Game 54, Devil Rays at Mariners
LHP Scott Kazmir vs. RHP Joel Pineiro; 7:05pm, FSN and KOMO
Kazmir was once regarded as one of the top pitching prospects in all of baseball, and has pitched well this year for a 21-year old who entered the season with just 33 innings of experience above AA. His strikeout rate is a bit lower than you might expect given his good stuff, but check out how he’s kept the ball in the park — he’s on pace to allow just 12 homers in 188 innings over the course of the season. That’s a darned fine number for any pitcher, let alone a guy just three years out of high school. He’s also left-handed, which certainly doesn’t bode well for the M’s tonight.
Meanwhile, the ticking time bomb known as Joel Pineiro takes his 6.66 ERA to the mound for your hometown nine. Last time out against this same Devil Rays club, he was shelled for ten hits and seven runs in 4 2/3 innings.
Could be a long night.
Comments
275 Responses to “Game 54, Devil Rays at Mariners”
If Eddie can keep this consistency into July maybe we can get
a prospect or 2 via trade.
Solid Win. Moyer on the mound tomorrow. Victory from the jaws of
defeat.
The ball wasn’t handled that well by Morse to begin with; he backed up instead of stepping forward to get it. That extra time was what made the difference really. Boone’s throw was fine. But Perez was safe.
That was probably the most fun I’ve had all season watching a game. MLB TV ticks me off thought. The one night I just want to soak it all in and actually watch the post game, and they cut it off. Well, they always do, but tonight it irritated me.
It’s a pity that Joel doesn’t get the win after pitching well. I said it at the time… the Devil Rays were going to score off Joel if he went out there for the 7th. We can blame “Gas Can Villone” for that.
Need an alaysis of Joel’s motion tonight, because I missed most of it. But looking at the highlights and what I saw, his velocity was back up to 90-91mph on the fastball and he was throwing that consistently for a strike with movement. If he can get that velocity back up to the 92-93mph pitcher he was before, Joel may make a full recovery.
It’s entirely possible that the only obstacle holding Joel back was fear of being hurt again if he threw harder.
I really like Bill Kruger but he is somewhat of a homer. He speaks about Pinero and Meche like they were the second coming of Cy Young. For once I wish one of these media commentators would tell it like it is. Where’s Howard when you need him?
Why am I hearing all this about trading Eddie?
#187
Rivera was hitting .292 when he was called up…
257: My feeling exactly. Eddie’s the cornerstone of our bullpen, and I’d be a lot happier if the M’s would get rid of Villone instead. How bad could Sherrill be???
If anyone doubts the value of a good bullpen, just ask the Red Sox how happy they are with Embree lately, not to mention Foulke.
Of course I forgot that Sherrill’s injured right now… 🙂
I think the point is that we could actually GET something for Guardado… his trade value is higher than his real value. It would be smart to trade him now, in my opinion.
What on earth would we get for Villone?
Just to parrot what has already been said by Noel and Saul… “Teflon” Eddie… “Almost Everyday” Eddie… “Occassional” Eddie… stoppit with the Eddie hate. Yeah, he had a slow start earlier in the year, but he also didn’t have a spring training to get ready. I think until Eddie blows out his arm, we have to give him his justified props. He’s helped save us 16 of our 23 wins and his ERA is an amazing 1.64.
Show some love people.
I wonder how many teams would want Eddie, given the size of his contract. The Red Sox, maybe. 🙂
Wanting to trade Eddie does not mean that I hate him or don’t appreciate him.
It means he is a luxury we cannot afford.
We have far bigger needs.
And he is one of the few parts we can sell high.
How about “Anyday Eddie”?
Mostly what the M’s get by trading a guy like Guardado is relief in the form of less salary to pay for the rest of a season that looks a lot like Tampa Bay’s. They certainly won’t get any major league players in return for him. Prospects maybe, but nobody who can take a roster spot.
That is not necessarily true, Tim. We’ll have to wait and see closer to the deadline, but he could very much be somebody a contender wants.
I wasn’t picking on you in particular John, just an overall vibe that some folks on this thread. I’ve heard enough comments about Eddie around here.
Actually I agree with you. I think Eddie would be a good one to move simply because a contender who needs a closer would probably be willing to give up at least an B+ or A- prospect for him right now. We also aren’t 100 percent sure that his health will hold up since he never actually had surgery to correct that shoulder problem.
I like Eddie, but if we can fix a hole in our system by moving him, I say do it. We have two potential closers who can take Eddies place with Putz and Soriano when he comes back.
John in LA — it seems unlikely that a contender would part with any top grade player in a July trade if they are gunning for a pennant. Thats my only point…
TIF, agree with all.
DBT, we don’t need “top grade” to improve our starting line-up or rotation.
Eddie has been very successful this year, it could make him attractive enough to get better value back for him at the deadline, that’s all. I don’t think we’re getting Santana for him.
We have people that could close, if needed.
At other positions, we don’t so much. And it’s looking bleak for next year, too, unless we make some moves.
I really like Eddie, but I agree that we can get quite a bit for him from a team like the Mets, Boston, or Atlanta who really need to make the playoffs, and will maybe give up a good prospect. Say Eddie and Thornton to Boston for Hanley Ramariz? Who knows, if Foulk can not pick it up, may be a possibility.
It’s nice in theory to get a prospect for Eddie, but I suspect the front office still overvalues relievers and closers. We’ll see.
For what it is worth, ESPN’s Steve Phillips, in discussing the NL East, mentioned Washington as being possibily interested in Winn or Ibanez and the Mets as having a strong interest in Guardado. Probably not worth much, huh?
Re: #255
exactly what i was thinking…i’m not saying that that is THE cuase of his current struggles, but there is at least a slight possibility that its a “head” thing rather than a physical problem. Just like a guy who dives and tears up his knee; he dosn’t want to dive again. i’m sure Snelling has had to deal with the fear of pulling up on the run after what happened to his knee. it seems to me that Joel’s injury was an “almost” disaster..it wasn’t enough to require surgery but whatever happened was bad enough that if it were any worse it would have required surgery, if that makes any sense. that would definitly lead to him wanting to treat his arm gingerly though, and maybe holding back his delivery to a certain extent. on top of that, his mechanics havn’t been as smooth as they used to the first few months here.
hopefully this is a start he can build on and truly get back to form; this start dosn’t rule out the possibility that he’s injured but IMHO it does leave the possibility of it being more mental than phisical. hope thats it.
And as for “OMG a good bullpen is so important”… most closers are not in the superlative class “baseball wisdom” usually reserves for them. For every Hoffman or Rivera there are lots of generic closers who are pretty interchangeable, and setup guys who’d do just fine in the closer role. Eddie’s in that class of “decent closers who aren’t top-tier”.
Finding a free agent closer is not too hard, usually- whereas finding other needs could be more difficult. THAT’S the argument for trading Eddie. I’m not saying “make a deal just because”…but if you get talent back that we have in short supply, why not do this in July if it looks like the team’s toast?