Bloomquist has new swing, should start, Sexson gets hit
BLOOMQUIST SEEKS FULL-TIME POSITION WITH MARINERS!!!11!!
Oh yes, the article you’ve all been waiting for is here.
The best way, for now, for Bloomquist to state his case is to continue doing what he has been this spring — hit the ball. If he can find a consistent swing and raise his average the combination of his newfound stroke and his unmatched versatility could force his way into the starting lineup.
Uh huh. If I could find a consistent swing, learn to pitch 100+mph and mix in a great curveball, I’d be the greatest player ever. Small sample size! Bloomquist’s supposed turnaround’s happened before. He can’t hit!
“Its hard to keep guys out that hit,” Pentland said. “He’s been a classic .250 hitter his career and if he takes his walks and sees the ball better like he has been he hits pitches he never has before. He’s hitting changeups and curveballs. He’s always been kind of a dead fastball hitter and that’s kind of like hitting off a machine — you never have to make an adjustment.
If he takes his walks, which he’s never done, and hits pitches like he never has – wow, if the Moose could do it, he could play first! It’d be awesome! Wheeeeeeeee!
Given what we know about Bloomquist’s skill set, and his long history in the minor and major leagues, his performance when he’s played consistently, the evidence is overwhelming that he cannot effectively hit major league pitching. Players like that don’t start to hit for power this late in their career. They don’t start to recognize pitches. Bloomquist is unlikely to blossom.
Stone offers a notebook including such topics as Sexson asking for the ball after he ended his 0-18 streak.
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Willee blumkwist is like the best playur on the team adn I think he could be a ALL*STAR if the stuped managur wood give him a chants!!!111!!
If not for local Willie love, what would I be making fun of at 12:39 in the morning in the middle of March?
(Side note: Dave needs to start throwing in silly sayings and exclamations to liven up his posts. Dave writing “Wheeeeeeeee!” — now that would be something.)
I guess Jon Naito confuses average with below average often?
So who should we draft with the #1 pick next year?
I’m just gonna say that if Bloomquist really has figured something out about swings and pitch recognition and hits 290/370/450, you’re going to look pretty silly. 😉
Where is this starting lineup opening, incidentally?
There’s equal chance his line looks like this: .029/.037/.045
If he does have a late learning curve and suddenly hits .290 with some walks… would that really be all that bad for the M’s?
Just sayin’…
..and yes, I know it is unlikely. But I could stomach 400 AB’s with those numbers.
I sent Jon Naito an email thanking him for his contribution to my wonderful day.
Gag me.
I like this quote from Stone’s notebook:
Hargrove knows this ain’t Texas Hold ‘Em, right? There is no “fold” in baseball.
I know people like seeing their names on the comments section, but can we not repost every single thing Hargrove says with snarky little comments? DMZ does enough of that for all of us.
we have a winner, folks! um, so who is Jon Naito?
aside from being a 2002 Society of Professional Journalists Mark of Excellence Awards 2001 for Region 10 (Pacific Northwest) 3rd place winner for Sports writing, The Daily Evergreen, I mean.
What amazed me about the article was the absence of the key ingredient that keeps WFB out of the lineup. All nine M’s regulars are better hitters than Bloomquist. It isn’t hard to figure out. I suppose that a Bloomquist career year might match a year in which Lopez suffers a severe regression, but even that is a remote possibility at best.
fwiw, on the KOMO evening wrap-up, Drayer said that Sexson was much calmer this year about the slow start than previous springs when he worried and pressed … she also has a note about how ticked the team is about last year’s losses to the As
Kirby Arnold talks to George Sherrill
oh, and it’s time for the new commercials
Wasn’t Bloomies new contract ALL about being the “Best Utility Player” in the league? Shouldn’t he concentrate his efforts on being what he was paid to be? Just like a DH has to learn how to adjust to hitting 4-5 times a game, shouldn’t Willie spend his mental efforts on being ready to run the bases in the 9th, or being ready at any moment to sub for Lopez if he gets tossed for arguing balls/strikes?
Imagine: What if the pitchers wanted to spend their time improving their hitting just in case the team needs a pinch hitter rather than their pitching? What if Grover spent all his efforts trying to be a coach rather than…mmm…use up oxygen? What cats wanted to be dogs? WHAT KIND OF WORLD WOULD WE LIVE IN???
I don’t know why “unmatched versatility” is a qualification for being a starter. That’s a utility player skill.
I guess getting all excited about someone having a good couple weeks in spring training gives sports writers something to do without having to think much.
Heh. The first thing I thought when I read that “average hitter” remark was, “Since when was a 73 OPS+ considered average?”
Oh, right, Naito only considers batting average when looking at baseball stats. Still, Bloomquist’s average last year? .247. AL average last year? .275.
There is no “fold†in baseball.
Yes, there is, it’s called an 11-game AL West roadtrip.
Does anyone know how old Bloomquist is? No, seriously. I was looking up his career line and was shocked to see he’s 29. There’s not even a “he’s young and could still improve” argument to be made. If anything, he’s going to be getting worse!
Willie suddenly learning how to hit at this stage in his career is about as likely as Hargrove suddenly deciding to embrace sabermetrics.
Maybe “Every Day Willie” is a good thing…
I mean, if he plays every game, maybe people will eventually recognize that he shouldn’t play every game. Familiarity breeds contempt, to quote a cliche. Anyone can seem brilliant and talented in spurts (and I think that may be the reason for much of his fanbase), but having to gut it out for the daily grind will expose his weaknesses daily.
This season looks to be another disappointment anyway, so why not use the opportunity to break the Bloomquist addiction and get “The Willie” off our back?
How long would it take? With Hargrove, probably half the season or more (I’m reminded of Everett here), but it might be worth it to finally exorcise that demon.
Sigh. I can see we’re going to have yet another season of Bloomquist getting on KJR every week and essentially saying: “I’m not trying to rock the boat here by saying I think I deserve to be an everyday player … but here I go, rocking the boat again.”
I love Pentland’s quote. Especially if you read between the lines a bit.
“He’s been a classic .250 hitter his career (he’s never hit worth a darn) and if he takes his walks and sees the ball better like he has been he hits pitches he never has before (hey, I said “IF”). He’s hitting changeups and curveballs. He’s always been kind of a dead fastball hitter and that’s kind of like hitting off a machine (anybody can hit a fastball, he can’t hit changeups and curves, you know, the kind of pitches major league pitchers throw) — you never have to (i.e., can’t) make an adjustment.”
Sure if hard to find something to write about for 45 days of spring training. The best part to me is as long as we see these twice a year, it’s easy for the next GM to release or give away WFB and say “we want to give him the opportunity to be an everyday player and that won’t happen here”.
I also read that quote as Pentland trying to be honest about Willie’s chances without being hurtful.
Good for you Colm. At last some maturity shows up.
Yes, that’s part of what being a pro sports coach/manager entails. You can be snarky about it, but realize that’s the sort of thing a coach HAS to say if he’s doing his job.
(Of course, folks like Hargrove are just so BAD at that and all other phases of the game…)
Just curious… can anyone think of a case where a player who has established himself as replacement player level such as Bloomquist has *ever* turned into an above average starter? Granted, there wouldn’t be very many examples anyway because replacement-level players don’t usually get a lot of at-bats to prove themselves in the first place, but still… I’m hard-pressed to think of anybody like that. Harold Reynolds, I guess, was there for a season and then turned into a decent player for a few years, but IIRC he had some decent minor league numbers before coming up as well.
I guess I should further limit the question to only include people who broke out at Bloomquist’s age. There’s probably some crappy 19-year old I’m not thinking of who, replacement level or no, was good enough to play in the majors at that age and therefore was a really good prospect.
Hey, if he bats .444 in the regular season, then he’ll get his slugging percentage up to about .444. An OPS of .888 would be pretty good.
Nice Pentland evaluation. WB was a dead red hitter like he hit off a machine. Now he is ST where every pitch is a version of a fastball because breaking pitches don’t. WB is now a .400 guy…right. I hit .650 in a tournament once, score 40 in basketball game and bowled 280. BFD none of that ever happened again and won’t. WB may have his dream September once every 10 years but that does not mean he is an every day guy.
Wait a minute here! Willie won’t ever get a chance to be everyday here in Seattle like he wants…right? Isn’t that the signal for Bavasi to trade him away? So he can fulfill his dream? That’s what we learned about Doyle right?
Maybe we can do a Willie for Pavano trade! haha
Doesn’t Willie derive most (all?) of his value from being the “Zito-Killer?” Maybe he can be traded to an NL team who can take advantage of his repeatable skill in that area.
“spring for me is anything between an 18 and 20 ERA, so I am right on track”– George Sherrill.
today’s cuts, via the Times blog
Sadly, I think we may, in the future, refer to these past three to four years as the “Bloomquist Era.” Strangely, I don’t think it would be far off of the mark.
George, George, George…
At least he’s nothing, if not honest 🙂
speaking of Zito, looks like he might be in line to start on thursday for the Giants; dunno if he will pitch the night game, though.
Second base. Didn’t you notice last year how Lopez kept grounding out the other way?
Remember, he was also the Washburn killer. Maybe we’ve identified his skillset: hitting soft-tossing lefties.
OMG! At last, a Willie update. I was wondering why no one was taking notice of the hot Spring training that Willie was having. USS Mariner should seriously consider having a small section devoted just to Willie. You know like a web shrine of sorts. If there can be a cult of Doyle, why not a Willie Shrine?
[# 28]…ST[:] where every pitch is a version of a fastball because breaking pitches don’t.
IIRC, until the Braves moved from Milwaukee to Atlanta, MLB had no stadiums more than 1000 feet above sea-level.
We’re all familiar with how these launching pads make it difficult for managers and coaches to assess players, how they distort players’ statistics.
Has a study ever been done–and I realize there are other factors–comparing the regular season success with teams that train in Florida (at sea-level)and teams that train in Arizona (over 1000 feet above sea-level)?
There have. The problem I see is that there’s never been a period of time where the populations of the two sides has been stable for more than a few years: the last couple of decades have seen a lot of teams moving from one to the other.
The one that springs to mind immediately was that the Cactus League teams did worse in the regular season than the Grapefruit League, but at this was done when there were eight or so teams in the Cactus League and it looked like Arizona spring training might collapse entirely. It wasn’t a strong effect, and the limitations meant I didn’t give it much credence anyway.
Phoenix is at 1,117 feet above sea level. Pittsburgh is at 1203. Minneapolis is at 841. Atlanta, believe it or not, is at 1026. Kansas City is at 1026 also. Cleveland is at 792, Milwaukee 723. The pressure differences between these cities are insignificant, certainly by comparison with Denver.
The altitude issue is a canard for every MLB city (and spring training site) except Colorado.
Wasn’t Fulton County Stadium always referred to as “The Launching Pad” in the 70s and the 80s? I do agree that altitude matters a lot less than park dimensions, prevailing winds, hitter’s backgrounds, and so on, but it does make a difference. It’s probably a huge part of why Safeco and whatever abominable name they’re currently calling Jack Murphy Stadium are pitcher’s parks, and yes, it probably does contribute to the park effects in Atlanta and Phoenix (and counteract the effect of a large park in Kansas City).
I don’t care what you all say, Willie can play for my Teeball team any day! He might even hit .300 if your not careful!
My girlfriend just saw the big headline on this post and got confused. “If he’s not a full-time player, how come he’s always in there?” I told her it was an excellent question. Does this mean she’d be a better manager than Hargrove?
Has anybody seen Willie and Charles Gipson at the same place at the same time?
Yes, they both started in the same outfield (Willie in LF, Gipper in CF) on September 28, 2002. Anytime you think the M’s suck think of this lineup:
Ugueto-Bloomquist-Relaford-Guillen-Davis-Cirillo-Podsednik-Wilson-Gipson. And on the mound Ryan Franklin.
Willie is a waste of a roster spot
I remember guys that made us play better as a team with just their attitude. There might be a more talented player on the bench but it does make a difference who’s covering 2nd when you NEED to turn two. Maybe that’s what the guys think of Willie. Maybe thats why he got so many innings. I won’t make fun of guys with “grit.”
Are you sure they weren’t both Willie Bloomquist? He has just enough grit to pull that off.
Really? Just with their attitude? Maybe you’re thinking of Jay Buhner. I’m sure it was his attitude, not his career 124 OPS+, 310 lifetime HR and cannon arm, that made the team play better. No? Then who were you thinking of?