Game 129, Mariners at White Sox
Ariel Miranda vs. Jose Quintana, 4:10pm
Having vanquished Chris Sale, the M’s now have to deal with an equally formidable (though completely dissimilar) pitcher in Jose Quintana.
Another lefty, Quintana’s done a great job of dominating left handed bats over his career – they’ve got an OBP of .293 in Quintana’s career. But while Sale gets far more K’s and thus strands more base runners, Quintana’s steady excellence produces a similar value. In years like this one, where Quintana’s BABIP or strand rate allow, he allows fewer runs than his more heralded teammate.
He has a change, but the pitch that really allows him to succeed against righties is his curve. It’s thrown at about 77 MPH and, like his fastball, doesn’t show much in the way of eye popping movement or spin. Command obviously allows it to play up, and the result is a pitcher far better than the sum of his velo and stuff.
1: Martin, CF
2: Heredia, LF
3: Cano, 2B
4: Cruz, DH
5: Seager, 3B
6: Gutierrez, RF
7: Lee, 1B
8: Iannetta, C
9: Marte, SS
As you can see, the M’s flurry of roster moves continues, as Dae Ho Lee’s been recalled from Tacoma, with Nori Aoki returning to AAA for a week or so.
Because they needed help in the bullpen, the M’s have also added Pat Venditte, the switch pitcher they traded for a few weeks ago. To make room, they optioned Mike Freeman back down.
They had a spare 40-man spot though, and that leads to the most interesting move: the M’s have purchased the contract of AA reliever Dan Altavilla. Altavilla was an undersized starting pitcher from a small northeastern college, which checks all of the boxes for a McNamara draft pick. He had a solid season in the rotation for Bakersfield last year, but he’s responded well to life in relief, with a FB that touches 95.
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26 Responses to “Game 129, Mariners at White Sox”
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I’ve made no secret of my dislike of Gutierrez. Could you look more lazy in the outfield or running to first base?
It was interesting to read one of Jeff’s FanGraphs articles and see that Cruz has been remarkably unclutch this year. He’s tied with Kris Bryant for the second-least clutch player in baseball – behind former Mariner Michael Saunders.
I would love for the Dogers to go on a losing streak, be out of the playoffs and sell. Maybe we could trade some marginal players for the younger Seager??? It’s a wish!
Yeah that Kris Bryant SUCKS! 😉
Corey Seager is young, cost controlled, and darned good. If the Dodgers somehow went into a tailspin, he might be the player they’d hold onto tightest.
Interestingly, he’s also on the 2016 un-clutch leaderboard.
It was funny how many very good hitters were on that list! 😀
Also Seager would never clear waivers…
While the outfield was positioned badly for that particular hit anyway, it’s sad to see how slow Guti is now. I still remember how he could fly…
I love playing in Chicago.
Nuno, you got three innings in you tonight? No need to burn through the rest of the pen…
Wow… Falling back to earth really hurts! Hopefully they get back up before it’s too late….
This run for the wild card was fun, but the duct taped together bullpen just isn’t up to the task.
Dipoto: “Hey Theo, I’ve noticed that Bryant guy just isn’t getting it done for you in high leverage situations. Tell you what – we’ll give you a couple bullpen arms and take the shmuck off your hands…”
bullpen? On a good day we have two legit starters. There is plenty of places to place blame.
Aoki’s got optioned to AAA anyways. Your random depressing stat of the day: Of all qualifying players, Aoki still somehow has the 4th highest batting average on the roster. And yeah I threw up in my mouth a little when I noticed that.
Regardless, the onus is on Seattle. Theres is so many teams clustered into the wild card hunt (with KC DET and HOU back in the mix) that the team simply needs to win. So many other squads forced to play each other and quality opponents it is simply a matter of winning as much as possible to rise up. This team can do it.
We will be playing meaningful baseball in September, lets remember to enjoy it.
Well, allegedly the Mariners played meaningful baseball in September, 2 years ago. Anybody remember that? Not really.
This is getting even uglier.
Well, that was a thing that happened.
Game 130
————–
Taiwan Walker versus Carlos Rodon
Martin, CF
Heredia, LF
Cano, 2B
Cruz, DH
Seager, 3B
Gutierrez, RF
Zunino, CF
Lee, 1B
Marte, SS
Down 2-1 in the seventh, men on first and second, no outs. Zunino is next up to bat… and Servais calls for a bunt.
Has Eric Wedge been brought back on board as a bench coach?
Nice start by Walker, whatever the result. The M’s are thin on starters. They could really use a few more good starts from Taijuan.
It still was a good start…
Whelp, I was about to post “At least Taijuan has looked good”… but I think he’s running on vapors, here in the eighth. Chicago has started making good contact.
… and that’s it for Walker at 105 pitches. Good job, young Tai Walker. Too bad they couldn’t give you more than one run in support.
On a side note – as sad as Guti’s decline makes me, I really hope Dipoto can implement that “rangy, athletic outfielders” strategy this off-season. Watching both Guti and Cruz in right is painful, and left hasn’t been much better.
Westy: Or just implement the ‘lets find a guy who hits good enough that it doesn’t matter he’s terrible in right” strategy. Remember, if we had a legit DH, putting Cruz in right might be Servais’s first move.
And I’d love to see Tai Walkers career era after the 7th innning. When things happen a lot we tend to call them a pattern. No shame in it, there was an art in pulling Pedro Martinez, too.
Of course Walker looks good. What are we supposed to say? “He’s no Miranda out there!” or “I personally think Leblanc gives you a lot more consistency’…
but I digress.
Yeah, if Guti was slugging the crap out of the ball like last year, it wouldn’t matter so much – but this year he’s only hitting a little better than average (105 wRC+). But given his health history, I expect his hitting decline and further defensive decline have the same root cause. The dude just doesn’t look physically comfortable out there right now. He’s obviously gimpy when he runs, and I swear he looks like he’s holding back a grimace after each at bat.
It’s like some unspoken truth we aren’t privy to. Because lets face it: Aoki’s done everything short of setting Servais’s car on fire. There has to be something wrong with Guti.
Watching Aoki even make routine relay throws from the outfield makes me feel like a Dad watching his son play little league: I’m literally terrified anytime there is someone running the bases and Aoki has to hit a relay man or beat someone to a base.