Game 48, Rangers at Mariners
Joe Saunders vs. Justin Grimm, 7:10pm
Another day, another roster move for the M’s, though it certainly sounds like that wasn’t the plan this morning. In any event, the M’s DFA’d Andino and brought up Carlos Triunfel. The latter isn’t in the line-up tonight, but C Jesus Sucre is. From what I’ve seen of him in Tacoma, he’s a good receiver, has a cannon of an arm, but I think the M’s really love the way he calls a game. This again is one of the aspects of catching that’s somewhat difficult to measure (though Max Marchi’s WOWY study gets at it), and it’ll be interesting to see how they talk about him, particularly if he doesn’t hit (he’s not likely to hit).
Justin Grimm’s facing Seattle for the third time. He’s still primarily a fastball-curve pitcher, but he throws a change-up to lefties on occasion. He’s got reverse platoon-splits in his brief MLB time this year, and he actually had similar splits in the minors as well. That’s still not much of a sample, but this is not a guy that you absolutely need to stack lefties against. The M’s have chosen to stack their lefties against him, however. After the Ibanez experience in New York, I’m not going to mock them, but I’ll say that Ackley hitting 2nd is questionable no matter who the opposing starter is. Joe Saunders, of course, has massive splits, and the Rangers are fairly well-positioned to exploit that, though of course Saunders dominated them in Safeco in early April. Moreland moves up to 2nd in the Rangers order, the result of a blistering May.
Texas uberprospect Jurickson Profar is up with the Rangers, taking the spot of the injured Ian Kinsler. Profar’s a natural SS, but will play 2B today. While insanely talented, he’s just 20 and is, in the very short run, unlikely to fully replace Kinsler’s 110+ rest-of-season wRC+, but he is another example of the Rangers depth and player development prowess. Damn it. Neither the M’s nor the Rangers have fared terribly well with injuries this year; Rangers prospect Mike Olt is just now resuming training in extended spring training following a vision problem, Cody Buckel was shut down after walking 28 in 9+ innings, and the M’s lost Danny Hultzen and Erasmo Ramirez to arm trouble. But the Rangers have been able to patch together serviceable (or better) stints from pitchers like Grimm, Nick Tepesch and Michael Kirkman while the M’s have watched Saunders, Beavan, Harang and Maurer all post negative WAR.
On paper, this is a mismatch. The Rangers are really, really good and the M’s are reeling. But just as the M’s looked better than they actually were after knocking off the Yankees, they are clearly not as inept as they appeared in Anaheim or as cursed as they appeared in Cleveland. They’re still not good, but the M’s can lower everyone’s blood pressure with a good showing against a very good team in this series.
Line-up:
1: Saunders, CF
2: Ackley, 2B
3: Seager, 3B
4: Morales, DH
5: Morse, RF
6: Ibanez, LF
7: Smoak, 1B
8: Sucre, C
9: Ryan, SS
SP: Saunders
The M’s have turned over the in-stadium music to M’s beat-writer Ryan Divish of the News Tribune. His knowledge of early-90s hip-hop is the equal of Keith Law’s, so I’d expect we’d hear some Tribe and Wu-Tang Clan tonight.
James Paxton starts tonight in the pitching hell of Reno, NV. With Jeremy Bonderman crashing and burning last night (he’s got one more start, in Colorado Springs, before his opt-out date on 6/1) and Harang and Maurer scuffling, this would be a good time for Paxton to show he can work deep into games. Dylan Unsworth takes the hill for Clinton.
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I have a small piece of glass in the ball of my foot, beyond tweezer depth. Been there for a couple of days now. If I step on it wrong it hurts really badly– a piercing, sharp pain that stops me in my tracks.
This is my Mariner fan reflexive metaphor of following the team this season.
That’s all I’ve got, sorry.
(PS- I saw Paxton in person last Sunday, and sadly, he didn’t look all that special that day, compared to previous times I’ve seen him pitch. Not sure what’s going on but the “electricity” of his stuff seems to have been turned off somehow?)
I’m curious as to why you say it sounds like the roster move wasn’t the plan this morning…
For the foreseeable future I am going to pretend it is 2007 or so, so that I can be extremely excited at Carlos Triunfel suiting up for the M’s.
https://twitter.com/dcameronfg/status/338043531216171009
Scuttlebutt was that the M’s were hoping to sneak Andino through waivers somehow, even though all the front offices are automatically notified when a player hits the waiver wire.
Our Mr. Cameron broke the news though.
Here’s a roster that could use some changes:
http://seattle.mariners.mlb.com/team/front_office.jsp
Jordan-
I believe the idea was to keep him around a couple days (you get 48 hours), until they decided whom to call up, so they didn’t announce it (even to Andino)… but once the news went public, for Andino’s sake they went ahead and DFA’d him.
I read that somewhere else. Doesn’t mean it’s right, but that seemed to be the gist. And actually our own Dave breaking the news is the one (allegedly) who led to their scramble to bring Triunfel back from Reno.
That doesn’t make sense unless somehow they expected to be able to play a man short without Andino wondering why he wasn’t being allowed to suit up.
Hmm, that is odd. I’m all for it though. Great job Dave. The faster Andino is out of here, the better.
Westy-
I didn’t quite understand it either. I think he’s allowed to suit up until he clears Waivers? Or they just wouldn’t play him, but he can stay with the team? No idea.
I noticed Dave tweeted about the controversy now too.
“David Cameron ?@DCameronFG
So apparently I caused a little trouble in Seattle. Unintentional, but odd to think this wouldn’t get out. Every team gets waiver notice.”
Congrats to Jesus Sucre to making it to the majors — even if it is with the Mariners!
So which Joe will we see tonight? Safeco Joe, hopefully?
So which Raul will we see tonight?
Sucre looks fluid and polished behind the dish, a far cry from Montero’s herky-jerky, unsettled, non-confidant manner. He’ll get cooperation from the men in blue because he frames and holds still; I believe pitchers appreciate this as well.
(Ex-ump here–600+ game career doing high school and adult amateur.)
Terrible call.
Ryan extra-base hit!
I came on to see the fury and only one rant?
We’ve lost our ability to even be outraged.
But yay to Andy hitting the road! I couldn’t watch him ‘hit’ anymore.
Thankfully Ryan salvages some offense despite that pathetic call by the ump.
Ugh at Saunders. I’m glad they’re home so that he pitches better.
No more Safeco Joe.
This team needs to trash Saunders and Harang. I’d rather see Beavan and Ramirez, whenever he’s healthy.
Damn! If only the fences weren’t so deep.
Is Dave really taking heat for breaking the news on the roster move? So let me get this straight… Jack misunderstood the 48 hour rule and had to retract/adjust, got caught, though every team in baseball would have gotten a report anyway, but somehow this was a leak?
Is it too late for Dave to fire up his twitter account and push Joe Saunders out the door?
If they only give up one run here,it’ll be a miracle.
Sucre looks pretty good behind the dish. Too bad Saunders keeps serving up softballs.
In fairness to the trust of brains, I was much more enthused about the Saunders pick up at the time than I am now. Actually didn’t think Harang was such a bad idea, either. Whoops.
If it makes you feel any better bookbook, I thought we got Saunders for a bargain (at the time). I didn’t care for Harang, though.
Anyone know who the M’s are targeting in the upcoming draft? I’m pretty good at keeping up with the players around the league (including the minors) but don’t really follow college/high school baseball. I only know a few names like Appel, Meadows, and Crawford.
The M’s have never let on about who interests them in the draft. The only consistent thing they’ve done, is targeted the best available option, which doesn’t make it any easier to predict, because we don’t see the medical reports or any other insider crap that they do. At number 12, it will be even harder to predict this year.
So now Luetge isn’t getting lefties out. Why is he on the roster?
Grimm should play for Portland
Wow, this new catcher of ours runs like a normal person!
Ryan back over the Mendoza line.
Mariners come within 1/2 game of .500 ball then take a flop. No shocking news here but a continued injustice to Mariner fans.
Name that sunken I-5 bridge Mariner Flop.
Congrats to Sugar Man!
Come on Morse. Get on base to bring the tying run to the plate.
Congrats to the M’s. No more below .200 hitters on the ball club. Oops…except for Triunfel. At least he made contact and hit it out of the infield.
Why did Nathan get a save?
Even if he gives up the HR there they are still ahead.
Credit a save when the reliever enters the game with the tying run either on base or at the plate.
So why did Nathan earn the save? He did not pitch a complete inning.
According to Larry Stone:
-Triunfel didn’t arrive until halfway through the game.
-Wedge didn’t know Grimm caught the ball for the Sucre double play, thus didn’t know what he was arguing about with the ump.
This organization…
How long has it been since a Mariner starting pitcher has pitched into the 7th inning?
Given where the Mariners dugout is, I’m not surprised Wedge didn’t know the pitcher,intercepted that throw.
Heck, I’m not sure I believe it – and I saw it! 😉
Regarding why Nathan received a save I was incorrect. Tying run can be on deck, and the pitcher only needs to pitch 1/3 inning (final out).
So that begs the question why is a “save” defined so liberally?