Comments on: Current depth chart, first week of Feb

By: Breadbaker

Breadbaker — Sat, 06 Feb 2010 09:09:57 +0000

Rob Johnson has exactly zero value in baseball as anything other than a catcher. If he can’t catch, he’s not going to play any other position.

You do raise a good point, however, because the question of Johnson’s health going into the season pretty much determines whether Adam Moore is in Seattle or Tacoma. For my money, the best scenario for the M’s would make them forget Rob Johnson ever existed because Moore has a breakout season.

By: igor206

igor206 — Sat, 06 Feb 2010 04:21:17 +0000

Garko’s huge splits mean that his main role is batting against southpaws, which is not that often.

If he’s 2nd catcher, it would reduce his value as a platoon partner for Kotchman and Griffey (both lefties). The far more likely scenario is that the team carries two other catchers, and Garko devotes most of his (fairly limited) time to platooning at 1B and DH, with a few substitutions at catcher. Basically he’d be a 1B-DH-C utility infielder against left-handed pitching. Which is not a bad option to have.

Of course everything changes if the Mariners land Adrian Gonzalez at the deadline. With the 1B platoon no longer necessary, it might make sense to make Garko a true 2nd catcher.

By: CMC_Stags

CMC_Stags — Fri, 05 Feb 2010 20:57:57 +0000

The pitchers work well with Johnson. He was a big part of last yearâ€™s pitching success.

I’d think that the defense supporting the pitchers and helping them to a .280 BABIP (best in MLB) from .313 in 2008 (6th worst in MLB) and .321 in 2007 (3rd worst) played a much larger and more measurable role in improving the success of the staff.

By: DB2

DB2 — Fri, 05 Feb 2010 19:09:01 +0000

I want to second what rsrobinson said about Bedard. If you want to be down on him for work ethic, that is one thing, but the trade was all Bavasi – he had no control over any of it. As for getting hurt and coming out frequently, I know as a runner that if I start getting certain kinds of pains in my legs, I had better stop running or I am going to do real damage. With that in mind, it is hard to get down on him for paying attention to warning signals. If he does sign, I hope that all of Seattle will give him a warm welcome. In my mind it takes guts to come back to a place where you have been blasted just because you were involved in a trade and blasted again for getting hurt. He could have gone elsewhere, but he chose to come back to this team and city despite what many fans have said about him. And he did it for not much of a guarantee (1.5M). My hat is off to him.

By: CCW

CCW — Fri, 05 Feb 2010 17:54:30 +0000

Ryan Garko isnâ€™t going to catch unless a disaster happens and the two catchers in front of him go down.

I’ve seen this a lot. Can you explain further? I know he hasn’t caught in a long time and he was never thought of as a good defensive catcher. Is that all, or is there something I’m missing here.

By: CCW

CCW — Fri, 05 Feb 2010 17:53:39 +0000

Ryan Garko isnâ€™t going to catch unless a disaster happens and the two catchers in front of him go down.

By: xxtinynickxx

xxtinynickxx — Fri, 05 Feb 2010 16:49:24 +0000

I think we could see Johnson being an odd man. Depending on his comeback from those surgeries he had. If he can not survive spring training without re-aggravating an injury I don’t think the M’s keep him up and move Johnson to AAA or something to become a DH or 1B. Which with his bat skills seen last year, may not be the best thing to see him as a DH. It won’t matter how much pitchers like him catching, if his body can not handle the behind the plate duties then why keep him?

By: msb

msb — Fri, 05 Feb 2010 16:37:35 +0000

FWIW, Garko said last week that as he’d been getting inquiries from several teams about catching, over the winter he deliberately lost weight and began working out with that in mind as a possibility.

Also FWIW, at FF Wak made the remark (paraphrasing here) that Rob has the ability to make pitchers trust him; which is unquantifiable and possibly nonexistent as an actual skill, but a perception that manager and pitchers all seem to have of him.

By: aaron c.

aaron c. — Fri, 05 Feb 2010 16:21:29 +0000

Remember: this is not a 40 or 25-man roster. And that the Mâ€™s will sign someone immediately to mess this up.

It’s like you can see the future! Still, tthis depth chart is accurate until Bedard is ready. Maybe the team felt bad for you and didn’t want to steal USSM’s thunder again.

By: MorePineTar

MorePineTar — Fri, 05 Feb 2010 16:10:46 +0000

Reports are that Orlando Hudson has signed with the Twins. I guess that pretty much kills the Lopez-for-Liriano possibilities and increases the likelihood that Jose stays with the Ms.