Game 119, Mariners at Angels
The Bus vs. Garland. 7:05
I’ve been in Denver on a sort of working vacation (and sometimes ssh’d into USSM at crazy hours) and I have one thing I’d like to say:
They let you bring beverages into Coors Field. Anyone at Safeco Field who tells you that it’s anything but a naked attempt to inconvenience you and drive up concession sales (or, at best, security theater) is lying. Go M’s!
While I was gone:
– Turbo was thrown overboard
– Morrow left to try and become the starter we see in him
– RRS came up to take a rotation spot
– WFB got injured, possibly out for the season though I haven’t checked the news in a day or so
– Silva went off
– Drayer got fired
The roster stuff is great — I was so happy to see the team making these kind of moves — but as much of a rational, level-headed guy I try to be, I wondered if maybe Dave wasn’t going to ask me if I could perhaps relocate to Colorado starting with the 2008 off-season.
But I’m back! Ready to settle in and enjoy watching the M’s again, instead of the Rockies.
Clement’s Position
For years, the question of whether Jeff Clement would stay behind the plate or move to 1B/DH has hung over his head. To his credit, he’s worked extremely hard to improve on his defensive issues, spending countless hours putting in as much work as he could. There’s no one who will ever accuse Clement of not putting in the effort to try and make himself a major league catcher.
It might be time to pull the plug, however. For all of his work, he’s still a really bad defender behind the plate. In 231 major league innings behind the plate, he’s allowed 4 passed balls, 15 wild pitches, and runners have been successful on 15 of 17 stolen base attempts. This is almost all due to the fact that he doesn’t have good footwork, so he struggles to get his body in front of balls in the dirt and he doesn’t get out of the crouch as fast as he needs to.
He’s spent years trying to improve, and he has to an extent, but at some point, you just have to say that he’s still got too far to go, and his time might be best served working on his offense. As a 1B/DH, he could take his work ethic to the batting cage or studying pitchers, rather than trying to make incremental improvements to become a passable major league defender behind the plate. Obviously, if Clement could catch, you’d want him to, because the bat would be far more valuable there. But, at some point, we’ll need to admit that “if” isn’t a realistic option, much like we don’t talk about moving Ibanez back behind the plate to increase the value of his bat.
Thanks to the depth at catcher in the organization, and the complete of lack of a major league ready first baseman, the blow to the M’s wouldn’t be as large as it might otherwise be.
Johjima is obviously here for the next few years, and even with his struggles this year, he’s not this bad. He’s probably a true talent .700 OPS guy, which makes him an okay part-time catcher, even if he’s now really overpaid for that role.
Rob Johnson, always a favorite of the organization for his work with pitchers and his attitude, is finally hitting the baseball down in Tacoma. He’s still got a long swing and he’s never going to be a good hitter, but his offense has improved to acceptable, which makes him a realistic option next year.
Then, there’s Adam Moore, a big kid with defensive question marks who can hit, even though he’s not in Clement’s company as an offensive prospect. He has more gap power than long ball power, and like every Mariner prospect, he swings at too many bad pitches, but there’s some potential there for him to be an offensive minded part-time catcher.
Future all-stars? No, but there’s several options that could be decent behind the plate.
Obviously, we’d all prefer that Clement be good enough defensively to stick behind the plate. But, at some point, we have to decide if that’s realistic. This will be a decision for the next GM, but right now, I have to say that I’m leaning towards moving him out from behind the plate. The M’s need his bat, and I’m not sure he needs the extra pressure of grinding against his naturally poor footwork slowing down his offensive development.
The Tragedy of Jose Vidro
What is a professional hitter without a job?
A chart of where Turbo batted up until his release
During this time, Jose Vidro hit .232/.259/.329, dragging his season line to .234/.274/.338 (fun fact: Betancourt was .222/.238/.289 and Johjima .188/.238/.265 over the same period).\
He ends his time here as the worst DH in the league, one of the worst hitters in all of baseball, and an instructional lesson on how player evaluations based on superficial examinations of batting average and RBI go wrong.
Rainiers Game Thread
With no Mariners game tonight, why not turn the dial and listen to the Rainiers? Lots of interesting stuff tonight in what could be the Rainiers last game ever in Tucson (the franchise moves to Reno next year). Brandon Morrow makes his second start, with a 50 pitch limit, and goes against fireballer Max Scherzer. Justin Upton will also be in the Sidewinders line-up as he continues his rehab stint.
As always, the games are carried live at TacomaRainiers.com or on 850 AM, with the always awesome Mike Curto bringing you the action.
Silva And Riggleman
In case you missed it, there was a decent amount of off the field stuff happening this weekend.
After losing again on Friday night, Carlos Silva went off on his teammates, claiming “maybe half of the team wants to do the best they can” and threatening to “grab somebody by his neck and throw him into the wall”. There’s about a 0% chance that “somebody” in that quote isn’t Yuniesky Betancourt, who air mailed a throw into the dugout that cost Silva a couple of runs. Silva went on to talk about how the starting pitchers all care and are trying the best they can, but that the rest of the team is letting Silva down.
Now, let’s put aside the fact that Carlos Silva is the biggest sinkhole on the roster right now – a $48 million mistake that will haunt this franchise for years. Ignore the fact that the team had played well in the games leading up to Silva’s rant, taking two out of three from first place Minnesota and beating the first place Rays the night before. Put all that to the side, and let’s focus on Carlos Silva’s supposed leadership skills, since you know, he calls himself Chief and all that.
Leaders motivate men to follow their example – Silva fails miserably at his job and blames others.
Leaders protect the inexperienced from attacks – Silva takes veiled shots at others through the media.
Leaders inspire and encourage others to action – Silva threatens physical violence.
Carlos Silva’s idea of leadership is to tell others about how poorly his teammates are doing. Even if he’s correct, his way of handling the situation is anti-leadership. It isn’t keeping the team accountable – it’s making himself more likable to the press and ensuring himself better coverage from those who write about the game and eat that stuff up.
Now, you can think I’m some blowhard who doesn’t know what a baseball clubhouse is like, but don’t take my word for any of this. Here’s Jim Riggleman’s response:
“When I hear someone say something about selfish play, I always just say, You know what, I challenge anybody to go in there and look at the tape of every game from March 31 to the present time and show me an example of somebody being selfish, and I’d stand corrected if you could point it out. But if you’re saying somebody’s selfish, I’ve got to hear some specifics.
“More importantly, he shouldn’t say it to the writers. He should say it to me, he should say it to teammates he’s directing it at. The one thing he was talking about, not using ground balls to move the runner, we’ve done a great job of that. But again, anytime you’re not successful at doing that, it’s the intent that you have to question. And I know the intention has always been to do that, but sometimes you don’t get the result. I know guys have always tried to do that, and sometimes you’re not successful doing it. You don’t intend to give up base hits and walks, but you give them up.
“It’s just the wrong way to send a message. You don’t do that in the paper; you do that internally.
“I admire him more for doing it when he’s 4-13, to tell you the truth. If you’re 13-4 and you’re saying stuff, it’s kind of like, ‘I’m going good so I can say anything I want.’ At least he’s speaking his mind when he’s struggling, so I admire him for that, but again, whether it’s when you’re struggling or when you’re going good, you just don’t do it publicly.
“The stuff that was said, to me (it) was so convoluted that I don’t know who he’s directing it at, I really don’t. If he had spoke to me, I would know who he was directing it at, because I would say, What are you talking about. But until you give a specific example…
“I’m gonna talk to him and a couple other guys. And he’s used the phrase, ‘the starting pitchers,’ like ‘we as the starting pitchers, we’re focused, but some other people aren’t or something.’ That’s ridiculous.
“One of the things that happens is there’s a lot of cliches in the game, and every team that I’ve ever seen that struggled, people will say they don’t do the fundamentals, they don’t bunt runners, they’re not hitting behind the runner to move runners over, they don’t do this, they don’t do that. You hear enough of that, and you look at the numbers, and you find out you’re right there where everybody else in baseball is in sacrifice bunts, advancing runners, and the fundamentals of the game.
“It’s almost like these blanket statements are made, and the perceptions are because you’re losing, you’re doing these things wrong. What it really comes to is we, like most teams, we take care of the little things. It’s big things. We’re not hitting good enough and we’re not pitching good enough. If somebody wants to hide behind, ‘Oh, we made a baserunner mistake or we didn’t move a runner over,’ … and use the word selfish, you can try to act like, ‘That’s the problem right there. That will make up those 30 games.’ But, you know, you’ve got to hit better and you’ve got to pitch better.
“When you’ve got something to say, don’t use the newspaper to say it.”
To paraphrase – Carlos, shut up and pitch better. Kudos to Riggleman for not letting Carlos Silva pass off his lame brand of leadership as something that actually helps a club win. This team has been far too willing to throw each other under the bus this year, and it’s about time a manager stepped up and told his entitled veteran that he doesn’t know what he’s talking about.
None of this is to say that there aren’t players on this team with work ethic issues (we’ve noted Betancourt’s huge regression and Lopez’s defensive lapses many times here on the blog, so these issues aren’t being ignored), but regardless of what anyone in the media might think, the crap Silva pulled on Friday night doesn’t help the Mariners. There are real ways for leaders to step in and see if they can help the underperformers on the roster to work harder – if Carlos Silva wants to try any of those forms of leadership, he can feel free.
Until then, let’s just ignore the massively overpaid and out of shape #5 starter with a big mouth and hope to God this organization learns that being loud is not the same thing as being a leader.
Drayer out at KOMO for no good reason
I’d really been hoping that at some point we’d see an announcement that Shannon Drayer and KIRO had worked out a new deal for next season. Drayer’s really been one of the best people covering the team, most willing to confront, say, Betancourt on his defensive lapses, and it would have been sad to see her leave for next year.
But this? To fire her because the station didn’t win the next contract, and so degrading their coverage for the rest of the year? What reason do we have to pay attention to KOMO’s Mariner work at all now?
Lame. Hey Shannon, USSM’s hiring — but they won’t give us press credentials so I’m not sure we’re a good fit. And the pay is terrible. But that’s okay, because the hours suck too. Let us know.
Game 118, Rays at Mariners
Garza vs Dickey, 1:10 pm.
Could the Delmon Young/Brendan Harris for Matt Garza/Jason Bartlett deal have worked out any better for Tampa so far? Bartlett’s not hitting, but his defense at shortstop has been a huge boon to the pitching staff, Garza’s solidified their rotation, and they’ve replaced Young with a Floyd/Hinske/Gross platoon that’s been an upgrade to boot.
Yup, Tampa knows what they’re doing.
Live from vacation, we’re up
I’m very tired. That is all.
Game 117, Rays at Mariners
Garza vs Rowland-Smith, 7:10 pm.
Welcome back, RR-S. As a flyball pitcher with command problems, we don’t expect you to be great – your upside is as a #5 starter who succeeds mostly because your skillset is perfect for Safeco Field. But, hey, you cost nothing, which makes you $10 million times better than Jarrod Washburn.
Game 116, Rays at Mariners
Shields vs Silva, 7:10 pm.
Hey, remember that whole “Carlos Silva moved his hands around and is getting more sink on his fastball now” thing from a month ago? Yea, he’s made 5 starts with the new grip, gone 26 innings, given up 35 hits, walked 4, struck out 14, and has a 6.23 ERA. His groundball rate over that span is 39.4% and he has a brutally awful 30.9% LD%.
So whether you want to judge him by his results (which is dumb, but hey, we’re not winning that fight with everyone) or by the process that creates the results, either way, he’s been getting absolutely crushed since he changed his hands to get “more sink”.
The lesson, as always – these in-season mechanical adjustments/post-hoc explanations of success are pointless and should be ignored. They are anti-knowledge.