Game 96, Mariners at Blue Jays
Pineda vs. Cecil, 4:07 PDT.
Happy Pineda day! I find that thinking about Pineda’s development helps prevent me from sinking into pessimism and apathy after watching the M’s get annihilated by the Rangers. If you somehow figured out how to watch condensed games that only showed the M’s on defense, you might think they were contenders.
Pineda will indeed get to face Jose Bautista, who returns to the line-up after a minor ankle injury. He and Travis Snider are the Jays best/only hitters, but Pineda handled them back in April.
Mike Carp’s in the line-up despite the fact that Cecil’s a lefty. Mike Curto points out that Carp went 2-6 with a HR off of Cecil in Las Vegas this year, so that certainly helps (Ackley was even better – 4 for 7 with a HR and a 2B). Carp’s the DH today, which allows the team to get another righty into the line-up in Greg Halman. However, while Carp’s allowed to face lefties, Kyle Seager’s still got his training wheels on. Chone Figgins plays 3B and hits 8th. I can’t seriously argue that Seager’s a better bet against Brett Cecil, but if we’re going to bench Jack Cust so Carp can take on lefties (and I like that move), then I’m not sure why Figgins’ marginally better split would earn him the start.
Line-up:
1: Ichiro
2: Ryan
3: Ackley
4: Olivo
5: Smoak
6: Gutierrez
7: Carp
8: Figgins
9: Halman
Save us, Michael Pineda!
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127 Responses to “Game 96, Mariners at Blue Jays”
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I finally gave up waiting for the replay to start and came in with Wright on the mound.
So I assume Wedge just wanted to go back to the hotel? Aw, he actually got out of his jam!
Any bets on how long this is gonna last? Think were gonna see any position player relievers?
If the Jays don’t score a run, this game could still be going on sometime next week.
Davis is a beast on the bases, this could be trouble.
Done and done. Wow.
Umps cost us yet another game. Davis was clearly out at 2nd on the pickoff. But meh, probably saved us all from having to wait around for another 4 hours.
But saying that, would Davis be someone worth inquireing about? He could play LF/CF, and be a beast pinch runner as seen today. In a perfect world he’d be a good 4th OF, but could probably play every day for us.
The umpires are the reason we lost this game? Seriously? You could have argued that Patterson was safe on the Olivo throw as well. Umps make mistakes. The reason we lost this game is because we failed to score for ten plus innings, and made critical base running errors.
Re: Davis. Jays have him under control next year for 2.75mil, and a club option for $3mil in 2013. He is going nowhere. Now tied for the AL lead in SB, that’s a cheap contract.
Rajai Davis would be a perfect pickup for the M’s: he has 2 HR’s on the season, has a lousy BA. OBP, OPS and has zero power. Oh, but wait he can run fast and would be a perfect 4th lead-off hitter for the M’s to go along with Ichiro, Figgins, Gutierrez, and, YES Rajai Davis. Seattle can change its name to the “Ichiro’s” instead of the M’s and those guys can fight it out for who gets to bat first in an attempt to get an empty 200 hits.
Argh. I say argh.
Certainly Rajai Davis’ .605 OPS and 65 OPS+ should get every small ball M’s fan drooling at the prospect of acquiring such a rare talent.
Reds are reportedly interested in Chone Figgins. If Jack could pull something off, I’d buy season tickets next year, no joke.
I would do Figgins for LH RP Bill Bray straight up, no joke, but that would probably be asking too much, and they’ll probably ask us to pay at least half of his salary.
They also have some good young catching prospects in their system, so if we include someone else with Figgy, then maybe we may be able to snag a good catching prospect too. I forgot what their top C prospects name is, but I would simply lose it if JZ was able to pull a rabit out of his hat and snag him.
Figgins, Wright ,Wilson and 17 millions for Yasmani Grandal?
Well, if they can’t get Davis, they could always trade for Juan Pierre or get Luis Castillo out of retirement. 😉
Everything that was in my mind while watching this while my internet connection was down is summed up in this post. Well done.
When Bautista went 2-0 I actually left the room because I don’t like watching intentional walks. Instead I got to miss stupidity.
If (big if) the Reds actually are dumb enough to take Figgins, we won’t be getting much back in terms of useful pieces…certainly not either of their top catching prospects…though they do employ bill bavasi as a consultant…
Too bad Bavasi’s not actually the GM over in Cincy…then, we might be able to get Votto for Figgins…lol!
I think sending Figgins over there and still paying his salary is addition by subtraction by not having him in our lineup.
The Mariners have a lot of promise. They’re just not ready yet for the big leagues. They need to be sent down to AAA for a month or two to work on some things, and then maybe they’ll be ready for the bigs.
I can’t see walking Bautista, thus putting the go ahead run on, with Lind up next. Pick your poison, but Wedge made the right choice.
No, he didn’t.
Not in any way.
Yes, Lind doesn’t suck by any stretch of the imagination offensively. But there isn’t a hotter hitter in the league right now than Bautista.
And therefore, Jose Bautista is the guy in that lineup that you can’t have beat you.
Sure, maybe Lind gets a hit and what happened in reality happens in that scenario, too. But the TYING runner’s on second. And first base is open.
No matter who I choose to face, I need the out before the runner from second scores. And I have to choose between a .330 hitter to pitch to (who’s red hot) and a .297 hitter (who’s going so-so).
Me, I walk Bautista, put the double play in order.. and pitch to Lind. And order that pitcher to keep everything down as possible so that Lind will roll one to the shortstop and we turn two. Hopefully.
If not, hey, that’s baseball. But it’s stupidity to pitch to Bautista in that situation. Pitching to Lind would’ve been the wiser choice.
No need for a DP – there was already two outs when Bautista was at bat.
So maybe you don’t start off the at bat with an IBB, but by the time you’ve gotten to a 3-1 count (I think that’s what the count was when Bautista got the hit), I was certainly thinking that they should just put him on.
But I’m actually in agreement with you – I was wondering why they were pitching to him at all.
Could you imagine if MLB were run like the Premier League of English football? The M’s would’ve been relegated to second-division status for probably the past several seasons by now!
Well since the Reds do employ Bill Bavasi, we could always get their top catching prospect and possibly another usefull piece for Chone Figgins. Afterall, this is the guy who traded Asdrubal Cabrara, and Shin-Soo Choo for Ben Brussard, and Edwardo Perez.
*Sigh* those were the days, when the Indians did things to our front office that are illegal in 149 countries..*Sigh*
Depending upon how much clout Bavasi has within the Reds’ front office, that might be Z’s best chance of unloading Figgins to clear roster space. After all, Bavasi does have a knack for signing overvalued ex-Angels that nobody else seems to want (i.e. Spiezio, Washburn).