Game 57, Rays At Mariners
Sonnanstine vs Vargas, 7:10 pm.
As Marc noted last night, the M’s made a roster move by shipping Michael Saunders back to Tacoma and replacing him on the roster with Greg Halman. It’s an odd move from my perspective, as the role he’s up to fill is basically twice-a-week fill-in at CF with some defensive replacement work in left field mixed in. If the M’s actually think Halman is a prospect worth developing, having him sit around on the bench isn’t going to be a great way to have him spend his days, but then again, they might agree with me that Halman is not likely to ever turn into much in the big leagues.
Like Peguero, his approach at the plate is just atrocious, and his power isn’t enough to make the whole package work. Halman is a good defender, at least, but I don’t think he’s ever going to hit much. I do wonder what his promotion means for Mike Wilson, though – Halman could theoretically serve as the right-handed of the left field platoon, making Wilson redundant.
Essentially, this move is strange on its own, but this roster is hardly a finished product – I still don’t expect Peguero to be here much longer despite his two homer game last night. Dustin Ackley will be up soon, and the roster will need to do some more changing to accommodate his presence. The Halman promotion may have just been about getting Saunders back to Tacoma more than anything else.
There is no way we should be giving up any prospects at this point in time to stay in the race. I don’t think we will be able to stay up with Texas no matter what we can add. The truth is that even if we add Ackley in a week or two this team doesn’t have the offense to make a run at the playoffs. I’m not saying that it couldn’t happen, I’m just saying it isn’t likely enough to sacrifice any of the future to try to make it happen.
Let’s put it this way, would you trade Justin Smoak to get Cliff Lee back for half a season? No. I didn’t think so.
Of course the big pieces we need now are LF and 3rd base and Catcher. We need to fix two out of three to really contend, and I don’t think our farm system had what we need to be able to fix those holes.
On the other hand, if there were a team with a problem at 1st base, then by all means we should be trading Mike Carp. If some one comes calling for Eric Bedard we should be listening too.
We aren’t going to get another Justin Smoak this year, but lets not fool ourselves, we still need to get better for the long term, not come up with a short term rental that this team is not equipped to exploit for a real run to the playoffs.
Remember they were playing in Safeco back in 2001 – they likely put it together back then. And fortunately the current scoreboard operator had a working floppy drive laying around…
Using Vlad as a comp is like using Ichiro as a comp. They have an almost otherworldly talent with regard to getting to bad pitches (Vlad not so much anymore), and it’s simply not realistic to expect any normal athlete to even approach that.
When a normal athlete attempts to follow that path, you get Jose Lopez.
Don’t tempt me. I’m almost nostalgic for Lopey to come back and play 3rd base. He’s available you know. And despite what Figgins is costing us, Lopez will cost us nothing. And it is easier to watch Lopez stink than it is to watch Figgins stink.
Some people don’t love Olivo and have been complaining a lot about him this year.
I don’t think we can complain about Olivo compared to what we’ve had over the past…I don’t know 4 years? We can’t expect amazing numbers out of catchers anyways, how many teams have a catcher hitting above .300 (I counted only 3). It’d be perfect if he could catch the ball though…..
Completely agree. We do need a catcher for the years to come, as I’m still not sold on Moore, and I don’t think Olivo is a long-term solution. But this year, right now, he is doing just fine so I don’t see reason to complain.
The complaints about Olivo stem from his inability to catch properly…the word ‘stab’ comes up often. How many times have you seen him mishandle the transition of glove to hand trying to throw out a runner stealing? It happens all the time. Throw in the PB/WPs, and you have a better hitting Rob Johnson.
Behind the dish, Olivo’s not significantly better than Johnson – although he drops fewer “normal” pitches, or at least so it appears to my eyes. I’m sure I developed a bias, but it seemed like RoJo would drop every other pitch, even if it came straight down the center of the strike zone.
Offensively, Olivo is an upgrade. I don’t think he’s great, but he somehow has started walking more than once in a blue moon and he has, in the past, hit for a bit of power.
As far as Moore goes… I’ve always pulled for him, and I hope he recovers 100% and competes with Olivo for the 2012 starting job; but two major knee/leg injuries in two years could derail his future as a catcher.
I think we just need a catcher with the last name Molina, no matter how good or bad he is, he will help us win the World Series!
What do you guys think about using either Franklin or Truinfell for trade bait? We have Ryan who is very good in the field and starting to hit back to his preinjury numbers, plus he is young. I like him and hope he stays around for awhile. We could also dangle Seager out there because we have Ackley. My feelings for next year we need a C, LF and if we get Rendon then we can leave 3b off the list. It would be nice if there was a C and LF in the spots Franklin and Truinfell are in, a young guy in front they might not move. If one of them will be better, then we trade Ryan, I am not sure who will be better.
I was also thinking we should try and get Kennedy under a 2 year contract right now. He has shown he can do what we need him to do, and played very well for us. Show him some confidence, and it could be huge returns.
Lets trade away the future. It’s obviously the thing to do in a rebuilding year.
With tonight’s win, the Mariners move in the ‘plus’ column in run differential…I wonder when the last time they were right side up in that?
Bavasi, is that you?
Keep reading about how bad Ackley’s fielding is at second base so I thought I would check Baseball Reference and compare:
Ackley 2011 at Tacoma – .979 fldg% and 4.16 range factor
Adam Kennedy – career – .983 fielding and 4.48 range
Macier Izturis – career at 2nd – .992 and 4.17 range
Howie Kendrick – career at 2nd – .988 and 4.49
Ellis – .990 and 4.95 range
Kinsler – .978 and 5.18
so interesting – Ackley clearly at bottom of pile from both range and errors but not off the chart by any stretch.
Even if this is a rebuilding year doesn’t mean we should ignore the fact we are suddenly contending. We should absolutely look at the positions we have blocked by our key guys and consider trading.
That includes Carp, Liddi (if we draft Rendon), Triunfel.
That’s not trading away the future. That’s trading away guys who will otherwise languish in AAA for years without chance of a callup.
Four more hits for Carp last night including another HR. I can’t believe they can’t find a spot on the M’s roster for a guy who’s been mashing AAA pitching like that.
groundzero, trading prospects away when Texas is going to run away with the division is the surest way to ensure a run of 100 loss seasons.
And you honestly think we’d get anything of value for a guy like Carp, who has never proven anything in the bigs? Or Liddi, a guy who has yet to play?
Why do people think that every GM in the league are a bunch of idiots and would trade away something useful for our leftovers? You don’t think they have the exact same information about our players that we do?
Free The Fish!
Halman should be pretty ineffective. He and Peguero both strike out a ton, hit for very little average, and run into an occasional long ball every once in awhile.
Carp would be up here lumbering around LF if Guti could play every day.
Hmm.. How fast can he be taught to play 3b? 🙂
Bad idea. At least currently. The system is not so deep yet in the higher minors that we can engineer a satisfactory trade without running the risk of some painful repercussions.
This is fun right now, what we’re doing. But let’s wait to see how we do in June before we decide there’s gonna be any slight alterations to the rebuild plan we’ve sunk 2 seasons into.
And I think Triunfel has the chance to be the heir apparent as our rightfielder- by September 2012- if he’s converted to the OF in the off-season.
Also we need to keep a farm system going cause our win output with a team like this is not a sustainable outcome. Even if we go to the playoffs this year or barely make it, we can lose 100 games next year or be very bad. Look at the Padres. They knew they had to get better in their system so they traded A-Gonz (btw does anybody else remember when we were entertaining the thought of sending Tiunfel and Jose Lopez to teh Pads for him? I almost want to to cry)
WOW I ask a question and get called Bavasi. My reasoning is we have Ryan who is young playing good SS and hitting the ball well. We have a guy in AAA and AA that are good prospects, if there is a team needing a SS for next year they might be interested in one of them. It would be like us needing a catcher, if we could find a guy that is behind a young starter should we not pick him up for next year and beyond? I am not talking about trading the future, I am talking about rebuilding the team by trading for prospects we need. If we have a glut at one position and a need at another why not upgrade with a team in the same spot with other positions.
Wow. GO M’s. I missed the game last night and to wake up and see another shut out and +4 run game–>
o.O Hot Dang.
Brendan Ryan isn’t exactly young (29 years old), and the way he’s hitting now isn’t really impressive at all. He’s on a hot streak right now, and when that hot streak results in an overall line of .269/.339/.331, that’s not exactly reason enough to choose Ryan as your shortstop going forward.
Triunfel is most likely not going to stick at SS, and his trade value is not that great. Although he hasn’t been hitting as well as expected, Franklin’s offensive upside is valuable enough that trading him would seem foolish just because another guy at the major league level is meeting the minimum expectations people have set for him.
I appreciate what Ryan’s done as an M so far, but you’re overrating him here big time. He is not worth keeping over Franklin.
Too bad the game isnt on tv today, but ive got another link for ya’ll to try. Vodkasports.com I am currently watching the Red Sox and A’s game with no problems other than some ads popping up, but which can be closed. The M’s game should be streaming any moment now.
WHy the hell is the game not on tv today?
Yeah, let’s not pretend as if Ryan’s one of the premiere defensive shortstops in all of baseball.
Oh wait…
Would you prefer “Bill”?
I kid, I kid…