This and that
Dave · June 21, 2006 at 5:29 am · Filed Under Mariners
A few random comments on things going on.
- 1. Jeff Clement is being activated from the DL and assigned to Tacoma today. The M’s continue to push their prospects through the system very aggressively. Rob Johnson will likely head to San Antonio once he returns from dealing with his family issues. If you needed another reason to go watch the Rainiers, now you have one.
- 2. The Everett Aquasox have begun their season with a couple of wins over Tri-Cities. Last night saw the system debut of Steve Uhlmansiek, who is still recovering from the TJ surgery he had at the end of his college career. He pitched exceptionally well, but reports indicate that his stuff isn’t all the way back yet. Good to see him on the hill and getting outs, though.
- 3. Speaking of the Aquasox, you really should go watch them play. It’s a good value, a cool place to watch a game, and they have some interesting young talent. Get thee to Everett.
- 4. Adrian Beltre, in June; .278/.342/.556. 10 of his 20 hits have gone for extra bases. I’m certainly not jumping on the “he’s back!” bandwagon after such a small sample, but just for comparison, he had only nine extra base hits in April and May combined. The nicest thing about his current success is that it’s not based on balls finding holes – he’s legitimately hitting the crap out of the ball. Let’s hope some form of this continues, because Good Adrian replacing Holy Crap You Suck Adrian in the line-up would be an amazing upgrade.
- 5. The Mariners have a +9 run differential. The A’s have a +5 run differential. While the rest of the world is convinced the A’s are better than the Mariners, I am not.
- 6. There are some lights out relievers in the American League right now. The Fielding Independant ERA for B.J. Ryan, J.J. Putz, Jon Papelbon, and Joe Nathan, in order; 1.34, 1.52, 1.60, 1.64. Papelbon is the only one of the three not averaging 13 K/G or more.
- 7. The Mariners defense, per the Hardball Times, is +18 on groundballs and -9 on flyballs. The M’s infield is, without a doubt, the strength of the defense. If the team is going to add another arm to the rotation at any point this year, they should emphasize GB rate. Jason Johnson would be a perfect fit at the back of the M’s rotation.
The two knee injuries on the same leg do concern me a bit, but the wrist injuries don’t concern me at all. I’m not advocating that we plug him in as the final solution for CF and forget about it, I’m just saying we shouldn’t give up on him playing in the field entirely.
As much as I’d like to see him DH every day, I’m not sure he has as much power as I’d like from that spot in a perfect world.
And #150: I wasn’t intending to insinuate that Doyle is playing CF or LF every day, but he is rehabbing right now, so he has to work himself back in to shape. What I was trying to say is that the organization obviously hasn’t given up on him in the outfield if they are playing him there during his rehab.
Just like Clement, who is DH’ing tonight in Tacoma. You can’t expect him to catch every day during rehab, but they still want him to play catcher.
Of course, right after I posted, I checked tonight’s lineup, which has Snelling in CF again (he can’t DH, cuz that’s what Clement is doing).
Still, we’re only talking a handful of games that they’ve allowed him to PLAY instead of just DH.
Boston also could have had Halama for free, but (not surprisingly) opted for Johnson.
I’m out for the night, but I’ll end with this. Forget about injury history and all that stuff. All I know is that I would rather see anybody at DH instead of Everett getting enough AB’s to vest his option.
Thanks for the debates, and the answers to my questions. Go M’s!
Thank you Seattle, good night!
Johnson v Pineiro, pretty much the same guy, as far as I can tell, except that Pineiro is younger and paid more. Both are turning in seasons at the extremem low end of expectations. Joel strikes out a few more and walks a few more, Johnson gives up a ton more hits. Their career GB/FB rates are nearly identical.
Huh?! you say. Yes, indeed they are. Because early in his career, Johnson was a flyball machine, and mid-way, figured out how to keep the ball on the ground. Same sort of transition Joel has shown signs of making this year.
We’re unhappy with Bad Joel in the rotation. Johnson would not be an improvement, so he’s useless to us. He wouldn’t have given us any flexibility we didn’t already have. Picking up Johnson so we could trade Meche? You want a rotation with both Pineiro and Johnson in it?
I figure Pineiro has more chance of improvement this year than Johnson. Clearly Pineiro is undergoing a change in style and approach from “I wanna be like Clemens” to “Maybe more like Moyer”. Maybe it’ll work (Player of the Week and all that), maybe it won’t, but he’s got more upside that Johnson.
Doyle to first and Sexson to DH….. im a genius 🙂
It’s interesting to look at Johnson’s GB/FB ratio year by year over his career (beginning in 1998):
.69-.83-.92-1.09-1.18-1.31-1.68-1.74-2.85
It seems like he’s been figuring something out.
All his peripheral numbers have been pretty stable throughout until this year when his Opp. BA has jumped up to .341 and his HR’s are out. To me that looks like a lot of groundballs have been finding the holes this year and some flyballs have drifted out.
While Pineiro’s G/F is up some this year, his other peripherals have declined enormously. His K rate is way down, he’s throwing a ton of pitches per batter (4.00), and his walks are up. I don’t see much reason for optimism in that.
Yes, Pineiro could be figuring out a new style of pitching. But betting on guys to become the next Jamie Moyer when they lose their stuff is not a winning proposition.
Johnson’s HR’s are “up” this year, not “out”.
theyre both up AND out 🙂
Re: Beltre’s June, ’05 : August, ’06 Dave, that’s _exactly what I thought when I read the post. Adrian will have a ‘hot month’ here and there where he stings a bunch of line drives and ups his SLG; it’s his career pattern. His June isn’t evidence that ‘he’s getting better,’ it’s evidence that he’s exactly who he’s always been.
. . . That’s the problem.
June, ’06 : August, ’05
“Why are the sending Clement to Tacoma?”
Clement, right now, is a better hitter than two-thirds of the Ms non-pitchers on the 25-man, with more power. The Ms back-up catcher, Rivera couldn’t hit a pitch if he set up a roadblock; he’s useless beyond catch-and-throw (and you’re welcome to debate how useful’less he is even at that). Clement was set low in San Antone to work on his catching, but the Ms clearly want his bat up north as soon as possible. I had figured we’d see Clement in ’07, but I’d say now it’s a good bet he’s here before September.
With Beltre and Sexson looking like three-legged turtles at the plate for most of this year, DH an open position, and CF just about the same, the Ms are going to need some real bats again when we get to the offseason. I have a feeling they want to see Jeff Clement get 70-80 ABs against Big League pitching by then to get a feel for what they’ve got and when they’ll get it.
#48: The Jason Johnson story gets better. The Red Sox aren’t exactly getting JJ for cash. Instead, they get Johnson and cash for a PTBNL or cash.
The Hartford Courant
reports that, “The Red Sox will pay a little more than half of the $2.5 million remaining on Johnson’s contract.”
Perhaps the time zones made all the difference. Bavasi could very well have been whacking on his snooze button while Epstein was putting together this deal for Boston.
and thank god he was if he was….