Final Moves Made
As expected, C Rene Rivera was optioned to Tacoma. Joining him is RHP Emiliano Fruto, leaving LHP Jake Woods and RHP Jeff Harris as the two winners of “Who Wants a Spot in the Bullpen?” 1B/DH Roberto Petagine had his contract purchased from Tacoma. To make room for Petagine on the 40-man roster, RHP Marcos Carvajal was designated for assignment. Additionally, OF Chris Snelling was placed on the 15-day disabled list. In case you’re wondering, yes, Harris needs to be added to the 40-man roster as well. He’ll take, at least temporarily, OF Matt Lawton’s spot while Lawton serves his suspension. Ten days into the season, they’ll need to make another move or two.
In other news, we’re really close to having the first updated Big Board of the 2006 season. Once minor league rosters are finalized, which shouldn’t be too far off, I’ll get rolling — I’d rather wait until rosters are announced rather than guess where players might start the season, only to update things a few days later. Stay tuned.
Hope to see you all in 12+ hours at Safeco! Don’t forget to turn your clocks ahead one hour today, or you’ll be late for the event.
[deleted, duh]
How, exactly, do people end up typing in all caps? I mean, did they hit the “caps lock” key in 1998 and not figure out that if you hit it again, it goes off?
Re: Desi. I think the answer is no.
Good for Jeff Harris – I was rooting for him on an emotional level, so I hope he has the chops to stick up here for the full year as our long relief man.
Just a FYI, Diamond Mind has its projections for the 2006 season up on their website;
http://www.diamond-mind.com/articles/proj2006.htm
They have the M’s finishing in third place, slightly ahead of a suprise pick. They did mention that 2-4 were about 1.7 games apart, so in reality, not much of a difference.
Waiving Carvajal means that the M’s could have kept Torrealba with no opportunity cost.
The M’s still might trade Carvajal. Even if Carvajal is simlpy picked up on waivers, the JoeJessica trade was still a good move. They traded a player who, after the Johjima signing, was going to be a fringe player on the 25 man roster for a couple of pitching prospects. They got to look at them in spring training and decided that other pitchers in camp were better. I do not see any significant harm done, and I don’t believe that Bavasi could have leveraged JoeJessica for much more from some other franchise.
I guess what’s frustrating is that Carvajal seems like an interesting prospect. He was more effective last year in colorado than I think Harris will be for Seattle. I don’t get it. Did something go wrong this spring?
They’ve waived Carvajal, not released him. If they’re just trying to sneak him off the 40-man the timing is brilliant. Most teams are in the same sit as the Ms right now, a bit too many players on the 40-man and preoccupied with clearing that up.
If the are trading him (probably along with Rivera??) they better be getting something really good back, Carvajal’s a much needed pitching prospect in this system. His numbers and PECOTA look really good.
BTW, Carvajal’s 5 year valuation on PECOTA ranks higher than:
Jon Lester
Jon Papelbon
Anibal Sanchez
Oliver Perez
Paul Maholm
the entire Ms rotation sans Felix
and it assumes Carjaval stays as a RP.
Best new nickname comes from Larry Stone in today’s Mariners preview, while talking about the A’s…. it’s “The Diabolical Dr. Beane”
Jeff Harris has to be more than the long man  he has to pick up starts in the ballparks in which Jamie Moyer absolutely can’t pitch (Fenway Park, 20.25 ERA last three years), Yankee Stadium (9.15), SkyDome (7.99), Network Associates (7.25), Tropicana Field (7.11) and Comerica Park (5.40).
He has to be ready to step in when Gil Meche has the inevitable tight shoulder or sore elbow or if Joel Pineiro suddenly can’t answer the bell.
Right now, Kevin Appier isn’t good enough, Clint Nageotte and Jesse Foppert haven’t shown they’re within a few months of being ready, and Bobby Livingston (who I like) showed less in spring than I would have liked. The M’s don’t show any particular inclination to see Rafael Soriano stretch back into a starter.
We’re asking a lot of Harris, and as much as I root for him, I don’t think he’s up to that big a job. The only in-house fallback is an occasional emergency five-inning start from Julio Mateo … assuming he hasn’t been used the previous few days.
That’s a bit scary.
Harris isn’t great but he’s better suited to those spot starts, IMO, than Mateo, who received one in Safeco with an 80 pitch limit and just got hammered. When teams’ entire orders get to see Mateo’s limited stuff once, they’ll have an easy time teeing off on it in the 2nd go-round.
Harris at least has experience starting and while his stuff isn’t spectacular, he can do a better job of holding his own over 5-6 innings than Mateo could. Plus, you’re not asking Harris to do it for 32 starts, only for certain starts here and there (Moyer’s road starts?), and mopping up if someone, heaven forbid, gets shelled.
As for Carvajal… the guy looked awful in ST. It’s possible Bavasi and Grover don’t think he’s close to ready yet, and with every team pretty much in the same spot with firming up their 25 and 40 man rosters and not having any room to bring in a Carvajal and put him on their 40 man… I don’t think this is as dumb a move as many of you feel it is. Either Carvajal clears and gets to San Antonio or Bavasi swings a trade to bring in another talented player he can stock somewhere.
Actually, Mateo wasn’t that bad … two earned runs, I think.
not to mention a long, emotional layoff in the middle.
do we really have a sense of how Appier will pitch? He has been injured so much of the spring; it’ll be interesting to see how he pitches in Tacoma once the season begins & his calf is healed…
Jim, actually five earned runs, vs. the Yankees if that’s an excuse.
See: http://sports.yahoo.com/mlb/boxscore?gid=250517112
I’m short a left sock (my bet that Fruto & Gonzo would round out the pen. I couldn’t have predicted how this spring training would go, and I firmly believed this was a predictable management group.
Particularly unpredictable was the fact that the 40-man did not dictate the final roster.
Yep, vj, 5-17-05: Mateo lasted 5 but got pounded for 8 hits and 5 runs and took the loss. And the M’s gave him the Ryan Franklin treatment: Pavano pitched a CG shutout. HAR.
An extreme flyballer like Mateo, with maybe a couple pitches, which he can throw for strikes, can’t succeed over more than 2-3 innings.