Putz peril, Morrow earns notice, White wishful
Putz’s elbow “tightened” up after his bullpen session yesterday. Yeagh. Times.
Echoing Dave’s notes yesterday, Brandon Morrow’s performance is praised by Johjima in the PI, and others carried the tune.
Also in the PI, Sean White wants to make the team.
In what is likely really good news for the M’s, the Rangers put Sosa on their 40m, and seem likely to go into the season relying on him for offense. Woooo! Chances of that panning out… 10%? 12?
Mark Shapiro agreed to a 5-year extension in Cleveland. Not that I wish them ill, but I’m hoping they don’t go through the rest of the front office and make those guys offers they can’t refuse.
Update! Cuts! Looks like C Rob Johnson’s headed to minor league camp, which at this point pretty much means you’re assured Rivera’s the backup catcher this year. I don’t think Burke or Johnson are going to be given a realistic chance.
Also tossed off the team: IF-R Garciaparra, IF-R LaHair, IF-R Navarro, OF-B Wilson, OF-R Balentien
Comments
34 Responses to “Putz peril, Morrow earns notice, White wishful”
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.
Does Morrow’s peformance make him a candidate for the 25 man roster if Putz is on the shelf for a while? I suppose I would rather have him than White.
And while most have wanted the M’s to steer away from Benitez, who was again mentioned in the Times notes, if the M’s can dump Sexson and his contract in a trade with SF, would picking up Benitez still be viewed as a bad move?
So why does the P-I notebook have Putz reporting “all went well”? Geoff Baker was pretty clear that’s precisely what he didn’t get from the team.
Morrow has almost no chance to make the team out of spring training. The guy has 15 innings of pro ball. As I mentioned, his first inning breaking ball was very slurvy. If he was throwing that pitch in the second inning, he’d have gotten pounded. The talent is there, but consistency is something he hasn’t had a chance to develop yet.
I don’t think there’s anything to the Benitez stuff. If Putz goes down, the M’s will make a move, but I’d bet it’s someone like Jorge Julio instead.
Baker has more this morning in the blog
and he knows it– from Drayer:
“Despite his spring success, when I talked to him he started most sentences with “When I go back to the minors…†His biggest concern right now is building up the stamina to throw more innings than he has ever thrown before. He threw 96 at Cal last year and 16 in his short stint in the minors. He also pointed out to me that he needs to get used to pitching every 5th day rather than every 7th day as he did in college.”
sorry– Baker has more on Putz in the blog link above
#2– because Hickey went to print before the problems arose? In his blog entry he also has the update about the MRI
Well, the problems came up half an hour or so after the bullpen session, per Hickey’s own blog, so he certainly didn’t go to print before they arose. The Times got the story into today’s edition.
But my question was really about the mixed signals. Hickey (or Naito, can’t tell from the byline where that note comes from) was reporting a take on Putz’s bullpen session that Baker, already in his blog, made clear that the team rather obviously avoided giving.
Shouldn’t it be “Morrow merits mention” in the title? Just a friendly alliteration suggestion 🙂
Dagnabit
I don’t get why everybody is getting so worked up about J.J. having potential issues that may delay him starting his season on time. This may be a blessing in disguise. We still have Rafael “freakin'” Soriano for heaven’s sake! This may be his time to step up and prove he’s the closer of the future!
. . What?
. . . He’s where? . . .
Oh shit.
all kidding aside, and while i agree that we didn’t have to give up soriano, ramirez is a nice pick-up…look at his numbers when healthy…he’ll win 12+ games if he stays healthy…
Anybody wonder what Soriano would fetch now on the open market, given several teams need for relief pitching? I’ve seen Linebrink, J. Julio, Benitez, among others mentioned in trade rumors. Also saw in Buster Olney’s blog that he thinks the price for relief pitching has increased considerably this Spring. The fact that Raffy has shown he’s healthy thus far (throwing mid-90’s and looking great) I wonder what the M’s could get for him now.
bakomariner, prepare to have your statement… refuted.
COUNTERTROLL:
Just as HR and RBI conceal the fact that Richie Sexson isn’t worth the money, so wins aren’t a good measure of Ramirez’s value to the team.
hey! it’s Red! and he sounds like he hasn’t missed a day 🙂
Yeah, but Sexson is different. HR/RBI people don’t like him. To quote my father “He’s bad because he doesn’t get his HRs and RBIs in a clutch situation. Hitting a solo home run when up by 10 or down by ten is useless. He never hits home runs with men on base. He’s a rally killer. He can hit .250 with 40 HRs, but he needs to get those home runs with men on base, and in important situations.”
I though Red quit?
Sorry, it should say “thought” not “though.”
Anyway, I used to hate him, but now I kind of like the extreme detail of his analysis, eg: “You have to swing the bat to hit the ball.”
they asked him to fill in for a few days as Rizzs is off and Sims is doing the NCAA.
The P-I also mentions Clement being sent down to minor league camp along with Rob Johnson.
Corco’s dad is right: if you’re up by ten or down by ten, it’s important to make quiet outs, and save production for more important situations.
Apple doesn’t fall far from the tree.
This is another variant on the Law of Averages. The Law states that hitting a home run with a ten run lead makes it less likely that he will hit a home run the next day in a tie game.
I never said I agreed with it.
As far as the apple/tree thing:
Yes, my father is an incredible businessman and one of the smartest people I know. So I’m proud of this.
Willie is on fire. on fire, I tell you.
Willie is on fire. on fire, I tell you.
Indeed. He’s getting all the hits out of his system before the season begins…
BTW, you are the champions.
WFB: Mr. March.
Corco’s dad is right: if you’re up by ten or down by ten, it’s important to make quiet outs, and save production for more important situations.
This was Sexson’s big problem last season. He would come to bat in clutch situations, only to realize that he had used up his allotment of hits and RBIs for the week. They had been squandered for personal glory in blowout games. What a jerk.
No, no, no, no. You don’t give up when you’re down by ten. But you can’t get all ten runs back with one swing of the bat – that’s Sexson’s problem, swingin’ for the fences down by ten. In that situation, you have to work extra hard on doing the little things right, like bunting the runner over to second, so that you can scrap back into the game a bit at a time.
Plus, a home run is a relief to the pitcher because it empties the bases. You want to hit doubles, keep the pressure on the pitcher.
This is why Hargrove needs such a big bullpen: he needs that guy in the pen that he can bring in with a big lead and men on base to give up the key home run to clear the bases and take the pressure off.
(which is, by the way, the ideal role for Julio Mateo)
Tigers send down Bazardo, Nats ship out Fruto.