Minor League Highlights for Super Tuesday, June 17
Tacoma 3, Memphis 2 (10 innings). 1B J.R. Phillips hit a solo homer in the bottom of the 10th to win it for the Rainiers, capping a 3-4 day and making a winner of RHP Aaron Taylor (2 2/3 IP, 2 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 1 BB, 1 K). RHP Brian Falkenborg, fresh off the DL, pitched well in his return to action (5 IP, 2 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 1 BB, 2 K). RF Kenny Kelly and DH John Mabry, the latter getting some rehab at-bats, each had three hits in Tacoma’s 15-hit attack.
Their All-Star break finished, San Antonio returns to action tonight at Midland. Amid rumors that RHP Rett Johnson has been promoted to Tacoma and LHP Matt Thornton will remain there following his spot start this week, the Missions have yet to announce their starting pitcher for today’s game.
Lake Elsinore 5, Inland Empire 4. 1B John Castellano hit a pair of solo homers, but it wasn’t enough for the 66ers as Lake Elsinore got to RHP Emiliano Fruto (3 IP, 5 H, 4 R, 2 ER, 1 BB, 4 K) in relief of LHP Glenn Bott (5 IP, 5 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 1 BB, 10 K). Leading 3-1 after four innings, Fruto gave up three in the 6th and one more in the 8th, taking the loss to fall to 4-7 on the season. C Luis Oliveros went 2-4, raising his average to .342 on the year.
Wisconsin was idle, as the Midwest League played their All-Star game in Comstock Park, Michigan. In front of 10,037 people, the East beat the West 5-4. The Timber Rattlers will resume play on Thursday.
With tonight’s 4-4, two-homer game, Ichiro is suddenly hitting a robust .347/.390/.474 and is on pace to hit 17 homers. For reference, he hit 16 homers combined in his first two seasons on this side of the Pacific. Strangely, though, that’s his only power number that’s up — his doubles are right in line with the past two years (if not down slightly), and his triples are actually down. Hmm.
Also, I just noticed that ESPN.com added Ichiro’s stats from Japan to his career stats page. Very cool. Funny, though, they didn’t do the same for Kazuhiro Sasaki or Shigetoshi Hasegawa…
As long as we’re talking about potential upgrades, I happen to disagree about LF. Winn doesn’t have a large contract — he’s only making $3.3M, and he’s only signed through this season. You could still go out an acquire a big-hitting LF guy, making Winn one of the better 4th outfielders in baseball (covers all three positions, runs well, can hit a little). Alternately, you might be able to sell some team who needs a CF on taking Winn off your hands, provided you’ve already worked out the “big-hitting LF guy” part of the equation (don’t move Winn if it means McLemore’s your regular LF starter, in other words). I don’t know who this team is, but there has to be a contending team out there who could use a solid CF to finish out the season.
The real point of this, however, is replacing Winn, who simply isn’t that good. Yeah, his .283 batting average looks pretty, but his .339 OBP and .386 SLG are just plain ugly. After taking 14 walks in April and getting us all excited, he drew a mere four in May and just one so far in June. And for all the talk of how moving him down to 7th in the batting order turned his season around, you might be surprised at the numbers. Hitting 2nd, he got on base at a .379 clip and posted a .743 OPS. Hitting 7th, he’s posted a .650 OPS with a .272 OBP, a number that would make even Brian Hunter (career OBP: .314) cringe.
It’s a beautiful day here in Seattle, I managed to sneak in a nice bike ride before work, and I’ve got tickets to tonight’s game. So I thought I’d write a happy, balanced piece on everyone’s favorite team’s hot start.
The offense: Boone and Edgar are playing very well, I’m pleased by Cameron and Ichiro, and we’ve gotten decent work out of Guillen (“my breakout season not endorsed by Derek and Jason”). On the flip side, Wilson’s been terrible, and McLemore not much better. If Cirillo keeps hitting, huzzah. Unfortunately, when you look for obvious upgrades, there aren’t many: the M’s have worked their way into a corner, sort of, with their large contracts at C/1b/LF. Only Guillen seems particularly discardable if the team comes across a star shortstop lying around (Alex!).
The pitching: Moyer-Meche have been huge, Franklin’s been pretty good too, Pineiro problematic and Garcia… well, unless this is your first time visiting (and looking at our stats, that’s unlikely), you know all about Garcia. Not a lot of room for upgrades here, either — again, if there’s a star, you’ve got to either give up on Garcia or bump Franklin to the bullpen, neither of which is a particularly good option. On the bullpen side, Carrara has got to go. Matt White is pointless. I’d like to see Soriano used in the Carrara situations, if Melvin insists on having someone fill the “behind by 1-3 runs and saving the other relievers” role, and Carrara given his walking papers. Could use another ace lefty if Melvin’s not going to get over his obsession with L/R matchups — hey, we tailored our bullpen to Piniella’s whims for years, we can indulge Platoon Bob.
Serious needs:
– competent backup middle infielder
– competent backup outfielder
– Carrara, a good length of rope, sturdy tree trunk and some excuse to lure him to Ellensburg so we can tie him to the tree with the rope and force the Mariners to use better relievers
Other than that, I think this is not a team that’s going to make a deadline deal (you’re shocked, I know) unless someone goes down with a season-ending injury. But at the same time, this is a team that would benefit hugely from having someone like Ochoa to fill out the outfield instead of McLemore/Bloomquist, and could also use insurance for Guillen/Boone in the form of someone like… uh… no one comes to mind.
Minor League Highlights for Monday, June 16
Las Vegas 7, Tacoma 3. LHP Matt Thornton, up from San Antonio to make a spot start, retired the side in order in the first but was knocked around the park after that (5 IP, 10 H, 6 R, 6 ER, 1 BB, 2 K, 2 HR) and took the loss in his AAA debut. The Rainiers pounded out 12 hits on the night but only managed three runs, stranding 11 runners on base. LF Jalal Leach led the way with three singles, while DH Adrian Myers, C Craig Kuzmic and SS Ruben Castillo each added a pair of hits, including two doubles for Myers.
San Antonio sort of had the day off, as the Texas League played its All-Star Game. I say “sort of” because the Missions sent nine players as well as their coaching staff to the game, so all in all they were still pretty busy. I have yet to find a boxscore for this game, but I do know the East beat the West 4-2.
Inland Empire 3, High Desert 1. LF Greg Jacobs went 3-3 with a double and a homer, leading the 66ers to victory behind the pitching of RHP Juan Done (5 IP, 2 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 3 BB, 3 K). Done, who picked up his first win of the year, has been getting progressively better and working deeper into games since coming off the disabled list last month. RHP Cha Seung Baek, activated a few weeks ago, picked up the non-traditional save with a stellar relief outing (4 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 0 BB, 3 K). RF Shin-soo Choo had a pair of triples, giving him ten on the year.
Wisconsin had the day off Monday, as the Midwest League plays their All-Star Game tonight at Fifth Third Ballpark (what kind of a wacky name is that?) in Comstock Park, Michigan.
This year’s bench: McLemore, Bloomquist, Ugueto, absent Colbrunn
Last year’s bench: McLemore, Gipson, Ugueto, Relaford
I gotta go with last year’s bench for worst bench ever, when it was Relaford, McLemore and then his less-capable clones. Bloomquist v Gipson’s an ugly fight, and actually Relaford plays third better than McLemore… this is a tough choice, now that I think about it.
Borders goes back to Tacoma and the M’s bring up Rafael Soriano. He’s better than Carrara, White, and Mateo, but if he’s not going to pitch regularly, I’d rather see him in Tacoma. With the way our starters have been going (okay, Joel, stop making me look stupid), we really don’t need to carry seven relievers.
Also, I hereby nominate Bloomquist, McLemore, and Ugueto as the worst bench in the history of baseball.
Also, if anyone out there is keeping track of such things, that’s now 10 runs in the past six games. Miraculously, they’re 3-3 in those six games.
Hey everybody. I updated the Big Board for this week, including placing Greg Colbrunn on the DL and moving Luis Ugueto from San Antonio to Seattle. You’ll notice the Missions are pretty thin right now — they were already down an outfielder when Chris Snelling went on the DL, and with Ugueto now in Seattle their only bench player is that game’s non-starting catcher (either Scott Maynard or Jim Horner). It’s their All-Star break right now, so they’ve got a couple of days to get that worked out if they so choose.
Also, Everett starts up play this week in the Northwest League. Once we have an Opening Day roster and some idea who the starters are going to be, I’ll add the Aqua Sox to the Big Board (as well as the Peoria Mariners, though in rookie ball it’s pretty tough to tell who the regulars are as lineups change pretty much daily).
Minor League Highlights for Sunday, June 15
They’re baaaaaack…
Las Vegas 10, Tacoma 5. Las Vegas ran Tacoma pitching ragged Sunday, scoring in six of their eight innings including a five-run bottom of the 8th. RHP J.J. Putz was hit hard (4 IP, 10 H, 6 R, 5 ER, 1 BB, 1 K) and took the loss in relief of RHP Scott Atchison (4 IP, 6 H, 4 R, 2 ER, 1 BB, 2 K, 2 HR). CF Chad Meyers was Tacoma’s top offensive performer, with a double and a homer in five at-bats. C Julio Mosquera added a pair of singles and LF Jalal Leach also homered.
San Antonio had the day off, as the Texas League will play their All-Star Game today at Wichita’s Lawrense Dumont Stadium. The Missions, who had nine players named to the All-Star team, will resume their season on Wednesday.
Inland Empire 7, High Desert 3. 1B Jason Van Meetren had a monster game at the plate, going 4-4 with two singles, a double, a triple, two RBIs and two runs scored. He also stole his 7th base of the season. RF Shin-soo Choo, DH John Castellano and 2B Evel Bastida-Martinez each had a pair of hits, contributing to a 13-hit attack. RHP Brian Strelitz (2 2/3 IP, 3 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 0 BB, 0 K) picked up the win in relief of LHP Ryan Ketchner (4 1/3 IP, 6 H, 3 R, 3 ER, 1 BB, 3 K), and LHP Justin Blood (2 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 0 BB, 1 K) earned his 2nd save.
Kane County 7, Wisconsin 3. RHP Juan Sandoval was roughed up (5 IP, 7 H, 6 ER, 2 BB, 0 K, 2 HB), ending his run of good starts and dropping his record to 4-5 on the year. Offensively the Timber Rattlers got two hits and a walk from 1B Jon Nelson and a two-run homer from 3B Matt Hagen, but that was about all as they managed just five hits in the game.