Not only has Balentien brought his BB rate way up, he’s also edge his K rate down slightly I believe. I want to see him do it next year in AAA for sure, he has to earn it, and I’m glad he’s the one guy in the system the development folks haven’t ridiculously over-promoted since he’s got a lot to work out in his approach at the plate. He’s made some strides this year—but God knows, he needed to do so.

—-Tacoma—-
Choo – .326 / .395 / .500, 12 HR, 19 2B, 3 3B, 24 SB, 4 CS, 40 BB, 67 Ks. Before today’s action (BFTA) (2 for 3, 1 HR, 3 RBI)

Doyle – .270 / .385 / .410, 4 HR, 12 2B, 4 SB, 1 CS, 26 BB, 39 Ks. BFTA (0 for 4, 1 K). Doyle’s slumping again. Maybe he’s angry that Everett’s still here.

LaHair – .301 / .364 / .388, 1 HR, 6 2B, 2 SB, 11 BB, 27 Ks (103 ABs). BFTA (1 for 4, 2B, 1 RBI, 2 SO). Yeah, I know he’s not a prospect.

Clement – .235 / .287 / .346, 2 HR, 3 2B, 3 BB, 19 Ks (81 ABs). BFTA (1 for 4, 2 Ks).

Cruceta – 8-6, 4.21 ERA, 107 IP, 56 BB, 132 SO(!), 13 HR(!). Gopheritis! Stirkeouts! It’s pandemonium!

—-San Antonio—-
Chen – .313 / .352 / .567, 3 HR, 6 2B, 1 3B, 2 SB, 4 BB, 8 Ks (67 ABs).

Balentien The Destroyer – .263 / .351 / .494, 17 HR, 20 2B, 11 SB, 6 CS, 40 BB, 97 Ks. God have mercy! Wladamir has nearly brought his K:BB ratio to 2:1!!!

Wilson – .344 / .425 / .634, 6 HR, 7 2B, 1 3B, 1 SB, 9 BB, 25 Ks (93 ABs). Legit? Small sample size.

Tuiasosoppo – .182 / .240 / .205, 2 2B, 1 SB, 7 BB, 29 Ks (88 ABs). Ouch Matt. Thank God you’re young.

Blackley – 7-7, 4.17, 108 IP, 29 BB, 69 SO, 12 HR. Travis has improved quite a bit lately. I don’t think he has given up a home run in a few starts.

Feierabend – 7-7, 3.96, 102.1 IP, 27 BB, 92 SO, 11 HR. Getting better and better.

Bazardo – 5-3, 3.20, 95.2 IP, 30 BB, 55 SO, 7 HR. Getting by on smoke and mirrors still, but has actually done better recently.

Rohrbaugh – 2-1, 2.73 ERA, 33.0 IP, 8 BB, 26 SO, 5 HR. Made the leap to AA rather well so far.

Kahn – 0-2, 5.64 ERA, 22.1 IP, 13 BB, 19 SO, 2 HR. Has not.

Chick – 1-0, 2.84 ERA, 12.2 IP, 9 BB, 9 SO, 1 HR (2 starts). Not much to go on here.

O’Flaherty – 2-0, 1.21 ERA, 29.2 IP, 12 BB, 31 SO, 0 HR, 2 SV. Also has done well with his promotion.

—-Inland Empire—-
Needs some damn batters. With the exception of Casey Craig, who wont get a shot in the Mariners organization (so sayeth Dave), nobody here is hitting for snot and doesn’t appear to be a prospect at all (or has already moved up to San Antonio). So I’m skipping this section until someone interesting comes along.

Nottingham – 4-7, 3.90 ERA, 110.2 IP, 38 BB, 100 SO, 8 HR. Why mother he’s cured!

Thomas – 5-2, 5.68 ERA, 44.1 IP, 18 BB, 52 SO, 6 HR. Having the same problems as Felix. Seems to be pitching well, but getting hit hard.

Rivera – 5-4, 4.30 ERA, 58.2 IP, 27 BB, 50 SO, 8 HR. Still having control problems.

—-Wisconsin—-
Lo – .353 / .450 / .471, 2 2B, 1 3B, 6 SB, 1 CS, 5 BB, 7 Ks (34 ABs). Advancing rapidly, and probably wont stay here in Wisconsin for long. This is definately a guy to watch.

Valbuena – .286 / .371 / .400, 3 HR, 16 2B, 6 3B, 21 SB, 7 CS, 44 BB, 44 Ks. Luis, I think, has found his groove again.

Williams – 2-4, 3.44 ERA, 68 IP, 64 BB(!), 82 SO(!), 5 HR. Somebody teach this guy some control before he kills someone.

Guaramato – 2-3, 7.17 ERA(!), 42.2 IP, 32 BB, 39 SO, 4 HR, 6 SV. Shawn Chacon anybody?

Woerman – 2-2, 2.12 ERA, 34 IP, 14 BB, 54 SO(!), 1 HR, 7 SV. Graduated to Inland Empire (Yay!).

Bibens-(BIBENS!)-Bibens-Dirkx – 0-1, 2.25 ERA, 8 IP, 1 BB, 11 SO, 0 HR, 1 SV. That’s 22 strikeouts in 14 professional IP for those following along here. Might be a stud righty setup guy.

—-Everett—-
Halman the Dutch Apple Bunkerbuster – .271 / .310 / .514, 4 HR, 6 2B, 4 3B, 10 SB, 4 CS, 3 BB(!), 29 Ks(!). Somebody learned how to hit the baaaalllllll… Duck!

White – .288 / .463 (WTF?) / .413, 3 HR, 1 2B, 2 CS, 25 BB, 24 Ks. Can we give this guy some steroids please?! His plate discipline is great, now if only he’d actually put WOOD on the ball!

Pimentel – .270 / .356 / .508, 4 HR, 1 2B, 1 3B, 9 BB, 9 Ks. Small sample size.

Schilling – 2-3, 2.88 ERA, 34.1 IP, 8 BB, 26 SO, 2 HR. Roughed up last outing.

Uhlmansiek – 2-1, 3.12 ERA, 26 IP, 14 BB, 27 SO, 0 HR. Ditto.

Fister (hee hee hee) – 1-2, 0.84 ERA, 21.1 IP, 4 BB, 20 SO, 0 HR, 4 SV. Moved to bullpen, doing well in all aspects.

Orta – 2-1, 6.35 ERA, 11.1 IP, 3 BB, 9 SO, 1 HR. I have faith that they drafted him for a reason.

—-AZL Mariners—-
Disclaimer: These stats mean jack.

Avila – .367 / .419 / .620, 5 HR, 3 2B, 1 3B, 3 SB, 1 CS, 5 BB, 21 Ks.

Van Gaalen – 3-1, 2.45 ERA, 25.2 IP, 2 BB(!), 19 SO, 0 HR.

Salinas – 1-0, 1.93 ERA, 18.1 IP, 5 BB, 13 SO, 0 HR.

Morrow – 0-0, 0.00 ERA, 1 IP, 0 BB, 1 SO, 0 HR.

Tillman – 0-0, 0.00 ERA, 1 IP, 0 BB, 0 SO, 0 HR.

Campillo(!) – 0-0, 0.00 ERA, 1 IP, 0 BB, 0 SO, 0 HR. Seeing a pattern here?

Varvaro – 0-0, 0.00 ERA, 2 IP, 1 BB, 3 SO, 0 HR (2 HB, hee hee hee).

So the question is, are they going to get any of these pitchers any more time throwing professionally or just stretch them out, work them out, and wait til Winter Ball to do jack? With Campillo, obviously, you have an injury rehab assignment, but will he be moved up anywhere? Morrow was supposed to be relatively advanced compared to a lot of other drafted college pitchers (the unsigned Andrew Miller notwithstanding), so it seems odd to not do anything with him so far.

Oh, and because I know you’re all just DYING to know:

Garciaparra – .385 / .385 / .846, 1 HR, 3 2B, 1 SB, 1 CS, 0 BB, 0 Ks. Rehabbing in the AZL.

But I dont know how you can say there is anything at all _signifigant_ about how much Sexson is outhitting Beltre this year. Their OPS is .010 points away right now.

And that’s with Beltre having an April so hideous it is unlikely to repeat.

I don’t terribly disagree with you on a lot, but I do not assume that the M’s don’t have anything because of their 3rd baseman. That’s a false dichotomy. The M’s can have both. And we’ve seen their accounting before when they “saved” money on a player.

I’m against giving Adrian away, and a smart FO would build up the rest of the roster enough to compensate for his failures, kick him down to 6th or 7th place in the line-up, demote him in the team’s strategy, and live with it. Team’s which continue to build their offense and expectations around disappointments like Beltre turn into the Blue Jays of five years ago.

On another note, Doyle doesn’t need a platoon partner, so Perez just becomes a terrific pinch hitter who for one AB will force the other team to bring in a RH reliever to eliminate him every third game.

Beltre is still young-ish. He’s filling the hole at third, which was the conceivable least he could do when he signed that contract. I wouldn’t trade him just to dump the salary, there would have to be good bait.

Yeah, Lackey seems about #2. Front rotation starter for 3 mil.

His xFIP is 4.28, smack in the middle of his 2004 and 2005 xFIP. It seems like he’s actually a bit worse of a pitcher than he was last year — K rate is down a bit, BB rate up a bit, GB% down a bit. OK his FIP has consistently been 1/2 run below his xFIP, and is very good, but I’m not sure what that means — he consistently prevents fly balls from becoming HRs, which isn’t a real skill?

Is it simply that he’s cheap for a couple more years for a #3 starter? I wouldn’t swap Ichiro or Lopez for him (though I wonder about Ichiro’s value after he signs a FA contract).

I don’t want to trade Beltre to begin with, but doing so for cash instead of talent horrifies me. And if we get suckered into giving him to someone so he can be an all-star again in the NL, well, we suck.

This team should be able to overpay a third baseman without blinking. It can’t survive its 1st baseman and DH not hitting at all, but it could survive a weak-hitting defensive whiz at third if they pulled their heads out of their collective ass about Everett.