Game 148, Rangers at Mariners: Dan Cortes and Justin Smoak Forced to Join Big Club
Vargas vs. Cliff Lee, 6:10pm
Your line-up, courtesy of Shannon Drayer
1: Ichiro
2: Figgins
3: Lopez (DH)
4: Gutierrez
5: Justin Smoak (1b)
6: Bard
7: Tuiasosopo (3B)
8: Saunders
9: Wilson
With their teammates on an exciting 8 hour bus ride from Memphis to Oklahoma City for the AAA Championship, Dan Cortes and Justin Smoak got the call they’d probably been dreading since mid-August. Instead of playing a largely-irrelevant one-off game for the AAA championship, they’re going to head to Seattle to join the Mariners as they slog through the remaining 15 games on the schedule. In exchange for an upgrade to their mode of travel, they’ll spell the likes of Casey Kotchman and Jamey Wright. As Cortes hasn’t played in the majors yet, he’ll likely be the target of pranks played by Brian Sweeney and Sean White. When people talk about what an amazing job pro athletes have, take a moment to consider Dan Cortes.
Cortes has the velocity and big breaking pitch of Brandon League; and like League, he occasionally suffers from bouts of wildness. But his FB may actually be better than League’s (though his breaking ball isn’t as good, Cortes may actually throw his, so it might even out). After converting to the bullpen a few months ago, Cortes has only had a few truly terrible outings (including last Saturday’s PCL Playoff meltdown in Seattle), but he’s got the most pure stuff of any reliever on the M’s 40 man.
This was first reported by Kirby Arnold of the Everett Herald, who didn’t mention if Cortes was crying when he saw him at Safeco. Photo of his delivery here.
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31 Responses to “Game 148, Rangers at Mariners: Dan Cortes and Justin Smoak Forced to Join Big Club”
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Why not let Smoak and Cortes play for the AAA championship? Does no one care at all?
I mean, no one cares what they do in Seattle, it seems like maybe two people might care how they did in a championship game. Well, maybe the only two to care would be Smoak and Cortes, but given how boring the M’s are, it seems like a waste of 1 day of club control.
Does this also tell us that Ackley is definitely not coming up this year because he didn’t get the call up? Or is it that they’re going to save him down there for one more game?
Yay!!! Too bad they didn’t have to DFA Kotchman and Sean White to make room for Cortes, and Smoak.
Didn’t Rainiers owners Nick Lache and Kirby Whatshislastname throw a huge, Hollywood style party for the Rainiers last night in Memphis? Can’t imagine either Smoak or Cortes are feeling their best…
This is too bad for them and for the Rainiers. Whatever other errors he may have committed, Z has built a good farm system, with two championship teams. Why not let them experience the joy of winning a championship instead of playing meaningless games for the M’s?
Everyone realizes they just WON a championship, right? The M’s left them down for 17 days so they could lead the Tacoma to the PCL title. They did, now they’re getting called up. The AAA championship is nice, but I guarantee they’d rather be on the big club.
Even if Smoak is still drunk/hungover from last night, it will be an improvement over Kotchman.
Just when I thought the Mariners should start being a promotions company with baseball as the extra they do this.
I guess you never want to turn down the chance to get to the big leagues, but if was a choice between today and playing for the AA championship and definitely coming up Wednesday, a lot of us would take the second one. Grasping for reasons, I suppose Branyan’s (minor?) injury was a reason to bring Smoak up, and Cortes will have a few less butterflies having his first game at Safeco than he would on the road. A 10-day trip starts Monday.
What is the reason for batting Saunders in the 8th spot?
Maybe Smoak will hit one to me in sec 106 on Sunday.
Please forgive my ignorance – but I’m a bit confused now. What was it the Rainiers won yesterday as opposed to what they are playing for today? Was yesterday the PCL, and today the overall AAA championship?
Yes
It’s the Pokemon championship.
Tuesday, September 21 at 5:00 p.m. pacific on Versus.
Thanks guys!
Hey, tonight is supposedly “Salute to Latin American Beisból Night” – given recent past history, maybe that means we’ll be firing Lopez today!
It’s a single game championship. In other words, it’s an exhibition. Baseball above high school, doesn’t decide any champions in single games. The only meaningful exception to this is (was) the Olympics, where the one game final is necessary due to the two week long nature of the event.
The M’s left them down for the meaningful playoff games.
I wonder if Lueke will get called up? I don’t think so either.
I’m happy to see Smoak again.
But Cliff Lee versus our team? This has all the makings of a disaster.
BTW: I was rooting against the Mariners so they would keep the 2nd pick in hopes that the Pirates would pass on Rendon. Well, apparently, there is little chance of that happening. Excitement gone…
Oh well…who needs a stud 3bman anyways…
Ichiro!!
I love how Blowers was talking about Lopez’s hacktastic approach as if it was some kind of strategic approach he was employing against Cliff Lee.
How was Cliff Lee greeted when he ran out for the first pitch?
“BTW: I was rooting against the Mariners so they would keep the 2nd pick in hopes that the Pirates would pass on Rendon. Well, apparently, there is little chance of that happening. Excitement gone…
Oh well…who needs a stud 3bman anyways…”
UCONN’s George Springer isn’t a bad second pick though. He’s put up some huge numbers and unlike Rendon has some speed.
School of Jeremy Giambi!
true…but I want a 3b man. Both are right handed, which is a big minus.
Well, it was nice seeing Smoak look better at the plate (overall) than he did when we first got him…
And hopefully we’ll get to see Cortes pretty soon – I want to see that fastball!
I’m not sure exactly how salaries are prorated, but even a single day as a major leaguer is a non-trivial amount of money.
I love how Blowers was talking about Lopez’s hacktastic approach as if it was some kind of strategic approach he was employing against Cliff Lee.
I don’t think that’s what he was saying. To me it was, in effect, noting that Lopez might do better than expected because of his propensity to swing early in the count.
He got a bit of a cheer when the lineups were announced.
There wasn’t much else to cheer about. Two infield hits by Ichiro, a nice catch by Saunders, a hit from Smoak. The M’s got booed when they had runners on second and third with no outs and didn’t score. All in all another routine loss.
Well, at least the game ended.
Seems like the M’s should just make sure the game goes 5 innings, then call it a night, just to save on electricity and water.
I agree with this answer overall, except for one detail. The World Baseball Classic is decided by single games. Ichiro’s game winning hit in the 10th inning last year, with Dodger Stadium filled with screaming Korean fans, almost as many screaming Japanese fans, and a bunch of entranced Americans, was the greatest live baseball game that I’ve ever experienced. If I’d been in the Kingdome in 1995 I would have to rate Game 5 over the WBC, but I wasn’t there. I have attended other first round major league playoff games though, and they didn’t come close to the 2009 WBC final for excitement and memorability.
So in addition to the Olympics, the WBC championship uses single games. And it is meaningful … not as meaningful as a World Series championship, probably not as meaningful as a League championship, but more meaningful than most Divisional championships.