Betancourt’s journey, Reitsma’s elbow
No M’s notebooks… slow news day.
Greg Bishop at the Times, on Betancourt’s emigration from Cuba, and his family.
In the PI, Chris Reitsma underwent surgery once and wants to pitch again.
Hickey says the M’s “won’t be making a play” for Benitez.
Local wants to make team, youngsters, Stone on Niehaus
PI: “Walla Walla lefty holds onto hope for spot in M’s bullpen”
Over at the Times, Stone waxes eloquent on Niehaus.
Bishop on teenage players.
Also, the team’s ads are out. Consume! Feel free to speculate on who the team feels is likely and unlikely to be traded during the season based on these snippets.
Now it’s time for the easiest part of any coach’s job…
…the cuts. Although I wasn’t able to cut everyone I wanted to, I have cut a lot of you.
— Homer
From the Times and PI blogs, here’s the news.
Reassigned to minor league camp
C Luis Oliveros
IF Matt Tuiasosopo (in the Times blog, this is “infielder Matt Tuiasosopo, a Woodinville native”)
LHP Jim Parque
LHP Travis Blackley
LHP Ryan Rowland-Smith
RHP Carlos Alvarado
RHP Jesse Foppert
RHP Juan Sandoval
Released
LHP Matt Perisho
Five Questions at THT
As part of The Hardball Times season preview series, they asked me to write and answer five questions about the team heading into 2007. Head on over and check it out.
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.
Cult of Doyle update
Game-winning 3-run home run in the eight off Adkins to beat the Mets 9-6.
Stone blogs on Putz, Pentland instructs, swooning for Lincecum
Four weeks from now, my book, “The Cheater’s Guide to Baseball” comes out. I’ve been thinking about doing a USSM Feed/Book Bro-ha-ha mid-April, probably on a weekend, probably at Hales — if you’ve got thoughts on good locations, speak up.
In the meantime, you can pre-order:
The Cheater’s Guide to Baseball
And check out the modest blog.
Larry Stone puts up his first Times blog entry! Wooo! It’s about Putz feeling good. Stone winces at the possible Putz replacements, offering Reitsma and Batista for their prior experience.
Pentland’s trying to get Beltre and Reed to do opposite things. In one sense, that’s good news – we’ve had hitting coaches before giving the same advice to everyone, no matter what their need was.
The PI on Lincecum. The Times on Lincecum.
Weaver, LaHair, Blue Sky
The M’s won yesterday (yayyy!). What else has been going on?
Ted Miller of the PI considers Weaver’s up-and-down season and finds reason for hope. Greg Bishop follows up the next day for the Times.
M’s play two today: vs the White Sox, and @ SF. 1:05, but remember, we’re doing that pointless thing with the clocks.
And don’t flip out, but today’s the sneak preview of Wilco’s new album: 7-7 our time.
Lookout Landing calls USSM readers lazy nogoodniks, retaliation made easy
So in Dylan’s Seattle blogger poll, it’s down to us and our fine neighbors at Lookout Landing in the “Final“. Now, I only really got interested when a victory over the West Seattle Blog meant it’d be us and LL. But now it is, and since Jeff’s campaigning, I offer to you the U.S.S. Mariner Voter’s Guide on Important Issues of the Day.
| Voting Issue | USS Mariner | Lookout Landing |
|---|---|---|
| Buys beer for readers at SoDo bars before games | Yes | No |
| Affiliated with giant network of sports blogs bent on crushing opposition | No | Yes |
| David Corcoran, despite all we’ve put up with here, stuffing the box on behalf of | No | Yes |
| One of "baseball people" who advised Bavasi to trade Snelling and Fruto for Jose Vidro | No | Yes |
| Killed a homeless guy once when it thought no one was looking | No | Yes |
| Endorses proposals to rebuild the Alaskan Way Viaduct bigger, uglier, at cost of billions in your tax dollars | No | Yes |
| Utterly destroyed whiny, annoying West Seattle Blog in semis as a public service to ensure all-Mariner blog final | Yes | No |
| Accused of cheating by cheating West Seattle Blog fans | Yes | No |
| Provides, ad-free, content selected for Best American Sports Writing anthology | Yes | No |
| Pat Gillick once described using terms not suitable for family website | Yes | Not as far I know |
| Ghost-writes for Steve Kelley | No | Yes |
| Willy Bloomquist member of author group using pseudonym | No | Yes |
| Owned by Halliburton | No | Partly |
| Mentioned on woot.com | Yes | No |
And, because Jeff Sullivan said that USSM Readers are lazy nogoodniks, I provide for your voting convenience:
Unlike the West Seattle Blog writers, I promise not to come up with a list of excuses for why Lookout Landing should beat us (say, because they’re a massively well-funded part of a giant blog machine, while we’re just some dudes and a server in a room at digital.forest). I’d be happy to lose to them.
Red hot update: in attempting to rally the other members of their hive organism to their defense, admits that Lookout Landing was responsible for last season’s trades with the Indians and demands repayment of the favor. Good on them for taking credit, but I don’t see how this can help win the votes of Mariner fans.
In a Battle Royale of extreme proportions, Seattle Metroblogging Blarch Badness final, your SportsBlog Nation neighbor LookoutLanding is up against USSM, in a battle of best blog in Seattle.
Hey, we gave you Choo. And A-Cab. Yeah, do we still have Perez? Nope. How ’bout Broussard? Not for long.
Go out and give LookoutLanding your vote.
Even worse, they’re now claiming responsibility for Seahawk losses and demanding repayment of those favors! Oh, the carnage!
Shocking revelations today.
Even red-hotter update: Did you enjoy seeing the M’s lose to the A’s over and over? Lookout Landing claims responsibility for that, too!
Plunking punks, perpetual potential, prompt performance pivotal
I recommend Greg Bishop’s entry in the Times blog, which offers Washburn discussing hitting batters.
Also in the Times: Bishop on Meche and his potential.
“He’s full of talent,” Washburn says, “and everybody knows what kind of pitcher he can become. Everybody knows he has a golden arm and electric stuff.”
Can != will. I’ll stop there. The Times carries the same essential story in their Notebook and adds the unwelcome news that they took an MRI of Cesar Jimenez’s elbow yesterday, after he came out of Wednesday’s game with pain.
Ted Miller starts his column on the importance of a fast start:
PEORIA, Ariz. — If you stopped paying attention to the Mariners before the All-Star break last year, you probably did so after reaching two conclusions: 1) The Mariners are infuriating to watch because they can’t win close games; and, 2) Adrian Beltre and Richie Sexson are $23 million worth of a whole lot of nothing.
Wow. Then he quotes a lot of stats that are… selectively picked? For instance, your opinion of Beltre might depend a little on where you stopped watching. Beltre blistered the ball in June. But generally, sure.
But here’s what happens if the Mariners are, say, 20-30 after their first 50 games: 1) The core of the team, topped by Ichiro Suzuki, becomes trade bait; 2) An over-under gets set on how much longer manager Mike Hargrove and GM Bill Bavasi retain their jobs; 3) Speculation concerning Nos. 1 and 2 becomes a massive distraction within a clubhouse already lacking grounding leadership.
The core of the team becomes trade bait? Felix?
Also, Bavasi won’t get fired before year’s end. Won’t happen. GMs almost never leave or lose their jobs mid-season. Hargrove’s over/under’s already been set. So… anyway, Miller also manages to use OPS, talk about sabermetric projections for Beltre and Sexson, and then assert “When high-profile players struggle, the emotional strain affects the entire team.”
I, uh… I don’t know what to make of these columns.
Update: Jimenez decided for immediate surgery. Out a long time.