Cactus League Game 12, Rangers at Mariners
This is another game that won’t be on radio or TV. That’s the bad news. The good news is that games will be broadcast on Wednesday and Thursday at 7 pm, giving us a bit of a fix, and then the following Sunday’s game will also be on TV at 1 pm. Be apprised.
For a lineup, we have this:
CF Figgins
SS Ryan
RF Ichiro
DH Montero
LF Carp
C Olivo
1B Liddi
3B Catricala
2B Kawasaki
P Beavan
I’m not really all that enthusiastic about that, so instead what I’m going to do here is use the post as an outlet for neat news stories that have come out over the past day or so. Geoff Baker had the most detailed story I’ve yet seen on who Erasmo Ramirez is and where he came from, which talks about how he had to go to El Salvador and train there before he was noticed by the scouts (little known fact). This goes along with the Shannon Drayer piece that Marc posted yesterday. Right now, there’s talk that Erasmo could break with the M’s to start the season. This has led to a few comparisons popping up now and then so I’ll address that even if the two aren’t really comparable in build.
A: 122.1 IP, 16.4 K%, 9.5 BB%
B: 110.1 IP, 16.8 K%, 5.6%
A is Doug Fister in his second year in West Tenn (curiously, his first year was better in some respects). B is Erasmo in Jackson last year. Fister had a another full year of time in the minor leagues that, at which point his walks dropped to 3.6%. That’s one of the reasons I don’t especially like the comp. But both are right-handed strike-throwers that don’t walk dudes, so it keeps coming up. I wouldn’t necessarily be opposed to Erasmo breaking with the team, but his secondary offerings still need some work and he’s right on the threshold of the strikeout comfort zone. We’ll see.
As for the national media’s attention to our pitching prospects, Ken Rosenthal had a comprehensive article on the three that brought in a lot of quotes from Zduriencik, Willis, and Miguel Olivo, who has been catching all of these guys. It also brings in an interesting point that I had forgotten about: Zduriencik was the Mets farm director back when Generation K was coming up. On the whole, I would characterize it as cautiously positive about the plan as it stands, though I’m of the opinion that we also really need to develop some hitting internally in order to carry this through.
The last piece I have to share is one on the main site where Carl Willis talks about the bond between Walker, Paxton, and Hultzen. The Paxton/Walker relationship had been talked about a bit last year when both were in Clinton, and Hultzen seems to have slipped into that pretty easily. Now they’re talking about not wanting to split the group up so, I don’t know, maybe all of them end up in Jackson? It would be pretty ambitious to slot Walker there and have him skip over advanced-A entirely, but given the conundrums that High Desert presents us with, it may end up as the better option.
So, baseball?
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7 Responses to “Cactus League Game 12, Rangers at Mariners”
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Just got back from my 1st Spring Training! My Oh My! Yeah, Paxton, Walker, and Hultzen were always standing together. My gf got a lot of great shots of the “Three Headed Monster.” Maybe they do feed off of one another the way the ’90s Braves rotation did. Plus we’ve still got Ramirez, Noesi, Beavan, and Furbush fighting for rotation spots as well.
Catricala has become my new favorite to make the team. Problem is, Liddi, and Seager are having good springs as well. Heck, Liddi has more walks than strikeouts so far, small sample of course. I’m liking the position battles that are beginning to evolve right before our very eyes.
As far as Ramirez goes, I’d love to see him make the roster out of the pen. Let him face some major league pitching. He’ll have an edge and might be a lot more comfortable next year. Heck, we could have an injury and have him step up into that role sometime during the season.
Anyone else getting a screwed up Gameday? I’m not seeing the pitch-by-pitch correctly, the data is all jumbled together from multiple batters.
Montero, with the double and a walk. No K’s. Does he still have no sprink K’s?
I was at my 6th M’s spring game today. Catricala continues to have a very consistent spring bat – he and Montero both seem to square everything up. It’s been an exciting spring with Saunders exceeding expectations game after game, Seager looking very Ackley like, and all the buzz around the foursome of young starters. Todays revelation was Brad Miller who hit a screaming line drive single and made a couple of nice defensive plays. Our next game is KC on Wednesday.
This spring is going incredibly better that I expected. Montero has hit like a seasoned all-star, Catricala showing real skills with the bat. All the young starters have gone above and beyond. Even Figgins is starting to show good at-bats. It may be early yet, but if this is a glimpse of the future, I’m certainly psyched about it.
harry: My game day has been fine
Have you seen Walker pitch? Not a doubt in my mind he can skip advanced A.