Cactus League Game 16/17, Split Squad Day!
So we’re running a day-night not-doubleheader today and the first game starts in a few. This will a Gameday affair as, more than anything else, spring training is about tantalizing. It’s about thinking that guys could work it out because of relevant training or dietary changes and it’s about having the pitcher/hitter you want to see or hear not be on the TV or radio broadcast because you can’t be trusted with that kind of joy just yet. We’ll have to be eased in slowly.
at Brewers, 1 pm
2B Ackley
SS Kawasaki
C Montero
1B Smoak
3B Liddi
CF Saunders
LF Robinson
RF Daniel Carroll
DH Morla
P FELIX
So what happens instead? What happens if you don’t get that thing that you wanted? This is what happens. This is what you get.
at Oakland, 7 pm (RADIO)
CF Figgins
SS Rodriguez
RF Ichiro
LF Carp
DH Wells
3B Seager
1B Jaso
C Sucre
SS Noriega
P Iwakuma
Here’s something that caught my eye in the futility of spring training stats the other day. Guess the third baseman!
A: 28 AB, 5 R, 8 H, 2 HR, 5 RBI, 7/0 K/BB, .286/.286/.500
B: 18 AB, 7 R, 7 H, 4 2B, 4 RBI, 3/3 K/BB, .389/.522/.611
Player A is Seager! Player B is Liddi! Wacky, huh? Liddi has also come to spring training claiming to have a new approach, which may be a good thing since in the winter leagues, he was terrible. Whether or not this change amounts to anything is up to a larger sample to decide.
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35 Responses to “Cactus League Game 16/17, Split Squad Day!”
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Who the heck are Daniel Carroll and Ramon Morla? If they’ve been prominently featured in pre-season minor league reviews and reports, I’m blanking on them. Are they the their-position-of-the-future at anything in particular?
Also, I don’t know if it was just me, but Liddi looked kinda not good yesterday. Splitting time at 1b/3b in AAA sounds good from here.
Lastly: any over/under on who gets cut tonight or tomorrow? I mean, besides the 3 I mentioned here.
It’s interesting that you would say that Liddi didn’t look good yesterday because he didn’t play yesterday.
Carroll and Morla aren’t really the future of much of anything. Morla seemed like he could be an interesting addition to the third base pile, but then he completely fell flat after his Pulaski campaign. Carroll was drafted in 2007 out of high school and last year was the first time he’d exceeded 100 games because he had a nasty habit of leaning into pitches and getting himself hurt. He walks a lot and is decent on defense, but he’ll need to hit outside of High Desert, obviously.
Since this is the last of the split squad days, I’m expecting to see a good number of cuts tomorrow.
Man, Liddi looked terrible yesterday – he didn’t do much of ANYTHING. 😀
Crap, no Gameday audio – I was hoping to listen while I worked.
“Trayvon Robinson strikes out swinging” – now there’s a shocker.
All right, so Ramon Morla did something positive.
D’oh! I could’ve sworn Liddi was in the game at some point yesterday. Perhaps I’m conflating that with some other appearance of his.
See how little he stands out? See how easy it is to lose track of him or confuse him with other guys? I think this comes around to prove my larger point anyway!
Live feed going on right now on http://www.mariners101.com or click here for direct access http://sport-ne.ws/bqo
2-run homer for Alex Liddi in the 8th. His hot spring continues, despite the GIDP earlier.
Whoa, an Anthony Phillips sighting.
Liddi home run, preceded by a Montero walk. Oh yes.
I for one hope Liddi can keep up this .389 average for the rest of the season.
Mariners35-
Nice bit of Pineilla-esque hardcore coaching there, calling Liddi unremarkable… He must have his iPhone in the dugout and read your comments, right before his homer. “These kids need a kick in the butt sometimes…”
*laugh*
Certainly none of them are “there” yet, but I don’t feel nearly as afraid of the future at 3B when considering the ongoing development of Seager, Liddi, Catricala, and Martinez…
As a strong utility guy, and with the current roster, it plays out pretty well to just let Seager do his scrappy thing out there till one of the “kids” takes the job away. Then Seager would assume his more natural role as be-all/do-all bench guy (aka Kyle “Lefty” Bloomquist, with a higher ceiling).
And if none of that works out, we can go free agent shopping next winter.
Ackley with 3 hits and no runs scored, including a double.
If there is a team that has stranded a lead-off hitter more than the Mariners over the last 3 years, I’d think their fans had all thrown themselves off bridges by now.
Went to the game today in Tucson. A few observations:
Felix is awesome. He looked like a man among boys, effortlessly going through the lineup (admittedly I hadn’t heard of more than a couple of the Brewers, but still).
Ackley is a baller. He worked the count in all his at bats and smoked three doubles. He looks like something special.
Smoak didn’t look good. Didn’t make good contact in any of his at bats. Same for Liddi until he hit the homer, off some reliever I hadn’t heard of. But against Estrada he didn’t look very good.
Overall, great warm day and a nice Mariner following here in Tucson. It was also very nice to see the M’s with 13 hits and not the two that the Brewers had!
I still would like to see Luis Rodriguez get enough hits to make the team.
Ichiro!
Sounds like the fielding isn’t so hot.
damn…. damn, and damn again.
Yeah, Carp’s getting tested early.
Iwakuma not looking so hot. .
Throwin’ a lot of sliders up in the zone, so says Blowers anyway.
I wonder if Iwakuma just bought a ticket to Tacoma.
Jaso really interests me. Hasn’t played as much as I thought he would this spring, but he’s a left handed hitting catcher with speed, and we got him for a mid-reliever with baggage. I expect to see him take a lot more starts from Olivo this year.
Iwakuma’s probably working on a specific pitch plan. I’d be surprised if he didn’t make the team despite the rough outings.
This inning went better for him. Hopefully he’s settling down.
His hits were all doubles.
If he’s been outpitched by other candidates through Spring Training, I don’t see why the team would go with him. So far, he has not looked consistent at all.
He has been out-pitched by pretty much every other potential starter. But seems like they have plans for him, as they’re quick to defend and pass-off his struggles. Ramirez would get my vote, followed closely by Furbush, assuming Beavan and Millwood have the other two potentially-open spots locked.
Anybody know where to watch the game online? I can’t get gameday on my iPad.
Maybe yahoo sports?
my bad, not available there either
That Oakland game looked depressingly like one of last year’s.
Even with Montero and Jaso, one of my fears is that we will see a lot of Olivo again this year.
I just get the impression that Wedge sees the dingers, and not the OPS. Maybe I’m wrong, but that is the message I saw in his decisions last year.
Can we bank some of these Spring Training wins and keep them for the regular season? Like, anytime we face a team that we beat in ST, we just say “Nope, we already played this and won. We can play again, but just for funsies.” Is that something we can start doing?
To Mariners35:
Who’s Daniel Carroll? I’m Daniel Carroll.