Jack Wilson to DL, Tui back up
marc w · May 12, 2010 at 11:04 am · Filed Under Mariners
Jack Wilson’s been placed on the disabled list retroactive to May 6th, and Matt Tuiasosopo’s been recalled from Tacoma.
More details later; this comes from Mike Curto on 850am (the Rainiers played an early day game today).
Comments
34 Responses to “Jack Wilson to DL, Tui back up”
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.
Well hey, Josh better so far offensively AND made Krucky’s top gem yesterday. May not keep up but Josh holding down the fort rather nicely eh?
Let’s just rename the team the Seattle Raniers while we’re at it.
Yes, Josh’s done quite nicely, and now the M’s actually get some flexibility on the bench which is so critical when you’re carrying ohmygodimsickoftalkingaboutthem at DH.
Some people have questioned why it wasn’t Hannahan that was recalled, especially after Hannahan played a game at SS the other day. Well, Hannahan’s struggling at the plate and it’s still not clear what he brings at SS. I think you’ve got to give Tui the edge with the bat right now, which makes up for Hannahan’s advantage at 3B/2B defensively. We don’t know much about the gap at SS, but I think it’s fair to assume Hannahan would have an edge there too.
With Bradley on the RL, and Kotchman day to day, Langerhans is playing 1st, so you don’t have any backup infielders or outfielders on the bench. Tui gives you one of each. I think that is what makes Tui the better choice.
How long do you go with Langerhans at 1st? With their offensive woes and the way Langerhans is playing I would like to see it continue for a while. Ride the Rainiers while they are hot.
If you have a reserve infielder who can cover 1st base on the team, Langerhans is your reserve outfielder even while playing 1st.
Another factor that may have spoken against Hannahan is that he hits left and the team already has quite a few lefthanders. Tui as a righthanded hitter might be a better fit against lefthanded starting pitchers.
“ohmygodimsickoftalkingaboutthem”
Priceles Marc, Priceless!
These moves make me nervous. If Tui is up here to ride the pine, it is doing him a disservice. Intermittent playing time is a nice way to ruin a decent prospect.
Now if he were given regular playing time at 3rd…
Granted, as bad as Lopez has been with the bat, he’s crushed Beltre in UZR.
So we’re back to having no backup shortstop. At least this time, the guy in the lineup is a) not made of glass and b) hitting (for however long that lasts) . . .
Tui came up the minors system as a shortstop. Hannahan has not. Hannahan moves slow when compared to Tui. Tui is 23 and oversized for the position, but has youth and agility on his side. Hannahan is the superior corner infielder and a better fit in Safeco. But Tui is on the 40-man roster, Hannahan is not. Jack H. Is struggling in AAA while Tui is hitting and walking a lot. The front office has already exercised Tui’s option so why not bring him up? It makes sense to me. But i’m biased, I like Tui more than Hannahan.
Hannahan is on the 40 man. Hannahan is faster than Tui. Tui was moved off shortstop because he was historically horrible there. Options don’t get “exercised” multiple times during a season.
That’s a lot of factual errors to fit into one paragraph.
I think you two agree about options.
Tui being a RH bat probably was a factor, both on the bench and platooning in the field. If Wak wants to sit Kotchman and play a RH bat at 1B, he doesn’t have a lot of options beyond moving Lopez over there (which doesn’t actually get another RH bat in the lineup if you just sub in Langerhans at 3B).
Shoulda finished my coffee…..irregardless I would like to see what Tui can do.
yes I understand options don’t get used multiple times. I thought it was implied sufficiently that Tui is safe to bounce back and forth, without using another option.
So is Hannahan. There’s no difference.
So if there is no difference, did the FO bring Tui soley because his AAA numbers are better than Hannahan? Because they seemed to prefer Hannahan last year. Or is it another temporary stint in the majors for Tui?
SSS warning, but…–Tui struck out 10 times in 22 ABs and didn’t walk even once. Add that to a UZR that’s a negative integer and I think he is more qualified to be the bat boy than the bench option at this point. Hannahan may not be any better, but that’s not saying much. It’s painful for me to see either of them in the lineup.
Tui also walked 12 times in 28 ABs in Tacoma… why limit yourself to the SSS?
(side note, why doesn’t Fangraphs have minor league #s for 2010??)
I think I can safely say that Dave is not a Tui fan, but I think Tui has more offensive upside than Hannahan. I’m a little bit optimistic, maybe overly so.
Although if Wak doesn’t use him, it won’t matter who was called up.
Wak loves Tui, because he believes that spring training performances matter, and Tui has hit well in March each of the last two years. It’s the same reason that he think Sweeney can still play, that Colome is useful, that Jakubauskas made the team last year… Wak leans way too heavily on spring training performances when evaluating players, and Tui is the king of spring training.
Can someone please explain ‘options’ a little more to me? I hear it in reference often- “Player X has no options left so he might be picked up by another team.” Or “Player X has options so we sent him down.” I am assuming each contract is different for how many options can be exercised? Are the options for the life of the contract or the numbers of years of service? Where do you look up that information? Thanks, I’d appreciate feeling less ignorant about it.
Tui playing 3B today, Lopez DHing, Kotchman back at 1B, Langerhans in CF, Guti get’s the day off. Saunders in LF.
Wak leans way too heavily on spring training performances when evaluating players
This sounds like a more detailed post waiting to happen…
It’s in the queue for next week.
Isn’t this Guti’s first day off this year? He’s deserved a day off.
But Lopez-Tui at 4-5? WTF?
So if Ichiro and Figgins get on base, pray that Kotchman can get them in?
For options, the classic one-page reference is Rob Neyer’s Transactions Primer, but I’m sure there’s newer ones out there.
I think Tui’s fielding improved a lot from 2008 to 2009. However, I don’t have advanced fielding stats for the minor leagues. So all this is based on is a huge drop in errors. So it could be completely wrong.
And since I don’t think March numbers are meaningful, I’m thinking best case is Tui ends up with a slightly positive WAR as an infielder. Which could earn him some playing time on a team like the M’s.
Wandering,
Essentially, options are a feature of the MLB collective bargaining agreement, so they don’t vary by contract.
Traditionally, a player has 3 ‘option’ years once they’re added to the 40-man roster. An option’s used when you ‘option’ or send the player from the MLB roster to the MiLB roster – though since it’s for the year, you can bring them up and down without penalty (as is the case with Tui today).
(Some players, like Jason Vargas for example, get a 4th option year if they were added to the 40 man soon after being drafted. Andrew Miller’s another example, as he had a contract provision mandating a call-up in the year he was drafted – so he burned his first option year immediately, but was given a 4th. He’s in his 4th right now, incidentally.)
Anyway, after those options are exhausted, a player’s free to reject an assignment to the minors and can become a free agent. And the team would need to add them to the 40-man if they wanted to bring them up to the MLB roster. So a journeyman like Colome who’s used up all of his options years and years ago – if the team decides they want someone else in the ‘pen, they can’t option him to Tacoma, they’d have to waive him. But if a player has options remaining, it gives the team a bit more flexibility, and thus it’s moderately valuable.
I view it this way…Tui has hit well at AAA and his errors have dropped due to him playing anywhere but SS.
He’s horrendous at SS but seeing he has shown offensive ability in the minors, let’s see what he can do for us now over a decent period as long as he doesn’t have to play SS.
Right, just the ability to pinch hit for your 1B – whether it be Kotchman or Langerhans – is a plus.
It’s not that he’s a great or even good middle-infield back-up, it’s that he’s a bench bat who CAN play a defensive position like 1B/LF/3B.
Tui came up the minors system as a shortstop
This means less than nothing–so did Gary Sheffield and Danny Tartabull.
Thank you Marc, very clear and well explained.
I feel less ingorant. It feels good.
Djw
It actually means something more than zero. Tui has had many reps at SS and would have a better ‘comfort’ level covering SS than a player who has never played the position before. If experience means ‘less than zero’ than it would be musical chairs every night. You may disagree, which is fine. But Sheffield and Tartabull were athletic young guys who outgrew SS. Which is what is happening to Tui. I already said Tui is ‘oversized’ for the position.
It’s good to see Josh Wilson, Saunders, Langerhans do well on the team. They still have something to prove.
I have a feeling that Saunders will have a good season and basically be the anti-Byrnes. Even though lefties are his kryptonite, that’s what Bradley is for. Right?
Why not platoon Saunders and Bradley this year? Saunders can always learn to hit lefties better in the next offseason.