Saunders Called Up
Dave · May 6, 2010 at 3:52 pm · Filed Under Mariners
Ryan Divish is reporting that the Mariners have called up Michael Saunders to help give them some depth. No word on the corresponding move yet, but I’m guessing Bradley goes to the disabled list, and they end up giving him two weeks off. We’ll update when the rest of the transaction is finalized.
Update: apparently the transaction won’t be as of today’s game, as Saunders isn’t listed on the M’s line-up card. However, Divish reports that Bradley will go on the restricted list, so perhaps they’ll just issue a new line-up card for the evening.
Surprising since the guy has looked totally lost at the AAA level so far this year.
Kinda weird looking at the lineup posted on twitter via @TheRealMariners… Bradley is listed as a bench player and Saunders is nowhere to be found.
I got to say, I don’t think any of us saw this one coming with Saunders struggling down in Tacoma. Do you think this means Saunders will get the majority of the playing time in LF Dave?
Saunders has gotten on base 14 times in the last five games. He’s still not hitting for any power, but he’s been much better the last week.
He looked lost until about 15-20 PAs ago, and then started tagging the ball consistently again. I wish they had given him more time to confirm having “found” what he “lost”, but here we go.
So how long until Ackley comes up?
Daren had Saunders leading off to get him more at-bats. In the televised game Monday, He stood in there pretty well, looked relaxed, not anxious, and had some good rips.
I wouldn’t count on Bradley going on the DL unless they have no other choice. After last night, I’d give Sean White a one-way ticket to Rancho Cucamonga.
It would be GREAT to see Saunders come up and do well and stick with the team. It would be a huge shot in the arm to promote a young kid like this from AAA and have him add some life to this lineup.
This doesn’t make sense to me. If you call up Saunders, we have no backup infielder. If you call up Hannahan, we at least have Griffey to play the outfield in a worst case scenario.
As it is, if we lose an infielder we are looking at, what? Figgins to short, Lopez to third, and ??? to third?
And we have Griffey to play Second if we need an infielder. Seriously, if you think Grif can play outfield still, then you might as well pencil him in as the backup second baseman also!
It would have to be anyone but Griffey to the outfield. If an infielder goes down, it would be better to bring Ichiro in to 2nd!
How does the restricted list work?
Do you guys think Saunders will start in left and get his at bats?
He’s on the restricted list until he is reinstated. How did Johnson get hit in hit hand? I have always been concerned that he does not tuck his throwing hand in when receiving the pitch and just leaves it on his chest protector.
Johnson took a foul ball to the hand, looked pretty bad.
I’m also curious how the restricted list works.
I’d been secretly hoping they’d send colome down.
The restricted list is just like the DL, but for non-injured guys. Teams will usually put guys on the restricted list if they’re suspended by the team or if they are having visa problems and get stuck in their home country, for example.
So, this gets Milton off the active roster and allows them to replace him while he takes a break, but they don’t have to be without him for the 15 day minimum stay of the DL.
Perhaps when Milton is ready to return, he moves to DH and Sweeney joins Eric Byrnes on the softball team in the Bay Area beer league.
Four months, minimum? The guy is learning both a new position and how to hit with wood bats. The former, by all accounts, is going well; the latter, by the numbers, not so much: .182 / .327 / .284 in 107 PAs. His eye is still good — 17 walks vs 17 strike-outs, as his OBA suggests — but everything else is an adjustment. If we had doubts about Saunders making the move when he had similarly woeful numbers in Tacoma, I don’t know why we’d expect a bigger jump from a guy a level down (even setting aside the question of where on the field he’d play). If you’re going to pull somebody up from AA anytime soon it would be Peguero, and nobody realistically expects that.
As Mr Yencich said in the Minor League Wrap
No kidding. I’m not hold my breath, but somebody has to start hitting above average for a change, right? Right? Why not the kid just up from AAA?
That’s pretty much exactly what happened. Plus it was a damp, raw night last night and that always makes any kind of injury worse in my experience.
Dave, do teams need a good reason to put someone on the restricted list? I ask because I am confused when I see comments like ‘Why doesn’t Sweeney take one for the team and go on the DL?’ or when somebody is obviously hurt but not enough to warrant a 15-day absence. Why not use the restricted list more often?
Well, we needed an outfielder, and I don’t know what other option would have been better. Hannahan would have been nice, but hopefully Jack isn’t out too long.
Public service announcement: Scott Olsen of the Nationals has a no-hitter through 7. The game is now on MLB Network.
I could be wrong on this (I can’t find an “official” version of the MLB regs online, and the link I used to use is dead) but I think players on the restricted list don’t get paid, as it is meant to be used for situations where the player is suspended (for drug use, etc) or unable to play (for visa reasons, etc) as Dave said. So I think a team that was putting players on the restricted list as just a way to work around the restrictions of the DL would be hearing from the player’s lawyers and the MLBPA very quickly.
Could be, however, that in this case the player voluntarily went on the restricted list? Then the MLBPA wouldn’t have much to say about it.
If Eric Byrnes was still with the Mariners and went on the restricted list, would the Diamondbacks have to pay him during that time?
The Diamondbacks have to pay him regardless.
Cots says
“If a player, through some action of his own, is unable to render his services to his club, the team may petition MLB to have the player placed on the restricted list. Generally, the list is used for a long-term absence, such as a drug suspension, a visa problem or leaving the club without permission. A player on the restricted list does not count against the 40-man roster, and there is no minimum or maximum length of time he must stay on the list. A player on the restricted list is not paid and does not earn service time.”
If Eric Byrnes can’t hit in his new gig, maybe Joltin’ Joe’s Bar & Grill can put him on the restricted list. 🙂
MSB, great info, thanks!
Sure, in Bradley’s case, but I was responding to the question about why teams didn’t make more use of the Restricted List, especially with respect to avoiding the constraints of the DL. The number of cases where the player volunteered to take time off without pay would be pretty small.
Also (and again I could be wrong) I think a player on the Restricted List has to be back on the roster by August 1 to qualify for post-season play, etc.
I hope this doesn’t backfire on the M’s like last time Saunders was called up.
You think he’s somehow going to make this offense worse?
Ok, yeah, I guess there’s a risk he takes Felix and Guti up to Victoria and get them in trouble with his hommies in the gang-infested urban wasteland of Gordon Head, or gets them hooked on illicit poutine, or something like that.
No, actually the “something like that” would be Old Dutch ketchup chips — which, in addition to Vitamin C and antioxidants, also are known to have highly-addictive qualities. 🙂