Great Nickname
JMB · April 12, 2006 at 10:41 am · Filed Under Mariners
You’re probably aware that the M’s recently traded RHP Marcos Carvajal to the Devil Rays for fellow RHP Jose de la Cruz. What you might not have known is that de la Cruz, who stands 6-7 and weighs 245 pounds, is known as “The Aircraft Carrier.” Thanks to Baseball America’s Trade Central for that one.
245 seems low for him.
That said, ballplayers all seem to fudge their weight toward 200.
With Seattle, he has a good chance of becoming The Aircrap Carrier.
I love it how this site always talks about random stuff once the M’s start thier annual plummet to last place
” Aircrap Carrier”— sad but hilarious. Very quick wit Jake.
Wait, this guy was an ex-catcher, right? How on earth did he fit back there? I’m just imagining a chunkier Richie Sexson moving laterally to block low breaking balls…
they are only 2 games out, and still sitting ahead of Texas– and the ability to discuss random stuff here has never been predicated on the team’s standings.
here is some news for you:
Finny thinks Harris will go down when Lawton comes back; Hickey says Borchard. Greg Johns in the KC Journal has a column on the M’s gambling on Everett; the Herald also did the traditional baseball travel story, but chose to focus on Mike Goff, finally in the big-leagues after 21 years of minor league travel and accomodations– and questions are already being raised about Gillick in PA
The White Sox had a catcher in Winston Salem the last few years named Carlos Lee, who was not related to the other Carlos Lee the White Sox had and then traded to Milwaukee, but was built very similarly.
He was like a big, slow, immobile oaf just throwing himself at balls in the dirt. Quite humerous, and a stark contrast from when we had Humberto Quintero a few years ago.
#1– I think it is more that they get their initial weight written down, and it can take forever to get updated by media guides, etc. Just think how long the King was listed at 170 lbs…
I don’t even buy that Richie is 206.
Moyer used to be 6’2″ 🙂
So how many pitches will take flight off of “The Aircraft Carrier?” I hope that he is a groundball pitcher.
Speaking of immobile oafs, how’s Jeremy “Moneyball” Brown doing?
And does this now make Julio Mateo’s nickname “Apollo 11”?
How about Ichiro “still trying to live in 2001″ Suzuki?
Adrian”Paid millions for 365 days of good baseball”
Richie”Jay Buhner(strike out or HR)”Sexson
Gil”Gets a fresh chance EVERY year”Meche
Boy, that Jay Buhner sure sucked, didn’t he?
13. Whamp whamp whaaaaaaaaaaamp
And I will take Ichiro’s 2004.
Today is D-Day for a roster movement, with Lawton coming back. So who will get shoved off? The P-I this morning mentioned Harris as a possibility, saying Hargrove could go to 11 pitchers – but do we really think so? That makes sense both from a logical (USSM) point of view (fungible reliever), and from a front office standpoint (will probably clear waivers; don’t want to risk looking dumb on the Thorton trade by losing Borchard; don’t want to risk losing Petagine; Bavasi seems to prefer 11 arms, so Hargrove can suffer for awhile with 11 – perhaps a suitable position player gets hurt and frees up a spot).
But I’ll be cynically pessimistic and guess that Petegine is the loser.
I just got the “Press Pass” for today (actually its not worth the time to read it, ever) and it has no mention of a roster change.
How does one get the “Press Pass”?
I signed-up for it on mlb.com. I may be able to get it because I get gameday audio, I’m not really sure. Go to mlb.com, and then going to the bottom where it has the register/sign-in button. Register there, and it should be available.
#13 — hmm. Jay Campbell Buhner in 1997 had a career-high 175 strike-outs. He also played in 157 games, had 131 H, 18 2B, 2 3B, 40 HR, and 109 RBIs…. man, I’d just hate to see that on our team.
19 et al –
Press pass is free for anybody, and it’s occasionally worth it – not in a ‘breaking news’ sense (they repeat most of the stories for a week at a time, except the current game starter info), but in a ‘handy stats cheat sheet’ sense; they list a lot of stats for that day’s pitcher, hitters, etc. it’s an easy thing to look at during the game for access to simple stats, which is pretty much what it’s for.
Get it, read it once a week or so, and it’ll probably be worth it. If not you can always unsubscribe.
And does this now make Julio Mateo’s nickname “Apollo 11″?
Or maybe “Apollo 13” because his pitches are cripples.
Yeah, I’ll take Ichiro’s 2004 over 2001. That .314 EqA was pretty.
That said, Edgar’s career EqA was .328.
And does this now make Julio Mateo’s nickname “Apollo 11″?
Or, given the gargantuan disaster he’s been so far, maybe Apollo 13
12 – Jeremy Brown is currently hitting .417/.500/1.167 in a handful of ABs.
Carlos Lee (C), whom Dave mentioned early on, hasn’t played yet this year.
Dave – Lee may be big, but he’s only listed at 6’1″. Imagine an immobile oaf with triple the gangliness. That’s pure comedy gold.
Now if he can just work that gangliness into a deceptive delivery, we might be on to something (“I was keying on what I thought was the ball, but it turned out to be his left boob pushing out his shirt. Then, the actual ball broke right over the outside corner. My bad.”).
Lawton activated, Harris down, Rivera up, Quiroz DFA’d.
An 11-man bullpen. OK. Let’s see Petagine at DH tonight.
Kinda makes we wonder what we burned a Rivera option for.
Uhh, I guess that should be a 6-man pen. 11 pitchers. As much as I like the extra bench player, I sure hope a starter can go 7 one of these nights.
Dumping Quiroz after 1 start seems like an awfully strange move.
With the M’s catching depth, Rivera most likely will not be with the organization when his options run out in 2008.
Quiroz is not going to develop without regular playing time, which he is not going to get behind Johjima. With active rosters set and no team desperately needing a backup catcher at the moment, Bavasi probably figured now was the best chance to sneak Quiroz through waivers.
I predict Moonshot Mateo gets sent down (or DFA’d) within two weeks and Harris will be back. So far, nobody else at Tacoma looks ready.
I see both sides of the Rivera debate. I agree that he’s no prospect. But the problem is that the Mariners THINK he is, so I think they’re going to shuffle around more worthwhile players to accommodate him as his options grow scarce. And that has the potential to hurt the team.
The other thing is that moves like this send a signal that there’s disorder in the M’s front office … that, depending on the day, different decision-makers carry the day. One wonders who decided to send out Rivera and claim Quiroz, and who suddenly thought that was a bad idea less than two weeks later.
Or this was the plan all along if the front office thought they had a better chance of Quiroz clearing waivers two weeks into the season. The annual end-of-spring-training redistribution of talent from teams with a talent surplus on their 40-man rosters to teams with a talent shortage on their 40-man rosters has already taken place.
Quiroz was DFA’ed. Is one of the possible outcomes that he goes through the waiver wire and can be assigned to Tacoma?
Yes, if he is unclaimed, the M’s can assign him to Tacoma. It would be Quiroz’s first assignment, so he would have to accept it.
#12 — Jeremy has been doing fine behind the plate in the recent series against the Rainiers. He doesn’t have the arm of the Rainiers Rob Johnson, but he does a decent job of blocking wayward pitches (better than Johnson). His hitting is looking good so far. I doubt he will end up as a first-string catcher in the majors, but he could split time as DH with occasional backup catching duties.