Game 86, Mariners at Athletics
Jason Vargas vs. Jarrod Parker, 7:10pm
Maybe they need to move the fences in at the O.co Coliseum too. After another lackluster showing from the M’s line-up, the M’s are strongly hinting at imminent changes – Dave Sims tweeted about it today, and Wedge’s post-game press conference last night was clear as well: the M’s are sick of watching the same players fail, and might make some changes just to watch something, anything, different. Obviously, moves made in frustration and anger, and moves made to placate the “just change something up” crowd are seldom the most well-reasoned, judicious moves a GM could make. But in yet another reminder of just how bad this rebuilding job’s gone, there’s just not a whole lot there for a GM to screw up in a fit of pique. Sure, they could DFA Kyle Seager or trade Felix for cash considerations, but that’s not going to happen. They *could* do something like send Smoak back to the minors, DFA Chone Figgins, or bench Ichiro. I’m struggling to find a reason to argue with any such moves. I think everyone’s perfectly content to wait through a rebuild, but the M’s are offering few hints of any construction-related activity.
Today, they’ll face Jarrod Parker, who dominated them on June 27th. Parker uses a four- and two-seam fastball around 91-92, a good change-up and a slider. He generates an above-average number of swinging strikes, which balances out his poor command. His best pitch is the change-up, a well-disguised offering that’s generated misses on 45% of swings so far, a very high total. For comparison, Jason Vargas (also good) change-up gets whiffs on a bit over 30% of swings. When Parker struggles, it’s generally due to bases on balls. He misses the zone quite a bit more than Vargas – including over 41% of his change-ups (Vargas is at 37% this year). The M’s drew 4 walks against Parker in 7 innings, which isn’t bad, but since they are who they are, they also struck out 9 times and scored just one run off of Parker in June.
On the plus side, Vargas gets to face the A’s, who despite having Parker on their club appear to have never seen change-ups before. Vargas matched his career high against the A’s in his last start against them (today will be his *4th* start against the A’s in the first half of 2012). Pitch type linear weights have problems associated with them, and it’s just a half a year, but right now, the A’s have lost 9 more runs against change-ups than the Mariners. The Mariners are better at not as terrible at something related to batting than the A’s! Too bad about literally everything else related to batting.
Today’s line-up features plenty of left-handers against the righty Parker. Despite the change-up, Parker has “traditional” platoon splits, and has been better against righties than lefties. Again, the M’s need to take some pitches and run up his pitch count, so…ahh, screw it. Peguero’s starting, let’s just hit some dingers. Dingers, M’s! Hit some dingers!
1: Ackley (2B)
2: Ichiro (RF)
3: Saunders (CF)
4: Jaso (C)
5: Seager (3B)
6: Wells (LF)
7: Smoak (1B)
8: Peguero (DH)
9: Ryan (SS)
SP: Jason Vargas
Catcher Adam Moore, who was DFAd this week, was picked up on waivers by the Royals.
Forrest Snow starts tonight for Jackson against Rays prospect Kyle Lobstein – Snow’s righted the ship a bit since his demotion, and tonight’s game looks great on paper. The Rainiers are in Salt Lake finishing up a series against the Bees, and Blake Beavan gets his fifth start since he was optioned.
Dominican lefty Wander Marte gets the ball for Pulaski tonight; the 20 year old is coming off an impressive 5 inning performance in which he gave up 1 run, walked no one and K’d 9.
Taijuan Walker’s in sweltering Kansas City for the Futures Game, which takes place tomorrow.
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108 Responses to “Game 86, Mariners at Athletics”
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Mike, how can you not see the changes in Peguero’s approach from last year to this year. The difference is like night and night.
I will look more closely for the “changes” next time, Which hopefully won’t be tomorrow.
Non 40 man speedy outfielder (Darren Brown) continues to produce in AAA … Still with less than 20 games played on the season, though. He does have some limited MLB time, too. Has anybody seen him play in person? Scouting report, please.
🙂
I think you are on to something, Westy.
And, I am sure that Hendu would understand and thoroughly be able to explain the nuance, too.
I really hope Carlos Peguero doesn’t ever have the urge to go read what the blogosphere has to say about him. 😀
He’s probably a really nice guy. Too bad he can’t play baseball.
Mike, first off it’s Darren Ford that you’re talking about I’m almost positive..
As for a scouting report, I was stunned he’s not on an NL roster somewhere. I don’t think he’ll hit much in the bigs but he’s fast and was amazing in center the game I went to. He read everything off the bat so quickly. However, he had limited power and when I was there one of his two hits was a ground out ball to short that was hit so soft that he didn’t have any play at first.
I think he’d be a good fit for an NL team that could use him for double switches and a defensive sub, but I don’t think he’d help us too much. I’d guess he’d hit right about .240 with no power and really good D.
.240 with no power and really good D? Isn’t that basically two-thirds of the roster right now? I’m shocked he’s not up with the big club because he’s the perfect Mariner!
Thanks Marcus. I did mean “Ford”.
I had no idea what “Brown could do for me” … Until just now.
The answer: nothing.
Thanks for the scouting report. This team needs speed and another guy to chase down a fly ball – if Guti stays on the perpetual IR. I suppose “brown-ford” could assume the figgy role. However, I have made many assumptions in regard to who could best fill the figgy role – and the answer is never figgy, but here he stays
Well, if another team thinks it needs a plus defensive guy – Ford could possibly be turned into something the team needs.