Game 18, Mariners at White Sox
Fister vs Garcia, 1:10 pm.
Garcia isn’t anything like the guy he used to be in Seattle. He’s now a command guy who throws a ton of junk, but he’s struggled with his command in his first two starts and the results have been predictably terrible. Fister tries to keep the run going, and he’ll have to keep the ball down if he wants to succeed. A righty heavy White Sox line-up should play into his favor, though.
Game Seventeen Recap
Boo, 9-8.
Only caught parts of the game, so once again, shorter thoughts.
The ball flies in Chicago, if you weren’t aware. It’s a little different than hitting at Safeco. Not a great spot to pitch for a flyball lefty, that’s for sure.
Eight righties in the line-up for the White Sox tonight. In his last two starts, Hyphen has faced one left-handed hitter. He’ll pitch better once he stops getting matched up with these teams whose best hitters all swing from the right side.
When Milton Bradley isn’t in the line-up, this offense is pretty bad. Get healthy, Milton, but just healthy enough to hit, not to play the field.
X-Rays on Jack Wilson’s finger were negative, but they’re still putting it in a splint, which is never good. Don’t expect to see him for a few days. If the M’s aren’t going to put him on the DL, they absolutely have to dump Colome and bring up another infielder. They can’t play the rest of this road trip with Tui as the starting shortstop and no reserve infielder. The inflexibility of the bench is a really big problem.
Sean White, not a good pitcher, again being asked to protect a one read lead. Learn, Wak.
Mark Lowe threw some really crappy pitches to Andruw Jones.
Game 17, Mariners at White Sox
Rowland-Smith vs Floyd, 5:10 pm.
Still no Milton Bradley. If only there was some way to get another outfielder on the roster…
Ichiro, RF
Figgins, 2B
Gutierrez, CF
Lopez, 2B
Griffey, DH
Kotchman, 1B (yep, hitting behind Griffey)
Byrnes, LF
Moore, C
Wilson, SS
Kotchman and Fly Balls
Before the season, we talked about how Casey Kotchman was going to have to stop beating the ball into the ground with regularity if he wanted to tap into his power. He had shown that he could drive the ball when he got under it, but with a career GB% over 52 percent, he just didn’t hit the ball in the air often enough to give his power a chance to show itself. The coaching staff talked about tweaking his approach a bit, getting him to tap into the power he has and taking advantage of Safeco’s friendly right field porch.
So far, so good. It’s still early, but Kotchman’s GB% is just 39.1% for the year, making him a slight fly ball hitter in his first 57 trips to the plate. Not coincidentally, he’s slugging .540 and giving the M’s a much needed power boost.
It’s too soon to call this experiment a success, as he could easily revert back to his career tendencies as the season wears on, but it’s a nice early sign that perhaps the coaching staff was able to make some necessary changes to how Kotchman swings the bat. Don’t bet on him slugging .540 over the next five and a half months, but with his defense and contact ability, anything over .450 will make him a good player, and anything over .500 makes him a star.
Revisiting The Six Man Bullpen
The M’s left spring training with just six relievers, believing that their defense could help keep pitchers in the game long enough to make it work. It didn’t, and a few short outings by Ian Snell and Ryan Rowland-Smith led to the end of the experiment after just three games, when Jesus Colome was called up to serve as an additional long reliever. He pitched 3 innings on April 8th, saving the bullpen before they went to Texas, and at that point, it seemed like the team would need to stick with a seven man bullpen to make up for some questions in the rotation.
Since that day, the M’s have played 12 games. Jesus Colome has pitched in two of them, throwing a grand total of three innings. Nearly the entire rotation has pitched well, and the bullpen has actually been underworked. In fact, since April 9th, here are the games pitched by each of the members of the Mariner bullpen:
Jesus Colome: 2
Kanekoa Texeira: 2
Shawn Kelley: 4
Sean White: 4
Mark Lowe: 4
Brandon League: 4
David Aardsma: 5
During this stretch, Aardsma, League, and Kelley have each pitched on back to back days one time each, while the other four have not had to pull duty in consecutive games. This covers 12 games with just one off day in that stretch. The Mariners have barely needed six relievers for the last two weeks, and they certainly didn’t need seven.
Now, of course, it was impossible to know any of this ahead of time. At the time they made the decision, they couldn’t have foreseen how well Fister and Vargas were going to pitch, so I don’t blame them for making the move when they did. However, given what we now know, and what is coming up, it’s time to consider going back to the six man bullpen.
The Mariners are off today, then play six straight games against the White Sox (who can’t hit) and the Royals (who have forgotten that they can’t hit, but will remember soon). This is followed by another off-day, and then the team comes home for a three game set against Texas. In the first game of that series, Cliff Lee returns from the DL, bolstering the pitching staff even more. And the team follows that series with yet another off-day.
Nine games in twelve days, with Lee’s return included in that stretch, and the first six games coming against relatively easy opponents. If ever the Mariners could go with a six man bullpen, these next two weeks are it. But it’s not just a good idea because they’re not likely to need Jesus Colome, but because they could really, really use that roster spot.
Milton Bradley is dinged up, which is no big surprise. When he’s not in the line-up or has to leave early, the M’s have to choose between Eric Byrnes or Matt Tuiasosopo to play left field, with the other acting as the only real reserve for the rest of the roster. As we saw the last few days, that creates some problems, especially when a right-handed pitcher is on the hill. The Mariners can’t afford to be punting offense from left field, not when they’re already punting it from DH, catcher, and shortstop (the last few days notwithstanding).
The Mariners are walking a pretty tight rope with the position players. What do you do if Gutierrez’s groin acts up again on the road trip? Stick Byrnes in center and hope like crazy that Bradley can play an entire game, I guess, and if Rowland-Smith or Vargas are pitching, apologize for the outfield defense you’ve given them. It’s not just worst case scenarios, either. If Bradley needs another day off, you can’t pinch hit or pinch run for anyone on the roster, no matter the situation, because whichever of Tui/Byrnes isn’t already in the line-up is the backup for everyone else. If Junior or Kotchman are on third base with one out in the ninth inning of a close game, Wak is then left with the decision of whether to use his only backup to try and increase the odds of scoring that run.
From a tactical standpoint, this bench is short a couple of players. Since they’re committed to the Hugging DH Tandem for now, they can’t entirely fix it, but they can at least make the situation better.
DFA Colome, bring Langerhans back up, and give the six man bullpen another try. See if they can get through KC and Chicago with off-days on either side of the six game stretch. If it’s a disaster again, you can easily go back to the seven man bullpen in a week when Lee comes off the DL. But at least you’d have given it a real shot, with a rested bullpen and a somewhat solidified rotation, and used the roster spot on an area of the team that could actually use some help.
Jesus Colome isn’t going to help the Mariners win anything in the next week. He might not even pitch again before he’s DFA’d when Lee returns. Langerhans, though, could serve an actual purpose, give the team an outfielder who can play against RHPs, a left-handed bat off the bench for late game situations, and another pinch runner for situations where its needed. And if the M’s continue to pitch like they have, the six man bullpen can work, especially once Lee returns to the rotation.
The M’s felt like it was worth a try three weeks ago. Now, they’re actually in a position to make it work. I know they’re not going to go back to the six man bullpen, but they should.
Game Sixteen Recap
Yay, 9-7.
All hail King Felix.
Is there anything else to say?
Okay, I guess there’s one thing. Jack Wilson has four doubles in three days. I got on him the first few weeks when his swing at everything approached produced nothing but outs, so I’ll tip my hat to him for his offensive explosion the last few days.
Game 16, Orioles at Mariners
Millwood vs Hernandez, 7:10 pm.
Happy Felix Day.
It’s a good thing Felix is talented and the Orioles offense is not, because the M’s, they’re not going to score a whole lot of runs tonight. Here’s the line-up, and remember, Millwood is a right-hander.
Ichiro, RF
Figgins, 2B
Gutierrez, CF
Lopez, 2B
Kotchman, 1B
Mascot, DH
Tuiasosopo, LF
Johnson, C
Wilson, SS
That’s six right-handed bats, four of whom could be charitably described as “not very good”. Sweeney plays because, well, he can’t be on the roster and never get in the line-up, right? So now we’re just inserting him into games to make him feel useful, even if he isn’t. Tui plays left because Bradley’s getting the day off to heal the tweaked calf.
There’s a pretty good chance that this is the worst line-up the M’s run out all year. They’ll be lucky to score three runs off Millwood, and given that he has a career 1.99 BB/9 against righties, I wouldn’t expect them to get him out of the game very quickly. To win, they’ll need Felix to be dominant and hope Ichiro and Figgins can scratch out a couple of runs. The Vegas over/under on this game is seven – take the under.
In Case You Were Wondering…
The fine people of Baltimore may not appreciate it now, but the Mariners are currently helping the Orioles move into a frontrunner position for baseball’s great consolation prize: the number one pick in the 2011 MLB draft.*
Many who read the site will have heard his name by now, but for those who haven’t the light at the end of the tunnel for this year’s most pathetic squad comes in the form of Rice University 3B Anthony Rendon. Rendon is a slick fielding power-hitting third baseman in the Evan Longoria-Ryan Zimmerman mold. Only thing is, he’s light years ahead of where Longoria and Zimmerman were at the same age, with far more patience and power than either player showed at the collegiate level.
After winning the national freshman of the year award last year, Rendon is in the middle of a .369/.541/.723 sophomore campaign with 48 walks and only 15 strikeouts in 130 at-bats. He skipped the summer leagues last year, so scouts have not seen him face advanced competition with wood bats yet, but that is the only scouting blip on record, and it really isn’t a big one.
A lot can happen in a year, and there are a couple of college arms who could take next year’s top spot from Rendon if he slips a bit, but right now he is looking like next year’s runaway best player available.
At 2-13, Baltimore has taken an early 3-game lead in the Anthony Rendon Sweepstakes. If you know any O’s fans, pass the news along. As we all remember from the great Strasburg sweepstakes of 2008, these vague glimmers of hope for the future can really help fans get through some tough times.
*Note: unfortunately for the O’s, it is tough for me to see them as a real contender in the consolation bracket. There’s too much young talent there, and you have to think it will carry them out of the cellar at some point.
Go To The Park
Put me in the ranks of those who don’t understand why Safeco has been empty the last two nights. Two of the three lowest attended games of all time? I get that the economy isn’t great, but this is a fun team to watch.
I’m not going to turn into an advertisement agency for the team, but seriously, go to the game tonight. It’s Felix Day, for one, and that should be enough right there. The M’s are also offering discounted field level seats, so you can pay $24 for a prime view tonight.
There’s no reason for there to be 15,000 people at Safeco Field. The Mariners have put a quality product on the field, and are an organization worth cheering for. Put on a sweater and go to a game.
Game Fifteen Recap
Yay, 8-7.
Again, comments a bit brief, since I didn’t get to see the game.
Vargas with another good performance, and at this point, I can’t see how the M’s can justify taking him out of the rotation. Five more strikeouts give him 16 in 18 1/3 innings on the season, as he’s using his change-up to generate swinging strikes. His ERA might be higher than Fister’s, but he’s showing more reasons to believe he can sustain quality performances going forward. We know what strike throwing flyball lefties can do in this park and in front of the Mariners defense, and the M’s have another opportunity to take advantage of that formula.
Oh, and I think you can officially forget about Jarrrod Washburn. If nothing else, you have to love Vargas for that.
In less happy news, Milton Bradley exits with a tight calf after the first inning. I said this in my interview with the guys at KGA the other night, but the M’s simply can’t expect Bradley to carry the burden they’ve asked him to handle in the first few weeks of the season. He’s not an everyday player, especially not when he has to also play the outfield. He needs to DH frequently and get regular days off, but unfortunately, the M’s roster isn’t really setup to handle right-handed pitchers without him. This is going to have to change, and the sooner, the better.
Chone Figgins saw 28 pitchers in four trips to the plate, but also made another out on the bases. I didn’t see it, so I’ll withhold too much judgment, but I’d still like to go at least one game without giving the other team an out.
Jose Lopez is hitting .246/.266/.262. He’s just not a clean-up hitter, not even on this team. Move him down, Wak.
Can you imagine being Dave Trembley right now? His team is 2-13, faces Felix Hernandez tomorrow, and then has 12 consecutive games against the Red Sox and Yankees before a four game series against the Twins. There’s a chance (okay, it’s pretty remote, but still) that Baltimore could be 2-30 on May 10. Pretty sure he won’t still be managing by then, though. Good luck to whoever takes over for him, because this could get real ugly in Baltimore.