Another turn through the rotation, and it’s time for Rate Stats of Doom
Pitcher* abf h% bb% hr% k%
Garcia 256 22.7% 9.4% 4.7% 13.7%
Pineiro 254 20.5% 10.6% 2.0% 14.2%
Franklin 240 22.9% 6.7% 4.2% 9.6%
Meche 238 21.8% 6.7% 2.5% 19.7%
Moyer 236 22.5% 8.9% 3.0% 19.9%
Carrara 111 27.0% 9.9% 4.5% 7.2%
Hasegawa 99 16.2% 6.1% 0.0% 13.1%
Mateo 95 24.2% 6.3% 6.3% 17.9%
Rhodes 87 17.2% 8.0% 0.0% 19.5%
Nelson 70 20.0% 11.4% 2.9% 27.1%
Kazu 63 25.4% 6.3% 1.6% 25.4%
* indicates position on roster and is not an indicator of actual pitching talent.
Leaders, good sense: H Hasegawa, BB Hasegawa, HR (tie) Hasegawa, Rhodes, K Nelson
Leaders, bad sense: H Carrara, BB Jeff Nelson, HR Julio “Tateriffic” Mateo, K Carrara
Chicks dig the long ball
Mariner Home Run Leaders
Freddy Garcia, 12 given up
Bret Boone, 11 hit
(tie) Ryan Franklin, 10 given up, Edgar Martinez, 10 hit
Jamie Moyer, 7 given up
John Levesque in the PI today writes about Truly Terrible Freddy being booed, and expresses bafflement: “Was it a little harsh? So it would seem.” He compares Ichiro’s late-year slump and early-year start to Garcia’s problem. Here’s the difference: Ichiro had good games. Ichiro was having problems, but it wasn’t as if the light went off and he stopped running out infield hits and trying to bunt his way on. Garcia not only has only one good start to his credit since last July, he doesn’t care. People boo him because he’s not trying, because he’s pouting on the mound, and if they wanted to see a toddler throw a tantrum, they’d have stayed home and saved on the babysitter. They boo him because at this point Freddy’s night life is accepted as fact — you can walk the stands and hear people talk about how you can see him in the background of one of this one nightclub’s commericals, someone saw him at wherever, drinking whatever, flirting with whoever — and people aren’t happy that Freddy is fiddling while his career burns down around him.
So Levesque goes on, wonders if fans think he’s tanking intentionally, or if they don’t like him because his English isn’t so good, or even if it’s a cultural thing. But here’s the capper: “Anyone who thinks Garcia is blase about his lack of success this year is way off base. Forty-five minutes after the end of last night’s game, Garcia still hadn’t come out to meet reporters. Think he’s taking this lightly?”
Yes. Yes I do. I don’t care if he talks to the press at all, frankly. What I want to see is him do is keep his head on the mound and stop serving it up like a waiter after that first hit skips into the outfield. I want to see him stop shaking off signs constantly and try and work off a plan for setting up batters. I don’t think Garcia’s blase about his failure to be a decent pitcher since the middle of last year. But I also don’t think he cares enough to do anything about it.
Its official: I was wrong about Gil Meche. I wasn’t really surprised when he flashed a couple of good starts against Oakland and Cleveland, but I expected a few implosions to follow. He hadn’t pitched consistently well in 4 years. His control had never been very good, and it was hard to imagine it improving after a 2 year major league layoff. He was, simply, a guy who couldn’t get AA hitters out last summer, and we were expecting him to get major leaguers out this spring.
His command has gone from poor to exceptional, giving him the ability to work deep into games and keep his pitch counts reasonable. He’s posting the best strikeout rate of his career while cutting his walk rate in half. The impressive thing, though, has been his consistency. He’s only had one “poor” start, and that was his first of the year against Texas. He’s had a pair of not great starts, and six extremely good ones.
This is the Gil Meche the M’s were expecting. This is not the one I was expecting. Kudos to Bob Mevlin and his staff.
Carrara is truly awful. I’m amazed that he was able to fool NL hitters the past two season while with the Dodgers, because he has no stuff whatsoever. Hell, he doesn’t even have “stuf” or “stu,” let alone stuff. It’s junk, junky junk and junkier junk. Anyone else reminded of Bullet Bob Wells, the Yakima Express? You know, the guy who was Lou Piniella’s closer for about a week in 1997 thanks to a streak of two or three good outings.
Freddy’s always had crappy mechanics. His delivery was one of the reasons the Astros moved him in the first place. He’s lucky to hit the same release point twice in the same at-bat. This isn’t new.
You know who Truly Terrible Freddy reminds me of? Jose Lima. Just lost it overnight. Started giving up gopherballs left and right. Had the emotional maturity of a seven year old. Never lost his “stuff”, though.
By the way, Giovanni Carrara’s now walked 11 and struck out 8 in 23 innings. His ERA in May is over 9.50. Take away his 6 shutout innings against the Indians (because they’re the Indians, and he struck out no one) and he’s giving up 16 earned runs in 17 innings this year. Aaron Taylor, come on down!
Minor League Highlights for Wednesday, May 21
Sacramento 5, Tacoma 3. The great pitching duel we were all looking forward to in this one — Rafael Soriano vs. Rich Harden — didn’t quite develop, as each pitcher was bitten by a big inning. The Rainiers scored all three of their runs in the bottom of the 2nd off Harden, who settled down after that. Meanwhile, Sacramento scored all five of theirs in the 4th off Soriano (6 IP, 5 H, 5 R, 4 ER, 1 BB, 5 K). CF Adrian Myers led the offense with a 3-5 night, and 2B Chad Meyers added a pair of hits. Tacoma’s biggest problem was that all nine of their hits were singles. RHP J.J. Putz closed the game out (3 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 2 BB, 1 K), lowering his ERA to 3.44 on the season.
San Antonio 9, Round Rock 4. The Missions fell behind 4-0 early as RHP Chris Wright (7 IP, 8 H, 4 R, 3 ER, 3 BB, 5 K, 2 HR) allowed a run in each of the first four frames, but then exploded for four in the 4th, three in the 5th and lone runs in the 6th and 8th to win it. 1B A.J. Zapp paced the offense with three hits, while CF Mike Curry, SS Luis Ugueto, 2B Jose Lopez and C Jim Horner each added two. In slightly more shocking news, Curry was caught stealing for just the 4th time all year. He now has 21 steals in 25 attempts. LHP Tim Hamulack (1 2/3 IP, 2 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 2 BB, 2 K) closed things out and has yet to allow a run since being demoted from Tacoma.
Inland Empire 10, Lake Elsinore 4. The 66ers made the most of their 13 hits and 5 walks, turning them into 10 runs and helping LHP Glenn Bott (5 IP, 4 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 4 BB, 6 K) to his first win of the season. CF Sheldon Fulse, RF Cristian Guerrero, 3B Hunter Brown, C Chris Collins and SS Eddie Menchaca each had two hits, including a double and triple for Brown, who drove in three runs and scored thrice. Collins also doubled and had three RBIs, and Guerrero stole a pair of bases.
Wisconsin had the day off, as the entire Midwest League was idle. LHP Cesar Jimenez takes the hill for the Timber Rattlers today at West Michigan.
I TiVod (mmm… TiVo) last night’s game and I’ve been over Truly Terrible Freddy’s mechanics in slo-mo now, and my conclusion is that Freddy has crap mechanics. There were times I thought I saw a hitch… and it would disappear. He’d hop a little after a pitch.. and then wouldn’t for a while. He’d seem to follow through too far, taking himself to first more, some of the time. I don’t know how much of that’s due to the new mound position, and I don’t have the better from-home perspective, but jeez.