Roster Shakeup
The M’s roster that takes the field tomorrow is going to be wholly different than the one that left the field yesterday. Corey Brock was the first to publish the news in the News Tribune, but there’s a big roster shakeup coming down.
Before tomorrow’s game, the Mariners will recall Felix Hernandez, Jorge Campillo, and Jeff Harris from Tacoma. Aaron Sele, Shigetoshi Hasegawa, and a third pitcher (unconfirmed right now, hearing several names) are going to be waived. Hernandez will start Thursday’s games, though will be limited to 80 pitches, and he may not stay in the rotation, as the team is going to be very careful with his workload.
Those won’t be the end of the moves, either. Chris Snelling is going to come up in time for Saturday’s game and take over as the regular (though not everyday) left fielder. Several other position players could be on the way out, as well, as the M’s cut the fat from the roster and, for the second year in a row, prepare to play the last two months of the season with the kids from Tacoma.
Comments
110 Responses to “Roster Shakeup”
Yeah, I’m a little bummed about Felix’s start being in Detroit and un-televised. I understand that we want to keep the pressure off of him, but I’ve been waiting all year to see this kid. I guess there’s always the much heralded “First Home Start.”
Re #97 — actually, usually teams either pull the player off waivers orstart trade negotiations, but doing the former pre-empts (or halts) the latter.
Rotation next three days … Campillo tomorrow, Moyer Wednesday and the King on Thursday … don’t know where that leaves Meche… they’re either pushing him back a coupla days or they’ll put him on the DL … one thing to bank on though … he’ll tweak his windup again… going over his head before delivering — which is what he was doing last three starts — was putting unnecessary strain on his elbow, and may have led to him hitting the showers early in his last start.
101 – Oooh, good point. When would Felix’s “first home start” be? If he starts Thursday in Detroit, counting 5 games gives us Tuesday August 9th against Minnesota.
I already have that game in my season ticket plan, but I’ll come say hi if there’s a USSM cheering section somewhere (:
Any chance that the entire Broadcast Booth gets dfa’ed, as well?
Bucky’s major league stats from last year are teeny tiny sample size.
Doyle is a better overall hitter than Bucky
Read what I said- there’s no evidence Bucky is a better hitter than Doyle is not the same as saying Doyle’s better than Bucky. In fact, you said what I said, just in different language: their minor league hitting is comparable.
You MIGHT have an argument for psuedo-platooning Bucky for Reed and moving Raul from DH to the OF, I suppose, but that’s assuming Reed doesn’t pick up any from where he is now, and, again, you weaken the defense when you do that. It may well be a wash.
4) Because PH don’t get a lot of at bats, they aren’t valuable.
That’s not what I was saying, again. Let me clear- I don’t think a player who spent the entire year on the DL is a good candidate to come back as a spot player/PH on a major league bench and be productive. Especially when it’s an entirely new role for them. Spiezio hasn’t handled it well, and he has a LOT of major league time.
If Bucky is on the team come April 2006, without roster changes, he will have the same problem in 2006 that Spiezio had in 2005- he’s not a good enough player to bump the guys in the lineup (though he’s quite clearly a better offensive player than Spiezio, he’s certainly not better than Ibañez or Sexson), and his defensive limits make it impossible for him to go anywhere else. He’s also not exactly a contact hitter (read: he’s going to K whenever he plays. A lot).
The best PH’s have been guys like Staub, Hairston, Baines, Mota, Hansen, Vander Wal- none of whom were Rob Deer at the plate (also: note that most of them were NL players, and the AL players like Baines and Hairston could play OF, and most of them had careers BEFORE they turned into PH-only players). I can’t really think of anyone who’s been able to succeed longterm as a PH/very intermittent player with Bucky’s skill set (RHB, lots of HRs and Ks, fairly low average, slow, 1B/DH only). Feel free to correct me if I’m wrong.
THAT’S my point- Bucky doesn’t really fit on the 2006 roster as it’s likely to be constructed, he doesn’t fit in with Hargrove’s usage patterns (which are generally to use a set lineup and only make mininmal subsitutions), and using him as a PH bat isn’t likely to work well given the circumstances. So why put him in a role he’s ill-suited for instead of trading or releasing him, and use the roster spot for someone else when he gets healthy? It’s not like this hasn’t happened before- isn’t that how Bucky’s left other orgnizations as well?
it might be better to decide on Bucky after he finally goes out on a rehab…
Bucky = Bernie Carbo? I don’t know… it’s just a name I thought I’d throw out considering his DH/PH skills.
That too- but even if he’s fine, he’s not well-suited for the roster in 2006.
Now, if Sexson’s shoulder goes ‘splody or we rejigger the roster via trades in such a way that Bucky could be the full time DH…yeah, keeping him around makes sense. Otherwise, not so much.
Assuming Morse and Bentacourt stick (big if), here is my wish list:
1) 4th OF that hits and plays against LHP
(snip)
Hmmmm….wonder if Morse could learn to play LF adequately. Then you have a right-handed bat who may be able to hit Lefties (.949 OPS against southpaws in 48 MLB ABs so far) and can also give you some infield versatility….We have entered the period of experimentation, so why not?