2 BB, 1 K) since coming off the disabled list last week. C Luis Oliveros was the top offensive performer with four hits in four at-bats, though 3B Hunter Brown (HR), RF Cristian Guerrero (HR) and LF Shin-soo Choo (3B) provided the pop. After weeks in the lead-off spot, Choo hit 5th on Monday. RHP Mike Steele closed things out (1 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 0 BB, 1 K) to pick up his 11th save.
Fort Wayne 10, Wisconsin 7. RHP T.A. Fulmer’s run of greatness came to a crashing halt, as he was knocked around and failed to escape a five-run 4th inning (3 1/3 IP, 8 H, 7 R, 6 ER, 1 BB, 2 K). The Timber Rattlers did manage to tie the game at seven with five runs of their own in the top of the 7th, but the bullpen allowed one in the 7th and two more in the 8th to snatch defeat from the jaws of (possible) victory. LF Dustin Delucchi had three hits for Wisconsin, and CF Gary Harris and 3B Matt Hagen each homered.
Useless Information Department: The farm system’s catchers combined to go 11-17 yesterday with four doubles, a homer, four runs scored and four RBIs, for a robust .647/.647/1.059 line.
A few weeks ago Dave mentioned LHP Ryan Ketchner, an M’s farmhand who was born deaf. I didn’t realize that the Mariners had another player, Tacoma 3B Luis Figueroa, who lost 90% of his hearing as a child following a very serious illness and fever which caused nerve damage. John McGrath of the Tacoma News Tribune wrote this feature on Figueroa in Sunday’s paper.