Mariners slim down by 6
As reported by Larry Stone and the rest of the Mariners beat on Twitter this morning, Seattle kicked off their weekend by sending six players to minor league camp.
LHP Mauricio Robles, CIF Alex Liddi and COF Carlos Peguero were optioned to AAA Tacoma, COF Joherymn Chavez was optioned to AA Jackson and non-roster players LHP James Paxton and RHP Yusmeiro Petit were also assigned to minor league camp.
No big surprises here. Robles, Liddi, Peguero and Chavez could play a major part in the Mariners’ future but they all need to marinate a little longer before they’ll be ready. Paxton was brought to big league camp as a courtesy or contract obligation as well as to give the Mariners brass a good look at him, while Petit is looking more and more like upper minors roster-filler.
33 more cuts to go before Oakland.
Cactus League Game 13, M’s at Indians
This barely looks like a lineup. Perhaps it will still be on the radio unlike the last few times they have said it would be on the radio.
SS Josh Wilson
3B L. Rodriguez
1B Kennedy
DH Cust
LF Tui
CF Saunders
2B Ackley
C Gimenez
RF Chavez
P Pineda
The earthquake in Japan is all over the news at this point. I spent a good amount of time last night watching the footage already, like that oil refinery fire in Ichihara, Chiba. Everyone is waiting for Ichiro to say something, but he’s yet to hear anything with the phone infrastructure damaged in a lot of places. I hope that his family’s safe, along with everyone else’s. In the meantime, the M’s have released a statement, which doesn’t say quite as much as I thought it would given the team’s ties to the country.
Cactus League Game 12 – M’s vs. Angels
The Angels have a split-squad game today, so the M’s face a line-up full of the Angels prospects. Top prospect (and #2 in all of baseball according to BA, #1 according to MILB.com) Mike Trout gets the start at DH and bats 3rd, and new CF Peter Bourjos hits 2nd.
Both the Angels and Mariners project as below average offenses, and both will need key prospects to provide some offense. For the M’s, the responsibility falls mostly to Justin Smoak (and then to Dustin Ackley). The Angels really need Bourjos to hit. A defensive wizard in CF, scouts have been mixed on his progress at the plate. He’s been above average at making contact, which helps ameliorate his poor walk rate. He looked a bit lost in his MLB call-up last season, but he’s still young. The projection systems are going to be all over the map with him (CAIRO thinks he’ll be pretty awful, Bill James has him only a bit below average, the fan projections have him as an above-average regular), so it’ll be good for the M’s to get another good look at him.
Erik Bedard starts for the M’s, with Josh Lueke, Aaron Laffey, Denny Bautista, Fabio Castro and a cast of thousands behind him.
Line-up thanks to Ryan Divish:
1: Ichiro – DH
2: Chone Figgins – 3B
3: Milton Bradley – LF
4: Justin Smoak – 1B
5: Ryan Langerhans – CF
6: Gabe Gross – RF
7: Jack Wilson- 2B
8: Brendan Ryan- SS
9: Adam Moore – C
Jack Wilson’s getting a lot of PT at second base. Langerhans is in CF as Franklin Gutierrez has flown to be with his father in law, Luis Salazar, who was severely injured after he was struck by a foul line-drive off the bat of Brian McCann.
Cactus League Game 11, M’s at Dodgers
RF Ichiro!
3B Figgins
CF Gutierrez
DH Cust
1B Kennedy
2B Jack Wilson
LF Saunders
C Bard
SS Josh Wilson
P Fister
A lineup without Gabe Gross and Sean Kazmar? This seems improbable to me but I’m sure that they can fix it later. Pauley, League, Olson, Cortes, Ring, Ray, Roe, and Paredes are possibilities for pitching later in the game.
The game notes inform me that the upcoming rotation is Bedard, Pineda, and Blake Beaven. If they are to be believed, we’ll have radio feeds on Friday and Saturday. If you have MLB Network, then this particular game will be broadcast at 8 pm.
Yesterday was just the second spring training shutout we’ve had since ’94, according to Greg Johns. And we have a winning record! Savor every moment.
Split Squad Cactus League Games 10, 11. Or 10a/10b.
Head vs. heart, nature vs. nurture, man vs. wild, blue vs. gray, and now this – the first split squad game of the spring. How will the A team react to not having dozens and dozens of teammates cheer them on? How will the B team react to being labeled ‘the B team?’
The A game features Jason Vargas making his Cactus League debut and a line-up that looks like so:
1: Josh Wilson
2: Brendan Ryan
3: Justin Smoak
4: Jack Cust
5: Ryan Langerhans (CF)
6: Michael Saunders (DH)
7: Gabe Gross
8: Matt Mangini
9: Adam Moore
The B game’s noteworthy in that the M’s are trying Milton Bradley in CF.
1: Dustin Ackley
2: Adam Kennedy
3: Milton Bradley
4: Mike Carp (DH)
5: Tui (1B)
6: Mike Wilson
7: Alex Liddi
8: Luis Rodriguez
9: Steve Baron
SP: Luke French
(Line-ups via Larry Stone)
Cactus League Game 9, M’s at A’s
RF Ichiro!
3B Figgins
CF Gutierrez
1B Carp
2B Jack Wilson
SS Ryan
LF Saunders
C Gimenez
DH Mangini
P Felix! and then Pineda!
If Twitter isn’t lying to us, then it seems as though the game won’t be on radio after all. I’m going to tune in anyway and be horribly disappointed.
Jack Wilson is back in the lineup. That’s something.
Stories From Camp That I’m Reading, pt. 3
Has it been a week? Yes, it has been a week. Here are some things to tide you over until Felix! and Pineda! around noon.
Read more
Cactus League Game 8: M’s at Giants
12:05 start, on 710 radio and MLB gameday audio.
Line-up:
Dustin Ackley 2B
Adam Kennedy 3B
Milton Bradley LF
Jack Cust DH
Justin Smoak 1B
Ryan Langerhans CF
Carlos Peguero RF
Josh Bard C
Luis Rodriguez SS
Nate Robertson P
* Ichiro gets the day off, so Carlos Peguero gets some at-bats against Tim Lincecum and Madison Bumgarner. I don’t know that you could get more dissimilar players, physically, at one position (pitchers don’t count: Randy Johnson and Rich Garces).
* Behind Robertson, the M’s have Blake Beavan, Brandon League, Garrett Olson, Chaz Roe, Cesar Jimenez, Fabio Castro, Chris Smith and Yusmeiro Petit.
* The low-leverage righty competition has been ugly so far. Today’s entrant is Chris Smith, who’s a huge longshot to make the team, but, but between Dan Cortes’ disastrous inning yesterday, Manny Delcarmen’s poor command/velocity, Denny Bautista’s struggles…no, he’s still a longshot. I have no idea how these guys have looked in workouts, and they can’t make the decision based on the results of tiny samples, but a lot of these NRI/prospect guys are not exactly making a case for themselves. We knew this was going to be a battle this spring, but I think we’d all like tough decisions that aren’t least-worst options.
* Greg Johns notes that Olivo had his MRI, but the doctors won’t actually review it until tomorrow.
* Minor league pitchers/catchers report to Peoria today, with physicals tomorrow and workouts beginning Tuesday.
Cactus League Game 7, Indians at M’s
DH Ichiro!
3B Figgins
CF Gutierrez
1B Kennedy
C Olivo
LF Saunders
SS Ryan
2B Kazmar
RF M. Wilson
P Bedard
Bedard could be followed by Jamey Wright, Chris Seddon, Dan Cortes, and Manny Delcarmen on the mound today. I’d tune in early and then see what happens later with Cortes. Jack Wilson was a late scratch from the lineup because he was sick or something, which is better than the usual reasons he’s not in the lineup.
• Paxton signed yesterday, and I’ll probably talk about that more in the links dump on Monday, but two early and very important bits of info are that he’s been working out at Boras’ complex and that the Mariners view him as a starter.
• Yesterday, someone asked me when we might see Nick Franklin in the Mariners lineup during the Cactus League season and my immediate answer was “whenever we get to split squads.” Seems like an easy response, right? After all, we’ve already faced a D’Backs split squad, are facing an Indians one today, and from here out will be facing the Angels twice, the Cubs, and the Dodgers. We only have one split squad day in all of spring training. The Astros have six this April, as do the Diamondbacks. This all seems weird to me, but it’s more common than I thought as the Nats, Pirates, Rays, Twins, and Padres are all playing just one split squad day too. I’m sure the Padres were just copying us though.
• Mauricio Robles and Erik Bedard share a birthday. That day is today.
Cactus League Game 6 – Reds at Mariners
Back in Peoria, meaning more pitch fx! Woo! Which means we get to check on Doug Fister’s velo, which Felix and Pineda play a road game in pitch fx-less Phoenix.
Anyway, the line-up thanks to Greg Johns:
1: Ichiro!
2: Figgins
3: Bradley
4: Cust
5: Smoak
6: Gross
7: Josh Wilson
8: Ackley
9: Moore
P: Doug Fister
That’s Gabe Gross in CF and Jack Cust in LF, which would be concerning if this game meant something. As it is, this may be a way of reinforcing the importance of GBs to the pitching staff.