Roster Shuffling
Dave · April 23, 2006 at 8:26 pm · Filed Under Mariners
Here’s a day for you:
Joe Borchard DFA’d.
Clint Nageotte called up from Tacoma.
Clint Nageotte has one bad inning.
Clint Nageotte optioned to Tacoma.
According to Jason Churchill, Bobby Livingston will be coming up from Tacoma to take the empty roster spot. Churchill is also speculating that Livingston will join the M’s rotation shortly with rumors of a Joel Pineiro trade in the works.
I can’t get any confirmation of the Pineiro stuff, so while I trust Jason, take it with a grain of salt for now.
But, yea, the Tacoma Shuttle is back.
as of 3:13 today, “Seattle Mariners Executive Vice President & General Manager of Baseball Operations Bill Bavasi announced today that the club has recalled left-handed pitcher Bobby Livingston from triple-A Tacoma. Livingston, who will wear #35, will be available for tonight’s 7:05 pm game versus the Chicago White Sox at Safeco Field.”
I’m glad to see Livingston get his chance, but I hope it’s not in garbage-time relief or LOOGYesque situations. If ever a pitcher was made to be exclusively a starter, it’s the soft-tossing, non-platoon-splitting Livingston.
While there’s no way to know how well Livingston will or won’t do as a major league starter, I do think he’ll be an interesting test of the extent to which pure scouting should be allowed to hold sway at the higher levels.
Despite the fact that Livingston has done nothing but succeed at every level, there are a lot of baseball people who would prevent him from rising any higher simply because they don’t think his stuff will translate at the major league level … due in large part to ingrained prejudices against soft-tossers.
I say, let’s keep this simple. If you do nothing but succeed, you should keep getting chances to succeed until you fail.
Since someone asked . . .
Justin Leone is in Portland, hitting .460/.541/.889 (!) while waiting for the Padres to call.
Bavasi was hanging out in the Mariner’s washroom the other day with Mike Hargrove. As he was leaning over to receive a warm wash cloth from the blond Swedish bathroom attendant he turned to Mike.
“Hey, I hear Nageotte is getting his confidence back.”
“Oh really, hadn’t paid much attention to anyone other than Bloomquist.”
“Well, it’s true. Maybe we should bring him up and throw him into a tough situation,” said Bill.
“Wouldn’t want him to get a fat head.”
“That right, we are doing the kid a favor, really.”
“Okay,” said Bavasi, “I’ll make the call.”
“And I’ll put him in a difficult spot,” said Mike.
Bavasi turned to the attendent as requested a double-tall latte, then settled into the chaise lounge in the washroom. He hesitated for a moment, then said.
“You know what would be really great, let’s send him right back down regardless of what happens.”
“That would be great,” said Mike.
“I bet he could even take the train up in the morning, and the train down that afternoon. That would be cool.”
“Naw, let’s make sure he drives up in traffic, then drives home in traffic too. That way he’ll get a long time by himself in the car to think about things. Setting a young player up to fail, then letting him stew about it, is a good management technique,” said Mike.
“Done deal,” said Bill, and he walked off into the night.
Churchill also mentioned that he doubts Borchard will make it through waivers, so if there’s a trade brewing, something tells me Borchard will be part of it.
Saw something interesting in Joel’s last start. I had seats behind homeplate, right behind a scout for the Devil Rays. The interesting thing was as soon as Joel was removed from the game, I believe it was in the 6th inning, dude put his Jugs gun away, put on his coat and left. He was clearly scouting Pinero. It may be nothing, but when Churchill says that a trade is in the works, makes you think maybe they are shopping him. Who would the M’s be after from the D-Rays? Aubrey Huff? Hmmmm.