MLB mailbag answers questions!
DMZ · March 7, 2005 at 2:25 pm · Filed Under Mariners
From this week’s MLB.com Mariners Mailbag:
Manager Mike Hargrove said he plans to have a 12-man pitching staff, giving him seven relievers.
Soooo.. death to Bucky, I guess. I’m not sure what to make of that.
Myers accepted a position with the Mariners as a minor league infield coach and will primarily work with the short-season Class A Everett AquaSox this season.
I really have no idea why I thought Myers had signed on with the Cardinals, as I wrote in a comment a while back.
Comments
34 Responses to “MLB mailbag answers questions!”
Well there goes my theory. It also makes a Willie-type player a certainty as the multiple positions, even if poor, serve a purpose on that small of a bench.
Price has been saying all along that he wants a 12 man staff. I’ve brought it up a few times here and I think it bears repeating: There is one open bench position. We have the 8 position players, 12 pitchers, 1 DH, 1 backup catcher, Willie and Spiezio. I think Bucky makes the most sense to be the 25th man, but it really sounds like he’s going to be in Tacoma again this year (http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/baseball/214795_mbok07.html). Sucks for him. I wonder who the 25th man will be now?
Did you guys notice in Jim Street’s mailbag today, the supoosedly picture of JJ Putz looks EXACTLY like Scott Atchison?
Re: Myers
Am I alone in my opinion that Myers would qualify as the worst 3rd base coach of all time? His poor baserunning decisions still make me shudder. Hope he was drunk most of the time, so that he had a reason for such dismal decisions. Why would the Mariners hire him in any capacity?
And because I was right and you were wrong you should unban me.
Re 4:
I think Myers qualifies as the worst 3B coach of all time, but in his defense, nobody notices when he does something good. You never hear “Great 3B Coaching Wins Game!”
Rusty, I’m with you on that. I hate the guy. With a good 3rd base coach we could have won 120 games in 2001. Why oh why did we keep him in the organization?
It doesn’t look like Bucky’s going to be ready to start the season anyway, according to today’s PI. I would guess they’d cut the bullpen down once Bucky is healthy and has gotten some AB’s in Tacoma. At least I hope so.
It’s not like they have a bunch of great bench candidates anyway, besides Bucky. Does anyone really care whether it’s Gil, Santiago, Gutierrez or whoever? It ought to be someone who can play SS better than Willie but any of those 3 can.
Bucky is not yet entirely rehabbed yet, right? So all is not lost. Y’all know how it works anyway: unfortunate player gets injured for a couple weeks, hopefully Bucky is not synchronously hobbled(definitely not a guarantee, what with the big fella’s knee, etc.) and he gets to come up and do some mini-mashing and make Wille B. look good by giving him opportunities to be a pinch runner. Let’s not lament too much: Bucky ain’t young anyway. But he does provide the most important weapon off the bench– a very large stick. So let’s be happy if we get 250 plate appearances out of the monster, a .480 SLG and a bunch of walks. Do NOT secretly wish for a healthy Bucky to step in for a fortuitously injured and insignificant M’s bench player and then hit a few doubles and homers pro tempore. That would be mean.
Derek — you probably thought Myers went with the Cardinals because that’s where former Mariner LOOGY Mike Myers went — he’s in spring training with St. Louis as an NRI…
Talk to many fans, and you’ll get as many variations of “our third base coach is the worst” as there are teams. Wavin’ Wendell Kim made blood pressures rise in Chicago. Dale Sveum is damn lucky the Red Sox won it all. Myers, of course, is The Man Who Ruined Snelling. The bottom line is that third base coach is kind of like umpiring: people only notice when you screw it up.
Re #4–Myers was bad, but I don’t think he’s a patch on Wendell “Windmill” Kim . . .
Re #9–Kim had been doing it in Boston for a while before that. He really was/is epically terrible.
Re (# 7) “He [Bucky] does provide the most important weapon off the bench– a very large stick.”
I disagree. The most imoportant weapon on this bench is a decent back-up SS, a commodity that neither Bloomquist nor Spiezio provide.
Despite the fact that both Hargrove and Price are leaning toward a 12-man staff, I don’t think a 12-man staff is etched in stone. Neither is the presence on the bench of Bloomquist and Spiezio.
I think the 25th roster space (and possibly the 24th) will be filled by someone we claim from another team in the last round of cuts (unless Gil or Guttierez has a dynamite Spring).
I know I am praying for a trade similar to last years Jolbert Cabrera. We give up a spare part reliever for a decent (not great. Cabrera was a Hacking Masster, but not as bad as Bloomquist) utility guy.
I don’t understand why Hargrove would make such a pronouncement so early in camp, before he really knows what he has and who will actually be worthy of sticking. And I wonder if he did … I did some searching and I haven’t seen a direct quote to that effect attributed to him in any of the local papers.
If he did, however, it’s just silly. It’s like managers who say, “We’re going to be about speed and defense this year” without really taking stock of what they have on their roster.
Jim, it’s because Hargrove is an idiot. Anyone who makes their lineup before even seeing a team, and is intellectually lazy enough to say things like, “I just make one lineup and stick with it,” is an idiot. Just get used to it.
Bloomquist went deep today!
Do you really need that backup SS on the bench? How often do you need a good SS in THIS GAME, and can’t wait until tomorrow when your AAA guy arrives?
I’d happily (well, maybe not happily) let Willie play SS for two innings if Pokey got injured, or we really had to pinch hit for him. And even if you did want an adequate glove-man on the bench, wouldn’t Willie be the guy you replaced when you put him there.
I still think the big bat is the guy I want on the bench, so we have someone who CAN pinch-hit for Pokey or Dan.
#3 – JJ, yes I have noticed that as well. They used that pic for Putz before, and I thought the same thing – but then when I went back to look at it again, they changed it…
With Jacobsen hurt, let’s hope we get lucky with the waiver wire. The in-house candidates for the 25th man are Gutierrez (Hickey’s prediction, but no longer a decent hitter since breaking his neck a few years ago), Gil (bad hit, bad field, and never made it back to the majors in 2004), Santiago (good glove but worst hitter of the group, which is saying something), Leone (the only power threat but does not walk, make consistent contact, or play good defense), and maybe Strong (can play centerfield and steal a base, but is perpetually injured).
Where have you gone Jolbert Cabrera?
I think the 12 man pitching staff will go away after a month or so once everyone gets stretched out. It will help avoid overuse in the early months. By May we’ll be back to 11, and Bucky can come up from Tacoma. Hardly a death, especially since there’s very little chance he’ll be fully healthy by opening day. Let him catch up in Tacoma, and bring him up for 3/4 of the season. No big deal.
I agree with Dave M. Unless the starting staff has serious and persistent meltdown issues or Hargrove and Price decide to be LaRussatastic with the bullpen and make a habit of ALWAYS having platoon advantage by switching relievers after a batter or two, the 12th man is going to rot on the bench by May or June when the staff has a stretch of good quality starts. What’s the point of having someone who’s pitched 3 innings in the last 3 weeks on your bench? So when you DO use the guy, he can be ineffective from disuse?
This will give Bucky some time to heal, and is in line with how most staffs usually go. (In truth, you could probably get by with a 10 man staff if you were willing to let your closer go 2 innings occasionally, you made a point of having ALL your other bullpen guys be capable of going at least 3 IP, and you quit obsessing over switching pitchers for platoon advantage.)
#9
While I agree with you in principle, I would say that Myers stands out. In a bad way. I’ve been watching baseball for quite a long time and he is the first third base coach that really made me irate.
I think there is truth to your statement, I would just say that even though people DO tend to think their third base coach is terrible… that doesn’t mean that he WASN’T.
Not saying that he is the worst ever. But I think he was among the worst in the league when he was active.
Re (# 13) Hargrove going with a 12-man pitching staff: I’ve heard that said numerous times, and have read it a few times too. Here’s an article that mentions it: http://tinyurl.com/5flp9 (7th paragraph)
BTW, with what may be one of baseball’s best defensive infields, it seems that the staff should be heavily loaded with groundball pitchers. The only ones I find, however, are Atchison, Nageotte, Putz, and Reichert. *
_______
*with MLB experience.
I don’t know if I’d go as far to say Myers is the worst 3rd base coach ever, as in ever in the history of the game, but he’s certainly the worst I’ve ever seen … Snelling’s injury notwithstanding he was responsible for one of the most glaring baserunning gaffes I have ever seen in a live game. It was in a series vs the Rangers, A-Rod’s first time back in Safeco, Myers bungling was responsible for two outs on the basepaths, one caught Wilson at home and Boone at second. Just dreadful. I was sitting about 6 rows up from 3rd base and saw the whole thing. I screamed at Myers, called him an idiot, a jackass … he turned around with this stupid sheepish look on his face, like “Yeah, I know I screwed up…” That was the beginning of my anti-Myers rage.
Perhaps you thought Myers had signed with the Cardinals because (Mike) Myers signed with them?
Bad base running is something we should never, ever see in the majors. If base coaches and players in little league can get it right, is it beyond the mental acuity of major league level people to get right? All a third base coach needs to do is work out where the ball is, how good the fielder is and how fast the runner is and unless the game is so close you need to take the risk, err on the side of caution. Ditto for players of course, but it’s astounding how many people can’t keep that straight.
Does anyone here relize bucky struck put a 1/3 of his atbats?The first time through the league the pitchers and advanced scouts didnt know him but i would be willing to bet the second half of his season wasnt real good in the majors.FLASH IN THE PAN!!!!!!!!He will get chewed up and spit out if he ever returns to the show….
Re 29
You’re assuming that strike outs are worse than any other kind of outs. A LOT of people don’t agree.
Flash in a pan? I don’t think so….
“The first time through the league the pitchers and advanced scouts didn’t know him…”
Don’t you think teams facing a recently called up rookie would call up their PCL manager and ask him about the guy? It’s not like they called him up from the Zambian League or something.
Bucky came up in mid-July last year. His batting average went up and his K rate went down in August.
Re: 29
Perhaps the first time thru the league all the pitchers had Bucky pegged for a cagey singles hitter. Just kidding around here.
Yeah! And what’s with all these errors, anyway!
Bad baserunning is the kind of thing that drives fans nuts, and with good reason: it looks easy and when it goes wrong, it looks terrible. But to suggest that major league staffs are somehow negligent about their baserunning ignores reality. Ballplayers don’t get to the highest level without being very demanding of themselves (with a few exceptions), and for the most part I do think they care a great deal about playing correctly. Instead, I suspect you’d find that some players and coaches believe that being aggressive is its own reward, that the increased pressure on the defense will pay off more often than not. That said, I was reaching for my torch and pitchfork every time Myers sent Olerud into an obvious out at the plate.
Given Jim Street’s newest article about situational hitting, I just sent him a question where I showed the correlation between the M’s failure to score runs and the M’s slugging percentage.
He’s previously published every question I’ve ever sent him. We’ll see what he does with this one.