Protecting the King, among other things
MLB.com ran this article about how the Mariners are trying to make sure their 19-year old phenom doesn’t self-destruct.
The price of celebrity can be high. Learning how to handle it can be difficult.
Former Mariners right-hander Freddy Garcia understands.
“When you are young, you might want to go out and have a lot of fun,” he said. “Sometimes that gets you in trouble, but you have to do what you have to do. I have talked to him a couple of times, and he knows he has to work hard.”
It might not be as easy to stray in Seattle as it is in New York, but trouble has few boundaries.
“When you go out, you can get in trouble,” Garcia said. “Sometimes, people see you out and they start to go after you. You have to be careful with that.”
Freddy, remember, is Felix’s hero and pal.
Also:
His clubhouse and in-game demeanor are controlled at all times. A good rookie is a quiet rookie, someone who does more listening than talking.
I was a little put off by that.
Also: a strange Seattle Times piece “Thornton making his pitch to stay” which is weird (“Thornton’s bad. And he’s on the roster for no good reason. And he’s doing badly. But there are good signs.”) and also reminds me that Thornton’s 29. I mean, wow.
Meanwhile, at the PI, John Hickey notes in the Mariners notebook:
Thanks to the largesse of the Texas Rangers, the Mariners have a fair-to-middling chance of vacating the AL West cellar that has been Seattle’s home for most of the past two seasons.
Hee hee hee. Also Hickey offers a view of Beltre’s ascent as a clubhouse leader.
“There are a lot of young guys here I can talk to and maybe help out,” he said. “I’m not saying I’m a leader, but if I can help, I will. I’m feeling a lot more comfortable about that now than I was when I first got here.”
Beltre is 26.
Comments
110 Responses to “Protecting the King, among other things”
Pardon my ignorance, but does Thornton ever regain any options? Or are we supposed to continue to watch him learn to pitch in the majors?
Once a feller is out of options he’s out of options. It’s like running out of pictures on a roll of film.
Mike Morse was batting .345 on July 16th.
Right, that was a typo. I meant June 16th.
Just a quick question. If everyone has been wrong, please tell us when you guys have ever been wrong about Mariners.
We’ve acknowledged a ton of our own errors on the blog.
We were wrong about the Raul Ibanez signing, which has turned out to be a bargain.
We were wrong when we said that Ichiro wasn’t worth the contract extension he was given after the ’03 season.
We were wrong about Eddie Guardado’s ability to be effective while pitching with an injury.
I was wrong about Adam Jones, who I suggested on multiple occassions would not hit as a professional.
We were wrong about how Adrian Beltre would perform in 2005.
And that’s just off the top of my head.
Yea, that piece on Thornton in the SI must have been written when the guy was on LSD because he is certainly seeing things that are not there.
Sorry, I meant ST
And just think if Thornton were to lose about 3-4 miles on his fastball the M’s would kick him out the door faster than you can say “what were we thinking keeping a guy only because he can throw in the mid 90’s?”
It is just beyond my understanding that the M’s keep this guy. He doesn’t have a club house presence, he’s not a leader, he doesn’t have good command thus inconsistant, doesn’t have an out pitch except for his fastball which he can’t command well, he’s 29, he’s not a great fielder (although he doesn’t have to be) — I mean what can anyone look at and honestly say “he’s a keeper”? It’s just beyond me.
gosh, do we need to protect the King from Pat Robertson?
Finnegan’s comment that Thornton has improved was pretty funny. I’m paraphrasing, but basically he said, Thornton was really bad in April and May (quite true), if you throw out his bad parts since then — July and the grand slam — he’s been pretty good since then (true, in ERA only).
You might reasonably throw out a bad start for a pitcher. But to discard every time Thornton has pitched poorly is just silly. Quite frankly Thornton’s monthly totals have been amazingly consistent — 9 H, 2 HR, 7 BB, and 9 K per 9 IP. He “missed” a HR in June which makes his ERA look deceptively good.