Remaking the team, 2005 edition
Tomorrow’s game could be just as weird as Saturday’s. It’s interesting to look at how unsettled things are. It’s like spring training as we head into August.
What do we have so far, then?
C: Wiki and Torrealba or Ojeda take over, the other reporting to Tacoma, to be joined by Borders, who gets to hang out at home for a while yet before he has to report to Tacoma (or somewhere else, who knows).
1b: No change
2b: Betancourt’s a defensive whiz of a shorstop playing second, while the heir-apparant to the position is back in Tacoma after (again) failing to hit in the majors in another trail, however short.
SS: Morse is still offering decent defense and hitting for a shortstop, but Betancourt’s already pressing for a job, Bloomquist’s squeezing a couple of positions for playing time, and meanwhile the system’s got another batch of middle infielders coming up.
3B: No change
LF: Doyle’s the obvious choice here. He was sent down on July 26th, though, which means unless someone goes on the DL with some random ailment (which may well happen), he can’t get called up until the end of next week. This may offer the team a chance to play Bloomquist the Ignitor a lot of playing time.
CF: No change, though if Bloomquist’s in left regularly Reed would get to play in those games as well.
RF: No change.
In the meantime, no pitching changes — Foppert heads to Tacoma, replacing King Felix on his promotion. Natanael Mateo’s unlikely to join the bullpen immediately.
But if more trades are in the works, as seems likely, some of this straightens itself out: if Morse is sent somewhere, for instance, Betancourt’s a born shortstop. Catching may sort itself out differently. The bullpen seems likely to be blown up, which could bring up George Sherill, who has deserved a shot at a regular job more than some of these guys.
Going to be a wacky day tomorrow.
Comments
119 Responses to “Remaking the team, 2005 edition”
Anyone watching Gammons speech on ESPN? I just love when you suddenly get to see brothers of guys who you’ve been seeing on TV for years and years. I remember when Oprah had Michael’s brother Larry Jordan on her show years ago. It just cracks me up.
By the way, no one will ever be as cool as Frank Stallone or Clint Howard.
Eyewitness reports from Tacoma are that George Sherrill just carried all his stuff out of the clubhouse in boxes, hopped in his car and drove off. This as the gates were opening for the game today.
No, I have no link, just a cell phone call from friends.
I’m not getting my hopes up for who he could be kicking out of their locker at Safeco..
Much like an elementary school field trip, take roll and see who is missing (villone? eddie? nellie?)
101: Probably Villone.
101: Woohoo!
Griffey out of the lineup today. Hmm
Griffey probably pulled his hammy getting into his car today.
on a former mariner note, rotoworld is reporting that Ken Griffey is being held out of the lineup today by the Reds
Ned, I thought that was a curious development as well.. I seem to remember him having very good stats against Woody Williams hmmm is correct
105: Peter… is that you?
Ned, I thought that was a curious development as well.. I seem to remember him having very good stats against Woody Williams hmmm is correct
13-31 w/ 5 HRs lifetime against Woody…suspicious indeed
#109…see #100
I’ve got a good trade proposal — Guardado and Moyer to the Yankees for Wang and Philip Hughes? You like?
new thread open now…
FELIX – This from Kevin Goldstein’s PROSPECT REPORT:
Notes from 7/30
Mariners RHP Felix Hernandez returns to the rotation (and possibly says goodbye to the minors) with four no-hit innings (Pacific Coast)
TM PITCHER IP H R ER BB SO HR ERA
SEA Hernandez, F 4.0 0 0 0 2 7 0 2.25
_____________________________________________________________________
[Bonus Stats]
SEA C.Nageotte 2.0 2 0 0 0 1 0 0.95
So essentially we have competing for a spot in the rotation next year:
Felix Hernandez
Joel Pineiro
Gil Meche
Ryan Franklin
Jesse Foppert
Clint Nageotte
Bobby Madritsch
Yorman Bazardo
Rafeal Soriano
Jorge Campillo
Travis Blackley
Bobby Livingston
Wouldn’t Freddy Garcia look good at the top of the list right now?
Livingston gets the start in Tacoma tomorrow (Monday) night, if you want to see him in person.
If you listened to the Bavasi interview on the Ms postgame today, one thing that came through over and over and over again in all his answers was that nobody gets a free ride basically, and how much he believes in the power of competition – that having multiple players know that there are others in the organization really competing for the few available major league spots is definitely something he wants to strive for in the organization. This seemed the case especially with catcher, when he was asked about Rivera and how he might feel given the signing of three (with draft pick) more catchers….
That’s commendable, but the flip side of this is you can’t play multiple catchers or shortstops at thee same time- but you HAVE to have 5 starting pitchers, and the Mariners can’t afford the luxury of immense depth at SS if it means they are dumpster diving for the Aaron Seles of the world come spring training.
I think there are additional moves coming in the offseason, simply because the rotation is so gutted there’s very little chance we can fix it to the extent it needs to be fixed through free agency and promotion from within in just one year. We’ll be doing pretty well to get ONE guy like Matt Morris or Jarrod Washburn this offseason, and realistically we need two, plus Moyer resigned, plus some luck (guys like Felix, Foppert, Livingston, Bazardo pan out well in 2006, one of Franklin or Meche doesn’t continue their crater).
It would help a lot if we could make a deal to reduce the dependency on needing to run the table during free agency- and now with additional arms and young position players, plus lots of room for salary we can do that. I expect to see some action come the winter meetings.