Game 50, Angels at Mariners
Noesi vs. C.J. Wilson, 1:10 pm
Last season, Fangraphs had Noesi at a 1.22 GB/FB ratio in his limited time with the Yankees. If this was something that he was consciously working on, knowing the conditions he was going to be facing in Yankees Stadium, then that was probably a good idea, but it is not representative of his career arc. According to MiLB.com, Noesi never managed a full season with more ground outs than air outs (MiLB.com includes pop ups, etc with their air outs). The closest he got was 0.93 in 2009. The worst he had was his brief stint in the International League last year when he was at 0.67, which is the same mark that he sits at right now (48.7% FB, if you prefer that metric). Given that the Angels have been knocking the ball over the fence a few times in this series, there’s a legitimate concern that this could turn ugly in a hurry. You’d also presume that with such tendencies, the Mariners would really want to bring their “A” outfield out to give themselves as much of a chance as possible.
2B Ackley
CF Figgins
RF Ichiro
DH Montero
1B Smoak
3B Seager
LF Liddi
C Olivo
SS Ryan
Oh. Ohhhhh.
I guess for this game, we’re going to have to hope that C.J. Wilson doesn’t have his good command and that the Mariners are able to draw some walks against him and do a bit of damage. His ERA right now is much lower than his tRA or FIP, so there is a chance for some kind of regression. On the other hand, Mariners.
In rare good news, Guti has been cleared to go down and work out in extended spring training, and will get his rehab assignment sometime after that. Don’t expect anything soon. He didn’t really get spring training the first time around, so this could take a while.
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Hey, Nationals! Olivo’s making good contact today! You should hurry and pounce on him before some other team does!
Nice, but awkward, catch by Ichiro!
And uh-oh… it’s that GUY again.
Is Ichiro approaching the same level of production he had in May ’11?
Uh… Angie needs to rethink that wording.
“As soon as I got the top off, he was diving into it.”
In high-leverage situations this year, Ichiro has a BABIP of .150. So a lot of his problems this year have actually been just bad luck.
But I do think it’s probable his age is becoming a factor with regards to the overall trend. He’s simply not as good as he used to be.
And we need to hope that huge helping of garlic fries doesn’t impair that gentleman’s likelihood of reaching age 99…
“I never, ever eat fried food!”
– Mel Brooks as The 2000 Year Old Man, explaining the secret of his longevity
Okay, Smoak, do it again!
Just imagine if she had said “bottom”
yeah!!
We’ll whimper away with a swinging strike 3…
Ok…dribbler to first. My bad.
The game, and perhaps the season, in a nutshell:
When behind in the count, the Angels looked for a big fat pitch to hit, and hit it.
One a 3-2 count, the Angels knew the M’s would swing at anything and gave them nothing to swing at.
I would say that is an organizational flaw in strategy. I don’t know whom to blame, but I do know they will never succeed if they don’t change it.
The announcers on the Fox game Saturday spent a lot of time about moving the fences in. The fences in old Sick’s Stadium (before the Pilots) were Left and Right field line (325 feet) Left and Right center gaps (355 feet)and Center (400 feet.) Make these changes and Safeco will be fairer for our hitters.
Given our hitters, we’d need softball fences, whil also favors every other teams hitters…if you’ll remember, there were a few homers in the last series hit inthe second deck, or off the facing…moving the fences will not help that.
Good thing we’re playing Olivo every day – we want to be sure any potential trading partners get constantly reminded about that .189/.207/.311 line.
Okay, at least some of that is BABIP driven… but is there a team out there that’ll even look at that?
I just saw the starter for Oakland in tomorrow’s game: Travis Blackley. First start since he was a Mariner, I believe.
One of the hallmarks of a young developing team is wild inconsistency, and this team has it in spades. I just wish people would figure that out and quit trying to make sweeping proclamations based on what was clearly and repeatedly labelled a developmental year.
The problem is I’m not sure this team is that close to developing into something interesting. OF and 1B are still a talent vacuum outside of a 38 year old, with various “not terrible, should get some playing time as role players, but not very good” players bouncing around. There’s still some development that’s going to need to happen here. I wouldn’t blame anyone for being a bit tired of waiting.