Game 31, Mariners at Athletics
Roenis Elias vs. Jesse Chavez, 7:05pm
More on last night’s prospect showdown later. Tonight, it’s a meeting between two of the least likely effective starters. Chavez has been a so-so to worse reliever for years, and Elias has been a so-so starter in the minor leagues – a guy whose path to the big leagues depended on a rash of injuries to starters, their back-ups, and the depth behind those guys.
Elias “succeeded” somehow with a 15:11 K:BB ratio by limiting hard contact and home runs. In his last two starts, though, his K:BB ratio’s up to 16:5. It’s impossible to know what to make of Elias or his seeming transformation in the past ten-fifteen days: he’s a tabula rasa, and apparently most of the data we had on him wasn’t all that predictive. He’s learning on the job, and while he’ll stumble every now and then, he looks capable of infinitely more than I would’ve thought back in February. I say “infinitely” advisedly, as I tried to look up his ZiPS projection from this spring. There wasn’t one. You can only project so many players, and Anthony Fernandez was on the 40-man and all… I checked the Steamer projections, but he had all of one inning.
Chavez DID have projections, and they were awful. 0.2 WAR by ZiPS, 0.3 by Steamer. He’d previously been a control-challenged fastball/slider guy, but a shift to the cutter seemed to help him harness his stuff a bit better in 2013. Still, you wouldn’t have pegged Chavez to be the A’s best pitcher through a month plus, even with Sonny Gray’s emergence. Damn it.
1: Saunders, RF
2: Jones, CF
3: Cano, 2B
4: Hart, DH
5: Smoak, 1B
6: Seager, 3B
7: Ackley, LF
8: Zunino, C
9: Miller, SS
SP: Elias
Mariano Rivera’s book apparently had some less-than-flattering comments about Robbie Cano. First his hitting coach, then the team’s HOF closer…we’ll see what Jeter says about is erstwhile DP partner after he retires. Clearly, people didn’t care for certain aspects of Cano’s preparation/hustle/whatever, though I’m still struggling to figure out how it cost them runs/games.
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232 Responses to “Game 31, Mariners at Athletics”
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That’s a lot of booing from fans of a team that is in first place and has won the last couple division titles.
Mariners! Let’s take first place boys!
Wow. Mr. Saunders, maybe right field is more your speed? Dammit…
Get the 3rd out please. Pretty please.
Classic case of premature enunciation by Sims.
Only thing that would have made that worse was Sims saying Gutierrez in that sentence. Ugh.
Yes! Nice job boys!
Did Blowers just say Rodney had thrown a lot of pitches…? “10 pitches… 8 strikes…”
Um, I think he’ll be okay…
35 minutes, let’s do it again, boy! Please be on your game Erasmo… Pretty please.
Time to get some gravy …….. Sweep ’em!!!
So what did I miss – what’d Saunders do?
I know we’re not really supposed to make uneducated comments like this, but after falling behind in this game, it felt exactly like the kind of game we would have lost in seasons past.
Also, don’t look now, but Rodney’s K/9, BB/9, ERA, FIP, and xFIP are now all better than they were last year.
Go M’s!!! 1 back!!
Westy-
Started in, stopped, went back, ball went over his head to the fence for a double…
Can we get rid of Dave Sims, now? The man is just an embarrassment as an announcer. He simply cannot judge anything hit into the outfield.
Saunders “Almonte’d” it, in other words. 😛
Dave Sims hate should be an autoban offense.
David Sims is a lot better than Niehaus was his last 5 years or so.
Sims is in his 7th year with the M’s. I and others like him. Obviously the team likes him. For those of you who don’t, really, you’ve been whining for 7 years. Buy a clue. He’s not going anywhere. Get over it already.
I actually like Dave Sims a lot. He and Blowers are a heck of a lot better than most of the TV teams I’ve seen.
He’s not Neihaus, but that’s a very high bar.
I like Dave Sims – he’s an enthusiast, a personality trait I admire.
Man, a couple days ago I was listening to the Oakland feed. Their play by play guy was okay, but they had some ex-scout color guy named “Shooty” or “Skooty” or something like that. He was just absurdly awful. It was painful to listen to.
Yeah I heard that guy for Oakland and it was as if they pulled some guy out of the bleachers to do color commentary….it was brutal to listen to.
Saunders misjudged a ball in the sun. A ball hit a long way by a little dude. It wasn’t a complete Almonte. Definitely not a full Monty IMO. Just a ball in a bad spot
I like Sims, he just made a mistake. Similar to the one Saunders made.
I don’t understand the Sims dislike myself, either. He has some extremely high high quality calls.
Ok. Time for the 2nd game. I hope the M’s can chase Pomeranz early. I would really enjoy a laugher in the nightcap.
So Saunders is in center for game two, with Romero in right and Cole in left. Willie Boom Boom is our second baseman – Cano is DHing.
And don’t give us a new game thread … This one is working just fine.
Count me in the “I like Sims” boat… Rizz is WAY worse at calling popups in the outfield like they just left the stadium… Drives me nuts. “THAT BALL WILL… WILL… Be caught in short left by the SS…”
(And like someone else mentioned… Bless his heart, he’s a God to me, but Niehaus was awful his last couple years at judging flyballs…)
Can someone who follows the Rainiers closely please tell me what is going on with Gabriel Noriega. Can he maybe be “something”. Also, what’s up with Julio Morban. He hasn’t played in a while, but there is no injury report. Just a “re-assigned to new level” statement on his stat page.
Thank you.
Mike-
Morban’s recovery has slowed down from his broken leg and he got sent back to “extended Spring Training” last week for more rehab…
(Don’t know about Noriega)
Copy. Thanks, Z
Oh brother.
LF had a long way to go, but he’s gotta take charge on that ball.
I am down on Millers D, but I don’t blame him for that wind aided no mans land ball. It’s just one run. Let it go and get it back.
FYI….there is now a thread for the second game.