Lowe lurid, Ichiro intellectual, Weaver whacked, Burke backup?
A dastardly tale of deception over in the Everett Herald. Apparently being injured doesn’t save you from the wrath of the team’s pranksters.
Ichiro has a TV show, in case you weren’t aware. This piece is more noteworthy for some typically philosophical Ichiro quotes, however.
If your mantra is that everything you do should be for the benefit of the team, you become incapable of valuing yourself. You become a less-than-ideal player. You become a player that fans don’t pay to come and see. In the end, that kind of player doesn’t benefit the team.
Times: Jeff Weaver doesn’t like getting up early. Poor baby.
Also, LHP Eric O’Flaherty is pitching well. Given Arthur Rhodes’ stiff elbow and George Sherrill’s control/mechanics problem… well, you never know. Plus, red-hot Armando Benitez update!
John Hickey notes that 35-yo Jamie Burke might break camp as Johjima’s backup. Except he calls him “Larry.” Considering Rene Rivera is terrible, I don’t see how that could be a bad thing. Hargrove says Burke and Rivera are even. Burke’s career numbers, if you’re interested. In any event, Jamie-Larry is starting for the M’s today behind the dish.
Roster moves: RHP Cha-Seung Baek and LHP Ryan Feierabend were optioned to Tacoma. RHP Renee Cortez was sent to minor league camp.
Comments
51 Responses to “Lowe lurid, Ichiro intellectual, Weaver whacked, Burke backup?”
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.
Why has Burke never had much of a chance? Considering how many no-hit catchers stick around the majors as backups, making pretty decent coin, that seems odd. His numbers aren’t earth shattering but they look a lot nicer than, say, Mike Matheny’s.
I really don’t know anything about Burke, but Matheny’s got that defensive rep. Maybe Burke never hooked on as the personal catcher of a top pitcher.
Next to Rivera, Burke looks like Barry Bonds with the secret ingredient.
Bavasi likes Burke, FWIW. If Rivera went down to Tacoma, who would go down to AA?
If Rivera makes this squad, I will be sickened. The man has no business in the bigs, maybe not even triple A….I would rather have half our pitchers at bat than RRivera. Lets give this grizzly vet a chance.
If Rivera goes to Tacoma, do the Raniers keep Rivera, Johnson, and Clement? I still assume that the M’s want Clement to develop as a catcher, so moving him to 1b or DH in Tacoma does not seem reasonable.
I knew Ichiro was cool, but I had no idea just how cool. Wow!
Yeah, there’s already something of a logjam at Tacoma even without Rivera. Heck, maybe they just release him to make room on the 40-man for Burke.
I obviously didn’t catch the game, but on the “video at 11″, it looked like Weaver was the victim of some seriously bad defense at third by the Gookie monster on one of the XBH’s. That he was keeping the ball down (per every article on his game yesterday) was encouraging, although his GO:FO was 3:7, suggesting, perhaps, that he was getting hit pretty hard. Looking at the Gameday account, he did surrender the two HRs in the 4th, though. Certainly defense wasn’t a factor there. Maybe he wasn’t keeping the ball down…
Heck, maybe they just release him to make room on the 40-man for Burke.
No way. Then they’d have to mark down those Rivera t-shirts at the team shop!!!
#9– re, Weaver’s outing– remarks were made by Hargrove about the pitcher’s being squuezed, and, fwiw, it was our old pal Chris Guccione behind the plate …
Arnold talked to Neihaus about Past Springs
The third base installment of Larue’s defense series — and his telling of the nekkid tale
That was a heck of a practical joke Jeff Weaver pulled on his teammates. I bet he really fooled them into thinking he was a bad pitcher!
Art Theil loves Chris Minaker.
Rivera hasn’t really hit at any level (leave out the small sample sizes) so I wouldn’t expect him to start doing so now.
Anyone have any idea how Burke is with the glove? It would be nice to have at least one backstop who can keep runners honest.
No Firefly quotes? Boo!
No, sorry. And honestly, I have no idea what you guys are talking about.
Now, maybe that’s too drastic. If half of our pitchers were batting, that would only leave room for about three non-pitchers in the starting lineup.
media-deprived workaholic.
speaking of which, has the new job started yet?
You guys catch the caller a couple minutes ago on KJR explaining that if Willie boom boom played everyday, he could be a .300 hitter? He didn’t “know how to look the numbers up, but when WFB has consistent playing time, he hits really well.”
No… why do you think I’ve been posting so much lately?
I’m not starting until the first week of April. Until then, we’re hanging out in Seattle until our stuff gets to California.
No, I didn’t hear that caller, but I assume that the same type of call will occur once or twice a day on KJR until Willie eventually retires. Then the calls will shift to discussions about retiring his number.
I haven’t heard any Reed/Broussard rumors lately. Any news on that front?
No Doyle, bring on Larry. Anyone that can survive the collision with Torii Hunter is OK in my book.
the headline here made my day! been clamoring for burke to make the club since we signed him! i hope bavasi and grover make the smart choice here for once…rivera can develop in the minors, or be released for all i care…he’s terrible…
Minaker could get some Bloomquist-type love. Hopefully he can actually play, although I’m not optimistic…
Can a brother get a game thread?
speaking of game thread, who are these announcers on FSN?
dang, I forgot today was a tv game.
well, it is some fancy-schmancy looking place. no menu, though.
online menu, I mean.
Having Burke as a backup is what should have happened last year. While RR may never have had the skills to be a major league catcher, any chance he had disappeared sitting on the bench and getting embarrassed in his few starts. I am sure he liked the ML’s but if he was to develop, it wasn’t here. He’s lost a valuable year, probably now has a rep of a poor catcher. Guys like Burke are all over and better suited to back up then poor Renee. The M’s did him no favors.
I read the Seattle Times story on Jose Guillen. I guess we didn’t bring him in for his leadership skills.
Love the Ichiro show. You can see the clip here — it’s pretty riveting. Japanese television shows are just so… japanese.
Oh, apparently you can’t post a link to a youtube video here. Cool. You can find it at the seattleest blog.
My father who was invited to the same Yankees rookie camp that Rusty Staub was at said that Kenji Jojhima has a poor throwing motion for a catcher. Take it for what it is worth but that’s what he told me.
Did anyone else just laugh when Mike Blowers called Gookie Dawkins “…one of the young guys that the organization likes. He’s one of our prospects.”
They should name a grunge band after him. I think Pearl Jam or something originally named themselves after Mookie Blaylock.
Is Jeff Clement ever going to get a shot with the big league club?
Jake Woods is looking good. Lach on Mariners!!!
I think the goatie is going to change Mike Hargrove’s luck and the Mariners are on their way this year! I am a Lefebrve believer!!
um, he’s a catcher. He’s had all of 67 games in AAA.
O.K. I am watching the Mariners preseason hype campaign and I gotta admit I am getting excited!!!
“Ever.” Heh.
From a Scripps News account of the Giants’ spring training:
I thought that teams had players try to steal bases more often in spring training games to allow them to get their timing down, and to see if players who have been working on stealing (Betancourt?) are learning anything. Outside of WFB, it doesn’t seem like we’re running much.
thoughts?
Unless you’ve got a guy who’s learning how to steal bases (Betancourt), stealing a lot just creates an unnecessary risk of injury. I sure don’t want Ichiro running in games that mean nothing.
Besides Betancourt, Ichiro, and Bloomquist, there is no one on the team with base stealing speed anyway. Reed, maybe.
Fair point. I would like to see Betancourt get a few more shots though, I think he’s got the speed, he just doesn’t have the instincts yet. But then again, just refreshing the MLB.com box score hasn’t made it easy counting the times Betancourt has been in a base stealing situation, and I know he has made a couple attempts.
I would worry about Betancourt learning how to get on base before worrying about his ability to steal bases.
Can he only work on one thing at a time? He got on base 178 times last year (H + BB). I don’t see a problem with working on his baserunning. Obviously he needs to keep working on hitting as well.
Betancourt’s most similar hitter through age 24 is Julio Franco. Wouldn’t it be something if he developed as a hitter the way Franco did?
RE base stealing speed, I think Beltre had a few steals last season.
The club has all but admitted that Clement or Johnson, likely Johnson, is slated for AA West Tennessee to start the year. If River were optioned down, that would pretty much seal the deal.