We know the Reds are interested in Gil Meche. We know the M’s are interested in young, athletic outfielders. Perhaps its a pipedream, but I’d love to see if Dan O’Brien can be talked out of Austin Kearns. He’s struggled through injuries the past year, but when healthy, he’s probably one of the three or four best under-25 hitters in the game. In his rookie season of 2002, at age 22, he hit .315/.407/.500. He draws walks, hits for power, makes decent contact, and can play a solid left or right field (you know, in case the M’s finally get around to moving Ichiro to center). Thanks to the injuries he sustained last year, there’s a good chance Kearns won’t be arbitration eligible until after 2005, meaning he’s going to be dirt cheap for the next two years. He is the kind of player you build around, the star-in-the-making that this team badly needs. It might take Freddy Garcia and Gil Meche to get him, but I’m okay with that. If Austin Kearns can be had, he’s the type of player the M’s need to go after.
Of course, the Reds can also dangle Wily Mo Pena, Reggie Taylor, Jason Ramano, and Jacob Cruz, all of whom run fast, are good athletes, were at one time highly regarded prospects, and have yet to show any signs of being able to hit major league pitching. This is likely the type of player the M’s are going fishing for.
This quote:
It is believed the Mariners are primarily seeking position players — mainly an athletic outfielder who is both young and experienced — to rekindle the hope for 2004 while improving the outlook for the next few years.
from Finnegan’s article bugs me. It could be nothing, of course, but this reliance on so-called “athletic” players is what brought us the likes of Quinton McCracken and Randy Winn, not to mention the recent run disappointing amatuer drafts. How about guys who can hit?
On an unrelated subject, I got an iPod as part of a deal to signup for DSL service after I moved, and I’d like to say that as a music player, it’s not a bad memory stick. Seriously, nothing but problems, and Apple’s control-freakiness and ill support are driving me insane. That’s all.
I totally agree. If the team’s realized they need to make wholesale changes — and it seems that a gigantic neon “14 games out in May” did the trick — they still haven’t shown any signs that they’ve learned anything from their failure. All we’ve gotten so far from the organization is misplaced anger (“We don’t know why Aurilia won’t hit, that bum”) confusion, and some scary-weird quips (“We need to get more athletic, like QMcC here”).
It’s also going to be interesting to see how far the team goes. Their goal’s always been to provide quality entertainment for the fans, and they’ve always really made their money in the summer when they sell out day after day. If they take this seriously, that may be gone, and then the team will point to decreased attendence as an excuse for lowering payroll again, and then… or they may waffle a little on the rebuild: if they can’t get much in trading Olerud, say, will they keep him around or hand those ABs to someone who can contribute? Will they move Leone up to play third and have Spiezio play first, or will Melvin put a stop to any kind of player move wackiness?
This may also demonstrate the total folly of extending Melvin’s contract. There are different kinds of managers, suited to different kinds of teams. There are personality types that clash or match, there are managers suited to young teams and those suited to older teams that don’t need to be told to take infield practice. If Melvin was an ideal fit for the 2003-4 Mariners as planned, a smart player’s manager with a heart of gold, now the team’s composition is changed entirely, and if you wanted to bring someone else in to help out with the transition, you’re already committed (financially and organizationally) to the guy you have now. We understand that it’s a sunk cost, sure, but as a team the M’s will almost certainly look at that and say “ennnhh, he’s good enough”.
The rest of this season could be really entertaining or really, really scary.
Where there’s smoke, there’s fire. Bob Finnigan reports that the M’s are ready to blow the team up, and the rumored moves fall in line with what I’ve been told is just about ready to occur. The next week should bring some fairly substantial changes to the roster as we see it. The almost universally agreed upon move will be the ousting of Rich Aurilia, who is almost certainly going to be released if the M’s can’t find someone to pick up part of his contract.
The good news is that the M’s realize that this is a sinking ship and won’t be plowing future resources into trying to save it. The bad news, however, is that the captain who steered it into an iceberg is also in charge of the rescue effort. While I am interested to see how Bavasi handles the task of rebuilding on the fly, I’m not optimistic that he is going to correctly identify players that will help the club. Scapegoating John Olerud isn’t going to solve the philosophical issues the M’s have with evaluating talent. Until they adapt to more advanced analysis than “our scouts like him” and “he can pick it up and throw it”, we’ll just be rearranging the deck chairs as the good ship Mariner goes down.
Ladies and Gentleman, I present to you The Relief Ace. This highly talented and well compensated reliever can enter ballgames in any situation and use his skills to defuse rallies. He works multiple innings, finishes games, and protects slim leads. He pitches early, late, and in between, doing so as often as his arm allows. He pitches in high leverage situations, maximizing his usefulness by pitching in games where the outcome is not yet determined. Once thought to be extinct, his kind have begun a slow comeback, and there was even a sighting in downtown Seattle today.
Seriously, though, big time kudos to Bob Melvin for going to Guardado in the 8th. Two run lead, two men on, nobody out, heart of the order coming up; this situation begs for your best reliever, and Melvin answered the plea. This is the same situation he’d have gone to Mike Myers or Shigetoshi Hasegawa in a week ago, and the comeback likely would have continued. Guardado earned his save today, and Melvin’s willingness to extend Eddie past the 9th is probably the most encouraging thing we’ve seen all year.
Today, we dwell on the victory and the good management that brought it about. Hooray for Melvin. Hooray for The Relief Ace.
Went down to the old ballpark last night to see the game; came away unimpressed, as you might imagine. Also, it was pretty darned cold for it nearly being June. Anyway.
Jason Johnson — he of the 6.02 ERA entering the game and 4.91 career ERA entering this season — shut the M’s down. Before Scott Spiezio’s homer (3-0 pitch, Johnson tossed him a fat fastball), they had three hits, none of which left the infield. Both of Ibanez’ hits probably should have been outs, and Pat Borders worked his way aboard with a bunt base hit. If you hadn’t seen it, you probably wouldn’t believe it. But hey, credit to Borders for seeing the defense playing back on him. The whole thing reminded me of Tom Berenger (as veteran catcher Jake Taylor) laying down that bunt at the end of Major League.
Pineiro was horrible early, only throwing strikes with roughly half his pitches, but sure settled down after the first few innings. I noticed that when he was going well, he was working much quicker, not wasting nearly as much time between pitches. It’s hard to say which way the cause and effect goes, though. Was he pitching better because he was working quickly, or working quickly because he started pitching better and feeling more comfortable on the mound? I dunno.
Overheard at the ballpark, 5/22/04 edition: On Spiezio, “This guy is so clutch.” Spiezio with runners in scoring position, 2004: .242/.250/.364, 0 homers. Yup.
I don’t fault Melvin for going to Putz in the 8th. I mean, look at the right-handed alternatives — Mateo has been hittable this year, and Hasegawa has been horrible. That should have been a Soriano inning, of course, but that’s not an option right now.
Carlos Guillen didn’t get nearly the ovation I thought he would, or that he deserved for that matter. I think people don’t realize that he was both a decent hitter and a strong fielder during his time here, though with what we’re seeing out of Aurilia this year you’d think they’d notice all the more. But hey, we’re fed the line about Guillen being fragile and (perhaps only implicitly) not being any good in the clubhouse, or being a bad influence on Freddy Garcia, so hey, good riddance.
I have two other questions:
This team’s made up of veteran leaders, and they’ve got great clubhouse chemistry, they’re all hard workers, combined with a player’s manager. If chemistry is such a key ingredient to a winning team, if it’s what makes marginal teams play over their heads and good teams great, why do the Mariners suck so badly?
If Paul Molitor’s such a great hitting coach, why do the M’s look so helpless at the plate? They’re flailing at first pitches, no one’s walking, they’re not working counts or even (and this is really subjective) looking for their pitch.
If I have time this week, I’ll see if I can’t run some stats on the difference in hitting approaches.
Man, we just got brutalized. Say one thing about Melvin’s bullpen management, at least it makes it long and painful.
Another brutal homestand. It’s been interesting to see the fans turn on the team, though: where once people were almost uniformly cheery and gave me dirty looks if I said something not-quite-positive enough, now there are boo birds throughout the stands and some players don’t get any applause at all when they’re up (Aurilia!), though we’re not at the point where the crowd’s really jumping on specific players. Even Cirillo never got a severe bad reaction on the intros.
I was at the game, so all I saw was a weird disappearance of Olerud and then a long period of stalling, which I figured was due to Olerud being in the bathroom. What was the official explanation, anyway?
Update!
Niehaus said it was bathroom-related at the time, after the game Melvin said that Olerud and Aurilia were “locked in the video room.” Is that what the kids are calling it these days?
Some bad news on the minor league front: Justin Leone got hit on the wrist with a pitch last night and could be out of action for an extended period of time. Considering that before the HBP he had launched his 12th and 13th homers of the year, raising his SLG to .651 (including a ridiculous .389 ISO), he was making enough noise to get a look in the inevitable overhaul that is coming. It’s too bad this is probably Leone’s peak year, and instead of being given a chance to help the big club, he was mashing pitchers in Tacoma. Time to hope the injury isn’t too serious.
Edit: Just learned that it is just a bruise, and he’ll miss about a week. Hooray.