Game 32, Padres at Mariners
James Paxton vs. Ian Kennedy, 7:10pm
Everything feels better after an intra-division sweep. Dave had a great article on the star-crossed A’s and their horrible luck at Fangraphs yesterday, but it’s worth your time. You get much the same picture by looking at raw team stats – the A’s have a team wRC+ of 101, and are scoring 4.6 runs per game. The M’s, thanks to a poor OBP, are at 94 and 3.8, respectively. For pitching, the M’s have a better K:BB ratio, but the A’s edge in HRs-allowed means they’ve got the superior team FIP. They’re both awful by UZR, but the A’s have a sizable advantage in DER. The A’s even have the edge in run differential. They looked out of sorts for the reasons Dave highlighted (awful performance in high leverage situations), but they aren’t awful. This isn’t to minimize what the M’s did this past weekend – it magnifies it. The M’s swept a decent club, a team that won’t be in the cellar the whole year. In a tight division, that has added meaning.
Today, the new-look Padres come to town with their overhauled roster and high expectations. They’re currently second in the NL West behind the juggernaut in Los Angeles, and they’ve done it through a combination of A’s-like sequencing luck and solid raw power. It’s kind of interesting that both the M’s and Padres – two teams that inhabit extremely HR-suppressing parks – find themselves in the top half of the league in ISO this season. It’s not THAT surprising, given that both teams very consciously sought to improve that aspect of their club, but the M’s have been trying for years without a lot to show for it. The Padres compressed years of personnel moves into one incredible off-season, as new GM AJ Preller made blockbuster trade after blockbuster trade. Instead of hoping that Chase Headley’s power comes back, the Padres now have Justin Upton, Wil Myers, Derek Norris and Matt Kemp in the middle of the order. Upton and Norris have been great thus far, and Myers’ start is much more reminiscent of his 2013 than his 2014. On the other hand, Will Middlebrooks has disappointed again, and Matt Kemp’s slow start in the field and the plate have him near the bottom of the league in WAR. It’s all added up to a team scoring 4.64 runs per game, good for 7th in baseball, right behind the Twins (?) and just ahead of the A’s.
Unfortunately, the offense isn’t the only group that’s getting used to more in-game power. The pitching staff has the second worst HR rate in baseball, and therefore an abysmal FIP. While their ERA is a bit better than that, 4.07 in 2015, playing half your games in Petco is simply not getting it done. Ian Kennedy is one of the prime offenders (along with James Shields), giving up 5 HRs in less than 20 innings thus far. Kennedy went 21-4 for Arizona in 2011, using a located 91mph fastball, a curve and a good change-up to a solid season that looked even better than that by “wins” and ERA. He wasn’t able to maintain that level of performance, as HR issues plagued him occasionally, and the D-Backs cut bait, shipping him to San Diego for a lefty reliever and an A-ball closer. Kennedy rebounded with a brilliant 2014 and was the subject of lots of trade rumors down the stretch. The Pads ended up keeping him but this is his last arb year; Kennedy will likely be a free agent at the end of 2015.
Like a number of other pitchers, Kennedy’s fastball has actually gotten *faster* since his career year of 2011. It’s now around 93, thrown from a lower angle, giving it run along with plenty of vertical rise. That rise has helped push his GB rates down below 40% for pretty much his entire career, but he’s up around 47% in the early going this year. That doesn’t seem to be related to any changes in his pitches; it may just be the result of keeping his fastball lower than he did in the past. In 2011, Kennedy’s out pitch was his change, which he threw at 81, and which he used as his putaway pitch to *right handers*. It’s always had great whiff rates, and it still does, but he’s liable to make mistakes with it. He’s given up 27 HRs on the change in his career, which has pushed his ISO on the pitch up, despite the fact that he uses it more in favorable counts.
Since 2011, his FB velocity’s up over 1mph, but the real change has come with his, uhhhh, change. These days, it’s touching 85. It was up 3mph from 2013 to 2014, and it’s maintained (and even extended) those gains in 2015. He’s given up 2 HRs on it out of 40 total cambios though, so it’s not like the velocity has cured his tendency to hang the odd pitch. In his career, he’s got essentially zero platoon splits – by wOBA and FIP, there’s just nothing there. A four-seamer and change-up-heavy pitch mix is part of the reason, as is his curve ball, which looks great despite the fact he doesn’t throw too many of them. It’s not imperative to stack the line-up with lefties, but it IS imperative that the M’s look for and punish fastballs that stray over the heart of the plate and centered change-ups.
1: Smith, LF
2: Miller, DH
3: Cano, 2B
4: Cruz, RF
5: Seager, 3B
6: Morrison, 1B
7: Ackley, CF
8: Zunino, C
9: Taylor, SS
SP: Paxton
Still no Hisashi Iwakuma, who won’t start throwing for another 10-14 days, apparently. Roenis Elias has been solid in his stead, but man, the M’s could really use another top-flight starter. James Paxton, if you wanted to start pitching the way you did last year, this would be a good time.
Jeff’s got a fun article about Carlos Peguero’s strangely solid start this year in Arlington. As I mentioned over there, while the patience and swing rate are new, and real improvements, we still haven’t seen Peguero fix his old struggles with velocity. At this point, Peguero *still* hasn’t hit a HR on a pitch over 90mph. I took a look at a random smattering of hitters at Baseball Savant and looked at their slugging percentage on contact. For pitches between 90-94, Nelson Cruz is up over .700, and Brad Miller and even Chris Taylor are over .500. Dustin Ackley looks shaky at .432, but Peguero comes in last at an absurd .310. But what happens when he look at pitches thrown between 80-90? Now it’s Peguero at the top of the heap, with a SLG% over .800. I would honestly be happy for Carlos if he keeps up this weird poor man’s John Jaha thing going for a going-nowhere Rangers ballclub. Still, I think it’s going to be tough to hack it if you can’t drive even mediocre fastball velocity. Punishing mistakes is great, and not swinging at balls is even better, but this flaw may still be a fatal one in a league with record high average velos and ever-improving advanced scouting.
The story in the M’s affiliates last night was Danny Hultzen’s second start, this time against Biloxi (who hired radio guy Chris Harris away from Jackson). Hultzen went 2 2/3 IP, giving up 2 runs on 4 hits and 3 walks. He struck out 2. Jimmy Gilheeney was again brilliant in long relief, and the Generals won the game 8-3. DJ Peterson went 2-4 with a 2B. Misael Siverio starts tonight for the Generals against Tyler Wagner of the Shuckers. Wagner’s a 2012 4th rounder who’s cruised through the minors, posting great ERAs and extremely low HR totals thanks to a very good sinker. He finished 2nd in the FSL last year to uberprospect Tyler Glasnow, but Wagner’s never going to get a lot of hype thanks to a lack of Ks (and the bat-missing stuff that produces them). Sickels had him as the #8 Brewers prospect, for what it’s worth.
DJ Peterson’s brother, who plays for high-A Carolina in the Braves organization, was on the bus that flipped over in a late-night accident last night. He, and the rest of the team, seems to be OK, but tonight’s game has been postponed.
The Rainiers built a big lead and got 7 great innings from Justin Germano, but had to hold on for a 9-7 win over Fresno. Dominic Leone’s AAA debut didn’t go too well, as he gave up 4 runs on a Jon Singleton grand slam in his one inning of work. Yoervis Medina pitched the 9th, and gave up a solo HR of his own, this one to Luis Flores. John Hicks and Leury Bonilla homered off of Grizzlies starter/ex-A’s starter Dan Straily. Sam Gaviglio takes on Andrew Heaney of Salt Lake tonight at 6:05.
Edwin Diaz gave up 2 runs (on 2 HRs) in 6 IP, but Visalia came back to beat Bakersfield in extras. Tyler O’Neill hit his 7th HR, and Tyler Marlette’s slump continued with another 0-4. Bakersfield’s gotten amazing pitching, but their *team* OPS is under .600. In the California League. That’s…well, it’s last in the league by a mile, of course. The team with the shortest CF wall that I’ve heard of has a slugging percentage of .309. Onward and upward though – tonight Ryan Yarbrough faces off with John Richy of Rancho Cucamonga.
Clinton topped Wisconsin yesterday 8-3, getting Eddie Campbell a win in his first appearances of the season. Alex Jackson had a double and 3 RBIs, and the L-Kings got HRs from Kristian Brito and Taylor Zeutenhorst, a 34th rounder out of Iowa last year who was playing his first game for Clinton since moving down from Bakersfield. The L-Kings played Wisconsin this morning, and came away with another win – this one by a score of 4-3. Brito homered again, his 3rd on the year, and Joe DeCarlo doubled. Jeferson Medina had his best start of the year, yielding just 1 hit (but he walked 5) in 6 scoreless IP. The L-Kings scored 2 off of Wisconsin starter Cy Sneed, whose name and visage mark him as someone dropped into uniform directly from 1895. The Brewers apparently had a rule about lawless frontier-style mustaches in their affiliated minors, but that picture shows him in uniform this year, so maybe the Brewers had a change of heart.
In other, sadder, M’s minors news, Daniel Missaki, the Brazilian kid who started Clinton’s team no-hitter a few weeks back just had Tommy John surgery today. He (and Ramire Cleto) had the procedure in Seattle, according to Bob Dutton of the TNT.
Game 31, Athletics at Mariners
Felix Hernandez vs. Jesse Chavez, 1:10pm
Happy Felix Day, and a very happy Mother’s Day. It was my mom who instilled a love of baseball in me as a toddler, and it’s my wife who tolerated my love of baseball and encouraged me to take our kids to countless Rainiers games.
The M’s go for the sweep against the reeling A’s, who are now a full game below Texas in last place. Their bullpen’s been atrocious, as we saw in the first game of the series, but their rotation’s been hurt by underperformance and injury. Jesse Hahn’s better than he looked yesterday, but he clearly hasn’t quite adjusted to the AL quite yet. So today the A’s are turning to Jesse Chavez, the reliever turned (effective) starter turned swingman again. Chavez’s career took off in Oakland, but he never seemed like a great candidate to move to starting, but he made 21 starts last season and was a key part of the A’s torrid start. His pitch mix changed pretty dramatically last year, as he opted for the old Brandon McCarthy special – out with the four-seamer, and in with a sinker and cutter. His fastball’s around 92-93, and he’s also got a change and a curve ball. The change-up’s a plus pitch, and it helped him dominate left-handers – he limited lefties to a sub-.300 wOBA last year, and he’s been just as successful in the early going of 2015. With the influx of new players like Hahn and Kendall Graveman, Chavez began the year in the bullpen. He moved back to the rotation in late April, and I’d expect he’ll remain there for the rest of the year. The A’s depth has taken a big hit with Jarrod Parker’s recent injury, and Drew Pomeranz has been shaky since a solid start.
1: Smith, LF
2: Weeks, DH
3: Cano, 2B
4: Cruz, RF
5: Seager, 3B
6: Morrison, 1B
7: Ackley, CF
8: Miller, SS
9: Sucre, C
SP: El Rey
Miller’s back at SS today after Chris Taylor suffered a hand injury in last night’s game.
Tacoma’s game should be an interesting one. The Rainiers have called up Bakersfield reliever Trey Cochran-Gill to make a spot start today at Fresno. He’s obviously close by, given that he’s in the Cal League, and AAA teams do this occasionally if they’re low on pitchers – it’s not necessarily a sign that the M’s are really high on someone. That said, I’ve been intrigued by Cochran-Gill since he got a few innings for the M’s this spring. He’s got a low-90s fastball with good sink and some run, and he’s putting up extremely high ground ball rates thus far in high-A. That’s a good plan when your home park has a CF wall only 350′ away, and it’s a good plan in the homer-happy PCL as well.
Stephen Landazuri’s making the start today for Jackson as they finish up the series with Chattanooga. They’ll be home to face Biloxi tomorrow – Biloxi’s the new club in the Southern League – with Danny Hultzen on the mound.
The suddenly Cochran-Gill-less Bakersfield Blaze are off today. They lost an 8-6 decision to Visalia yesterday, despite a two-HR game from the surging Tyler O’Neill. Unfortunately for the Blaze, as O’Neill’s awoken, Tyler Marlette’s cooled off – he’s in a 3-37 slump. Edwin Diaz takes the hill for Bakersfield tomorrow.
Clinton’s also off today, but they’ll open a series at Wisconsin on Monday.
Game 30, Athletics at Mariners
JA Happ vs. Jesse Hahn, 6:10pm
Man, walkoffs take a lot of pressure off a team. Now it’s Oakland in the cellar, and they’re off to their worst start since 2001, when they…awww, come on!
Hahn’s the righty they got from San Diego in the trade of Derek Norris. At the time, it seemed insane for Oakland to ship out Norris, a high-OBP/solid D catcher AND maybe-ex-catcher, but still a decent lefty bat John Jaso and essentially hand the starting gig to Steven Vogt. Let’s just say Vogt’s off to a good start. Hahn was a sinker/curve guy primarily last year, but he also had a four-seam, a change and a slider. This year, he’s using his four-seamer a bit more, and it’s come at the expense of the curve. It was always a good guess that his K rate would come down as he moved from NL to AL, but it’s plummeted from 22.9% to 14.3%. That said, his walk rate been cut by two thirds, so his FIP’s still fairly pretty. As I mentioned about the entire A’s club, though, it’s sequencing that’s hurting Hahn. His strand rate is an absurd 55%, and while that’ll regress, it’s a partial reason the A’s have won only one of Hahn’s five starts this year.
1: Smith, LF
2: Miller, DH
3: Cano, 2B
4: Cruz, RF
5: Seager, 3B
6: Morrison, 1B
7: Zunino, C
8: Ackley, CF
9: Taylor, SS
SP: Happ
Tyler Olson’s option has been rescinded and he’s been placed on the 15-day DL with a knee contusion suffered against the Astros back on the 2nd. That means this doesn’t yet count as one of Olson’s option years.
Miller’s at DH again today, but could see action in the OF as soon as tomorrow, according to Bob Dutton.
Mike Montgomery starts for Tacoma tonight, Carlos Misell for Bakersfield, and Jake Zokan for Jackson. Clinton already played, and got crushed 14-3. Each of the M’s full-season affiliates are now below .500.
Game 29, Athletics at Mariners
Taijuan Walker vs. Sonny Gray, 7:10pm
Well. The M’s begin a homestand against a key divisional rival, and tonight’s pitching match-up pits the A’s ace against a promising youngster, and if the M’s take *this* one, then that just opens up the rest of the series, and…. I would love to be excited about this series. This really is a big one, considering that either the M’s or A’s could see their playoff odds absolutely smashed at the end of it. But as everyone knows, we’ve had way too many “huge” or “critical” series in May, when the M’s have one last chance to stay relevant. We’ve had precious few September series that really, really mattered, where you were scanning the pitching probables days ahead and planning exactly how to watch the first few innings of that 4:05 east coast start. Somehow, last year, we had both. We had the 8 game losing streak and irrelevance in late April, and then, miraculously, a run at the wild card that wasn’t over until the last day.
Two consequences of that set of facts: one, I think some M’s fans greatly overestimate the odds of it happening again, and two, another group of fans are reacting to the mismatch between expectations and early results and just giving up. The M’s were bad last April, and were under .500 in May, but the 2014 M’s were never this far down, and, crucially, they never had this many teams to leapfrog. At some point, and reasonable people can argue that we haven’t hit that point yet, it’s more about the number of teams in the way than it’s about the gap to the front of the pack. Could the Astros go 0 for June? I’ve seen recent Astros teams, and I think some of them actually did that – so yes, yes, they could. But that’s not all that needs to happen. The other side of the coin, though, is that it’s too early to say the season has nothing to show us. The odds on the M’s winning the division aren’t great, and they’re dropping by the day, but I’m interested in some/any sign of what the next really good M’s team will look like. We thought we’d assembled it, and a mixture of normal variance and even-more-normal over-rating some players illustrate that we’re not quite there yet. OK, so exactly what needs to change? Does the team look radically different with Brad MIller in CF, or does it look like a team running a streaky-hitting SS in center because they bet the house on an Austin Jackson rebound? It sounds pathetic to hope for a different, fake kind of relevance, but we’re all used to it and it’s still true that the team is better than they’ve played thus far. It may be too late for that to matter, but I’d love them to prove me wrong.
The A’s have had every bit as disappointing a year as the M’s. Even after trading in Josh Donaldson, they seemed like a dangerous team poised at the fringe of the playoff race, and they could easily push their chips in if they found themselves in a good spot in July. Instead, they’re 12-18, percentage points above the M’s. I’m fascinated, because so many of the things that looked like serious weaknesses or risks haven’t actually bitten them. It’s not that Ike Davis and Marcus Semien haven’t hit – they have, and hell, Ike Davis has even *pitched* well. Sonny Gray hasn’t regressed, he’s just as good as ever. Instead, they’ve been undone by sequencing and depth. The back of their rotation was in worse shape than we thought, and thus Kendall Graveman now toils in the PCL. Their overall wRC+ and ERA are perfectly fine, but their pythagorean winning percentage is still bad. They look good every now and again, but they have been utterly annihilated by the Minnesota freaking Twins. Tough team to understand.
Sonny Gray’s their ace, a small right-hander with a 94mph cutter-ish four-seam fastball with essentially no horizontal movement and plenty of rise. He pairs it with a sinker, a curve, a rare change-up and a slider that he’s reworked for 2015. Last year, his slider came in at 87 and had more sink than horizontal break – it moved horizontally about 3.5″ more than his arrow-straight fastball. This year, it’s breaking over 6″ more than his fastball, and it’s dropping more too. It’s still at 87, so it’s not like he’s taking something off – its spin that doing this, not gravity. It was a tough pitch before, but it’s lethal now, especially to righties. Gray’s always had platoon splits, and he’s always been tough on righties, but this situation is tailor-made for the platoon-capable M’s. This really should be an off-day for Austin Jackson, and that’s in fact what we see:
1: Smith, LF
2: Miller, DH
3: Cano, 2B
4: Cruz, RF
5: Seager, 3B
6: Morrison, 1B
7: Zunino, C
8: Ackley, CF
9: Taylor, SS
SP: Walker
I get that you can’t just assume an ideal line-up all the time and that Miller isn’t ready to be a big league CF yet. But here’s Miller’s first start since the big announcement that he’s the new Ben Zobrist – your erstwhile shortstop DHs so you can shift your LF, the guy you didn’t like in CF last time, over to center, all of which necessitates your righty-hitting SS starts against Sonny Gray. I’d complain more if I was sure that Jackson’s a better hitter against RHPs than Chris Taylor right now, but I’m not. That’s the larger problem, of course, and one that Miller’s move may eventually assuage. But the M’s HAVE a lefty SS *on their team* *in their line-up* and have him DH, with Ackley playing CF. It’s… it’s very Mariners.
The R’s have good ol’ TBD on the mound tonight against Fresno. Andrew Heaney was no great shakes against Tacoma last night in Salt Lake, but the Bees still killed the R’s 11-4. Ketel Marte and Jesus Montero each hit three singles.
Scott DeCecco starts for Jackson against the Chattanooga Lookouts. Misael Siverio suffered his first really bad outing as the Lookouts beat the Generals 10-4 last night. DJ Peterson did have 2 hits, and Dario Pizzano had 2 as well, pushing his season line to .416/.444/.519 on the young season.
Tyler Pike will look to extend his modest streak of games without serious control lapses tonight against Visalia. Modesto blanked the Blaze 5-0 last night.
Pat Peterson starts for Clinton against Kane County. Gianfranco Wawoe’s hitting streak ended last night unfortunately.
Roll The Die
Okay, we’re back to do it again. The Mariners are fresh off a skid of, I don’t know, sucking, and at present they sit with the second-worst record in the American League. It’s time for me to issue a response, which means it’s time for me to leave the tenor of said response up to the whims of Microsoft Excel. To refresh your memory, here’s the first time this happened, when we all got to learn a cool thing about owls. The necessary details:
I’m here to talk about the Mariners in some way or another, though I’m 17% here to talk about owls. What’s there to be said about this baseball team, or owls? Let me roll the die.
Random number: 1!
Unrestrained Emotional Overreaction
As I’ve sat here, pretty much exactly here, following this compost heap of a baseball team, I can’t tell you how many times I’ve asked aloud, what the shit is this shit? It’s like the Mariners are playing roster problem Whac-A-Mole, where for everything they try to solve, another problem pops up somewhere else. Got Nelson Cruz to fix the lineup? Robinson Cano hurts the lineup. Add J.A. Happ to stabilize the rotation? Time for Taijuan Walker, miscalibrated pitching machine. Hey, Seth Smith is all right! But now the bullpen is more afraid of outs than Dustin Ackley is of hits. For good measure, we’ve also got a team that for whatever reason isn’t even playing fundamentally sound. The symbol of the season to date is Cano inexplicably wandering off third base. Look how close the Mariners can get! They don’t want to get any closer. The Mariners are comfortable observing good baseball, but they’ll be damned if they’re going to participate.
“Close.” That’s been kind of a buzzword. The Mariners over one stretch played 19 consecutive games decided by three runs or less. Since that ended, they’ve played four one-run games in a row, the streak interrupted only by a delightful drubbing at the hands of the Astros in a game the Mariners once led by three. People find consolation in close losses. “They’re right there,” it gets repeated. “One break and it’s a whole other result.” Yeah, that’s the thing about losses. Losses are basically just wins but with things that are bad instead of good. Every Dustin Ackley groundout to second is a matter of feet away from being a Dustin Ackley single into right-center! He’s practically Trout. The Mariners have the second-worst record in the American League. On the plus side, they have the second-worst run differential in the American League. Thank god for BaseRuns. Oh, the Mariners are 11-17? Well, according to BaseRuns, they should be 12-16. Plan the parade!
People like to point out that the Angels are a glorified one-man team. Well that might be, but if I say the Phillies are shitty, that doesn’t mean the Mariners aren’t shitty. Felix has started six times this season, and the Mariners have won six games. Which is outstanding, except for the fact that all of the other games have taken place and haven’t been rained out. Being 6-0 with Felix means the Mariners have also been 5-17 with not-Felix, and, I gotta tell you, most of the games aren’t Felix games, although at some point maybe the team should consider starting him every game day just to see. Have to try something, right? That one commercial might as well have been foreshadowing. We know Felix would be game for it. We know this because Felix is a very confident individual, and because Felix is stupid. Why else would he commit himself to the baseball-team equivalent of a dog standing up on its hind legs? It’s almost like the dog is a regular person, except for it being a dog.
You know who’s in first place right now? Of course you do, it’s the team that just recently swept this team. The Astros have almost twice as many wins as losses, which is interesting because just a few years ago they had twice as many losses as wins. The Astros bottomed out in 2011 and they’re already back and looking at a playoff spot. They’re already stocked with talent, and the problem with promoting Carlos Correa is they might have too many good players. The Mariners bottomed out in 2004, but I’m sure success is right around the corner. The Astros, despite all the mockery, despite all the disastrous PR, have lapped the Mariners, who’ve been looking for room to play Willie Bloomquist. Who’ve been stuck on Dustin Ackley, and Logan Morrison. Hey, Morrison’s hot! This time it has to be for real. And if something happens, there’s Jesus Montero. The dream of 2009 is alive in Seattle. The future was bright, and instead of wearing shades, the Mariners blinded themselves.
It’s been fun to watch Nelson Cruz obliterate baseballs and put spectators in mortal danger. And because he only ever hits solo dingers no one has to come away feeling too bad about themselves. It’s good theater and a good distraction, the Mariners saying “look over there!” whenever we think we smell something funny. Cruz is fleeting positivity, a puddle of water on a California sidewalk. Look, right there — that’s the solution to everything. That’s all that anybody needs. But the puddle will inevitably evaporate, just like all the other puddles. That’s what puddles do in that kind of environment.
That’s the root of all of this. You think the answer is other players, better players? It’s tempting. Alluring. Easy. Here is a roster, and here is a roster with a few better players. Voila, a good roster! That can be how it works elsewhere, but that’s not how it works here. The Mariners’ problem isn’t talent, and it hasn’t been about talent for years. The Mariners have as much talent as any other team. But there’s talent, and there’s converting that talent into success, and where other teams are locked in a space race, the Mariners are stuck in the Bronze Age. They can’t get good players out of good skills. Worse, good players seem to deteriorate, like they’re being drained. Ackley was automatic until he wasn’t. Mike Zunino has only gotten worse. Justin Smoak never did anything. Jesus Montero never did anything. Taijuan Walker isn’t progressing. James Paxton is frustrating. Austin Jackson is somehow hilariously bad. Robinson Cano’s OPS starts with a 6, and this is Year Two of a guaranteed 10. Kyle Seager was the one exception, the one miracle, but even he now seems defeated. By the way, D.J. Peterson is slugging .301. Alex Jackson is slugging .194. Nelson Cruz’s performance is almost adorable. Look at him, try to ignore his context. He’s so bold, so full of hope. It’s futile. It’s like life itself — in the end, death always wins. Cruz has been an oasis, but he’s going to Mariner it. It won’t be his fault, even though we’ll pretend it is.
Our exception is Felix Hernandez. In Felix, we have the perfect player, and the perfect pitcher, the perfect star and the perfect one-time prospect. You couldn’t possibly ask for more. He’s reached his ceiling and then some, and he’s been marketed so well the stadium is sometimes full of people in matching t-shirts chanting for him in unison. Between ourselves and Felix, it’s hard to say who carries the greater burden. Long ago, when the Mariners were shredding all their young arms, we asked for just one to survive and were given a curse. We got what we asked for. Felix is the victim. Rooting is a struggle between wanting more wins around Felix, and wishing for Felix to be granted his freedom. It makes no difference. There will never be enough wins. There will never be freedom.
There will never be freedom. This is our cage. If we look in the mirror, it’s almost like we have company.
Game 28, Mariners at Angels
Roenis Elias vs. CJ Wilson, 7:05pm
I talked about the Angels’ rotation’s downside risk before the year, and Matt Shoemaker and Jered Weaver have obliged. Wilson, though, has been strangely successful, as he’s given up just a single HR this year after battling serious gopheritis last year. His problems with righties had grown over time, and seemed like a harbinger of decline, but he’s been ok thus far. He shackled the M’s in the first series of the year, and he’s kept up a good string of results, giving up 2 runs or less in 4 of his 5 starts. Maybe the M’s learned something?
1: Weeks, DH
2: Bloomquist, LF
3: Cano, 2B
4: Cruz, RF
5: Seager, 3B
6: Zunino, C
7: Morrison, 1B
8: Ruggiano, CF
9: Taylor, SS
SP: Elias
Hmmmm. Or, you know, just throwing it out there: the Rainiers take on Salt Lake at 5:35. Justin Germano faces the Angels big pitching prospect Andrew Heaney (the return for Howie Kendrick). The R’s beat the Bees 5-2 behind Jordan Pries and two HRs by Franklin Gutierrez (my kingdom for a healthy-legged Franklin Gutierrez).
Jackson’s facing Chattanooga, with Jimmy Gilheeney facing Alex Wimmers, a former 1st round pick (2010) of the Twins.
Bakersfield has Ryan Yarbrough on the hill against Modesto.
Peoria blanked Clinton in Daniel Missaki’s first start since starting that team no-hitter on the weekend.
Hey, I just wrote about the Brad Miller position change, so scroll down and read that if you’re so inclined.
Brad Miller Is A League-Average Shortstop; Brad Miller Is An Ex-Shortstop
Soooo, Brad Miller will henceforth be the M’s version of Ben Zobrist, roving around the IF a bit and the OF a lot. With Chris Taylor in the fold, the M’s have a guy who can probably get to league average overall, and certainly has the defensive chops to handle shortstop. Brad Miller’s purported versatility allows the M’s to take advantage of their depth at the SS position to cover some of the holes that have appeared in the line-up. It’s even possible, per Lloyd McClendon, that the move to various spots further down the defensive spectrum will help his offense: “I think as a result I became a better offensive playe,” Lloyd told Ryan Divish. “I think this will help Brad as well.” It all sounds positive, but the move comes as the result of a series of problems, problems that don’t have a lot to do with Miller. Any club has to do the best it can with the personnel it has on hand, but each step in the logic chain is questionable. It’s May, and nobody’s won anything yet, but it looks like the move of a team that’s starting to feel a bit desperate.
In part, the reaction to this move hinges on one’s view of Brad Miller’s defense. This seems like a religious debate; some people just *feel* that he’s shaky. To be up front, I’m not really in that camp. I don’t think he’s a gold glover, but I think he’s a perfectly average SS, whose good arm and range overcome some yips when he tries to do too much too quickly. For whatever it’s worth, he’s been a few runs above average over his career by UZR – that seems right to me, though many people obviously quibble with these (or any other) numbers. If you see Chris Taylor as an above average SS, that’s great, but he’s not replacing a Mike Morse-level SS defender – the gains, if they’re there, are somewhat marginal, particularly with a month of the season already gone. If you think Taylor’s better, I certainly wouldn’t argue the point, though. The problem is that Miller offers a bit more with the bat, as you can see in their rest-of-season projections. Miller‘s at a 96 and 99 wRC+ by ZiPS and Steamer, respectively, while Taylor clocks in at 90 and 88. Taylor’s strikeout rate is, by itself, not particularly troubling. What it does, though, is put more pressure on him to do damage when he puts the ball in play. And that’s not something Taylor’s ever really going to do. When Taylor hits the ball really hard, it tends to go up the middle.
Taylor spray chart
As it happens, I think the M’s agree with the above. The problem isn’t at SS, it’s in the outfield. The M’s talked about Brad Miller playing OF in the winter, but then they opted to bring in three OFs – Justin Ruggiano, Seth Smith and Rickie Weeks. They also have had to use Nelson Cruz in the OF much, much more than they thought, thanks to an early groin injury that limited Smith’s mobility. The problem, though, has been with the OFs the M’s already had: Dustin Ackley and Austin Jackson. Ackley’s revamped his swing yet again (it’s its own “best shape of his life” story at this point) and it’s resulted in big changes to his batted ball trajectory – he’s not grounding out as much as he used to. Instead, he’s flying out. His swing path and launch have resulted in both fly balls and pulled contact, and *it’s still not enough*. Ackley’s fall after a promising first week has been one of many disappointments, and I don’t blame the M’s for looking into substitutions. If Smith is capable, he’d seem like a good candidate, though this would mean essentially keeping Cruz in the OF full time. Miller’s huge platoon splits make him a good candidate to work in LF with Rickie Weeks, until you remember that turning a starting big league shortstop into a platoon corner outfielder is about the most ridiculous thing imaginable.
Center field is another possibility, thanks to Austin Jackson’s continued struggles and, now, injury problems. Over his career, Jackson never really had much in the way of platoon splits. But he cratered against righties last season, and that’s been true the first month of 2015 as well. If the M’s think that’s permanent, a job share might make a bit more sense.
That said, it’s hard not to think back to some of the recent position changes and how they’ve fared. The M’s drafted Dustin Ackley as a CF (he played 1B his junior year due to TJ surgery), and had him play CF in the AFL after drafting him. Later on, they made a surprising move in making him a 2B, a position he hadn’t really played before. That’s where he came up, and by 2013, he was a capable defender at the keystone. With all of their SS depth (and then with Robbie Cano), the M’s moved him back to CF, and in a bid to spark his bat, to left. Whatever benefits to moving to the OF that accrued to Lloyd McClendon have not found their way to Ackley. This makes some sense: sure, it’s nice that you’re moving to another position, a position with fewer chances, but changing position requires a ton of work and thought. It’s not like Ackley had the luxury of concentrating on his hitting when he had to relearn CF, or adjust to LF. A year or two ago, the M’s officially took the catcher’s gear away from Jesus Montero and had him focus solely on his hitting. So, uh, last year happened. Even now, with his renewed focus and utterly transformed body, his batting line isn’t really where you’d want a PCL 1B’s to be. It’s too early to tell if Rickie Weeks will benefit from moving to the OF, but it hasn’t so far. The benefits of a position shift on the psychology of hitting aren’t discernible yet, if they’re there.
The M’s middle-infield surplus has been a boon to the club, as they turned Nick Franklin into Austin Jackson, and could conceivably turn Miller into a replacement for Jackson, all while having Taylor man SS. It’s really hard to second-guess the Jackson trade, which I still think was a great move. But it’s also hard to avoid thinking that the M’s have intractable problems, and that these problems have resulted in “spending” that IF surplus in some sub-optimal ways. The M’s have a young SS with decent defensive numbers and some pop in his bat and now feel the need to have him roam around the OF, patching holes and platooning with disappointments. It’s hard to see him being a plus CF early on, because he’s never tried it. Ackley wasn’t, and he at least played in college and at least a bit in the minor leagues. Sure, a number of IFs have made the move (as Erik Blankenship wrote about at LL back in December), but most of the them got a few innings of work, were awful, or both.* He looks athletic, and I’m sure given time he’d wouldn’t be terrible, but that may not help the M’s climb back in the race in 2015.
Having a Ben Zobrist would be great. I’m all for Brad Miller being deployed intelligently, and it’s tough given the fact that his IF flexibility is hampered by the fact that Cano and Seager also hit lefty. Moving him to the OF makes sense, but I can’t shake the feeling that it means that not only are Dustin Ackley and/or Austin Jackson’s days numbered, but that their parting shot is to hamstring Brad Miller’s value. Unless Miller gets enough at-bats for the upgrade to be worth it, and unless he takes to one, two or three new positions *very* quickly, Miller’s value to the M’s will almost certainly drop this year. It may be better going forward, but given the move down the spectrum, some OF growing pains and limited ABs, it’s tough to see it playing out differently in 2015. I like Chris Taylor a lot, and have a touch more faith in his bat than many observers, but the net effect to the team could be fairly small. I wish Miller the best, and I sincerely hope he’s used appropriately. The M’s really may not have a choice considering their upper-minors depth. I’ll be cheering for Miller while watching through a gap in my fingers.
* Erik’s work notes that, on average, these IF cast-offs put up essentially an average CF UZR over 7,900 innings. The problem is a form of survivorship bias. Many of the players in the sample didn’t play CF, and most of the ones who did were poor at it. But Alfredo Amezaga was amaaaaazing in a medium-sized sample with the Marlins. Because he was good, he got to play a bit more. Same with Jerry Hairston, Jr. Clearly, some guys *can* do this. Many, many big league CFs started as SS. I just draw a very different conclusion from Erik’s study – I care about the success rate, not an averaged UZR.
Game 27, Mariners at Angels
James Paxton vs. Garrett Richards, 7:05pm
Back at the start of the year, I talked about how it’d be nice to see the M’s start strong and take advantage of the temporary weakness in Oakland (who started without Coco Crisp and Josh Reddick, and have Jarrod Parker and others waiting for the 2nd half) and Anaheim, who were missing tonight’s starter, Garrett Richards. Ultimately, Richards only missed a start or two, so that wasn’t a big deal, but it remains to be seen if the M’s slow start will be a problem.
Last year, the M’s made up for a bad start with some solid play in the middle of the year. They were never in any serious danger of winning the division, but they were in the wildcard because aside from a terrible stretch in April, they were near or above .500 the whole way. At no point in May of 2014 were the M’s 4 games under, the way they are now. Maybe that doesn’t matter, because the rest of the division is right there with them, all staring up at the Astros. On the other hand, if a good chunk of the division starts slow, it makes it that much less likely that any of the AL West teams can snag a wild card. We’ll see – the M’s were 12-15 after game 27 last year, and things worked out OK. Of course, that was in the middle of a stretch where they won 8 of 9…aaaany day now, M’s.
Garrett Richards was a frustrating enigma for most of his career. Blessed with a big (96mph) fastball with natural sink, Richards never managed good results – not in college, for the most part not in pro ball, and he struggled mightily in a series of big league call-ups. Last year, he put it all together, riding his odd, heavy fastball and a good hard slider to a sky-high GB% and the lowest SLG%-against in baseball. Better than Kershaw, Felix…anyone. He threw a fair number of sinkers last year, but that’s not the main driver of his sky-high GB%. Instead, it’s his four-seamer, a 96mph pitch that’s essentially a nuclear-grade version of Sam Deduno’s. It doesn’t have *quite* the same sink to it, but then, it’s going so fast, it has less time for gravity to act on it. This arrow-straight (it’s often referred to as a cutter) fastball was the key to Richards’ success last year; once he learned to control it, it gave hitters fits. He threw about 1,000 last year, giving up 2 HRs and just 13 total XBHs.
Over his career, Richards has shown fairly normal platoon splits, but he ran reverse splits last year, and that’s continued into 2015. It’s easy to write this off as noise, and there’s certainly no way to definitively prove otherwise. Still, it’s pretty stunning to see how his fastball results have changed over the course of his career. From the start of 2012 to the end of 2013, Richards allowed 9 HRs to lefties on FBs (4- and 2-seamers combined), and lefties slugged in the .450 range overall. From the start of 2014 on, lefties are slugging a hair over .300. This has coincided with a slight shift away from the 2-seam and towards the 4-seam, and that makes some sense given pitch-type platoon splits (though the Angels traditionally use 2-seamers on opposite handed hitters for whatever reason), but it doesn’t explain it all. Lefties used to hit his 4-seamer hard, and now they can’t touch it. Maybe that’s noise, but it’s interesting noise if nothing else.
Richards started throwing harder last year, averaging nearly 97 on his 4-seam. That’s what helped him avoid pulled fly balls, as Jeff mentioned in the piece I linked above. That helps put the pieces together – a surprisingly low BABIP (despite all the grounders), the improved results against lefties – and give us something to test. After recuperating from a long layoff following his freak leg injury, Richards isn’t throwing as hard as he did last year. Just comparing April velo to April velo, 2015 looks a lot more like every-year-except-2014 than it does 2014. To date (all of three starts), that hasn’t hurt him. But it’s something to keep an eye on. Maybe his velo creeps up through the spring as he puts his layoff behind him. Maybe it settles in where it was (still plenty fast) and he’s successful anyway. Maybe 2014 was a peak, and he settles in as a very good, but not ace-level. Given the slippage from Matt Shoemaker and especially Jered Weaver, the Angels need Richards to be healthy and effective. If he can’t get close to last year’s 4.5 fWAR, the Angels face very long odds this year.
1: Smith, DH
2: Ruggiano, CF
3: Cano, 2B
4: Cruz, RF
5: Seager, 3B
6: Morrison, 1B
7: Zunino, C
8: Ackley, LF
9: Taylor, SS
SP: Paxton
So, you know how I talked about Matt Shoemaker’s splitter, and how it was unhittable in 2014 and then surprisingly hittable this year? That maybe a new pitcher with a different pitch can be successful for a while, and then needs to make adjustments? Yeeeeahh, that applies to James Paxton in a big way. In 2013 and 2014 combined, batters put up an ISO of under .100 on Paxton’s rising four-seam fastball. Last year, they slugged .304, and righties (and Paxton faced a heavily right-handed hitting slate of opponents) slugged .320. This year, batters are slugging nearly .500 on it. His velo’s down a touch, but then it’s April, and he didn’t have as many April starts last year due to injury. Again, maybe it’s luck, but Paxton has to start working on some countermeasures. He’s been behind in the count a lot this year (more than average, anyway), but that was true last year for him…and that was also true of Garrett Richards last year as well. I’d love to know if this is simply hitters understanding the movement of the pitch a bit better, picking up the ball earlier once they got familiar with Paxton’s mechanics, or something subconscious and ineffable. Whatever it is, I’d love to see Paxton dominate this club the way he did in his first start of 2014.
Check out Tony Blengino’s article on batted ball data at Fangraphs, which is a good opportunity to mention that Fangraphs now has some cool new batted ball stats on each page. Mike Zunino is not only among the most fly-ball prone hitters in baseball, he pulls quite a few. Zunino’s K rate has really inhibited him from developing as we’d hoped, but I can’t get my mind around why someone with Zunino’s raw power can hit so many fly balls to left and have so little to show for it.
The Rainiers beat the Angels AAA affiliate in Salt Lake last night 4-3 behind another good start from Mike Montgomery and two hits from SS Ketel Marte. CF James Jones rejoined the team after a scary concussion in the home opener and tripled in 4 at-bats. Larry Stone had a great piece on 1B Jesus Montero the other day, and the Venezuelan is still hitting pretty well, but went 0-4 with 4 Ks last night. Jordan Pries faces the Bees tonight in Salt Lake.
Jackson’s off tonight; they’ll face Chattanooga next.
Modesto topped Bakersfield 4-1 last night, with Carlos Misell taking his first loss, and the straight-outta-Austen starter Harrison Musgrave picking up the win for the Nuts. Reliever Paul Fry went 3 scoreless with 6 Ks for the Blaze; Fry’s been up and down so far, with some dominant appearances sandwiched around a 1/3 IP, 5 R disaster. He’s a righty from Michigan with a fastball around 90 that comes from a slightly low arm-angle; he got some appearances with Seattle during spring training. It’s Edwin Diaz night for Bakersfield tonight, as the Puerto Rican faces Grahamm Wiest, which sounds like an obscure German literary term.
Clinton shut out Peoria 2-0 behind Lukas Schiraldi. Alex Jackson was 0-3 with a run scored, and Gianfranco Wawoe extended his hitting streak to 17.
Game 26, Mariners at Angels
King Felix vs. Matt Shoemaker, 7:05pm
Happy Felix Day. We need to stop celebrating these under such dour circumstances, but it’s nice all the same to be able to celebrate after a four-game intra-divisional sweep.
A sweep at the hands of the surging Astros has led to the first roster shake-up of the young season. After the game, the M’s sent Yoervis Medina and Tyler Olson to Tacoma, and have brought up SS/IF Chris Taylor and LHRP Joe Beimel to the big club. As Beimel wasn’t on the 40-man, that means there’s a DFA coming – could be Lucas Luetge, could be moving LHP Edgar Olmos from the 15- to 60-day DL – aaaand the DFA is control-plagued LH starter Mike Kickham, who started yesterday’s Rainiers loss. Taylor’s been hot in Tacoma, and there’s some hope that he can add more with the bat than his so-so projections indicate, but he clearly makes the team a bit more flexible, as he can swap in for Brad Miller as necessary and is a better defensive SS than Bloomquist (and perhaps Miller). The move changes the size of the bench and bullpen, which makes some sense – Taylor’s no one’s idea of a pure bench bat, but it’s just better to be able to play match-ups on the bench as well as the bullpen. [EDIT: the Jackson DL/Lowe call-up re-jiggers things, so it looks like there won’t in fact be a shift towards position players. Ah well.]
In addition, CF Austin Jackson’s been placed on the 15 day dl with an ankle injury, and the M’s have brought in old friend Mark Lowe from Tacoma to take his 25-man spot. They still needed to make a 40-man move for *that*, and they’ve decided to place Julio Morban on the restricted list for “personal reasons.” Hmmm.
Ah, Matt Shoemaker. He came up in some of the preseason projection posts, and I was just comparing him to Collin McHugh over the weekend. Shoemaker famously came out of nowhere last year – from an org guy with a plus beard to an above-average AL starting pitcher with a plus splitter. I mentioned earlier that he had some interesting home/road splits; he was dominant at home, and fairly ordinary on the road – like a much more extreme version of Jered Weaver, a guy having his own struggles thus far. Maybe it shouldn’t be a surprise then that Shoemaker’s struggled in the early going, as he’s made three of his four starts on the road. That said, he gave up 2 road HRs (to the M’s, at Safeco), and gave up 2 at home (to the A’s). While his K:BB ratio is still quite good, it’s not quite where it was last year, and his BABIP is up substantially. As you’d gather from looking at his FIP, Shoemaker hasn’t been as bad as his 6.00 ERA would indicate, but he hasn’t been “an above average AL starting pitcher” either.
Last year, he used a mix of 1/4 four-seamers, 1/4 two-seamers, 1/4 splitters and 1/4 breaking balls (curve/slider). In the early going, he’s throwing a few more FBs, particularly four-seamers, though the difference isn’t huge. If anything, his fastballs have had better results. On the other hand, he gave up more HRs on his splitter in April this year than he did in the entire 2014 season. I don’t see any change in where he’s thrown them – hitters have simply done a bit more damage this year on seemingly identical pitches. The default explanation is that it’s noise – we have no way to disprove that, not with a handful of hits and just 3 HRs on it thus far. But it makes you wonder how far an out-of-nowhere guy can go by being essentially anonymous. Certainly by the end of the year, you’d figure teams would know a bit about Shoemaker’s arsenal and how he deployed it, but do you know how long advanced scouting takes to work? I don’t. It may not be about learning his pitches – it could be some sort of indication (either in tendencies or an outright physical difference in his motion) about what pitch is coming. In any event, it may soon be time for Shoemaker to make further adjustments.
Shoemaker probably can’t simply assume it’s SSS noise, which is one of the reasons why sabermetrics must seem like snake oil to many players. It’d be comforting to hear that a spate of HRs are “unlucky” or “noise” but that may not hold a lot of water with the manager. And the number crunchers probably can’t detect pitch-tipping as quick as a pitching coach/scout. The number-cruncher would simply say that at this stage, there’s no evidence one way or the other. The scout might offer something more immediate, something he can do *right now*. This isn’t to disparage either side – it’s possible the scouts can find something that really can be corrected quickly. It’s also possible the placebo effect of thinking about your motion helps, or that whatever change coincides with some regression, and that is interpreted as proof by the pitcher. Ultimately, it really doesn’t matter, so long as a team’s got multiple people examining an issue from very different viewpoints. We’ll see what Shoemaker’s 2015 turns into. McHugh’s hit some bumps in the road, and has already made a fairly big change – ultimately, he’s looking OK. Will Shoemaker follow suit? If so, let’s hope he waits a week.
1: Smith, DH
2: Ruggiano, CF
3: Cano, 2B
4: Cruz, RF
5: Seager, RF
6: Morrison, 1B
7: Zunino, C
8: Ackley, C
9: Taylor, SS
SP: FELIX.
That’s…not a great defensive OF, but hey, you’ve got Felix on the hill and his ground ball game, so maybe it works out.
Mike Montgomery faces off against ex-Astros pitcher and current Angels prospect Nick Tropeano tonight as the Rainiers face Salt Lake. The R’s lost 6-5 to Fresno yesterday; Chris Taylor was removed from the game after 2 ABs, which is why we’re all essentially assuming he’s been called up. Domingo Santana had a two-HR game for the Grizzlies, the latter a 3 run job that gave Fresno the lead. LHP Mike Kickham’s control problems continued, as he walked 7 in 4IP, bringing his season total to *28 walks* in 21 innings. That’s…problematic, and it’s undoubtedly what moved him to the front of the DFA queue. As a lefty with good velo, he’ll garner some interest, but as a guy who needs a roster spot and just walked 28 in 21 IP, I could see him slip through. We’ll see.
Pensacola shut down the Jackson Generals 5-1 yesterday; the Generals got their lone run in the 9th, after Jabari Blash’s 2nd double of the game. Still no DJ Peterson. The Generals played an early game today in which they nuked the Blue Wahoos 15-4. Blash and Jordy Lara hit HRs, and SS Tyler Smith hit 2 doubles.
Bakersfield got another extra-inning win against Visalia, winning 4-2 in 10, with Tyler Pike having another solid start. Carlos Misell takes the hill today as the Blaze face the Modesto Nuts.
Clinton beat Cedar Rapids 5-2 thanks to another strong start from Pat Peterson and a 3-run HR from Kristian Brito, the husky Puerto Rican 1B the M’s took in the 2012 draft (when they also nabbed Puerto Rican pitcher Edwin Diaz). Lukas Schiraldi gets the ball for the L-Kings today against Peoria.
Game 25, Mariners at Astros
JA Happ vs. Roberto Hernandez, 11:10am
I for one welcome our new Astros overlords.
The M’s lost their second game in which their offense knocked four HRs, which is at least a novel way of losing games compared to the ways we’ve seen in the recent past. I’m just glad I didn’t talk about McHugh’s newfound HR-suppressing ability in the game thread. The M’s offense, if nothing else, put a lasting bruise on McHugh’s FIP, which had been under 2. Take THAT, Astros.
Today, the Astros go for their 10th straight win. Their last loss came on April 22nd, when JA Happ and the M’s beat Roberto Hernandez’s Astros at Safeco. That game was a fairly sharp pitchers duel, with Hernandez going 7 and giving up 3 runs, but taking the loss. I talked about Hernandez’s grounder-generating stuff and strike-zone avoiding approach last time, so review that if you’re so inclined. It’s still pretty early to tell much about Happ’s adjustments to life in the AL West; he’s thrown a few more change-ups and cutters this year, though that may be due to facing a few more RHBs. Whatever he’s doing, he’s been successful at it. May it continue this morning/afternoon.
1: Jackson, CF
2: Smith, RF
3: Cano, 2B
4: Cruz, DH
5: Seager, 3B
6: Morrison, 1B
7: Zunino, C
8: Ackley, LF
9: Miller, SS
SP: Happ
While the M’s can’t beat the Astros, the Rainiers have handled the Astros AAA affiliate pretty well. The R’s beat Fresno yesterday 5-1 behind a sharp game from Sam Gaviglio and a 2HR day from Stefen Romero. Joe Beimel pitched two scoreless innings in relief. Today, Mike Kickham takes the hill for the Rainiers – the Grizzlies starter is TBD.
Jackson beat Pensacola 7-4 despite a mediocre start from Misael Siverio. Their second six-run inning in as many days turned things around for the Generals. The M’s got a scare in the 4th when top prospect DJ Peterson was hit by a pitch and had to come out of the game. This is the guy who missed a good chunk of 2013 after being hit in the jaw by a pitch. Hopefully this was just precautionary, and it was actually good to see him tweeting about the big boxing match after the game. Stephen Landazuri starts for the Generals today against Josh Smith.
Bakersfield stopped the red-hot Visalia Rawhide 3-1 behind Dan Altavilla, dropping Visalia’s record to 18-5. Behind 1-0 in the 5th, the Blaze rallied with two outs, getting an RBI double from Ian Miller, and then a huge error on a ball hit by Tyler Marlette scored two runs. Tyler Pike takes the hill today for the Blaze
Clinton lost in 13 innings to Cedar Rapids, 7-6. Gianfranco Wawoe had the day off, but Alex Jackson had a hit in 6 ABs. Today, Pat Peterson, fresh off a 10K performance in his last start, takes the hill.