Game 59, Mariners at Nationals
JMB · June 10, 2005 at 3:53 pm · Filed Under Game Threads
Joel Pineiro vs. Sun-Woo “Sunny” Kim, 4:05pm, FSN and KOMO.
Kim’s making his first start of the year, taking the place of Tomo Ohka who was just traded to the Brewers for 2B Junior Spivey. The surprising Nationals (34-26, 1st in the NL East) needed Spivey to fill in for longtime 2B Jose Vidro, who’s expected out with an ankle injury until at least the All Star break.
Washington’s smoking hot, having won seven straight and nine of ten to take a 1.5 game lead in the division. The M’s, meanwhile, have won eight of eleven. But I don’t need to tell you that when these two clubs get together, you can throw out the record books. They flat DO NOT like each other.
Comments
221 Responses to “Game 59, Mariners at Nationals”
Amen to that #200
And why didn’t Bloomie pinch-hit for Borders. What was there to lose? Bloomie is the emergency catcher anyway.
Any one else low on the liquor this evening.
Reminds me of Slocumb and Ayala. No lead was safe.
202: Borders is actually hitting slightly “better” (less badly) than Bloomquist… it might actually have been counterproductive.
At least the Yankees are getting thrashed by the Cards. That’s a small consolation.
man….just when you think things are getting better, and even if they don’t improve much, it couldn’t possibly get any worse…it somehow manages to do just that.
i don’t even want to watch this team until Boone, Thornton, Nelson, et all, go their separate ways. the way they’re losing is completely miserable..its bad to play well and lose, but as a team (despite some pretty ok individual performances, like Sexson) they just look incompetent. nobody can figure out what its going to take to get Beltre right, the hitters are all performing badly at the worst possible time, and our pitchers are either declining due to age, control problems, or are injured or coming off a serious injury. for as bad as last year was, this is even more depressing.
Sadly, are players in Tacoma who are more talented than those in Seattle, including:
1. Felix Hernandez vs. Jamie Moyer
2. Jorge Campillo vs. Ryan Franklin
3. Damian Moss [Not On 40-Man Roster] vs. Aaron Sele
4. George Sherrill [DL] vs. Matt Thornton
5. Jared Thomas [Not On 40-Man Roster] vs. Ron Villone
6. Cha-Seung Baek vs. Shigetoshi Hasegawa
7. Jeff Nelson vs. Yuniesky Betancourt (Why 7 Relief Pitchers?)
8. Jose Lopez vs. Bret Boone
9. Scott Spiezio [DL-Rehabiliatation Assignment] vs. Greg Dobbs
10. Justin Leone vs. Scott Speizio (Once The Spaz Returns)
11. Shin-Soo Choo vs. Willie Bloomquist (4th Outfielder/Pinch Hitter Role)
12. Chris Snelling vs. Randy Winn (Cost Efficient)
As it concerns statistical analysis, I am totally inept; however, I would presume that the following moves would vastly improve the M’s; they might even be good ‘nough to take the AL West–which would be more amazin’ than the Sonics surprising success earlier this year!
Umm, what? People really want Betancourt in the majors? He hit .273/.301/.410 in the Texas League and is a whopping 8 for 25 with 1 double and no walks in Tacoma. He’s not even close to being major league ready.
The ridiculous calls for half of Tacoma’s roster are just lame. And wrong. Damian Moss is freaking terrible.
Yeah, but he’s a better backup middle infielder than Willie Bloomquist defensively, and is not necessarially needed as either a spot starter up the middle or as a pinch hitter, so his problems offensively are not that big of a deal. Besides, he’d be sent back down as soon as Pokey Reese returned.
Yeah, Damain Moss isn’t that good — though, he’s better than fellow countryman Travis Blackley (who’s injured) or Craig Anderson (who’s gone) — yet, he’s still a better option than Aaron Sele, who is most likely going to cash in his “so-so” card and return to being just plan bad during his next outing—a la Shigetoshi Hasegawa tonight.
If those above moves were made, then the team would (most likely) be immediately improved.
An organization who calls up every prospect they have the moment they’re better than the last man on the bench is… a terrible organization.
It makes no sense to try to marginally improve a mediocre team to win 80 games instead of 78 at the cost of the development of players who can eventually help you win 90.
And Damian Moss is far, far worse than Aaron Sele. He’s nothing close to a major league pitcher.
#207 why did you compare a relief pitcher to a SS?
Anyway, #208, Morse hit .250 in AAA, so there is not much else to say there. So which bat is more ready? And Bentancourt was hitting over .300 for the moth of May. His line looks bad because after not playing baseball for so long he was starting up again — so April numbers looked really bad. So we can agree, neither bat is going to light the world on fire. Now, let’s look at defense. In this case Bentancourt is superior (by a lot) to Morse. The scouts have said, blogers who have and haven’t seen him have said — so his defense is MLB ready and possibly MLB elite. I ask you who is really more ready: Morse or Bentancourt? There are no other options and it would be a waste to go get a guy when the M’s need pitching more. Pokey is really not needed — gone next year anyway. And Lopez is replacing Bonne. In this case, I think calling for Bentancourt is not ridiculous.
On the hand, FO being slow and not making the right calls is ridiculous. The FO has to realize the M’s can’t contend so they need to look at needs: pitching. Who has value vs who can be replaced. I think the list only includes Ibanez and Winn. Who can replace either one of them: Choo or Snelling (#1 choice). In addition, if Sele has 3 more starts like this, his value will go way up.
I know the irony of trading a hot pitcher in Sele for another pitcher but Sele is 35 and pitches like Franklin but more effective so far. If we can pull a Beane (hopefully with more success) maybe we can find team willing to give up a much younger unproven prospect for Sele. I know it sounds impossible but GMs have done worst things.
re 212
It’s not just a matter of comparing bats and fielding…aren’t you listening to what Dave’s saying? It’s whether calling a player up NOW is the right call. If a player can learn more at the minors than at the majors, then calling them up now is just not the right call.
And I’m not convinced that Betancourt, Lopez and Hernandez have learned all they can at Tacoma.
Yeah, Dave, you are mostly right, seeing as how I do agree with you on how making rash moves and calling up half of the team down south is way too extreme, as well as that bringing up a player to early (e.g., Felix Hernandez) can stunt his development.
On a realistic note, when is Scott Spiezio going to return? While most nobody can stand “The Spaz,” it seems as if he can’t do any worse than Greg Dobbs. Also, once Dobbs gets shipped down to Tacoma, who is going to get the ax there . . . will Ramon Santiago become the next member of the Portland Beavers?
#214,
It’s only good to keep a player down if there is someone in his place. Morse and Bentancourt are both AAA. Pokey will probably return but will be gone next year. One of these guys has to be the SS next year. When these guys come up they still have to learn. There is nothing more for Bentancourt to learn on defense. On the other hand, Morse needs work. The bats are probably about the same. So, considering one should start LEARNING MLB pitchers this year, instead of staring from the beginning next year, which do you prefer? And I don’t think Dave is against calling up zero players because that wouldn’t make much sense either.
Over at Metsgeek.com, they are talking about trading Kazuo Matsui (and cash) for Bret Boone. Who get’s the better of this deal?
What do you think of pitchers like Jae Seo or Heilman?
http://tinyurl.com/9hbbk
There is nothing more for Bentancourt to learn on defense.
Give me a break.
So, considering one should start LEARNING MLB pitchers this year, instead of staring from the beginning next year, which do you prefer?
Do you just not understand the concept of a player being ready for the major leagues?
Putting an overmatched player in the major leagues and letting him get torn to pieces by pitchers is an awful, awful development idea. If you have any hope at all for Betancourt as a hitter (and I don’t have a whole lot, honestly), then you darn well better support letting him learn how to hit minor league pitching before you ask him to hit major league pitching.
So … do the M’s trade Morse while he is hot?
why trade Morse? every “valuble” trade commodity is usually valuble because they’re worth something to every team, including yours. he’s playing fairly well against ML competition, and though the jury is out on whether he’s the answer long term, its worth keeping him just to see what kind of player he will be. at the very least he’d make a good bench player (somthing this organization sorely lacks at the moment) so whether he sticks at short or not he fills a need. get rid of guys who arn’t helping us, like Nelson and Thornton..you could probably pick up something for him; not many lefties can bring it at 95.
Quoted:
They flat DO NOT like each other.
Oh yeah, these bitter rivarlries are so enthralling.
Don’t forget that the natural rivals for the Nationals are the Blue Jays.