Atchison arrives; notes abound
The M’s have, as expected, activated RHP Scott Atchison from the disabled list and added him to the active roster. To make room, Jorge Campillo was moved from the 15-day to the 60-day disabled list (Campillo will have Tommy John surgery, but there’s no date set for this yet).
John Hickey speculates that Rafael Soriano will follow on either Monday or Tuesday. Soriano has been going very well for Tacoma, with 11 strikeouts, one walk, and three hits allowed in 5 1/3 innings of work. His total rehab work this season adds up to 16.1 IP, 9 H, 2 ER, 3 BB, and 24 K.
Over in the Times, we hear word that LHP Bobby Madritsch is able to “throw a bit harder“. He’s throwing three days in a row before taking an off day, and it sounds like all is going well in his rehab. Also, RHP Gil Meche and his funny-feeling shoulder will have another throw day off the mound tomorrow.
Eesh, looks like it’s also time for a game thread.
Comments
23 Responses to “Atchison arrives; notes abound”
Wow! Slow day. I’m glad they recalled Atchi because he is a K/GB guy. And Soriano has been a K machine in his rehab. I say just let Nelson and Hasegawa go now.
Any reports on Soriano’s velocity?
No point in cutting anybody if they haven’t been flat-out horrible, and as middling and mediocre as Hasegawa and Nelson have been, they haven’t had their own personal Spieziotomies yet … one of the main ideas behind September callups is adding bullpen depth so as many old pitchers get rest as new ones get looks. I’d support Soriano, Nageotte and Heaverlo as bullpen-depth callups, and Livingston as a worthy auditioner for a rotation spot once Tacoma’s playoff fate is settled. Franklin’s last start notwithstanding, there’s no point in letting him ever start a game again in a Mariner uniform.
I just happen to be editing a Mariners’ minor league report right now, and I thought I’d share some nuggets for discussion:
 Outfielder T.J. Bohn is batting .311 at Tacoma in the 20 games since he was promoted from Class AA San Antonio.
 At Class A Inland Empire, Wladimir Balentien had hit safely in 27 of 30 games, entering Saturday, with a .356 average, nine home runs and 34 RBI in that stretch. For the season, Balentien had 25 homers and 90 RBI.
 At Inland Empire, Michael Garciaparra has batted .363 since July 22, pulling his season average from .247 to .300.
 Jeff Clement hit his sixth home run Friday in his 27th game since being promoted from the Everett AquaSox. He was batting .347 since coming to Wisconsin, and was named the league’s player of the week last week.
 Luis Valbuena was named to the Northwest League All-Star Team. Originally from Zulia, Venezuela, the 19-year-old Valbuena was signed as a non-drafted free agent by the Mariners on Aug. 29, 2002. Valbuena is currently batting .268 and leads the league with 12 home runs and 48 RBI. In 2004, the Venezuelan Summer League named Valbuena the organization’s MVP of the Season.
 Andy Hargrove and pitcher Harold Williams were named to the Arizona League’s postseason all-star team. Hargrove, son of Mariners manager Mike Hargrove, finished second in the league with a .464 on-base percentage and as 10th with a .314 batting average. Williams, who finished the season with the Everett AquaSox, was second in the Arizona League with a 2.30 ERA.
Clement K’d 4 times yesterday sadly.
Any word on Foppert’s velocity while we’re discussing Soriano’s?
2. Per a couple reports Soriano’s hitting the mid 90’s with his fastball and throwing with authority. He’s all but ready to return.
At last night’s Tacoma game he (Soriano) was at 94-95 the whole time. In his previous home outing, he got up to 96 on a strikeout. The nice thing is that he hasn’t lost his control despite the time off. He’ll be joining the team tomorrow.
I have been able to find a number on Foppert’s recent velocity, but here’s a few grafs from today’s News Tribune on his outing last night:
“I wasn’t getting my offspeed stuff over tonight,†Foppert said. “I felt all right, but I got up there in pitches too early. It’s tough on the bullpen being short on pitchers so I know I have to throw strikes.â€Â
Foppert did throw strikes early, often starting out the River Cats with the heat, but the patient Sacramento induced seven walks on the night, three from Foppert.
“You want to throw strikes no matter who you are facing,†Foppert said. “I think they realized I was starting them off with fastballs and they made the adjustment.â€Â
Sounds like velocity isn’t one of Foppert’s issues right now.
I’d hate to be a team going against Felix and then have Soriano come in to finish it off.
Hopefully Soriano still has that eletric fastball.
Imagine if someone has to face Felix when their fighting for a playoff spot.
Uh-oh!
Not to be a pessimist, but Felix does and will have occasionally crappy outings … just something to help you keep it in perspective for when it does happen. He won’t need to go back to Triple-A for more seasoning … he’ll just need to get on to his next start.
You’re a jerk, Felix will NOT have a bad game. Crazy people.
here’s a discussion of Foppert’s starts through the third week of August that has encouraging information, and if you poke around in there I’m sure there’s more:
http://mb3.scout.com/fseattlemarinersfrm1.showMessage?topicID=7926.topic
Last weekend they had Valbuena hitting 7th in the order. I couldn’t figure it out, I figured he must have been struggling, but that’s a pretty solid season. He hit a few line drives in the games that I’ve seen, always seem to hit the ball hard.
Jim, I was interested in your TJ Bohn mention. From what I gather he is the best defensive OF in the system and has recently started hitting for average. Appears to be a good base stealer (28+ SB in SA) with some power. I realize he is 25 but does he have a chance to play at the MLB level?
Soriano always had such a smooth motion, I hope that’ll also mean he has solid consistancy. It’s good to see such gaudy numbers from him so quickly, as he must be making quite a few batters shake their heads. Could be a major player in our now depleted and underachieving bullpen.
#15: Dave Cameron is much more qualified to take on that question than I. You can e-mail him and he can address the question elsewhere in one of his periodic Mariner-system Q&As. Check his Future Forty on the left rail of the home page for a summary opinion, and also do a “Bohn” search in keyword-search space.
I think Bohn could be an interesting bench piece next season. He’d at least give us a real 4th OF, although Strong or Nunez would be acceptable in that role as well. Of course, it looks like Morse is being groomed for to be our 4th OF/right handed OF, so if that experiment works out I doubt Bohn, Strong or Nunez will get a serious shot with the M’s. They’re all roughly the same to me – each with their own strengths and weaknesses, none of them anything to get excited about, yet all of them better than the disaster of a bench we carried most of this season.
TJ Bohn has impressive speed. He also makes contact and plays good defense. My take is that he has a chance to be another Posednik.
In his play at Tacoma, TJ Bohn has shown he is a vastly superior player to Choo, just based on speed and defense alone. He does not have the power or arm of Nunez though.
Actually, I’ve heard Bohn has a canon arm, And yea, he doesn’t have the power of Nunez but he has some pop.
I think Morse is getting groomed to be a piece in a trade during the offseason.
Bohn spent most of the year in San Antonia here his power numbers ere good. He’s only been up to Tacoma for 3 weeks or so and they are less so, in a very small sample. Is the gap between AA and AAA seen as approximately the same as between AAA and the show in terms of difficulty of the pitchers you face? In other words, Bohn’s numbers with the Missions were pretty darned good — how much of that would you expect to see reflected in a full season at Tacoma?
‘W’ key is sticky. Sorry.