Jack Wilson out with fractured finger
For those of you just hearing about Shawn Kelley’s upcoming surgery, I have even more good news. SS Jack Wilson slipped in the bathroom and fractured a finger; the M’s will sit him until they learn the extent of the injury. He’s set to see a hand specialist tomorrow.
For now, we’ll see a lot of Josh Wilson. Chris Woodward, make sure your phone is charged.
Wilson’s pained pinky could conceivably end his 2010 season – a season which saw his batting eye/contact rate tumble, his UZR tip below zero and saw his wOBA plummet to Ronny Cedeno levels. His acquisition was always something of a gamble, and unfortunately for everyone, the house won this one. At this point, Wilson’s in a real fight to hang on in MLB. I wish him the best of luck…somewhere else.
Game 112, Royals at Mariners
RF Ichiro!
2B Figgins
1B Kotchman
DH Branyan
CF Gutierrez
3B Lopez
C Bard
LF Langerhans
SS Jo. Wilson
The repeat of Friday’s lineup last night yielded one of the most boring games in recent memory. This one has Saunders still out and Bard taking over for Moore, because Moore’s stiff back is apparently worse than Bard’s stiff neck.
The news for today is that Shawn Kelley is out for the rest of the season. Divish says that there was no stress fracture, but exploratory surgery will be needed at the very least, while Larry Stone quotes Wak in saying he could be ready in spring training or he could be out a year. So, Schrödinger’s Elbow basically, and we’re just waiting on the wave function to collapse. Nothing new here, no sir.
More positive news is that Wak, in spite of various managerial flaws, is still kind of cool. This is important for the team going forward.
LHP Jason Vargas vs. RHP Kyle Davies. There’s a non-zero chance we could win this one.
Game 111, Royals at Mariners
Last night’s lineup was surprisingly successful, so the M’s are running it out for a second time. Of course, Saunders is also still being held back and certain positions lack better options. Quiet, you.
RF Ichiro!
2B Figgins
1B Kotchman
DH Branyan
CF Gutierrez
3B Lopez
C Moore
LF Langerhans
SS Ja. Wilson
RHP David Pauley faces off against LHP Bruce Chen.
Game 110, Royals at Mariners
Greinke vs French, 7:10 pm.
Well, this is fair.
Ackley and Power
My latest post for the Brock and Salk blog is now up, dealing with Dustin Ackley’s future power output. Check it out.
Also, posting will be light this for the next few days, as I’m in New York City for our FanGraphs Live Discussion. It’s hot here.
Game 109, Rangers at Mariners
Hernandez vs Hunter, 7:10 pm.
Happy Felix Day.
Ichiro, RF
Figgins, 2B
Kotchman, 1B
Branyan, DH
Gutierrez, CF
Lopez, 3B
Moore, C
Saunders, LF
Jack Wilson, SS
The Anti-Baseball Road Trip
As I suggested would happen the last time I contributed to these electronic pages, I’ve recently — along with milady — moved to the Middle West of these here United States. For those of you who’re concerned about such things (and I’m guessing this doesn’t include reader Dylan), the both of us made the trip without incident, so you can stop your worrying.
For anyone who’s never been, you should know that Madison, Wisconsin is, by all appearances, a pretty great place. Those readers of USSM who’ve lived in/around The Ave in Seattle would probably recognize many of that area’s salient features in Madison’s State Street: ethnic restaurants, bars, cafes, and some Sloppy-Joe-looking student types. Really, just take University Ave., add about 95% humidity to the air and about 5% in Body Mass Index to the average pedestrian, and you’ve got a pretty good idea of State Street.
Much to the disappointment of the reader, however, the point of this article isn’t to compare and contrast the relative merits of Seattle and Madison. Rather, it’s to alert those members of the readership who haven’t made the journey from the Pacific Northwest to this here area of the country that the trip is, essentially, death to baseball.
Anytime I go on any sort of a trip, my first instinct — one which I’m sure a number of readers share — is to see if it might be possible to include a baseball game in my itinerary. Major league, minor league, college summer league: whatever, doesn’t matter. Barring that, I at least like to listen to baseball on the road.
Here’s the thing about trips east of the Cascades and west of, say, Minneapolis: they offer little in the way of the former and almost nothing in the way of the latter.
As Exhibit One, I offer you this map — which will be familiar to you — of the 30 major league teams (courtesy of about.com):
Google Maps shows the distance between Seattle and Minneapolis as being about 1650 miles; between Seattle and Denver, about 1370. Seeing as the US of A is only about 3000 total miles across, that’s kinda a huge deal. In any case, the result for the baseball-starved traveler is that there’s little in the way of major league action.
But that’s not all! Consider Exhibit Two, a map of minor league teams (courtesy of minorleaguebaseball.com):
All told, there’re close to 250 minor league teams in the United States, and only about 10 to 15 of them are located in the huge swath of land between Portland/Seattle and Madison. That’s about five percent of the teams spread out over a land mass which constitutes, I don’t know, about 25 percent or so of the country’s total area. Between them, the Dakotas and Minnesota have exactly zero minor league affiliates. Zero.
Really hungry for a game? There’s always the collegiate, wood bat Northwoods League, but as you can tell from the map below (courtesy of thefullwiki.org), even that offers limited options through the relevant area.
None of this is to say that it’s impossible to catch a game. I watched part of a Rockies contest at the Ponderosa Campground in Cody, Wyoming, and caught some the Twins in Luverne, Minnesota, way out in the Western part of that state. That’s fine. And, of course, there are other charms to the trip that make the lack of baseball somehwat acceptable. The point is, if you’re looking for a baseball road trip, do not go East, young man.
Game 108, Rangers at Mariners
Fister vs Wilson, 7:10 pm.
In something that kind of qualifies as news, the M’s sent Mike Sweeney to Philadelphia today. The team is basically just doing him a favor, giving him a chance to finish the year with a contender and potentially get his first taste of playoff baseball. He wasn’t going to get much playing time in Seattle the rest of the way anyway. We’ll see how long he can stay healthy in Philly, given that they are apparently expecting him to play first base on a regular basis.
As for tonight’s game, opposing left-handed hitters have managed a paltry .090/.157/.120 line against C.J. Wilson this year. That’s 100 plate appearances, with the total positive results being six singles, three doubles, five walks, three hit batters, and two reached on errors. The other 81 hitters made outs. The Mariners are starting four left-handed hitters tonight. This isn’t going to go well.
Ichiro, RF
Figgins, 2B
Kotchman, 1B
Gutierrez, CF
Branyan, DH
Lopez, 3B
Saunders, LF
Moore, C
Jack Wilson, SS
Reasons For Future Bullpen Optimism
While most of the focus on the farm is on guys like Dustin Ackley, Michael Pineda, and Nick Franklin, there’s some other guys flying under the radar a bit who could be making an impact in Seattle sooner than you might think – the M’s have quietly put together a pretty nifty group of relief prospects, all of whom aren’t that far from the big leagues.
Josh Lueke, RHP (A/AA/AAA): 47 2/3 IP, 35 H, 13 R, 2 HR, 10 BB, 80 K
Anthony Varvaro, RHP (AA/AAA): 50 1/3 IP, 36 H, 19 R, 2 HR, 26 BB, 55 K
Dan Cortes, RHP (AA, relief only): 6 2/3 IP, 3 H, 1 R, 0 HR, 3 BB, 10 K
Edward Paredes, LHP (AA/AAA): 42 2/3 IP, 45 H, 20 R, 2 HR, 19 BB, 43 K
Brian Moran, LHP (A/A+): 54 2/3 IP, 48 H, 11 R, 0 HR, 7 BB, 65 K
The first four guys on that list are all mid-90s fastball guys, so the strikeouts aren’t from tricky deliveries or change-ups that won’t work in the majors. Cortes has had all kinds of commands problems as a starter, but since the move to the bullpen, he’s been pitching really well, and scouts have had him up to 98 out of the pen. Moran is the one that is not like the others – he’s a deceptive southpaw with a mid-80s fastball, but everything moves and his command is excellent. The stuff might not work in the big leagues, but he’s been getting people out for years (he was unhittable at UNC) with it, and so he deserves a shot.
Toss in guys who are currently starters but who a lot of people believe will end up as relievers long term (Mauricio Robles, Maikel Cleto, Stephen Hensley) and guys that showed some promise when they were healthy (Josh Fields, Nick Hill), and the Mariners are probably deeper in young bullpen arms than they’ve been in a while. I know it isn’t that much fun to look at a relief squad that includes guys like Chris Seddon, Garrett Olson, and Sean White, but there’s help on the way. Don’t be surprised if several of these guys are pushing for jobs next spring.
Game 107, Rangers at Mariners
Lewis vs Vargas, 7:10 pm.
Just what this team needs – a set against the first place rangers. At least they miss Cliff Lee, who pitched on Sunday.
Adam Moore gets the start tonight, and should play most nights going forward. Interesting that he slides right into the #6 spot in the order against a right-hander. I get that Wak is keeping Saunders down in the order as to not rush him, but shouldn’t that same logic apply to Moore as well? Oh well, not that big of a deal.
Speaking of Wak, Jack spoke to the press and said “Wak is our manager” a bunch of times. There was no reason to think he was getting fired yesterday beyond no-fact speculation. Nothing like the media making their own story up and then reporting on it. Yay, conflict of interest.
Ichiro, RF
Figgins, 2B
Kotchman, 1B
Branyan, DH
Gutierrez, CF
Moore, C
Saunders, LF
Tuiasosopo, 3B
Jack Wilson, Ss