Cactus League Game 21, Padres at M’s
This is what we will use to do battle with the hated Padres.
RF Ichiro!
3B Figgins
LF Bradley
DH Cust
CF Langerhans
1B Kennedy
SS Jack Wilson
2B Ryan
C Gimenez
P Bedard
Why, it’s almost an actual lineup. After Bedard, there’s a possibility of RHPs Jamey Wright, Denny Bautista, Josh Lueke, Brandon League, Mumba Rivera, and Andrew Carraway. Yes, friends, Mumba Rivera is still here.
Here’s an interesting bit from today’s press notes: the M’s are presently 6-0 in spring training vs. AL West opponents, going 2-0 to everyone. Division title, here we come!
Some people in the comments were asking for official remarks on the departure of Garrett Olson, by which I can only assume they mean something more substantive than snarky tweets. Generally, when a team places a player on waivers in the middle of spring training, you can expect that the organization didn’t value said player all that much and that they were expendable, with a few exceptions here and there (this guy). Olson was converted to being a full-time reliever last season, after which he showed some minor improvements across the board in areas like home run rate (still mysteriously worse than it was when he was an Oriole) and strikeout rate. The stuff, however, didn’t improve markedly over the previous track record, so it’s hard to say what changed and how it would be sustained. If you’re choosing to go the way of the advanced metrics, WAR and the like, Olson’s value sandwiched him between Brian Sweeney and Sean White, and he had guys like Ian Snell, Chad Cordero, and Jesus Colome ahead of him, all in very limited time of course.
In camp this year, Olson was competing against Castro and Ring, both of whom have looked better than him at varying points, with the exception of that one inning Castro had where someone was playing Yakety Sax in the outfield. There’s also Luke French, who has pitched better than all of them and remains in the fifth starter discussion for the time being. Down the line, there are also arms like Edward Paredes and Brian Moran who could turn into serviceable left-handed relievers. Olson was a cool guy and I’ll never forget that one time when he was John Travolta, but irreplaceable, he was not.
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Gee, thanks Jay. Now I’m going to have Yakety Sax going through my head the rest of the afternoon…
MILTON!
Bedard, f–k yeah!
Give these 5 starters nearly any other roster and you’ve got a team that probably is in the playoff hunt.
1899 Cleveland Spiders, here we come!
Is there any way that we can put Sean Kazmar on the roster just to remind Tui of how little we think of him?
It appears as though roles are being locked down and that the final few roster decisions have been made.
The bullpen looks to be League, Ray, Lueke, Castro/Ring, Wright, Laffey and Pauley. I’d be surprised if Wilhelmson gets the nod unless Wedge really feels the need for another power-arm to offset all the so-so arsenals the bullpen features–It wouldn’t be the first time Seattle has waltzed the gray area between starter/reliever with a young pitcher.
The bench almost certainly will be Bard/Moore, Kennedy, Langerhans and probably Tuiasosopo since the team seems to be grooming him for a utility role and there really isn’t much playing time for him with Liddi, Mangini and all the outfielders in Tacoma.
The whole, “Who will play 2B vs SS?” article is pretty much a non-story to anyone paying attention, but there seems to be a growing ground swell that Michael Saunders will be in Tacoma and Michael Pineda won’t be. You can argue the merits of each individual move, but going off the M’s spring track record, neither move should be that surprising.
I’m actually really pumped about this season.
In many ways this team feels like the spiritual opposite of our 2008 team, in that while that team was a paper tiger, this team could be the Rabbit of Caerbannog and exceed many peoples projections.
Add to that the incredible list of young players who could emerge as the next great crop of prospects, the #2 pick, Felix’s Cy Young follow-up year, and 2011 will not be dull by any stretch of the imagination.
I would be surprised to see Tui on the 25-man at the start of the season.
Uh, Wilhelmson is not young. He’s just been out of baseball for six years.
You think maybe they just keep him so that Wedge can write “M. Rivera” on roster lists and gaze wistfully towards the bullpen with those crazy, crazy eyes?
I think it’s more sinister – on one of our road trips through New York, don’t be surprised if Wedge sneaks out of Yankee Stadium carrying a different M. Rivera in a carpet bag.
*Sigh* Young relatively speaking. In terms of development Wilhelmson is very young.
Why would that be surprising? He’s been surpassed on the depth charts by probably at least 3 players, he’s had a few years in Tacoma already, he’s being groomed for a utility role, there aren’t many other bench candidates, and he’s only got one option left.
Your only other options are Sean Kazmar and Josh Wilson, and I think the M’s want something resembling a decent right-handed bat off the bench. Something that those guys are (more) unlikely to provide. Plus, Kazmar would have to be added to the 40-man, while Tui is already on.
Certainly I’ll admit it’s no lock, and the Mariners could send him down to scrap for whatever meager playing time he could get in Tacoma, but I’d be more surprised if they went that route rather then give him a few at-bats in the bigs to see if he’s ever going to stick.
I noticed that you didn’t mention his skill level at all – but that’s why I said it’d be surprising.
Tui simply isn’t very good. The only reason he’s held on thus far is probably his last name and local roots. I expect that single option remaining is the reason they’ve told him to focus on first base and left field – they’re hoping at the easier positions he’ll show enough competence they’ll be able to flip him for a bag of balls at some point this season, and with his ineptness at the other side of the infield being common knowledge that’s not currently possible.