Wlad And Clement On Way Up?
Dave · April 29, 2008 at 6:42 pm · Filed Under Mariners
Neither Wladimir Balentien nor Jeff Clement is in the line-up for the Rainiers tonight. John McLaren told Geoff Baker today that they’ll be up “sooner than later”. You do the math.
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WooHoo!! I love fresh blood and bats in the lineup. Here’s to see some hitters that are hitting above their weight!
If this really happens, and they actually get playing time, you should see a lot of happy campers. I hope they help as much as I think they will.
On sports radio in Spokane they mentioned that if Clement is called up after May 7th it would push back his free agency a year. Does anyone know if this is correct?
I think I just peed my pants.
So its just a routine day off?
What about Tuiasosopo?
Could he come up too?
Guys – Vidro and Wilkerson just had multiple-hit nights. They’ve each bought at least another month.
Professional hitters and all…
Tui? He’s not ready and Beltre’s hitting .309/.409/.553. Again…you do the math.
Tui? No. He is not ready and he plays 3B. I don’t think that anyone here feels Beltre’s bat is a problem.
And Baker’s blog also mentioned that waiting until May 7 to call up Clement would delay Clement’s free agency. If they wait, they avoid the mistake they made with ARod.
This’ll fly in the face of the “May 7th” rumors. At least for Clement. That’s how long he has to stay in the minors in order to avoid 172 days in the bigs before the season is over with.
If they call him up now they’ll have to send him down for 20 days sometime in the season to avoid him tripping that 1 yr of service time mark.
Baker also is reporting that Wlad says he’s out of the lineup because they don’t want him playing three straight nights on that sore knee…
The Mariners don’t care about the service time. That won’t be a factor at all.
I’m not so sure about that Dave. They either care about service time or they were awfully unintentionally creative with the shuttle to Tacoma with Jose Lopez.
2004 he’s called up for a couple of months….
2004 he’s sent back to the minors…
He doesn’t reappear until second half of 2005…
Ends 2005 just short of 172 Days in the bigs…
Really big coincidence…
Shouldn’t they care about the service time? Unless they truly believe one extra week of Clement is going to be the difference.
Yep, it is. I’ve talked with them about this.
Of course a trade could be happening, and we all shall cry at getting Ryan Freel…….
As long as they are not getting held out because they are prepping to send them to Cincy for Junior, I think this is a good sign.
I was just thinking about something….
Dave, you said the worst thing about the Bedard trade was the fact the M’s needed Adam Jones this year (which I totally agreed with). Is it possible that the front office believes so strongly in Wlad that it made Adam Jones expendable in their minds?
There are people in the organization who thought that, yes.
Those people are stupid.
Thats interesting. I guess this is just where we just have to hope and pray that Wlad plays like Vlad. Or do we hope Wlad implodes and they all lose their jobs?
I would only really be excited about this only if 2 of the Wilk/Turbo/Richie combo of suck gets DFA’d. Remember how they treated Jones last year? If the vets are still on the club I don’t see this being a good thing.
I’d agree. Nothing better than calling players up and having them sit on the bench. Mariner baseball at its best.
Sometimes simple statements of truth are funnier then any joke.
So if 2 people are brought up, does that mean 2 people will get DFA’d? Do we send a pitcher to AAA to make 1 spot and get rid of Wilkerson or Vidro for the other spot? What is the best move we can realistically make?
This is crazy, I can’t even think of how this would work… Who do they drop? Where do they play? They going to try and ship Cairo/Norton/Vidro/Wilk for something? (guessing bullpen as usual) Raul still in LF? Joh and his new contract on the bench?
This team plans about as well as Napolean did attacking Russia.
Howard: “So, we’re not getting anything out of the DH spot, how about we bring up Clement?”
Chuck: “That would completely stall his catching abilities. Who plays Catcher next year?”
Howard: “Well, we’ll have to resign Johjima.”
Chuck: “Hey Joh, want to come back at, say, 8 million per year?”
Kenji (to agent): “The teams wants me back for 3 years guaranteed.”
Agent: “JUMP ALL OVER THAT SHIT!”
Kenji (to Chuck): “Deal.”
$10 says Vidro is gone. They save on the vesting option and all that. Wilkerson might stick around as a real 4th OF, but that means Cairo is gone (not that he plays anyway). Guy who can’t hit, or guy who doesn’t play? Tough choice, and there is no right answer. Remember, the guys who put the team in this position make more in a year than most of us make in 10.
Norton is gone before Cairo is. Vidro and Wilkerson would probably be benched (though in reality Wlad will probably be benched) and they’ll send down someone like Lowe, who was struggling. I think I did the math right on that, but I may be wrong. Still, I doubt Vidro is “gone” and I also somehow doubt that Wilkerson because a bench player.
Hahahahahaha, after Wlad’s three home run game last night, I’d like to take back what I said when I thought Wlad maybe wouldn’t cut it ever in the big league level after he came into camp overweight.
My bad.
Go Wlad and Jeff.
Bye bye Vidro and (sendimentally) Burke.
Now after these two come up, we need to go and get that one other outfielder from Cincy. . .
*Burke or Cairo actually now that I think of it.
I’m going to start putting people in the mod queue who try to turn every thread into some ridiculous Griffey orgasm.
Seriously, Griffey-Come-Back-Truthers, knock it off or go away. Your so-called savior isn’t any good.
I’ll believe it when I see it. Seriously, I don’t trust Bavasi to take wake up without falling out of bed. I hope these guys don’t get traded for Corey Patterson.
Dave, I know you’re tired of the question (and you can be kind of dismissive when you’re in that mode) but we’ve got a fair number of new folks so would you care to summarize why you (and the scouts you talk to) are less impressed with Wlad than the M’s FO is? (Or is there a minority opinion within the organization, too?) We understand he’s a RH pull hitter, so he’d be better off playing somewhere other than Safeco for half his games, but — assuming he was used correctly, and not left to rust on the bench — doesn’t he at least represent an upgrade over Wilkerson, both offensively and defensively (and yes, that’s a very low bar)?
McClaren indicated that he would play Wlad and Clement regularly when they arrived for what his word is worth.
“When Clement, Balentien or both are promoted, McLaren said they would be lineup regulars.”<a href=”“>
Cairo has to be one of the guys without a chair when the music stops. Nothing against him (and it’s kind of fun to do a Peter Lorre impression whenever he comes into the game), but the whole “we need Cairo so we can use Willie more” idea was just brain dead. A backup for your utility infielder? Yikes alive. But then, wasn’t the real reason because they were worried about Lopez? Seems Jose has done okay so far and maybe the M’s think they can leave him at 2B.
They’re not the only ones, Rosenthal and Olney have been drumming this in the past few days. I’ll believe it when I see it.
Balentein up = 60% RF, 20% DH
Cairo cut Wilkerson 50% OF, 10% 1B Ibanez 75% of 10%DH
wait 2 weeks then bring up Clement
Cut the loser between Vidro or Wilkerson, cut Norton if Vidro and Wilkerson suddenly get hot.
Hallelujah! At least they realize there’s a problem. You know that’s the first step.
But this is the same “they” who looked at this team’s roster coming out of Spring Training and said “Yep, we can win the AL West with that.” So while anybody can look at the standings and see a problem, I have very little faith in the ability “they” have to make the right moves to fix it.
BTW, the play by play for Monday night’s Rainiers game is pretty entertaining, as such things go.
28-
We have to keep Burke. Especially if Clement is going to be DH.
Good grief! It’s about time they brought them up.
Am I alone in wishing that Mike Cameron was still a Mariner? Our outfield is pitiful.
Re: # 35 -
They’re not the only ones, Rosenthal and Olney have been drumming this [a trade of KGJ to Mariners] in the past few days.
To that list of drummers, add Bill Chuck of the daily newsletter, Billy Ball.
No way man Wilkerson is coming alive, 3-3 last night, yah he didn’t hit an RBI or score a run, but just wait for that career batting average of .249 to kick in, he’ll start swinging. Heh.
Nice one Seattle…nice one.
Dave would you endorse bringing up Clement and Balentien at this time? Are their bats ready for the Majors? WRT to Clement, should he catch, DH or play 1B?
Uh oh. Turbo got 2 hits and 2 RBI last night. That might be enough to get Mac and Bavasi to scratch this plan…..
I don’t see any great advantage to bringing Clement up now as opposed to a week from now. And I do see a great advantage to having him under club control for an additional year.
The question is, who goes? Cairo would be my first choice, since he has barely been used at all. Will the keep Burke?
I can only hope the room is made by sending Morrow down (Putz is back) and DFA’ing Turbo. But I have a bad/sad feeling Burke is going to be filing for unemployment.
ndrfx- I would say it is not Wilk’s fault that Kenji got him out twice on DP’s and couldn’t drive him in. Also not his fault his hits lead off a few innings and no one on base to drive in.
I am not sure he is back but the RBI and Run argument is not his fault.
doesn’t the Super Two rule negate the May 7th date anyway? If so, bring them up when they are ready, as in NOW.
Anything to add something to this pitiful lineup… last night our lineup 5-8 was pitiful (.209, .207, .232, .184). I still think Johjima will turn it around, looking at his contact% and all that, but the other three… awful.
Cut Cairo and Norton, bench Vidro for Clement, platoon Wlad in right.
*not a straight platoon with Wlad since he would only face lefties, but give Wilk a couple starts a week.
Joser,
Balentien displayed impressive power at Safeco on September 26, 2007, when he hit his first MLB homerun…despite an injured right hand, which prevented him from even gripping a baseball the day before.
Balentien’s two run shot came off of none other than Fausto Carmona.
It is still difficult to wrap one’s mind around the fact that Bavasi tried to trade Balentien to KC for Dotel.
Did anyone catch this today?
http://seattle.mariners.mlb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20080429&content_id=2608929&vkey=news_sea&fext=.jsp&c_id=sea
I heard Wilkerson was released. Can anybody confirm this? Balentien may be en route to Cleveland, unless he is already there, ASAP.
Crap. Baker says they’re both here.
http://blog.seattletimes.nwsource.com/mariners/
Wilkerson and Norton, gone.
So, they DFA Norton over Cairo…
Wow. I know there’s little to say about Cairo that has not already been said but, geez… even when the M’s do the right thing (call up JC & WB), they still find a way to screw it up.
Wlad is already in the lineup tonight batting 7th. Cool
59-where do u see lineups?
yah, I was wondering the same thing… where’d you see today’s lineup?
oh. Baker’s got an update to his previous post. That’s where.
I work at the station that airs the game. I just talked to Tom Glasgow. He just told me about Wlad, it looks like Clement is not starting.
I’m guessing we’ll see Clement pinch hit for either Vidro or Johjima as soon as Lee is lifted for a right-handed reliever. Unless his bat starts to heat up soon, Johjima may get pinch hit for a lot, especially with 3 catchers on the roster.
Norton and Wilkerson – CUT!
Wlad and Clement have to be up for sure now.
Cairo stays and Norton goes. Wow just wow. It’s one of the things about the M’s, every silver lining comes with a cloud that makes you think they really don’t know what they’re doing and somehow lucked into the good part of the move. On the one hand, I guess having 4 guys (Sexson, Clement, Vidro, Norton) who can only play 1B/DH (well, sure, Clement could catch, but there’s already two of those) would be pretty inflexible, but Cairo is the guy who gives them flexibility?
I feel bad for Norton, who did everything you could ask of him to earn a spot on the team. I feel bad for Wilkerson too, for a different reason. Maybe he’ll join Spazzo and Aurilia as M’s busts who went on to have some decent ABs elsewhere.
Well, here’s to Wladdy tonight, and Clement soon enough. Good luck guys.
Wow this is pretty exciting stuff! It’s great that they made this move in April, not when it’s too late. I hope they give Clement a lot of playing time and don’t pull the Adam Jones learn-by-sitting-the-bench routine. I am pretty psyched to see how things work out tonight in right field!
I love that Wlad is starting right away.