Game 20, Mariners at White Sox
Game rained out. Double header tomorrow, starting at 2:05 pm pacific time.
5:11 our time. Jakubauskas v Danks.
CF Ichiro
LF Chavez
DH Sweeney
3B Beltre
1B Branyan
2B Lopez
C Johnson
SS Betancourt
CF Gutierrez
I like Wak (and have a post on why I like him scheduled for tomorrow), but I have to wonder what Wladimir Balentien has to do to get off the bench (and I’ve been one of the main Wlad detractors over the years…). He’s hitting .350/.381/.550 through his first 21 plate appearances, and the team isn’t exactly overflowing with power hitters. Balentien has holes in his swing, and he’s not very good defensively, but he can hit a fastball a long way, especially if a left-hander throws it to him.
Given this team’s need for some offense, the obvious Griffey-platoon, Branyan’s stiff back and general weakness against LHPs, the M’s had a nifty chance to run out an RHP-heavy line-up tonight and get Wlad’s long ball power in the line-up. Instead, Danks gets three LH bats in the first five spots in the order, and the right-handed bats are mostly punchless and clumped together at the bottom of the order.
I’m sure Mike Sweeney’s a great guy and Russ Branyan had a great weekend, but I’d rather see Wlad in the line-up tonight than either of them.
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Branyan’s back is hurting, but Sweeney’s might be worse. (Speculation, obviously, but he did have to leave the game the other day.) Of course, if Sweeney’s not healthy enough to play the field, then it would make even more sense to put Wlad at DH instead of Sweeney. Plus, with all of Sweeney’s veteranness, he should be able to accept the bench without causing a stir more than Wlad.
I can understand wanting to put a good defense out there with Jakabauskas on the mound, but flip-flopping Gutz and Chavez in the order would make some sense, though not change the bottom line a whole lot.
I’m not sure if he’s healthy enough to field (and who knows what a planeflight does to a bad back) but yesterday Drayer said Sweeney was “good to go”:
looks like the weather might make the game iffy.
After I read that Drayer excerpt, I thought of the Saturday Night Live skit with Steve Martin set in the Middle Ages. “And maybe we could have a system where people are presumed innocent until proven guilty and get to face their accusers in open court before a jury of their peers…NAAAAHHHH!”
I can just imagine Wak and Co. going over the current injury situation and potential scenarios and someone saying, “And maybe we could have a five man bench instead of a 12 man pitching staff….NAAAAAHHHH!”
As per FSN, rain delay no estimated start time.
sorry double post
The radar map says that this game isn’t very likely.
If Wak wants to platoon Sweeney with Branyan, fine. But Wlad should be platooning with Jr.
What they need on the bench more than anything else is another middle infielder.
ESPN.com is now saying postponed.
my radio says it’s official. no game today.
no link.
Geoff Baker also just updated his blog saying doubleheader starting at 4:05 tomorrow. Not sure whether that’s Chicago time or ours.
that’s gotta be local. 1:05 our time.
edit: yeah, Chicago’s in CST. oops. 2:05
4:05 Central Time is 2:05 Pacific Time.
The good news about a doubleheader is that Wlad will surely play at least one game — the old gimpy guys won’t play both games (Sweeney-Griffey-Branyan?). Really, Wlad should play both games.
This complicates the injury situation a bit. If Johnson can’t catch, Burke can’t possibly catch both ends. It sure would be nice to have another bat for the doubleheader.
Really, Wlad should play both games.
You’d rather see Wlad against Colon over Branyan and Griffey?
They’ll run out the same line-up against Danks that they planned to tonight, I’d imagine, and then probably just go back to the standard line-up for the game against Colon. No reason to think Balentien will play in either, much less both.
So is Jakabauskas still going to pitch game 1 of the doubleheader tommorow and then Felix game 2?
Also,hopefully this double header doesn’t ruin our rhythm.
Hey, but Joel Pineiro’s pitching over on the Monday night game on ESPN!
And he’s got a lead! …although they’re starting to knock him around.
Ah, AL washouts, get thee to the NL!
AEEIII! And did they just say that Ryan Franklin is the Cardinals closer?? The humanity.
If Johnson’s still out tomorrow with the strain, don’t they almost HAVE to call up Clement? Who else can catch the other half of the doubleheader?
I’m watching the Cardinals-Braves game on ESPN. They have been discussing almost nothing except three pitchers: Joel Pineiro, Rafael Soriano and Ryan Franklin. No mention that they all came from the same organization or were teammates.
And Greg Norton draws a walk…this is freaky.
It’s not just Franklin in St. Louis. There’s another ex-Mariner racking up saves in Atlanta.
They did mention O’Flaherty was an ex-M.
And I’m watching Griffey’s 10 best moments… kind of sad.
Ryan Franklin up to close. Now, there’s pub beards, and then there’s pub beards.
Uh, gross.
Looks like it will be Jakubauskas vs. Colon for the first game and Felix vs. Danks for the second game. I figured they would do this as it evens up the the pitching matchups.
Perhaps someone can give me some insight as to why the M’s don’t skip the 5th starter early in the year when they have off days that would enable them to do so. While I understand that their rookie 5th starter needs work, I would rather be maximizing the starts of Bedard and Felix at this point.
Because you don’t want to run up too many IP on Bedard and Felix over the course of the season, and especially because you want them to have something in the tank if there’s a pennant race in September and meaningful games in October?
I don’t know, I think a case can be made either way. But if you’re carrying a full bullpen like this you might as well go with your 5th starter and (probably) give them some work too….