An 11-1 roadtrip and the best record in baseball justifies a more lengthy posting, but this team is absolutely rolling right now. We can complain about the contracts given to Wilson, Cirillo, and Sasaki, pointless acquisitions like Carrara and White, the uselessness of Bloomquist and Mabry, and still not avoid the fact that this team really doesn’t have any holes.
There are 3 legitimate MVP candidates who take the field every day (okay, Edgar doesn’t field, but you get my point). Jeff Cirillo and John Olerud are the only two players in the line-up who aren’t league average hitters for their position, and both are such outstanding fielders that you can live with it. Ichiro’s jumped his average nearly 100 points in a month, which is ridiculous this far into the season.
Jamie Moyer’s having one of the best seasons ever by a 40-year-old pitcher. Gil Meche’s arm has stayed in tact long enough for him to become one of the better young pitchers in the AL. Ryan Franklin has embodied steadiness. The fact that Pineiro and Garcia have been the weak links in the rotation tells you how strong the rotation has a chance to be. The bullpen is among the best in the league, and they have four relievers who could be the best pitcher coming out of most bullpens.
There are chinks in the armor (bench, mopup relievers, ability to improve the team), but they haven’t manifested any real harm yet. I’m still worried about the effects of a serious injury to any of the regulars, and there isn’t a playoff contender with as little organizational depth as we have, but if they keep this line-up healthy, that won’t matter. Barring a collapse from Boone or an injury to Martinez, its hard to see the M’s not winning 95 games this year.
Minor League Highlights for Friday, June 6
Las Vegas 4, Tacoma 1. RHP Rafael Soriano (6 IP, 3 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 0 BB, 7 K) continued his run of dominant pitching performances, but wound up with a no decision as RHP Allan Simpson (2/3 IP, 3 H, 3 E R, 3 ER, 2 BB, 1 K) gave up three runs in the 7th. 2B Mickey Lopez and C Julio Mosquera each had a pair of Tacoma’s six hits, including a double for Lopez.
San Antonio 6, Arkansas 4. RHP Clint Nageotte (5 2/3 IP, 5 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 1 BB, 5 K) ran his record to 7-1 on the season, as the Missions clinched the first half title in the Texas League’s Western Division. The offensive star was 1B A.J. Zapp, who hit a pair of homers including a 1st inning blast which left the stadium entirely and was estimated to have gone over 450 feet. Zapp drove in four of the team’s six runs, and C Scott Maynard drove in the other two with a bloop single in the 7th. RHP Jared Hoerman (1 2/3 IP, 3 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 0 BB, 0 K) picked up his 17th save.
Lancaster 5, Inland Empire 2. The 66ers were done in by a five-run 4th inning, in which only one of Lancaster’s runs was earned thanks to a costly error. RHP Juan Done, still trying to work his way back since coming off the DL, took the loss (3 2/3 IP, 4 H, 5 R, 1 ER, 1 BB, 2 K). CF Shin-soo Choo, playing the position since Sheldon Fulse was traded, had a double, a triple and a walk in three at-bats, and 3B Hunter Brown added a pair of hits. RHP Brian Strelitz (4 1/3 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 1 BB, 1 K) turend in an admirable performance in relief of Done.
Wisconsin 1, Fort Wayne 1. Heavy rains ended this game after six innings, and though it won’t count in the standings, individual players statistics will. RHP T.A. Fulmer (6 IP, 5 H, 1 R, 0 ER, 1 BB, 4 K) had yet another good start, lowering his ERA to 2.91 on the year. 3B Matt Hagen provided all of Wisconsin’s offense with a homer in the bottom of the 6th, tying the game just before the rains came.
Ty Wigginton takes over the Bret Boone Memorial Golden Expletive for his f-bomb in the bottom of the 8th. Carl Everett will present the award to Wigginton between games today.
Before anyone declares Freddy right in the head and back to dominating form, we should consider that today Garcia faced a lineup that was not particularly good (holy mackeral, I just noticed they’re right next to Oakland in park-adjusted hitting… boy, that OBP+power thing’s not working out so well, huh) and that didn’t play their best hitter, Mike Piazza, and pulled their second-best hitter, Cliff Floyd, halfway through. In addition, players don’t like double-headers, and the Mets, starting in the 5th, might as well have sent random fans up to take thier hacks in an attempt to get the game over with.
5th: one pitch gets to the catcher.
6th: no pitches get to the catcher
7th: 2 strikes, 5 balls get to the catcher out of 16 pitches
8th: 2 strikes, 3 balls get to the catcher out of 13 pitches
9th: 2 strikes, 2 balls get to the catcher out of 9 pitches
Average batter sees maybe 3, 3.5 pitches/AB. These guys would have run that down to -1 if they could figure out how. Anyone on the staff could have pitched “beautifully” or “masterfully” when you’re facing a bunch of guys bound and determined to make their long day at the ballpark a little shorter. And while I’m at it, I’m so tired of this constant showering of platitudes on pitchers. Scrape out a 4-3 win, ‘scattering’ 10 hits and a couple of walks? Well, that’s a “dominating performance”. I know what domination looks like, it’s Mike Mussina’s start against the M’s this year where he made one of the league’s best offenses look like they belonged in a beer softball league. There are wonderful, jaw-dropping performances in baseball, and what words will our announcing crew have left to describe them?
“Well, Jamie Moyer has no-hit the Boston Red Sox, walking only one batter, and Red, I gotta say, Moyer has been so-so today.”
“Absolutely, Rick. Moyer had great control and kept the Red Sox hitters off-balance all night long. This was one of the most medicore performances I’ve ever seen, and I am so happy to have been here in Boston to see this average, unimpressive perfomances.”
(Guy at home: “Huh, I’ve never heard them call something so-so, or medicore before. Those words must mean “superfantabulous” or something.”)
While I’m ranting, Ron Fairly doing play by play is like having a dentist drill into a healthy tooth. Am I really supposed to believe that there’s no one available who’d be willing to do a little spot play by play to help out the crew and prevent this all-too frequent disaster?
For all of you who’ve been experiencing hand shakes and other withdrawal symptoms because we haven’t posted so much, sorry. Blogger’s been really slow and crappy lately, and we’ve had problems logging in, posting… pretty much everything we’re paying them to do, they haven’t been doing it. So bear with us, it’ll improve or… well, I’m lazy and don’t want to actually set up anything on the ussmariner.com site, so it’ll improve or it won’t. (shrug)
Stand Pat made a trade!
Okay, its not any more exciting than his last trade with Boston, which netted us Jose Offerman. The M’s acquired LHP Matt White for class-A OF Sheldon Fulse (who, ironically, just debuted on the Future Forty this month). Fulse, though only 21, isn’t much of a loss, especially in this organization. He wasn’t likely to be added to the 40 man roster this offseason anyways, and his future with the M’s was clouded by the amount of legitimate OF prospects ahead of him on the chain.
As the saying goes, though, you get what you pay for. The M’s didn’t give up much, and thats pretty much what they get in return. Matt White is a Rule V draftee from the Cleveland Indians, meaning the M’s get to hide him on the roster all season and cannot option him to the minors until next year. He turns 26 in August and isn’t exactly a spring chicken. He missed most of last season with an arm injury, and has managed just 3 appearances with Boston to date, giving up 11 earned runs for a sport 27.00 ERA.
White’s minor league track record doesn’t suggest great potential, and his strikeout rates in particular aren’t much to scream about. It didn’t seem likely that the M’s could actually find a worse pitcher than Giovanni Carrara, but they have achived that illustrious goal.
The interesting decision will come Monday, when the M’s must decide whether to eat the rest of Carrara’s $400,000 salary or option Julio Mateo back to AAA. Realistically, this should be a foregone conclusion. Besides his tendancy for the home run ball, Mateo has pitched reasonably well, and sports a serviceable 4.18 ERA and solid 1.21 WHIP. He’s got just 8 walks and 23 strikeouts in 28 innings, and he’s only 25-years-old. Carrara’s ERA stands at 6.26 with a WHIP of 1.71. He’s walked 12 and struck out 11 in 27 innings. He’s 35 and has no future with the club.
Odds are, though, that Mateo ends up back in Tacoma. Veteran Leadership, and all that jazz.
Minor League Highlights for Thursday, June 5th
Las Vegas 4, Tacoma 3. RHP Ken Cloude made his return from a strained groin to toss 5 solid innings, but RHP Aaron Taylor couldn’t convert the save opportunity and gave up two runs, including the game winner, in the 9th inning. Cloude was as effective as could be expected, giving up two runs, walking one, and striking out two. RHP Aaron Looper was brilliant in his 3 innings of relief, allowing just one hit and striking out four. LF Adrian Myers was the hitting star, going 2-3 with a walk, a run scored, and a stolen base. SS Mickey Lopez also collected two hits and a walk in four trips to the plate.
San Antonio 2, Frisco 1. The Missions continued their string of ridiculously good pitching performances behind LHP Bobby Madritsch’s best start of the year. He worked 6 innings, allowed 5 hits, 1 run, walked 2, and struck out 7. The bullpen, led by former starting pitcher Chris Wright, tossed 3 more shutout innings to close the door. San Antonio has now allowed a grand total of 3 runs in their last 5 games. Offensively, it was once again 3B Justin Leone leading the charge, as he went 2-3, scored a run, drew a walk, and stole a base. He’s now hitting .332/.437/.616 with a 37/38 BB/K in 190 AB. Over half of his 63 hits have gone for extra bases. He’s simply on fire.
Inland Empire 5, Stockton 4. CF Sheldon Fulse ignited an offensive spark, at least for the 66’ers, by going 3-5 and stealing 3 bases. He also scored twice and drove in a run to give the team an offensive boost. 1B John Castellano also had 3 hits and 3B Hunter Brown added his 7th home run of the year. LHP Ryan Ketchner started and pitched 7 innings, giving up just 2 runs, walked one, and struck out three. RHP Mike Steele got the win in relief despite giving up 2 in his 2 innings of work.
Wisconsin 13, Fort Wayne 3. Where to begin? We’ll start with leadoff man and LF Corey Harrington, who ignited the offense with 2 triples, 3 runs scored, and an RBI. 2B Tim Merritt had his best game of the year with a 4-5 performance. He doubled twice, scored twice, and drove in three runs. 1B Jon Nelson, RF T.J. Bohn, C Chris Phillips, and SS Michael Garciaparra all had two hits as well. LHP Bobby Livingston moved to 9-1 on the season with 7 more rock solid innings, giving up just one run and striking out three without a walk. His ERA now stands at 2.14.
I have an apology to make, I think. I thought bringing Boone in on the cheap was a decent enough move, but I thought his contract was ludicrous. I’ve mocked his two-strike stance here and elsewhere, I make fun of his hacktastic ways, I use the unflattering nickname, and yet… who would have done the Mariners better these last two years? Jeff Kent? Alfonso Soriano? Both might offer marginal offensive upgrades at a significant defensive cost. I don’t know where this Boone came from, and I don’t think we had any reason to expect him to continue hitting for power when the M’s signed him to a huge deal. But what else were the Mariners going to do with that money? Pocket it? Give more money to Dan Wilson? Boone’s been huge, and as much as I like to say you have to evaluate deals on information you have at hand, I don’t think there’s any denying that Gillick pulled the arm and the slot machine has kept pouring coins into his lap ever since. Well, that particular slot machine. They’re not all paying off so well.
Why was Melvin having Cameron bunt? Why… argh.
Bret Boone: $8 million dollars
John Olerud: $6 million dollars
Mike Cameron: $7 million dollars
Getting to finally cheer as Jose Mesa gives up a 9th inning lead with a home run: Priceless
Minor League Highlights for Wednesday, June 4th
The Rainiers did not play as the entire PCL took the day off. Ken Cloude will take the hill for Tacoma in his return from the DL this evening.
San Antonio 3, Frisco 0. RHP Rett Johnson tossed a complete game one hit shutout to pick up his 5th win of the year. Johnson allowed just one single, walked three, and hit a batter while striking out seven to earn the win. He now has a 1.42 ERA over his last 5 starts and has allowed just 36 base runners in 37 innings over that span. He’s pitched into the 9th inning three times, and appears ready for a move to AAA. Offensively, 2B Jose Lopez went 2-4 with a pair of doubles and 1B A.J. Zapp launched his 14th homer of the year to provide the run scoring. Our own Jason Michael Barker was at this game and will provide full details when he returns.
Stockton 7, Inland Empire 4. LHP Troy Cate got touched up in his return to the Cal League after making a spot start for Tacoma last week. He lasted just 4 2/3 innings, allowed five runs on six hits, had one walk and two strikeouts. LF Shin-Soo Choo went 3-5 and 2B Evel Bastida-Martinez went 2-3 with a run and an RBI, but it wasn’t enough for the 66’ers to overcome the early deficit.
Wisconsin 2, Fort Wayne 1. This 14-inning affair finally went to the T-Rats after an error by Fort Wayne first baseman Paul McAnulty allowed Corey Harrington to score the winning run. Wisconsin didn’t generate much offense with 3B Matt Hagen being the star performer. He went 2-6 with the only extra base hit of the game for the Mariners affiliate. RHP Juan Sandoval continues to improve as the season goes on, working 8 solid innings and allowing just one run. LHP Oscar Delgado followed with 4 scoreless innings of his own, and then RHP Renee Cortez tossed two more blank frames to earn the win.
Also, on a semi-related note, let me correct something I posted last week. The Mariners did end up signing draft-and-follow RHP Brad Rose after they were granted an extension because his JC team advanced in their playoffs. Welcome to the club, Brad. He’ll likely be assigned to the M’s rookie league team in Peoria, whose season starts in two weeks.
Newsflash:
This team is pretty good.
Ichiro’s hitting .400 since the beginning of May. Jamie Moyer and Gil Meche are a combined 17-4. Bret Boone has been the most valuable player in the American League to date. Kazuhiro Sasaki hasn’t given up a run since coming off the disabled list. The last time they lost a road game was May 14th, 13 games ago. They are one win away from their 6th sweep of the year. To put that in perspective, they’ve only lost 4 series’ all year.
Not a bad start.
Mariners Draft Recap: Rounds 6-10
Sixth Round (#176): Eric O’Flaherty, LHP, Walla Walla HS (Walla Walla, WA)
The M’s grabbed the best arm in the home state this year with their fourth consecutive selection of a left-hander. At 6’3, he fits the M’s profile of big kids with big arms, though he doesn’t have standout velocity yet. He pitched most of his senior year at 86-88, but has been clocked at 90-91 in the past. The key for him is the above average movement he gets on his fastball and his feel for a curveball. His ceiling is every bit as high as Fagan and Feierabend, and he was a steal in the 6th round.
Seventh Round (#206): Jeremy Dutton, 3B, North Carolina State University
The M’s add another college third baseman to the mix, though that may not be his position as a professional. Dutton has above average gap power and a solid approach at the plate, and you’ll hear him described as a professional hitter. Along with that label usually comes the stigma that you’re not much of a fielder, and that applies to Dutton. His actions at third are questionable and there’s a decent chance he ends up at first base or in the outfield. His bat will have to carry him to the show.
Eighth Round (#236): Tom Oldham, LHP, Creighton University
Oldham is a break from the big southpaws the Mariners had been selecting. He’s a 6’2 pitcher with below average velocity who gets by on movement and command. He’s not likely to get into the 90’s with his fastball, and he’s not the most projectable kid in the world. His strength is his understanding of how to work both sides of the plate and set up hitters. He’s somewhat similar to Troy Cate, last years 6th round selection, though Cate’s stuff is a notch better.
Ninth Round (#266): Justin Ruchti, C, Rice University
A cost-conscious pick as much as anything else, Ruchti won’t demand much money as a college senior. He doesn’t have any standout skills, but can do everything well enough. His work behind the plate is what got him drafted, and his bat may struggle in pro ball. He’s likely an organizational player and a longshot to reach the majors.
Tenth Round (#296): Michael Cox, 3B, Florida Atlantic University
If everything breaks right for Cox, the M’s have another David Bell. He’s an above average defender at third base who has the actions to play second in a pinch. He’s a spray hitter with occasional pull power but won’t be a middle of the order hitter. He’ll work hard and outperform his tools, but there isn’t a lot of upside here. He’s got a better shot at making the big leagues as a second baseman.