Minor League Highlights for Friday, May 23
Tucson 8, Tacoma 0. C Pat Borders had both of the Rainiers hits in the game and RHP Jeff Heaverlo’s struggles continued as the Sidewinders blanked the Rainiers. Heaverlo gave up 5 runs on 8 hits and 1 walk in 4 innings of work, but he did strike out 4. RHP Aaron Looper gave up 3 more runs in mop-up work before and OF Jacques Landry finished the game with 1 scoreless inning. When you go 2-27 as a team, there are clearly no hitting stars.
San Antonio 7, Round Rock 2. 3B Justin Leone continued his torrid pace, going 3-3 with a home run, a stolen base, and a walk. He scored twice and drove in 3 to pace the offense. SS Jose Lopez also had 2 hits including his 13th double of the year. LHP Matt Thornton made his return to AA a success with 6 innings of 1 hit baseball. He allowed 2 unearned runs, walked 4, and struck out 5. RHP Josue Matos got a 3 inning save by giving up just 1 hit and striking out 4 of the 10 batters he faced.
Visalia 4, Inland Empire 3. The 66’ers continue to provide no run support for great pitching performances, as LHP Troy Cate’s 7 inning, 1 hit performance failed to lead to a win. Cate relieved rehabbing RHP Juan Done in the second inning and allowed just 1 unearned run, walking 2, and striking out 4. RHP Mike Steele took the loss by giving up a run in the 10th inning. OF Cris Guerrero hit his first home run with the organization and the 66’ers racked up 13 hits but couldn’t drive the runs in. Manager Steve Roadcap continued his pace for a world record by managing to say something negative about every player on the club for the 34th consecutive day.
Wisconsin 7, West Michigan 3. 2B Corey Harrington went 3-5 to spark an offensive explosion by the T-Rats standards as they put away the Whitecaps with 4 runs in the 9th inning. RHP Tanner Watson pitched 5 2/3 innings and gave up 2 runs, walked no one, and struck out 6. Relieving LHP Ryan-Rowland Smith got the win, however, as he pitched 3 1/3 innings, gave up 1 run, walked 1, and struck out 4. In other impressive news, SS Michael Garciaparra did not make an error.
Boy, Loshe looked great against the Mariners. That game could have easily been a shutout with a break in the Twins direction. As Tacoma Raniers announce Mike Curto said, “Loshe was dealing tonight.” Another highlight: Mateo came in and I turned to Mike and said “How long before Tateriffic Mateo gives up a home run?” and as Mike started to answer, Mateo gave up a home run.
Garcia Watch 2003
Bob Finnigan, apparantly unable to find a story lying around the pressbox he could pick up and run, asked Garcia about the rumors he parties too much and used it for the basis of an article. Headline is “Garcia denies off-field rumors” but in the story, Garcia says “Yes, I go out,” he said. “I can go out. I can go out if I want. Why not? I’m 26 years old. I’m single.”
Umm, so you do go out then.
“I’m not out every night,” he said, showing a touch of anger for the first time. “You don’t see me out every night. I stay home a lot, but people don’t see me at home. They see me when I go out, so they think it’s too much.”
Some days, after all, are travel days when the team is on a charter flight at night.
Garcia pointed out that he has gone out to clubs since he has been in the big leagues, now five years.
“I’ve always gone out, and all the years I’ve done good, it’s no problem,” he said. “I don’t do good for a few games, and now it’s a bad thing?”
Lemme see… a few games. How about a year’s worth of games?
“People can talk about my performance on the field, but the other stuff is my life,” Garcia said. “You know me. You know if I have a big car. You know about my nightlife. To go out every night, to be drinking too much, would be stupid for me. My velocity would be down, but it’s not. I’m throwing the ball 93, 94, 95 mph. That’s me. That’s always been me.”
There’s an important point here: he doesn’t say that he’s not out on the town every night, he says “it’s not so bad, I’m still throwing fast.”
Let’s say, for the sake of argument, that I make widgets and I smoke a lot of crack every day. And for a while, I do really well. I manage to come into work enough that it doesn’t show up on my reviews, I keep life relatively in order. If things started to fall apart — I came into work later and later, when I was there my head wasn’t in the game, I was moody and erratic, I still made widgets as fast but they weren’t as good, and frequently defective — would the crack be a valid subject to talk about? Or would the fact that I could still crank out widgets of much worse quality be an adequate defense?
Derek’s Wacky Fun Series Preview
M’s face the Twins for a three-game series at home here at the House Griffey Built and then Left. The Mariners head into the series with the best record in the AL.
Fri @ 7pm, LHP Moyer v RHP Radke
Sat @ 7pm, RHP Pineiro v RHP Lohse
Sun @ 5pm, RHP Franklin v RHP Reed
Sunday has a chance to be an ugly game, as Franklin’s hittability may set the Twins bats on fire, while Reed has been roughed up and injured this year. Saturday looks to be the best matchup, but it also has a chance to be an ugly game: there’s a bunch of Prospectus folks getting together before the game, and that means there’s a non-zero chance I’ll end up in the pokey by the end of the day.
The Mariners have been hitting much better than the Twins, their rotations are having like years (with Joe Mays playing the role of Garcon Garcia, and Loshe as Meche), but with the recent collapse of the back-end M’s bullpen, the Twins have surpassed them in bullpen strength.
Minor League Highlights for Thursday, May 23
Sacramento 10, Tacoma 1. LHP Craig Anderson had what was probably the worst outing of his career (5 IP, 12 H, 9 R, 9 ER, 3 BB, 2 K), as Sacramento jumped on him for one run in the 1st and four runs each in the 3rd and 5th. Tacoma hitters, meanwhile, were held to just five hits — all singles — and scored their only run when LF Adrian Myers drove in C Julio Mosquera in the 8th. Utilityman Craig Kuzmic made his second pitching appearance of the season (1 IP, 3 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 0 BB, 0 K, 1 HR), working the final inning.
San Antonio 2, Round Rock 1. LHP Travis Blackley pitched a gem (8 IP, 4 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 2 BB, 7 K) for his 5th victory of the season, allowing the Missions to win despite having only three hits, all of which came in their two-run sixth. C Jim Horner singled, LF Jaime Bubela singled, and then CF Mike Curry singled, scoring Horner. A SS Luis Ugueto sacrifice later, Bubela scored the go-ahead run on a flyout by 2B Jose Lopez. LHP Randy Williams worked the 9th (1 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 0 BB, 0 K) for his first save of the year.
Inland Empire 8, Lake Elsinore 3. Despite facing the Lake Elsinore Storm for his 4th consecutive start, RHP Kevin Olore continues to befuddle Cal League hitters. He pitched 6 strong innings, allowing 2 runs, walking 1, and striking out 8. RHP Emiliano Fruto continued his strong work out of the pen, striking out two of the four batters he faced on the way to 1 1/3 perfect innings of relief. LF Greg Jacobs got two more hits, including a double, to raise his average to .329. The 66’ers get good news with RHP Juan Done returning from the disabled list this evening.
West Michigan 2, Wisconsin 0. The Timber Rattlers were unable to break through against West Michigan pitching, held scoreless on five hits in the game. LHP Cesar Jimenez pitched well (5 1/3 IP, 4 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 3 BB, 4 K) but has nothing to show for it other than lowering his ERA to a stellar 1.19 on the year. RHP Rich Dorman took the loss (1/3 IP, 0 H, 2 R, 0 ER, 2 BB, 1 K), though the two runs he allowed were unearned thanks to a costly error by 2B Tim Merritt. On the basepaths, CF Gary Harris stole two bases and Merritt, who had been 12-for-12 on the year, was caught for the first time. SS Michael Garciaparra also contributed a hit, but committed two more errors, bringing his total to 18 in just 40 games.
Another turn through the rotation, and it’s time for Rate Stats of Doom
Pitcher* abf h% bb% hr% k%
Garcia 256 22.7% 9.4% 4.7% 13.7%
Pineiro 254 20.5% 10.6% 2.0% 14.2%
Franklin 240 22.9% 6.7% 4.2% 9.6%
Meche 238 21.8% 6.7% 2.5% 19.7%
Moyer 236 22.5% 8.9% 3.0% 19.9%
Carrara 111 27.0% 9.9% 4.5% 7.2%
Hasegawa 99 16.2% 6.1% 0.0% 13.1%
Mateo 95 24.2% 6.3% 6.3% 17.9%
Rhodes 87 17.2% 8.0% 0.0% 19.5%
Nelson 70 20.0% 11.4% 2.9% 27.1%
Kazu 63 25.4% 6.3% 1.6% 25.4%
* indicates position on roster and is not an indicator of actual pitching talent.
Leaders, good sense: H Hasegawa, BB Hasegawa, HR (tie) Hasegawa, Rhodes, K Nelson
Leaders, bad sense: H Carrara, BB Jeff Nelson, HR Julio “Tateriffic” Mateo, K Carrara
Chicks dig the long ball
Mariner Home Run Leaders
Freddy Garcia, 12 given up
Bret Boone, 11 hit
(tie) Ryan Franklin, 10 given up, Edgar Martinez, 10 hit
Jamie Moyer, 7 given up
John Levesque in the PI today writes about Truly Terrible Freddy being booed, and expresses bafflement: “Was it a little harsh? So it would seem.” He compares Ichiro’s late-year slump and early-year start to Garcia’s problem. Here’s the difference: Ichiro had good games. Ichiro was having problems, but it wasn’t as if the light went off and he stopped running out infield hits and trying to bunt his way on. Garcia not only has only one good start to his credit since last July, he doesn’t care. People boo him because he’s not trying, because he’s pouting on the mound, and if they wanted to see a toddler throw a tantrum, they’d have stayed home and saved on the babysitter. They boo him because at this point Freddy’s night life is accepted as fact — you can walk the stands and hear people talk about how you can see him in the background of one of this one nightclub’s commericals, someone saw him at wherever, drinking whatever, flirting with whoever — and people aren’t happy that Freddy is fiddling while his career burns down around him.
So Levesque goes on, wonders if fans think he’s tanking intentionally, or if they don’t like him because his English isn’t so good, or even if it’s a cultural thing. But here’s the capper: “Anyone who thinks Garcia is blase about his lack of success this year is way off base. Forty-five minutes after the end of last night’s game, Garcia still hadn’t come out to meet reporters. Think he’s taking this lightly?”
Yes. Yes I do. I don’t care if he talks to the press at all, frankly. What I want to see is him do is keep his head on the mound and stop serving it up like a waiter after that first hit skips into the outfield. I want to see him stop shaking off signs constantly and try and work off a plan for setting up batters. I don’t think Garcia’s blase about his failure to be a decent pitcher since the middle of last year. But I also don’t think he cares enough to do anything about it.
Its official: I was wrong about Gil Meche. I wasn’t really surprised when he flashed a couple of good starts against Oakland and Cleveland, but I expected a few implosions to follow. He hadn’t pitched consistently well in 4 years. His control had never been very good, and it was hard to imagine it improving after a 2 year major league layoff. He was, simply, a guy who couldn’t get AA hitters out last summer, and we were expecting him to get major leaguers out this spring.
His command has gone from poor to exceptional, giving him the ability to work deep into games and keep his pitch counts reasonable. He’s posting the best strikeout rate of his career while cutting his walk rate in half. The impressive thing, though, has been his consistency. He’s only had one “poor” start, and that was his first of the year against Texas. He’s had a pair of not great starts, and six extremely good ones.
This is the Gil Meche the M’s were expecting. This is not the one I was expecting. Kudos to Bob Mevlin and his staff.
Carrara is truly awful. I’m amazed that he was able to fool NL hitters the past two season while with the Dodgers, because he has no stuff whatsoever. Hell, he doesn’t even have “stuf” or “stu,” let alone stuff. It’s junk, junky junk and junkier junk. Anyone else reminded of Bullet Bob Wells, the Yakima Express? You know, the guy who was Lou Piniella’s closer for about a week in 1997 thanks to a streak of two or three good outings.
Freddy’s always had crappy mechanics. His delivery was one of the reasons the Astros moved him in the first place. He’s lucky to hit the same release point twice in the same at-bat. This isn’t new.
You know who Truly Terrible Freddy reminds me of? Jose Lima. Just lost it overnight. Started giving up gopherballs left and right. Had the emotional maturity of a seven year old. Never lost his “stuff”, though.
By the way, Giovanni Carrara’s now walked 11 and struck out 8 in 23 innings. His ERA in May is over 9.50. Take away his 6 shutout innings against the Indians (because they’re the Indians, and he struck out no one) and he’s giving up 16 earned runs in 17 innings this year. Aaron Taylor, come on down!
Minor League Highlights for Wednesday, May 21
Sacramento 5, Tacoma 3. The great pitching duel we were all looking forward to in this one — Rafael Soriano vs. Rich Harden — didn’t quite develop, as each pitcher was bitten by a big inning. The Rainiers scored all three of their runs in the bottom of the 2nd off Harden, who settled down after that. Meanwhile, Sacramento scored all five of theirs in the 4th off Soriano (6 IP, 5 H, 5 R, 4 ER, 1 BB, 5 K). CF Adrian Myers led the offense with a 3-5 night, and 2B Chad Meyers added a pair of hits. Tacoma’s biggest problem was that all nine of their hits were singles. RHP J.J. Putz closed the game out (3 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 2 BB, 1 K), lowering his ERA to 3.44 on the season.
San Antonio 9, Round Rock 4. The Missions fell behind 4-0 early as RHP Chris Wright (7 IP, 8 H, 4 R, 3 ER, 3 BB, 5 K, 2 HR) allowed a run in each of the first four frames, but then exploded for four in the 4th, three in the 5th and lone runs in the 6th and 8th to win it. 1B A.J. Zapp paced the offense with three hits, while CF Mike Curry, SS Luis Ugueto, 2B Jose Lopez and C Jim Horner each added two. In slightly more shocking news, Curry was caught stealing for just the 4th time all year. He now has 21 steals in 25 attempts. LHP Tim Hamulack (1 2/3 IP, 2 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 2 BB, 2 K) closed things out and has yet to allow a run since being demoted from Tacoma.
Inland Empire 10, Lake Elsinore 4. The 66ers made the most of their 13 hits and 5 walks, turning them into 10 runs and helping LHP Glenn Bott (5 IP, 4 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 4 BB, 6 K) to his first win of the season. CF Sheldon Fulse, RF Cristian Guerrero, 3B Hunter Brown, C Chris Collins and SS Eddie Menchaca each had two hits, including a double and triple for Brown, who drove in three runs and scored thrice. Collins also doubled and had three RBIs, and Guerrero stole a pair of bases.
Wisconsin had the day off, as the entire Midwest League was idle. LHP Cesar Jimenez takes the hill for the Timber Rattlers today at West Michigan.