Moyer, Petagine, more Sunday news
TNT: Moyer watches video! Shocking! Roberto Petagine wants to break into the majors.
In the Times, Bob Finnigan writes about what the team’s doing with their shortstop surplus, but if you only read one article, check out Larry Stone’s great piece about former Mariners in spring training with other teams. This is why we love Stone so much:
On one side is the St. Louis Cardinals camp, where (cue the scary music) Scott Spiezio has resurfaced as a backup infield candidate. This may surprise those who believed, based on last year’s .064 average, that Spiezio would have difficulty winning a backup job on a high-school team. Never mind a pennant contender.
In various recent interviews, Spiezio has had the gall to intimate that his pathetic two-year stint with the Mariners was the fault of: a) stick-in-the-mud teammates who broke his spirit; and b) management that didn’t give him a fair shot; rather than c) an abject inability to perform.
Nice.
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Ahh … but don’t miss further down the Notes section of Finnigan’s Notebook piece. Seems that a certain Aussie was swinging the bat.
It’s good to know that those “character” guys like Speez that we signed for their “intangibles” retain those even after departing.
I wonder if he also blames his failure to cut a platinum album with Sandfrog on his stuck-in-the-mud bandmates? At least he didn’t blame the fans.
Pure class.
Is there any info on Petagine’s fielding as an outfielder?
http://www.soxprospects.com calls him a “Slick-fielding, power-hitting first baseman.” It would be nice to have one more alternative to having Dinosaur Everett at DH and Raul in the outfield.
Also does the Finnegan Doyle report mean he’s ahead of schedule, or just taking routine batting practice?
I was most interested in the bit in Stone’s piece about Pokey Reese. Gives me a much different perspective on the guy.
#4- I agree. I never thought the Pokey signing was that bad. Just a small risk the M’s took that never worked out. Looks like the guy has had his share of hardships.
A classier way to look back on his time in the M’s than old Spazio.
Damn, I had Ryan Franklin as the first ex-Mariner to trash the organization this spring.
I’ve never seen the man play, but from what I’ve read, Petagine is good at first base, but an absolute disaster (as in…not an option) in the outfield.
Who knows haha, maybe Petagine can work some of the mojo that former japanese players have had that have come over to Seattle, granted, none of those japanese players were not from Japan… or sucked in the majors… well, little risk little reward is a better way to say it hah. PS, like the new format.
And we spent what on Carl Everett as our left-handed sock? When we have a superior option scrapping for a job in Roberto Petagine?
In October, I suggested grabbing Petagine to wear the lefty sock if he was available.
Naquawan????
Reese must have needed the $1.2M to pay the consultant that came up with *that* name.
And while the story is touching and horrific, I am reminded a bit of The Importance of Being Earnest – to lose one wife/partner may be regarded as misfortune, to lose two looks like carelessness…
I see that Frank Thomas apparently went to the Spiezio School of Accountability, and has just been trashed for his comments by Kenny Williams
in more local news, Jim Moore catches up with Cammy, Larue writes about Lopez’ second chance at second, Kirby Arnold finds that Jeff
Heaverlo has re-discovered his passion for the game, and Doug Miller discovers (surprise!) that
Matt Thornton needs to conquer his control issues….
More importantly, though, “Chris Snelling, who’s recovering from surgery to repair a torn anterior cruciate ligament in his left knee, hit in the batting cage for the second straight day. Hargrove said he thought Snelling swung the bat well, although he added that Snelling is “not ready to play in the field anytime soon.” Hargrove said Snelling hasn’t lost is his enthusiasm for the offensive part of the game. “He does love to hit,” Hargrove said. “He’s not bashful.”
In other news, here in Japan the WBC Japn team has played three exhibition games: 2 against 2nd WBC team (injury replacements) and 1 against Lotte.
1st: observations on Ichiro
He has been batting first in all the games, playing most or all of the games (only two hours of the games are televised). So far, he his about 2 for 16. In the first game, it seemed like he was trying to hit everything hard to right field. Then in the 2nd and 3rd game he went back to his slap style, trying to spray more around the field. Now, I will try to tell you want kind of ABs he got (in no particular order): 2 flies to left (one easy), 2 easy grounders to 3rd, 3 easy grounders to 2nd, one K, one walk, a hard hit to right, a chopper towards 2nd base that he beat out. In three of his ABs, he had RISP but failed to get a hit, but in one, he was able to move him over via fielder’s choice. Ichiro, after most of his ABs, seems to have a look of unhappiness. I only say this because in all the interviews and news reports on training he looks like he’s having fun, smiling and laughing. Anyway, back to the ABs: he is taking first pitches. I can’t say if this is a carry over from 2005 or just something he is trying, but I haven’t seen him swing at the first pitch at all and I think they have all been strikes. The way they are pitching Ichiro is the same in the states (according to what I’ve heard): inside (hard/low) then low and away.
As for his fielding, great as usual but no spectacular plays to report.
As for the Japan team, Uehara looked great, Matsuzaka was not (but mostly defense’s fault), the team has almost no power, and they are doing small ball really well.
When I see the other games I will report more if the USS M’s guys don’t mind my posting off topic on the current and popular thread at the time.
Generally, if it’s a news-of-the-day thread, it’s no problem.
If it’s not, please don’t.
Petagine sounds pretty bitter in those quotes. But it also sounds pretty justified. If Everett weren’t being paid $4M this year, I think I’d want the DH spot to be a toss-up between Petagine and Everett.
As a regular at soxprospects.com I can say that there is considerable dissent about Petagine’s defense. From what I’ve heard, he was considered a very good 1B in Japan, even winning their equivalent of gold gloves. In the short time we saw him in Boston, most of us thought he looked rather slow and uncoordinated. There is also a lot of disagreement about his offense. He preformed very well in AAA but the front office stuck with Millar all year and didn’t seem interested in keeping Roberto around as the lefty platoon instead of J.T. Snow. While I would like to see him get a chance, my guess is he ends up DFA’ed before getting a fair chance.
How does one pronounce “Petagine?”
PET-uh-JEAN?
Puh-TAY-gi-NEE?
PITA-jean?
Pet-AH-zhin-ay?
SIGNING PETAGINE – (See # 9): “In October, I suggested grabbing Petagine to wear the lefty sock if he was available.
October was a little too early. The Ms seem to prefer waiting until the player is close to retirement before going after him.
Troy Percival, anyone?
PETAGINE PRONUNCIATION – Why not ask him? Ask IBANEZ while you’re at it.
(BTW, look what Americans have done to pro-vo-lo’-nay.)
Sane, who cares if Everett gets paid more money? That is sunk cost either way, if Petagine hits better he should get the job.