Game 68, Mariners at Athletics
Washburn vs. Loaiza, 12:35pm.
Hey, glad I checked on the time of today’s game.
Should be a good chance to pick up a win — Loaiza might be a bit distracted, or at least tired, from his late night / early morning out yesterday. Also, he’s been awful this season.
Ichiro-Beltre-Lopez-Ibanez-Sexson-Everett-Johjima-Reed-Betancourt.
How draft slotting works
This topic came up a lot during the draft, so I wanted to point people to the latest Baseball America, which has a great article by Jerry Crasnick (“Slot System Tests Teams’ Creativity,” subscription required). I wish they’d make it free because it’s the best single piece I’ve seen on how MLB is forcing draft slotting, why it’s good and why it sucks, and how some teams are losing players over it and others are taking advantage. It’s a really good piece of work.
I don’t want to quote it too much – if you’re at all interested in this, find an issue at your local newsstand – but it’s got stuff like this
“In the big picture, everybody in baseball is on the same page,” the AL official says. “But this has created a division between the teams who will toe the line–the ones that (commissioner Bud) Selig and the commissioner’s office have influence over–and the clubs who don’t give a crap. They’ll take the best players and give them the money. There’s an advantage there, isn’t there?
Essentially, as the article outlines, it works like this:
– scouting director wants to pay a kid over slot
– he calls MLB, which now handles the offers, and says “give the kid this offer”
– MLB balks, gives him a hard time
– MLB calls the owner, gives him a hard time
– (optional) Selig calls the owner and/or other people, give them a hard time
– if the team insists, the player gets the new offer, and the team gets fined for exceeding the slot
The article doesn’t really speak to what happens to teams that ignore slotting, but it does hint at it:
“We have the choice to go over slot, but that’s like telling a high school kid, ‘You have the choice to break curfew,’ ” an NL talent evaluator says. “Sure you do. But you also know there’s going to be some kind of consequence.”
Anyway, go check it out, and remember it when you think of Andrew Miller.
Game 67, Mariners at Athletics
Pineiro v Haren. 7:05, FSN. Nothing weird about the lineup, really.
The M’s have a chance today and tomorrow, when they’re up against the shockingly ineffective Esteban Loaiza, with Washburn pitching for the M’s. Oakland’s been almost as bad against lefties as the Mariners.
Everett option watch: about ~200 plate appearances before the option vests for next year.
Ryan Anderson wants to be like me
It’s apparently not enough for former M’s prospect Ryan Anderson that he had more of a professional baseball career than I ever will. No, The Little Unit has enrolled in school at the Scottsdale Culinary Institute in Arizona. The Mariners are even paying roughly half of his tuition (I haven’t asked if they’ll cover mine, even though I’ve been to far more of their games than Anderson ever has).
To which I say, bring it on, Little Unit. You may be six-foot-ten, but I’ll outcook you every day of the week and twice on Sunday.
Game 66, Mariners at Athletics
LHP Jamie Moyer v RHP Joe Blanton.
This series is going to be an interesting test. The M’s may have played better than their record, but if they want to move up in the division, they’re going to need to climb over the A’s and Texas. Getting wins here would be big. Can the pitchers continue their success against a team that so far is even worse offensively than the Twins? Can they keep hitting against a staff way, way better than Angels, the Royals, or the Twins?
Blanton vs the M’s so far this year: 2-0, 1.20 ERA, 15 IP, 9H, 0 HR, 1 BB, 8 K.
Moyer vs. the A’s so far: 0-2, 6.17 ERA, 11.2 IP, 17 H, 1 HR, 4 BB, 8 K.
Updated Future Forty
Long overdue, but finally here, we have a new Future Forty. A bunch of changes since the pre-season update, as some guys go away and new guys join the club.
This was probably the hardest I’ve had to look to find 40 guys in the system that I felt were worthy of being listed. I finally relented and put the struggling Michael Saunders on the list just based on talent, because honestly, there wasn’t anyone else who deserved the spot. He’s not hitting, but he has some talent (even if it was overstated during the past offseason by folks who got a wee bit too excited), so he ends up on the list due to what he might become.
The system is a bit better than it was, mainly due to two things – the addition of Brandon Morrow and the current health of Doyle. Adding two upper tier prospects will help any system look better, and the M’s are no exception. They’re still a league average farm system, at best, but there are some players to like on the way.
One of the problems is we’ve yet to see any significant breakthrough performances this season. Last year, Adam Jones took a big step forward, but no one has had an eye-opening season that changes the way we view their future. Matt Tuiasasopo was a good preseason candidate, but while he’s hitting for average, he’s not doing anything else. The arms who are pitching well are mostly relievers, which just isn’t that exciting.
Guys who have improved their stock include guys like Francisco Cruceta, who still profiles as a back-end starter/swing man until his command improves, and Mark Lowe, who is showing some potential as a multi-inning setup man. Justin Thomas, who many of us shook our heads at last year when the M’s popped him in the second round, is also blowing expectations away.
There have been some disappointments as well. Jesse Foppert’s still not anywhere close to what he was pre-surgery, and Yorman Bazardo’s arm looks to be in bad shape. Shin-Soo Choo still can’t hit lefties and lacks the requisite skills to be a major league starting outfielder, and Clint Nageotte’s velocity just doesn’t look like it’s coming back. Unfortunately, the decreased velocity hasn’t brought improved command.
The prospects at Tacoma have been mostly disappointing, but there’s been some signs of life in the lower levels. As such, you’ll see a huge clumping of players in the “prospects – several years away” category. There’s not a rush of young talent banging down the door to Safeco, but there could be in a year or so.
And no, Michael Garciaparra’s not on the list. I’m not jumping on the bandwagon. Guys who can’t buy an extra base hit in the minors don’t make good major leaguers.
As always, feel free to use this thread for all your prospecty questions.
The Week in Mariners
Woo-whee. WWWL,WWW. That’s how you set the ‘snooze’ button on the fire Hargrove alarm. What’s to say, really? The pitching’s been fantastic (well, except Pineiro)(and Green)(okay, Moyer wasn’t fantastic, exactly).
Ichiro! hit .559.
Five.
Five.
Nine.
His OBP was .571.
His slugging % was .794.
Seven.
Nine.
Four.
I don’t know if I’ve mentioned this lately, but Ichiro! can hit a little.
Among all major leaguers, there’s only a handful who had better weeks (and Ichiro! has more plate appearances than any of these): Joe Mauer, who feasted on M’s pitching, Jason Bay, Hafrner, some Griffey kid, Beltran, Victor Martinez… Berkman… who cares. The point is Ichiro! is absolutely on fire.
It’s a shame that he got off to a slow start. Digging himself out of this hole has made people overlook his excellence this year. Ichiro’s on the leaderboards for park-adjusted hitting: by EQA, he’s the most valuable right fielder in baseball right now. I understand he plays some defense, too.
Man that dude is good. Quick, ask your local columnist to write about how he can’t sustain this success and will inevitably “regress to the mean” or some such thing.
Also, Johjima’s off his torrid pace, Sexson’s still sucking, Beltre had an overall off week despite seeming to take well to the lineup switch, and C-Rex was just baaaaaaaaad.
Game 65, Mariners at Angels
12:35pm, FSN & KOMO. RHP King Felix Hernandez vs. RHP Jeff Weaver. Also, don’t look now, but the M’s have won seven of their past nine.
Weaver, as you may recall, signed really late in free agency, not inking with the Angels until mid-February. I thought he might be something of a steal, particularly on a one-year contract, but he’s been downright awful — 3-8, 6.39 ERA, 85 hits and 15 homers allowed in 69 innings.
Then you have King Felix, who has been unable to put together good back-to-back outings. He’s coming off a good one last time out (7 IP, 6 H, 1 ER, 2 BB, 5 K), so it’ll be up to him to establish some sort of momentum today.
Seattle: Ichiro-Beltre-Lopez-Ibanez-Sexson-Everett-Reed-Rivera-Betancourt
Anaheim: Figgins-Cabrera-Guerrero-Anderson-Morales-Rivera-McPherson-Molina-Kennedy
We’re up
Enough said.
Game 63, Mariners at Angels
LHP Washburn v RHP Escobar.
Remeber, Washburn pitches well against his old team. They keep telling me that.
The now standard lineup for the M’s.
The Angels, though…
CF-B Figgins
SS-R Cabrera
LF-L Anderson
RF-R Guerrero
DH-R Salmon
1B-B Morales
C-R Napoli
3B-R Quinlan
2B-L Kennedy
Huh. Tim Salmon’s resurgence is a little astonishing. The guy’s hitting .271/.374/.475, and he’s 37, coming off a missed year preceded by a year where he only played in 60 games. He’s a lock for Comeback Player if he keeps this up, or even if he tails off significantly.