Mark Prior rocks. Joe Mauer’s nice and all (and yes, I realize they had budget constraints), but the Twins screwed the pooch by passing on Prior.
By the way, I’m taking August 4th in the “When someone finally scores on Arthur Rhodes” pool. Does anyone realize how good he is?
In other baby news, the Moyers have child #5 on the way and due in August. They’re also talking about having a sixth as well. Having seen Jamie himself grocery shopping here in Seattle, I’ll say that given the amount of food he was buying for a family of six, he’s going to need a second shopping cart if the Moyer clan grows to eight.
Minor League Highlights for Monday, April 14
Las Vegas 5, Tacoma 4 (DH Game 1). The Rainiers dropped the first game of their double-header, but have to be encouraged by another good start from RHP Jeff Heaverlo (5 IP, 5 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 1 BB, 3 K). Heaverlo now has a 3.07 ERA over his first three starts with a 15:5 K:BB ratio in 14.2 innings — not bad for a guy who missed all of last season with a torn labrum.
Tacoma 6, Las Vegas 2 (DH Game 2). The Rainiers evened things up in the nightcap behind 5 2/3 strong innings from RHP Brian Sweeney (3 H, 2 R, 1 ER, 1 BB, 7 K), who came out of the bullpen to make his first start of the season. As our own David Cameron says, “Sweeeney’s at it again. 2 BB’s, 14 K, 2.03 ERA. Stuff or no stuff, someone is eventually going to give this guy a look in the big leagues.” RHP Aaron Taylor worked the final 1 1/3 (double-headers feature seven inning games) to pick up his third save. LF Jacques Landry led the offense with his third homer of the season.
San Antonio 7, El Paso 2. CF Michael Curry and 2B Luis “Rule 5 Kid” Ugueto had three hits each in support of Aussie LHP Travis Blackley, who allowed just three hits over six innings to pick up his first win (3 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 4 BB, 6 K). Blackley is probably the top lefty in the system following last season’s trade of Derrick Van Dusen to Texas. In other prospect news, SS Jose Lopez continues to struggle. He was 1-5 last night and is hitting just .245/.296/.306 on the season.
Inland Empire did not play.
Wisconsin 4, Burlington 2. 3B Matt Hagen homered and drove in all four runs for the Timber Rattlers, who also got two hits apiece from 2B Tim Merritt and C Rene Rivera. After a so-so season at Everett, Rivera is in his first year of full-season ball and looking to establish himself as a bonafide catching prospect. RHP Tom “TA” Fullmer worked the requisite 5 IP for the win (4 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 1 BB, 3 K), followed by RHPs Renee Cortez and Bryan Heaston. Heaston faced only the final batter of the game, retiring him to pick up a save.
I watched the first part of the Reds-Cubs game before tuning over to the Mariners, and I’d like to say that this is not a good way to watch baseball games. Prior makes other pitchers seem like poor substitutes. Watching Pineiro I was thinking “yeah, that’s a good fastball, but it’s not one of Prior’s 94-mph darts. Yeah, that curve broke, but Prior’s dies like it was shot in mid-air. Yeah, his delivery is good, but it’s not as smooth as Prior’s.”
My back still hurts from that 13-inning marathon in the evening cold on Sunday.
The San Bernardino Sun has an excellent article on Ryan Ketchner today. More than any other prospect in the system, I hope he makes it to Seattle before his career ends.
Well, they got exactly what they needed tonight: 7 strong innings from Pineiro and one each from Rhodes and Sasaki. Well, that and a miracle hit from Jeff Cirillo. On a serious note, is there something in the water at Safeco Field? Pineiro’s wife had a baby last week, Rhodes’ wife had a baby this weekend, Giovanni Carrara’s wife just gave birth to twins, and I read today that Carlos Guillen’s wife is expecting any day now. Like they said on the broadcast today, the Mariners lead the league in babies. If Dave Neihaus’ wife is found to be pregnant, then we’ll know something is up.
Pineiro threw 57 pitches to get through the first three innings. He only took 53 to get through the next four. Give him credit for getting seven innings when the M’s needed it, but thats not very smart hitting by the A’s.
Cirillo hadn’t hit a homer anywhere since last June. So he hits one to left, (the hardest part of the park to get the ball out of the yard) off Mark Mulder, and in Safeco Field. Figure that out.
Another good start for Heaverlo down in Tacoma. He should spend at least the first half of the year in AAA, but you have to be encouraged at how well he’s pitching after a year off.
As the biggest Jay Buhner fan this side of his own family, I’m still upset I missed his 300th homer. When he hit #299 earlier in the game, I remember thinking, “Good, now I’ll see #300 tomorrow” (I had tickets for the next night). Alas, it wasn’t to be.
Rizzs and Buhner are talking about Jay’s 300th career homer, hit off Jason Isringhausen at Safeco. I was at that game, and it was tremendous to see. Jay’s explanation for the swing: “I didn’t like to get cheated.” Brings back good memories.
Pineiro just got his first strikeout to end the fifth inning. He’s one of those guys who just amazes you with his inability to miss bats despite having well above average stuff. If there’s a knock I have on Bryan Price (and it doesn’t come close to competing with the good he’s done), its been the inability to translate Garcia and Pineiro from throwers into pitchers.
Rotations for the Oakland series…
Monday: Mark Mulder vs. Joel Pineiro
Tuesday: Ted Lilly vs. Ryan Franklin
Wednesday: Tim Hudson vs. Freddy Garcia
Thursday: John Halama vs. Gil Meche
Are you feeling particularly good about any of these matchups? OK, so Thursday looks like it could be fun for the M’s hitters, but the A’s could just as easily tee off on Meche, too. As Dave mentioned yesterday, they could really use seven innings from Pineiro tonight. Rhodes should be back, which will help, but Hasagawa certainly can’t pitch, Carrara isn’t with the team and Nelson has worked back-to-back games.
As for Tuesday, with the lefty on the mound it might be a good time to give Greg Colbrunn his second start of the season in place of Olerud. Just a thought.