Game 74, Mariners at Braves
Washburn v Jurrjens, 4pm our time.
This lineup — and I know that it’s sad to say this — made me really, really happy.
RF-L Ichiro!
2B-R Lopez
LF-L Ibanez
3B-R Beltre
CF-L Reed
1B-R Sexson
SS-R Betancourt
C-R Johjima
P-L Washburn
I mean, it’s… it’s so conventional, and generally well-structured!
Uhh, wow
From Larry LaRue – an interview with a pair of the coaches on the staff.
Coach A:
“You’ve got players in that clubhouse who should be team leaders – guys like Richie Sexson, Adrian Beltre, Erik Bedard, even Ichiro – who care only about themselves,†one coach said. “When your best players are hitting 50-60 points below their career averages and won’t take extra batting practice, what message does that send?
“You had kids at the park six hours before a game to work with (former hitting coach) Jeff Pentland one-on-one in the cage, and you had Beltre, who’d never do it. Pretty soon, the younger guys weren’t doing it, either.â€
“You had pitchers complaining about having to throw to (catcher) Kenji Johjima all spring, then saw him get a three-year contract extension in April,†the coach said. “You had guys watch Felix (Hernandez) work his (butt) off in camp and watched Bedard do the minimum – and Bedard was the opening-day starter.â€
Coach B:
“Arthur Rhodes started sitting on the bench when players were taking extra hitting, extra infield drills, and shouting, ‘Where’s Richie? Anyone seen Richie Sexson?’ because Sexson was never there,†he said.
“Then Bedard started setting his own pitch counts, and sitting in the clubhouse during games he didn’t start. Mac tried dealing with that – we all did. How do you make the highest-paid players on your team work harder if they decide they’re not going to?â€
Honestly, it’s not the substance of the quotes that get me that much – it’s that two people on the coaching staff were willing to say this stuff to a reporter on the record. Apparently they’re tired of being blamed for the failures of the team and are going to make sure the fans know that they’re not exactly happy with the group of guys they were given.
And remember, this was a coaching staff assembled for their experience and leadership – “the best coaching staff we’ve ever had” according to Chuck Armstrong in spring training. As you can see, their leadership is impeccable. Hooray experience…
Game 73, Mariners at Braves
The Interview against Jorge Campillo, junkballer and former Mariner discard!! 4:30pm our time!
Friday random jealousy
From Jerry Crasnick’s ESPN chat:
Jacob (Brooklyn): U.S.S. Mariner will revolt if they trade Ichiro. They can’t do that.
Jerry Crasnick: (12:23 PM ET ) Jacob, Heck, at this point, maybe the club should just hire the staff of the USS Mariner blog and let them make all the roster moves for a year. I’d be all for it.
Hee hee hee. Thanks, Jerry.
Jay wrote us to point out Ken Rosenthal says the Japanese players are resented. Wheeeeeeeee, good to see the clubhouse turning on the one fielder making the greatest overall contribution. Why can’t the team pick on overpaid, useless players like Vidro, or Silva, or Washburn, or… you get the point.
Larry Stone, covering for Baker on the Times blog, files a long report on McLaren’s farewell comments in which McLaren confirms clubhouse issues
“I think we have a good group of guys. I think there’s a little tension and friction in there, a little jealousy. That’s for those guys to work out on their own. We (the coaching staff) tried to, and we weren’t very successful. I think they have to do that on their own.
The jealousy bit present in both pieces is interesting. We’ll see how that plays out, but while I can understand players looking at, say, Johjima’s extension with incomprehension, Ichiro’s contract is the least of the team’s problems. This reminds me of Texas blaming Alex’s contract while Chan Park and the rest of their free agent mistakes escaped notice.
What’s tonight’s lineup going to look like? I can’t remember the last time I was this curious about who would play where and bat in what order.
Dave on KJR
I’m on with Groz at 4:05 pm on KJR. Lots to talk about, and I’m sure we’ll cover all the big changes of the last week.
The Full Nelson Plan
Now that the Mariners have officially admitted that this season is toast and are looking towards putting a competitive team on the field for the rest of the season while realizing that the playoffs aren’t a reality they can aspire to, I have a pair of suggestions for interim GM Lee Pelekoudas.
The main silver lining in the cloud of a season gone wrong is that you get months to evaluate players at the big league level that you wouldn’t ordinarily be able to give full time jobs to. You basically get to use the rest of the year like an extended tryout, and you can take some flyers on guys that may turn out to be useful pieces down the line while other teams focus on squeezing every last win out of their rosters. Now, because the M’s did a pretty terrible job of stocking the Tacoma team with useful minor league veterans, the M’s don’t really have anyone down in Triple-A that they can look at in this way, but that doesn’t mean that they don’t still have that opportunity.
So, here are a couple of players that you could acquire without giving up the farm, and you could see whether they were pieces that might fit into your plans for 2009.
Nelson Cruz, OF, Texas
If there’s one thing the Texas Rangers don’t need, it’s an outfielder. With Josh Hamilton, David Murphy, Marlon Byrd, Brandon Boggs, and Frank Catalanatto, they have a crowded group already. They’ve passed over Cruz each time they needed to call up a hitter from Triple-A, and he’s pretty clearly out of their plans. However, he really deserves another look in the big leagues, and he’s doing all he can to make sure that teams take notice while he’s down in the PCL.
He’s currently hitting .356/.459/.712 and owning the title of best hitter in the Pacific Coast League. He’s gotten more selective (16.1% BB%) while maintaining his contact and power, and right now, he’s basically a more polished version of Wladimir Balentien’s skillset. Cruz is, right now, what we want Balentien to become. He turns 28 in a few weeks, so he’s not going to get any better and will likely only have a couple of years to offer a major league club that gives him a real shot, but the M’s shouldn’t walk away from the chance to pick a legitimate power hitting outfielder for nothing and pay him the league minimum for several years.
The A’s and Brewers have hit gold by pulling AAAA sluggers Jack Cust and Russ Branyan out of the minors, and the Mariners have the chance to do the same thing here with Cruz. This is a team that could use outfield depth and real power, and Cruz offers both.
Brad Nelson, 1B, Milwaukee
If there’s a worse organization on earth to be a minor league first baseman in than the Brewers, I’m not sure what it would be. With Prince Fielder entrenched at the major league level, Matt LaPorta coming up behind him, and no DH in the National League, Nelson doesn’t have any real future in Milwaukee. And, at age 25, he has to establish himself as a major league player pretty soon before he gets tagged with the dreaded AAAA player label.
A former top prospect, Nelson has struggled with injuries and inconsistency before re-establishing himself this year as a potential big league hitter. He’s dramatically cut his strikeout rate from 22.1% last year to 14.3% this year, and he’s now drawn more bases on balls than he’s accumulated whiffs. His .312/.423/.514 line shows a player with some real ability, though next to no star potential. As a left-handed hitter with knowledge of the strike zone and some pull power, he’s the kind of first baseman that they should be looking at for the rest of 2008. If he can put together a .270/.350/.450 mark, he’d make himself an option at first base for 2009 and give the team another lefty power bat in the organization.
To acquire Nelson Squared, the team wouldn’t have to part with more than a couple of mid-level prospects, and they have the playing time available to give both looks as everyday players the rest of the season. Cruz and Nelson could easily replace Sexson and Vidro on the roster, with Ibanez shifting to DH, and make the team both better and more interesting for the rest of the year.
You’ve got a chance to take some steps forward, Lee. Bring us a pair of Nelsons and give us a reason to watch this team on a daily basis.
Site work
Update — Caching’s been cranked back up and seems to be functioning okay.
I suspect something just snapped under this morning’s load, and I’m never going to figure it out: there’s nothing in the logs… anyway, as a proportion of people served those who got the 403/redirect was tiny. Anyway.
Riggleman as a manager
There’s not a whole lot out there on Riggleman. He managed the Padres from 1992-1994, taking over for Greg Riddoch for the last few weeks of the 92 season, and never got to 1995. His team stunk.
Then in 1995-99, he was with the Cubs, where he’s generally known as being a pretty straight by-the-book manager. He’s seen this kind of collapse, too — the 98 team won 90, and the 99 team lost 95. And then he got fired. He’s 55, he’s been in different coaching positions for ages. There’s not a lot more than that.
It’ll be interesting — from everything we know, if he’s a pretty standard-issue manager, it’ll be a huge improvement in terms of consistent lineups, bullpen usage, and so on, but that would also require him to sort through this pretty horrible 25-man roster quickly, realize Raul needs to be platooned, all while ill-equipped to swap out players: there just aren’t ready replacements hanging around AAA right now for some of the team’s problems.
It’ll be interesting. I’ll certainly be willing to give him the benefit of the doubt — I’ve been thinking about how we as fans follow managers, and that’s a whole other story, but this seeing what he can do with the team is certainly going to be something worth watching for in this lost season.
Baker totally cracks me up
Seriously, this is why I’m a fan. From his post on Sexson and Vidro being on the team flight:
Lee Elia, rapidly climbing the professional ladder once again, is going to be Jim Riggelman’s new bench coach. Jose Castro is the new hitting coach, but Elia will remain above him and supervise the hitting program he’s spent the past 10 days implementing.
That’s some quality nested humor there, especially in the larger context of the team.
No Antonetti?
So here’s the first word, from the blog of an Indians MLB.com writer:
“I hope I’ve been very clear how happy I am in Cleveland,” Antonetti said. “I’m looking forward to continuing to build a winning team here. Hopefully I’ve been clear with that. That’s not with respect to Seattle. That’s my situation here. I’m very happy.”
In the blog entry, it’s sold as him not being interested, but that quote isn’t quite that strong. Of course, I might just be reading it that way because I want there to be room there.
But the Anthony’s written probably 90% of the articles up on the Indians MLB site right now, so I’m inclined to trust his judgement in interpreting what Antonetti was trying to say. Unless heeeee’s biased because he doesn’t want Antonetti to leave… yeah, yeah, that’s the ticket.