2010 Opening Day Roster Set
Official press release, with some official misspellings.
That means your 2010 Mariners are as follows:
Starting Nine:
C: Rob Johnson
1B: *Casey Kotchman
2B: #Chone Figgins
SS: Jack Wilson
3B: Jose Lopez
LF: #Milton Bradley
CF: Franklin Gutierrez
RF: *Ichiro!
DH: *Ken Griffey, Jr.
Bench:
C: Adam Moore
1B/DH: Mike Sweeney
IF: Matt Tuiasosopo
OF: Eric Byrnes
OF: *Ryan Langerhans
Rotation:
RHP Felix Hernandez
RHP Ian Snell
LHP Ryan Rowland-Smith
RHP Doug Fister
LHP Jason Vargas
Bullpen:
RHP David Aardsma
RHP Shawn Kelley
RHP Brandon League
RHP Mark Lowe
RHP Kanekoa Texeira
RHP Sean White
The Mariners will start the season with Erik Bedard, Cliff Lee, and Jack Hannahan on the DL.
The big loser in this is probably Jesus Colome, who impressed this spring by walking three and striking out twelve in 12.1 innings, when the usual mark for him might be something like six walks and eight Ks. I’d say that this is indicative of the fact that the M’s are willing to exercise restraint and not take spring training results at face value, but then again, Sweeney. If things don’t go so well, expect to see a lot of Kelley, Texeira, and White, who were so thoughtfully stretched out beforehand.
The runner-up for big loser (loser of the year?) is probably Josh Wilson, as the M’s opted for the offensive potential of Tui over a more proficient glove. Of course, once Hannahan comes back, we could see things get rearranged.
Also, MLB.com is televising the final spring training game for free, if you can’t make it until tomorrow.
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66 Responses to “2010 Opening Day Roster Set”
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I <3 Pineda.
All fastballs, 91-95, then on a 3-2 count, drops in a 80 mph slider for a K.
League does seem to have the closer stuff, but his knack for giving up homeruns is a bit concerning. Plus, seeing as how long Lowe has been here and how good he was last year, I’d have to see him getting some consideration for the closer spot if Aardsma struggles.
And that’s a wrap! Like others, I have been waiting for Spring training to just end already.
Well, crap. Though I guess striking out the pitcher wouldn’t be all that impressive anyway.
I don’t know if he could top Elpidio Guzman in spring training back in 2004. That kid’s helmet was several sizes too big, but alas, I can’t find pictures of him.
If you look at Mark Lowe’s splits, he struggles against lefties. Brandon League is effective against both left/right and gets more ground ball outs.
If Moore gets something at least resembling regular playing time, I have no doubt that he will force his way into the lineup most every day. My worry was that Wak didn’t intend to play Moore as often as he said, denying Moore the chance to show consistency and keeping him from developing a feel for playing at a high level. The sabermetrically inclined among us know that bench players and part-time players perform at a lower level than thier true talent level. I don’t want Moore to be sold short for lack of playing time like Branyan was all his career. I like how the Ms are willing to give Kotchman a long, hard look as an everyday player. I just want them to do the same for Moore.
One question, Jay (and hope you are able to read it with the game being over for over an hour now)-
Who’s Jesus Colume? (J/K!!)
No, it’s about Pineda. I don’t remember his physical description being THIS massive (6’5″ 225 yes- but the kid I saw on the mound looked over 6’6″, and had to be about 245 of mostly-butt and legs).
Did the guy grow? And add about 4 MPH to his fastball (I remember reports that he topped out at 91 MPH.)? And should we be as excited as what Dave Niehaus, Dave Sims and crew were?
Spring Training over, Opening Day is imminent! Yay! Bring on all 578 of Dave Sims’ funky hats, I’m ready!!!
On the broadcast they listed him at 6’8″. No idea if it’s true. But, man, does that kid have a pitcher’s build.
A question for Jay, or someone more in the know: Is there any chance, or any reason, that Pineda would end up in Tacoma, so we can see him pitch locally this year?
This is a good set of questions. Pineda has been listed at 6’5 the past two years in the states, and was 180 around the time of his signing. As to velocity, he was throwing 88-92 mph and rarely touching around 95 when he was in Wisconsin, so he’s definitely throwing a great deal harder than he used to with same command. He’s gone from a guy who signed for beans, really, in the DSL to the best starting prospect in the system, arm willing.
As far as professional sportscasters go, Dave Sims is to hats as Don Cherry is to sportcoats. 🙂
West Tenn starting out. He may move up later as performance dictates, but the M’s have not been overly aggressive with their promotions since Zduriencik took over and it’s probably ambitious enough for them that he end up in double-A, considering he threw less than 50 innings total in advanced-A. The broadcasters talked as though he could break camp with the M’s next year, but I’m less certain about that. He will be added to the 40-man in the fall though.
The defense isn’t going to be as good as last year, because it would be on the verge of impossible to have a better defense.
However, we have replaced Yuni and Branyan with significantly better fielders.
I’m amused that people assert the former while stating the latter. Is Bradley THAT terrible? I guess our team UZR is unlikely to match that of last year because last year was so extreme. Still Lopez, Gutierrez, Ichiro and catcher are as good as they were last year. A full season of Figgins is an upgrade from 1/2 season of Beltre plus others. And as noted we’ve upgraded Bryan et al and the half season of Yuni. Bradley seems average. Is the fall off simply regression to the mean?
Since you can blow multiple saves in one game, the stat can be misleading.
The last time this “blown saves” stat was quoted, I ran an analysis of the game logs and posted it. There weren’t any games where the M’s blew multiple saves. IIRC, most of the blown saves were in the 7th and 8th innings, NOT in the 9th inning. I can try to dig up the data if anyone cares.
Basically, yes.
I like Lowe and all, but you do know that he led the AL in blown saves last year with 10, right? I think blown saves, is right there with walk off home runs at the apex of small sample size stats, but you do tend to remember almost every one.
Adam, can you also look at how many of those blown saves ended up as Mariner losses?