Game 71, Padres at Mariners
Roenis Elias vs. Eric Stults, 12:40 pm
What, I knew who Elias was before the season. I didn’t know Eric Stults, but he’s a National League guy, so I don’t expect to know who he is. He’s been in the majors off and on since 2006 and has cracked 100 innings once in the majors by more than 100 innings. Stults does not have good stuff. His fastball is below average, so he throws it only half the time, throws the change a quarter of the time, and then split the rest between breaking balls. He tries to get guys to chase and sometimes it works. He’s never been good before, but on the other hand, Mariners? That Stults is a left-hander means we get a new and wacky lineup.
CF James Jones
RF Stefen Romero
2B Robinson Cano
DH John Buck (CLEAN-UP HITTER)
3B Kyle Seager
C Mike Zunino
LF Cole Gillespie
1B Jesus “Never An option At First” Montero
SS Brad Miller
Those of you near televisions or secretly watching streams have an opportunity to watch Jesus Montero defend, you lucky dogs. I imagine that Lloyd’s recent willingness to screw around and let Buck and Zunino bat in the same lineup is partially because Montero could technically serve as our emergency catcher. If it wasn’t him before, I guess Bloomquist? It’s one of the reasons why I’ve missed having Carter Capps around, says the guy who occasionally thinks about who the Mariners emergency catcher might be.
Speaking of roster construction, now that I look at the Padres as a team, this is sort of a who’s who of guys I wasn’t aware were on the Padres. Former first-round picks Andrew Cashner and Ian Kennedy! Former high-end closers Huston Street and Joaquin Benoit! Rene Rivera! Former elite prospect Cameron Maybin who has really only been good a few times in his career (and has been there for years)! For being the Padres, they sure seem to have a Mariners-looking roster construction.
Today is the anniversary of Dustin Ackley’s debut. Think about that. Or don’t think about it. But because I mentioned it, your brain is doing it anyway. I’m in control now.
Comments
25 Responses to “Game 71, Padres at Mariners”
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.
Man, I cannot believe we are still winning as much as we are while rolling out lineups like this. Hisashi Iwakuma has been worth more as a hitter than everyone in this lineup but Cano, Seager, Saunders, and the same as Buck. Playing Buck at 1st and just letting Elias hit would increase the total Off value of this lineup.
Man, I cannot believe we are still winning as much as we are while rolling out lineups like this. Hisashi Iwakuma has been worth more as a hitter than everyone in this lineup but Cano, Seager, Saunders, and the same as Buck. Playing Buck at 1st and just letting Elias hit would increase the total Off value of this lineup.
Dustin Ackley was worth 2.9 WAR in his rookie year.
He’s been worth a cumulative 2.0 WAR since then. Sigh…
Robinson Cano looks up and down this lineup and thinks to himself “*@&^+@&&#*… Seager’s ok, but… !&*#&$!… *@#&*… Although $$$$$$$$$$, so yeah, I’m good…”
Or something similar.
We’re like the Bad News Bears version of the A’s. I wonder if Mac keeps a flask with him in the dugout. Or how long till he does?
Disturbing. Wholesale Rosterbation. I mean… isn’t that supposed to be “our” private reserve? After all, they’re supposed to be all professional and everything, instead of jacking around like this.
And what did Gillespie do to elbow Willie out of this lineup?
My only thought is maybe they just want to see how bad the Padres really are.
Grady Sizemore is available. Sigh… he would be an upgrade on this roster. 82-80 here we come.
Montero isn’t good but at this point I’d prefer him to Smoak.
“Eric Stults” — the only thing I know about him is that I consistently have to remind myself he’s not the grunge-era actor famous for “Mask”
I can’t watch the game from work, and I am genuinely curious – how has Montero looked at first base?
His first at-bat and Montero hits a home run. Now the Mariners have to keep him the rest of the season, it’s in his contract.
You gotta loves Jones productivity, getting on and stealing bases. Then Cano homers and brings him home.
Then as soon as I post Jones strikes out. Call me Kid Jinx today.
Seriously, why can’t Seager hit 4th?
LoMo takes over for Montero at 1B.
/sarcasm on – Must be a defensive move /sarcasm off
I’m all for bringing in Sizemore and DFA Morrison. We replace a L/L, suspect OF / 1st with a L/L, true OF and clear up some room at 1st for others (which we seem to have no shortage of players who can play 1st these days!!).
On the year:
Sizemore… .216/.288/.324 with +.1 WAR
Morrison… .146/.222/.244 with -.1 WAR
And I’m sure we get better OF defense in exchange!
Buck has a point better BA than Seager. That’s why Buck is batting clean-up today. Tomorrow the line up will be different 😉
A 3-game win streak which should have been a 5-game win streak.
I was at the game today, Westy. Third row middle of the mariner dugout. Excellent viewing angles for right handed batters in particular.
Some musings: Montero is large. A good 25 extra of jelly juice, but he attacks fastballs. Can’t hit much of anything else – unless it’s up and a mistake, but he is fastball hunting and he has a fast swing and lots of power. Some of its heading toward the fridge for seconds, but power nonetheless
Gillespie is really uncertain. Tentative. Way behind and doesn’t throw his hands at anything.
Romero has one approach. Swing hard. At everything.
Jones has a nice quick swing and is just trying to put the ball in play. An anti-Romero if you will.
Chris Young is tall.
Dustin Ackley does not appear to be athletic in pretty much any way, but his game was fairly solo today. Snark
Buck: looks like a backup catcher. Runs like he is underwater.
Cano: awesome
Seager: confident
Elias looked pretty good, but San Diego is horrible.
Horrible!
And Momtero as a 1B … Uh, no.
Nope
Not if ever having to make any plays, matters.
He lucked out today. Every throw was directly to him and the only ball hit to him died before the 1B bag and he could have bare handed it – it was hit so slow. He can play 1B once in a while and probably be less noticeably bad than he was as a catcher, but that is probably his “ceiling.”
And “solo” above was supposed to be “solid.”
Yeah, laugh it up guys. But Montero could be the first 30/30 player the M’s have ever had.
*30 games played; 30 errors
Why the heck was the game on in the afternoon? What am I supposed to do with my evening now?
Watch some baseball that doesn’t TOTALLY suck?
Jesús Montero at first is the reincarnation of Dick Stuart, he of the iron glove. It doesn´t get any worse. But Montero really has a chance of being an above average Major League hitter, and with some pop, mostly to the opposite field. I think he has a real shot at DH. The only reason Uncle Lloyd is looking at him at first is to light a fire under Morrison and Smoak, but Smoak, belying his name, is incombustible.
McClendon should petition MLB to play the Padres another 20 games a year. They are a mess. Looks like Kemp is starting to heat up. If the M’s front office wants him the time to get him is now as the asking price is only going to go up. Also, Triunfel hit a HR for the Dodgers after Hanley left the game with an injury. He’s one of those players, imo, that you want to do well and maybe, just maybe he gets a chance with the Dodgers.
Seager has been the most consistent hitting M’s player the past few years (and 2nd most to Cano now), why can’t he hit #2 in the lineup so Cano is hitting with runners on base more often?
#2 hitters in the lineup this year have a .260 OBP.
#4 hitters have a .606 OPS, 2nd-worst and just ahead of #9 at .557 OPS.
It doesn’t take a genius to put together a lineup, however M’s managers always seem content to do things wrong all the time.
So does this mean Montero will hit cleanup next game?