Kyle Seager is On the Way
This is happening a lot quicker than I expected, but reports are making the rounds that 3B/2B Kyle Seager has been selected from Tacoma and C Jose Yepez has been DFA’d. Yepez didn’t even get a game in with the M’s and was only around to be a third backstop with Olivo hurting. It’s Seager that everyone is paying attention to, and rightly so.
Since he was promoted to Tacoma (where he’s been hitting .455/.500/.673), he’s seen six games at third, one at short, and five at second. That’s an increase in time at the hot corner from what we saw back when he was with Jackson, where he only spent three of sixty-six games there. Still, one should not be too concerned about him defensively. He spent his final year at UNC playing third, and has answered a lot of questions about his range and whether or not he could handle the middle infield during the the past couple of seasons. The glovework should be no issue for him, and the arm, while not a cannon or anything, is not something that’s going to hinder him as he moves to the left side of the infield. Barring any weird yips, he’ll be able to make the plays over there.
As for what to expect from him with the bat, I’d say patience, line drives, and mostly doubles power. When people were asking me about him in the offseason, I came up with an interesting comkp for him which a lot of people will hate. Up until this season, you can compare Seager’s line by age to that of Chone Figgins and see some similarities as they were coming up when you adjust for park. The difference there was that Seager would hit more doubles and some would leave the park entirely, whereas Figgins game was more about stealing bases and stretching the double into a triple [I refer, of course, to the good annoying Figgins who played for the Angels as opposed to the bad annoying Figgins that has played for the Mariners]. Of course, this year, Seager has completely pulled away: where Figgins had a .234/.313/.332 line with a 99/54 K/BB in 125 games of his tour of double-A, Seager got out in a little over half the time and departed with a .336/.401/.495 line and a 38/26 K/BB. That he’s capable of working counts should help him adjust to the big leagues a little more easily. I wouldn’t expect him to start going yard and start stealing bases as Ackley has been, but doubles, spray hitting, and a respectable on-base percentage are not out of the question.
Whether Seager will end up being our long-term solution to the ongoing third base issue, I can’t say just yet. Some would like to see more power from the position, but what we can even realistically expect out of him right now is going to be a huge improvement over what the position has seen lately. Even if Seager never ends up being a star, he’s one heck of an upgrade right now, and a pretty cool guy to boot.
Game 87, Mariners at Athletics
Mid-day game today, with Jason Vargas taking on Guillermo Moscoso of the A’s at 12:35.
Moscoso‘s got a shiny ERA and atrocious peripherals – his sub-3.00 ERA sits awkwardly next to his 5+ xFIP. A BABIP of .200 will do that. He’s a fly-baller that the M’s saw a few times in the spring, and while his results have been solid, he’s really just holding down the fort until Tyson Ross comes back from his oblique injury.
Josh Bard getting the start seems pretty much inevitable, given that Olivo’s just back from injury, it’s a day game after a night game, and Bard caught Vargas’ CG shutout 5 games ago.
Franklin Gutierrez had a well-timed single last night, but his slash line since June 1st is now .162/.194/.182. His last extra-base hit came 70 plate appearances ago. The M’s have jettisoned some of their worst hitters, got Gutierrez back from injury, brought up Dustin Ackley…and have seen their team wOBA go down. Yes, Halman and Peguero are falling off quickly, and Smoak had a long drought, but this offense needs *something* out of the CF spot. I’d chalk it up to Gutierrez rounding back into game shape, but he’s getting worse the more he plays. The M’s may need to reduce his innings substantially so that he can (hopefully) build some strength.
So, uh, go M’s!
Line-up:
1: Ichiro! (RF)
2: Ryan
3: Kennedy (DH)
4: Smoak
5: Ackley
6: Peguero
7: Gutierrez
8: Bard
9: Figgins
Just Curious
Does anyone still think Carlos Peguero has any business in the Major Leagues? Everyone realizes he’s atrocious now, right?
The M’s should send him down tomorrow. Literally anyone would be better.
Game 86, Mariners at Athletics
Happy Felix Evening!
Felix vs. the enigmatic Trevor Cahill.
Of note: Ichiro gets one of his rare DH starts, with Halman playing RF. Olivo’s back, so this line-up is pretty much as powerful a group as the M’s are able to muster.
Lineup:
1: Ichiro! (DH)
2: Ryan
3: Kennedy
4: Smoak
5: Ackley
6: Olivo
7: Peguero (LF)
8: Gutierrez (CF)
9: Halman (RF)
Sorry for the lateness of the post…after my commute, I could really use a beer. Let’s go Mariners!
Be Bold, Jack
Over at FanGraphs today, I wrote a piece advocating for the Pirates to act as buyers as we head towards the trade deadline, even though it’s pretty likely that they’ll end up falling short of the playoffs. They aren’t actually a very good team, and their current record is something of a fluke, but I still believe that the potential rewards from that fluke lasting all year outweigh the potential gains that could be made by punting the season and acting as sellers.
I believe that this applies to the Mariners as well. This is not a great team, but they’re in a position to give Seattle some interesting baseball in September, and I think they should capitalize on that opportunity. I know the Bill Bavasi era made us very reluctant to trade any young players, but the reality is that the franchise has some players who would have some trade value and probably don’t have a future in Seattle.
Michael Saunders is the most obvious player in that position. He’s still get a little bit of former top prospect shine attached to him, and he’s still a good athlete with some interesting tools. There are organizations out there who would probably be willing to see if they could fix his swing and teach him how to hit Major League pitching. If the M’s were looking to make a blockbuster deal, Saunders wouldn’t be enough on his own, but I’d imagine they could make a smaller move to improve the roster using him as bait. And we shouldn’t let the fact that Bavasi traded away legitimately good talents like Asdrubal Cabrera scare us away from being willing to move a guy like Saunders.
The Mariners need a real left fielder, and if takes giving up Saunders to get a guy who can actually hit big league pitching, so be it. I wouldn’t advocate moving any of the guys that you think could be a real part of the future here, but a guy like Saunders (or maybe even Carlos Triunfel, who also is likely most valuable to the team as trade bait) is expendable. The M’s have some pieces to make a move and improve this team for 2011 without mortgaging the future, and as I talked about in the FG piece, the payoff of stealing a playoff spot is often worth more than the payoff of keeping a marginally interesting prospect around and seeing what he turns into.
Game 85, Mariners at Athletics
Happy 4th of July, and happy Pineda day!
Michael Pineda faces the last-place A’s and the 2nd-worst offense in MLB (behind the M’s, of course). He’ll be opposed by twitter superstar Brandon McCarthy, making his first start since May 19th when he went on the DL with a “stress reaction” in his shoulder. Lucky for McCarthy, the M’s bats don’t tend to stress pitchers out too much.
The line-up:
1: Ichiro!
2: Ryan
3: Kennedy (3B)
4: Smoak
5: Ackley
6: Cust
7: Halman (CF)
8: Peguero
9: Bard
No Gutierrez today with a right-hander on the mound for Oakland. Never thought I’d say this, but I wouldn’t mind seeing more of Halman to allow Gutierrez to rest/build his strength back towards where it was in 2010 (I worry that we may not see the 2009 version for quite some time).
(Edited to correct where the game’s occurring. Oops. First pitch is at 1:05pm)
Minor League Wrap (6/27-7/3/11)
Happy Fourth! I’ll be answering some questions early and then others much later on. No new news on the international signing front except that everything you thought you heard is now unconfirmed.
To the jump!
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Game 84, Padres at Mariners
Blake Beavan makes his MLB debut today in perhaps the best situation a rookie fly-ball hurler could ask for: facing the Padres at Safeco Field.
The 6’7″ 240-250lb righty faces a line-up that doesn’t hit for a lot of power; keep fastballs away from Anthony Rizzo and Chase Headley, and he can hopefully keep out of trouble. His recent velo increase has helped make his change-up a bit more of a viable pitch, and he mixes in a slider as well. The M’s made two moves to get Beavan on the roster. First, they moved Chris Gimenez to the 60-day DL to open a 40 man spot. Then, they optioned Mike Carp to Tacoma to make room on the 25 man roster. Welcome to the show, Blake.
The M’s face Mat Latos, who’s in the unusual position of being smaller than the pitcher he’s facing. Latos has had a disappointing year that started with a shoulder injury and a DL stint.
The line-up:
1: Ichiro
2: Ryan
3: Kennedy (3B)
4: Smoak
5: Ackley
6: Halman (LF)
7: Peguero (DH)
8: Gutierrez (CF)
9: Bard
*Update to a previous story: The M’s now say that they don’t have a deal in place with Helsin Martinez. Bob Engle spoke to Ben Badler of BA early this morning disputing the published reports (from BA and elsewhere) that the M’s had inked Martinez to a $2m deal. Here’s Larry Stone’s post on the controversy.
Game 83, Padres at Mariners
Dustin Ackley’s still out with sore ribs, so we get Figginsed again. Also, Adam Kennedy gets the night off against a lefty, allowing Jack Wilson to get a rare start. Doug Fister takes the hill against lefty Cory Luebke, a reliever making a spot start.
Luebke came up through the SD system with great command and decent GB rates, and the move to the pen helped his K rate. The main reason he’s been fairly successful as a reliever (and in 4 previous starts between 2010-2011) is his HR/FB rate.
He doesn’t show much in the way of platoon splits, but the M’s went with a fairly standard line-up with Halman in LF instead of Carp/Peguero and Franklin Gutierrez moved up to 3rd. That’s not an awe-inspiring middle of the order, but I can’t say I’m unhappy with it. This is a very good defensive arrangement, and they’re playing the Padres.
The lineup (courtesy of Greg Johns)
1: Ichiro, RF
2: Ryan, SS
3: Gutierrez, CF
4: Smoak, 1B
5: Halman, LF
6: Cust, DH
7: Bard, C
8: Figgins, 3B
9: Wilson, 2B
Mariners Sign Dominican OF Helsin Martinez
It’s not quite July 2nd yet, but some of the major international free agent signings are now public. The big signing for the Mariners is OF Helsin Martinez, a power hitting OF who signed for $2m. Both IPL Baseball and ESPN’s Enrique Rojas confirmed the signing on twitter.
From what little I know, the best comp would seem to be Guillermo Pimentel, another power hitter from the DR who signed for $2m back in 2009 (he’s now in the Appy league and has appeared as a top 5 prospect in several lists).
In other prospect news, the M’s have made a flurry of promotions in the minor leagues, with Vinny Catricala and James Paxton moving up to AA Jackson, Anthony Vasquez and Josh Fields moving to Tacoma, C/LF Angel Salome continues his comeback at High Desert, and tons of catchers moving up/around thanks to the M;s losing both of their backstops on one day.
The M’s have one more move to make: they need to call up a starter for Sunday’s game to take the place of Erik Bedard. Eric Wedge has said it’d be someone who wasn’t on the roster (ruling out a David Pauley/Aaron Laffey spot start), this has led many to speculate that the start will go to Tacoma RHP Blake Beavan, acquired in the Cliff Lee deal last year. He’s got two things going for him: he’s been hot recently and Sunday would be his turn in the rotation (he pitched on 6/28). The huge righty was abysmal for Tacoma in a late season call-up last year, and got out of the gate slowly in 2011 as well. But an uptick in his velocity’s made him an effective starter – he went 21 IP with 18 Ks, 5 BBs and 4 runs allowed over 3 starts this month before a terrible start the other day in Las Vegas.
Nothing really jumps out at you with Beavan – he doesn’t have a wipeout breaking ball, he doesn’t have great command, and he’s not going to light up radar guns (he was at 89-90 last year/April 2011 and is now 91-93, touching 94). If he can carry the newfound velocity with him, though, he could hopefully do a decent Doug Fister impersonation for a while. Fister always had better command, however. Beavan’s also had a bit of a HR problem, especially at home. They’d need a 40-man spot for Beavan, but they have several candidates for a DFA – from forgotten man Jeff Gray, OF Mike Wilson or P Yoervis Medina. They’d likely slip through waivers, the way Edward Paredes did this week.
The other spot start candidate in Tacoma is Luke French, who’s currently on the 40-man and who made 13 starts for the M’s last year. French, however, has been consistently awful this year, with 21 HRs given up in his 85 innings, and a FIP over 7. His velocity’s down a bit, and I’m not convinced he’s healthy
Update: It’s Beavan who’ll start tomorrow. M’s will wait on the roster move until tomorrow. Hat tip: Ryan Divish.
Photo of Beavan below:
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