Return of return of Doyle
Many people noted yesterday that the Phillies DFA’d Chris Snelling’s when they brought Jayson Werth off the DL. Which is Greg-Norton-style ungrateful, given that he’d been hitting like crazy. In, uh, his 4 at-bats.
Snelling’s 27 now, his career delayed and savaged by injuries, and in the last year he’s been signed, traded, traded, optioned, claimed, released and probably folded, spindled, and mutilated flying from team to team. Not surprisingly, I have a couple of arguments for why the M’s should put in their bid.
1. He’s Snelling. He’s awesome.
2. Everyone in baseball (nearly) agrees that Snelling can hit but can’t stay healthy. This was the argument for acquiring Vidro not that long ago, and that held up okay. This requires the M’s to either DH him and spot-start him in the outfield, or use him in a bench role. Either way, it helps: the M’s need offense any way they can get it, and Wlad’s not helping, and they need defense in an even worse way, and Snelling is, at least, an upgrade over Raul in left. And he’s free and if he works out, you try and find a spot for him next year somehow.
And 3 is all about chemistry.
If you think part of the M’s problem is that they don’t have a winning attitude, or their clubhouse is fractured, or whatever your theory might be, Snelling helps. You can go back through his minor league career and see what people said about him, but it’s crazy — he’s been a huge clubhouse leader. If you want a full-effort player who’s all about the competition and can’t wait for his next at-bat, who starts brawls heckling from the dugout, here you go. His managers love him, even if sometimes they’re annoyed by him.
So maybe he’ll help the team cohesion. And if he doesn’t, what do they lose?
Wait, 4: The M’s could really use someone who does awesome interviews.
Game 63, Mariners at Red Sox
The Interview vs Masterson. 10:35.
9:35 for a game post? Bleagh.
Sunday lineup:
CF-L Ichiro!
DH-R Lopez (wait, what–)
LF-L Ibanez
3B-R Beltre
RF-L Reed
1B-R Sexson
SS-R Betancourt
C-R Burke
2B-R Bloomquist
I’m not quite sure what the logic is there. Or if there’s logic. But okay, not a huge deal, getting Lopez a day off. But now the team’s batting Reed at #5 ahead of Sexson and Betancourt? Does that mean Reed’s Tacoma stats mean something? If so, shouldn’t Clement be playing? And… I give up.
Checking in on that young whippersnapper Vidro
In today’s comments TomC reminded me that we haven’t run this feature in a while, so:
Jeff Clement was sent down after hitting .167/.286/.250 in 55 plate appearances, so that he could play every day, the team could get better production out of the DH slot from the reliable veteran Vidro, and so on.
Since May 16th through today, Vidro’s in 71 plate appearances, he’s hit 12 singles, 3 doubles, and one home run… and he’s walked four times. Which, I believe, means he’s hitting ~.258/.294/.354 (I didn’t take out SF/SH there, so that’s a little off) and still providing significantly more production out of the guy he replaced in the lineup. Good job, Vidro!
Sure, Clement’s been having a monster time in Tacoma since being sent down, even though he fouled a ball off his ankle and was out a couple of weeks, which pretty much established that there’s nothing left for him to learn offensively in AAA. But he couldn’t hit in 15 games in the major leagues, so, uhhhh… I’m having trouble maintaining the tone here, so I’ll just stop. But yeah, our DH is terrible.
M’s Second Rounder Walked Six Times
Dennis Raben, the outfielder the M’s selected from the University of Miami in the second round on Thursday is playing for the Hurricanes against Arizona in a Super Regional qualifier for the College World Series. It is the 9th inning as I type this, and Raben was just intentionally walked – his sixth base on balls of the game.
Yuniesky Betancourt has four walks all season. Jose Lopez has six. Kenji Johjima has seven. Raben got six walks in one game.
Game 62, M’s at Boston
It’s not Felix Day, it’s at 12:55 our time, bleah. Batista v Wakefield. Wakefield throws a knuckleball, Batista’s written books.
Further proof of Bavasi’s power
GM call-out = winning (for short periods of time) though interestingly, this time he was able to incite both the offense while still managing run suppression. Good work, Bill! No towels for anyone!
Game 61, Mariners at Red Sox
Felix, the Guy Who Gets Held Back, against Bartolo Colon and a scrappy team of bare-knuckled brawlers who get beat up by the even scruffier likes of Jonny Gomes. Hey, yeah, a brawl! It’s what winning teams are doing! Brawl! Brawl! Brawl! That’s exactly what this team needs to fire itself up.
Wooo! Yeah! Get ’em! (this was on Awful Announcing)
Because we sure do need something to get this team together, right? Especially since they didn’t get a new manager for this road trip. I want some entertainment for my entertainment dollar! I want some fireworks! Explosions! Giant flames! Escapes in the nick of time!
If you’re like me, skip ahead to ~1:20 here
You’re welcome. But let’s say you don’t have the budget of the world’s largest military. What could you do with, say, 8% of the cost of a stealth bomber?
$117,666,482 sure does smoke nicely, doesn’t it? And it comes with its own kind of fireworks! But I know many of you have had a hard time trying to keep up with the recriminations, tantrums, and public finger-pointing the team’s been favored with over the last week. I’ve created this handy chart to help:
If you can’t pick out the pattern, check out the full-size 2008 Seattle Mariners Blame Allocation Org Chart.
Felix Day! One of the few remaining things we can cling to that are truly great about the team! Yayyyy!
Site upgrade
Quick note — we here at USSM Labs did some work on the back end over last night (well, now that I look at my notes, over the last month) that went out earlier this morning to hopefully improve performance. Quicktags remain broken (for reasons I can’t figure out) but everything else looks good. Drop us a line if you see anything weird. Weirder than normal (which includes the team owner braining Richie Sexson with a folding chair) Read more
Draft Day One Recap
We’ve made our opinion on drafting a college reliever in the first round known, so let’s move on to the rest of the picks the M’s made today. Here’s a quick recap of the players taken and a preliminary opinion on what their futures may hold.
First Round: Josh Fields, RHP, Georgia
Fields has good velocity and a big hook of a curveball despite being undersized, and when talking to people about him tonight, the name Troy Percival came up several times. Of course, the name Blaine Boyer came up just as often as a reminder that a 95 MPH fastball and a 12-6 curve doesn’t make you a guaranteed all-star. In reality, his command problems shouldn’t be that big of a deal, because 9th inning walks aren’t a serious problem if no one is hitting you. His ceiling isn’t that high, but he should be in Seattle in 2009, so that’s something.
Best Case Scenario: Troy Percival
More Likely Outcome: Taylor Buchholz
Second Round: Dennis Raben, OF, Miami
I’ll just quote Scout Friend on this one: “Fifteen years ago, Ben Grieve was the #2 pick in the draft with this exact same package. Grieve had a shorter stroke and more bat speed, but Raben’s pretty much a Grieve clone. That kid got a lot of crap for not living up to the hype, but he had a pretty decent career, and where you guys took him, that’s a good value.”
Best Case Scenario: Pat Burrell
More Likely Outcome: Ben Grieve
Third Round: Aaron Pribanic, RHP, Nebraska
Let’s get the negative stuff out of the way quickly; he’s a tall and fall guy who doesn’t get the most out of his leg strength and doesn’t repeat his delivery very well. That said, he’s got the classic pitchers frame, good arm strength, sits in the 91-94 range with his fastball, has a useful slider and change, and he doesn’t have much wear and tear on his arm. He’s not your typical college pitcher – there’s untapped talent here. He’s got some similarities to Tony Butler, and if the coaching staff can clean him up a bit and improve his secondary stuff, I think he could be a solid major league arm.
Best Case Scenario: Kyle Lohse
More Likely Outcome: Phil Dumatrait
Fourth Round: Steven Hensley, RHP, Elon
Not as big a fan of this one, unfortunately. Hensley is a short-armer whose velocity is more 87-91 and telegraphs his breaking ball with a wildly different arm action. He might as well just yell curveball during the wind-up. He’s going to take a good amount of work to make it.
Best Case Scenario: Francisco Cruceta
More Likely Outcome: Rich Dorman
Fifth Round: Brett Lorin, RHP, Long Beach St
This is a Bob Fontaine special right here. A couple of years ago, he snagged Kam Mickolio in the 18th round as a guy that few teams had seen much of, but the M’s saw sitting at 95 late in the year when most teams had taken him off their follow lists. Lorin fits the Mickolio mold, though obviously, the M’s felt the need to take him off the board earlier. At 6’7 and 245, he’s a huge kid, and his size has always intrigued scouts, but he’d been a career disappointment. He went to Arizona, struggled, transferred to Long Beach St and couldn’t find a home there either, even after working with pitching guru Troy Buckley. Barely used and almost never effective, Lorin was basically an afterthought for most teams. But he pitched the best baseball of his life the last two weeks with M’s scouts in attendance, and they believe that with a few tweaks, they can get his velocity up to 94. If they’re right, this could be a steal.
Best Case Scenario: J.J. Putz
More Likely Outcome: Dennis Sarfate
Sixth Round: Jarrett Burgess, RF, Florida Christian HS
The first non-collegian taken by the M’s, he attended the same high school as Denny Almonte, last year’s second round pick. Burgess doesn’t have Almonte’s raw physical skills, but he’s a better hitter. Of course, considering that Scout Friend asked me last week if Almonte was “the worst draft pick ever”, that’s not saying much. Generally, when you take a high school position player this late, you’re gambling that you can sign him, because you’re not going to be offering him that much money. It’s possible that Burgess ends up in college instead of joining the M’s.
Best Case Scenario: Someone Good
More Likely Outcome: We Never Talk About Him Again
M’s Select Fields
No surprise – the M’s selected the best college reliever on the board, in this case, Georgia RHP Josh Fields. He’s a short power arm who can throw 97 and misses bats, so as far as college relievers go, he’s a very good one. He should be able to get to the major leagues very quickly, and it wouldn’t be surprising to see him pitching in the 8th inning in Seattle next summer. For what he is, he’s good.
Our problem, of course, is what he is. As I detailed below, taking a college reliever in the first round is just a waste of a valuable resource. You can build a bullpen without using first round picks on them, and the Mariners have been very good at finding quality relievers on the cheap. This just isn’t a very good way to restock a farm system that’s taken some hits in the M’s efforts to win now.
This organization needs long term help, and Fields is not what this organization needed.