Cactus League Game #8 – Diamondbacks at Mariners

marc w · March 9, 2012 at 11:18 am · Filed Under Mariners 

Fresh off of their fifth win in a row, the M’s resume beating up on National League teams today at 12:05. Today’s victim? 2011 NL West champs, the Arizona Diamondacks. Jason Vargas, who went four perfect innings over the weekend, gets the start against #3 overall draft pick and big-time prospect Trevor Bauer. The studious righty was discussed as a potential late-season call-up in the year he was drafted. He details all nine (9) pitches in his Darvishian repertoire in this fascinating story at MiLB.com.

Here’s the lineup, courtesy of Larry LaRue:
1: Figgins (3B)
2: Ryan (SS)
3: Ichiro (RF)
4: Carp (LF)
5: Wells (CF)
6: Peguero (DH)
7: Liddi (1B)
8: Jaso (C)
9: Kawasaki (2B)
SP: Vargas

Other notes:
The M’s have scored a total of 20 runs from the 7th inning on during their current 5 game winning streak. Our bench players/minor leaguers are clearly the cream of the Cactus League crop.
Three players who weren’t quite creamy enough to remain in major league camp were reassigned today – Philippe Valiquette, Steve Garrison and Jarret Grube.
Adam Moore’s injury may not be as severe as once thought, as he’s not going to have a cast. He’ll be held out of action for at least two weeks, but it’s a little bit of good news for a guy who could use some.

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Comments

14 Responses to “Cactus League Game #8 – Diamondbacks at Mariners”

  1. 9inningknowitall on March 9th, 2012 11:29 am

    Its really good to hear that Adam Moore’s luck might be changing ever so slightly. I really hope he comes around because that would add some nice depth to the team.

  2. MrZDevotee on March 9th, 2012 11:51 am

    Good news for Adam… Not sold on the guy, but man he’s had some awful luck. Just weird fluke stuff– it’s not like he’s pulling hamstrings out there.

    (On a side note, has the team warned Liddi not to go all the way out to the on deck circle during Peguero’s at bats– talk about fluke accidents, it’d be like walking into a propellor blade if he got hit by airwaves during Peggy’s high speed flailing?)

  3. Mariners35 on March 9th, 2012 12:18 pm

    I am now rooting for the term “Darvishian” to take off.

    Also: no Montero or Smoak? Are they in a b-squad game or somesuch?

  4. Paul B on March 9th, 2012 12:54 pm

    A good record in the first couple of weeks of March probably does mean that your AAA guys are better than the other team’s AAA guys.

  5. Kingdomer on March 9th, 2012 1:45 pm

    so vargas got rocked… ugghh why do i think this is a preview of coming attractions?

  6. groundzero55 on March 9th, 2012 1:55 pm

    Vargas always got rocked once every three or four outings, that’s his normal pattern.

    So is the game over now? MLB radio won’t let me stream it, and spring games are all free, so…

  7. stevemotivateir on March 9th, 2012 3:20 pm

    ^MLB owns the rights to the online broadcasts. The game was on 710.

    Liddi and Carp hit the ball real well today. I wouldn’t worry about Vargas. He may have simply been trying to work on a specific pitch. Kuo gave up two walks, two hits (one being a homer), two earned runs, in 2/3 innings. He’s struggles continue.

  8. Westside guy on March 9th, 2012 5:08 pm

    Liddi and Carp hit the ball real well today. I wouldn’t worry about Vargas. He may have simply been trying to work on a specific pitch.

    Sauce for the goose…

    If we should discount Vargas’ spring training struggles today – and I agree with you – we also have to take how well a person hits in spring training (Liddy, Saunders, Peguero, Carp… Mike Sweeney) with a big grain of salt. The primary goal of the pitchers they’re facing isn’t necessarily trying to get guys out; they’re working on stuff, just like everyone else.

  9. Breadbaker on March 9th, 2012 5:16 pm

    Okay, Marc, where is Ichiro!’s !?

  10. Tony C on March 9th, 2012 7:17 pm

    Mariners “winning record” has more to do with their early start than anything else.
    Glad to hear Moore will be back soon.

  11. georgmi on March 9th, 2012 8:19 pm

    Ichiro wasn’t really Ichiro! last year. I think maybe he’s gotta earn that bang back.

  12. stevemotivateir on March 9th, 2012 9:46 pm

    @Westside

    It is good to see guys like Liddi, Saunders, and Peguero hit well. I was especially happy to see Saunders hit off Weaver the other day (I believe he was the first to get a hit off him). But yeah, we can’t read into too much. I have yet to see a player hit .375-400 in spring, and put up the same numbers when the season starts. I was merely pointing out who appeared to be the top performers for the M’s today;)

  13. marc w on March 9th, 2012 11:25 pm

    A good question, Breadbaker. Given his new stance and new lineup slot, maybe he needs a new punctuation mark. He’s old, but could hit for more power… My vote is the interrobang.

  14. MrZDevotee on March 10th, 2012 12:45 am

    But Marc, we should add some other stuff in there for fun:

    Ichiro ?#*&@!

    (An interro-swear-word-bang gives him more attitude, makes him more fun for Americans– they can even put that on the back of his jersey: “?#*&@!”

    I mean, seriously, how many hits would he get on YouTube?! Great marketing for the team! **plus everyone knows old guys swear a lot**)

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