Game 139, Mariners at A’s

Jay Yencich · September 4, 2011 at 11:35 am · Filed Under Game Threads, Mariners 

Cahill vs. Beavan, 1:05 pm

Back when Beavan was first called up, I think the immediate comparisons made for him were to Doug Fister. Both are giants, had great command of fastballs unimpressive in velocity, didn’t really have other signature pitches, but got by on throwing strikes without actually striking dudes out and inducing some groundballs here and there. So how’s that comparison working out now?

Fister 2009: 61.0 IP, 14.1% Ks, 5.9% BB, 19.9% LD, 41.3% GB, 38.8% FB, 14.1% HR/FB, 5.10 FIP, 4.43 xFIP, 5.28 tERA, 4.11 ERA
Beavan 2011: 65.2 IP, 9.1% Ks, 3.7% BB, 23.3% LD, 39.7% GB, 37.1% FB, 11.6% HR/FB, 4.83 FIP, 4.46 xFIP, 5.56 tERA, 4.11 ERA

What we’ve seen so far with Beavan is a guy who is even more extreme on the balls in play than Fister, striking out and walking fewer batters overall. There has been more solid contact with him, chipping away from the groundball and flyball totals, but so far as the ERA-styled stuff is concerned (disclosure: I rarely use the advanced stuff, and have no idea if I’m using it well), they’re appreciably close to being the same overall value out of the gate. Now, Fister actually added some velocity, about a mile and a half on the fastball, from the time he got promoted and slowly shifted from relying on his change-up as a secondary offering to using the slider a lot. Beavan relies even more on the fastball than Fister did (68% to Fister’s 61.4%) and has yet to show any real preference for an offspeed pitch, but he does have better life on the fastball at present (90.7 to Fister’s 88.2 back in the day) and his high school days of throwing 96 have led to rumors that he’s back to throwing at least 92-3 during just about every spring training for the past few years. Where Beavan goes from here, if he goes down that same path Fister did or does something else, I don’t know quite yet, but we can hope that he’ll keep eating innings for us in the meantime.

RF Ichiro!
CF Gutierrez
2B Ackley
DH Carp
1B Smoak
C Olivo
3B Seager
LF Wells
SS Rodriguez

Comments

33 Responses to “Game 139, Mariners at A’s”

  1. eponymous coward on September 4th, 2011 12:05 pm

    Beavan is fine as back of the rotation inning eating fodder. Once again, the back end of a trade Jack Z makes yields something interesting…

  2. B13a on September 4th, 2011 12:39 pm

    As long as he pitches better than Anthony Vasquez. Good god, Vasquez sucks so bad.

  3. Jay Yencich on September 4th, 2011 2:05 pm

    This seems to have been the wrong week to talk about Beavan not walking anyone/being good.

  4. juneau_fan on September 4th, 2011 3:06 pm

    Just came in. What’s with the pink today? I thought they already did breast cancer awareness back at Mother’s Day.

  5. henryv on September 4th, 2011 3:15 pm

    Just came in. What’s with the pink today? I thought they already did breast cancer awareness back at Mother’s Day.

    Oakland has Breast Cancer Awareness Day this week.

  6. juneau_fan on September 4th, 2011 3:17 pm

    YAY!

  7. henryv on September 4th, 2011 3:18 pm

    The amount of Geoff Baker tweets in the last couple hours is annoying. Geoff Baker is annoying. I would rather hang out with Chone Figgins than Geoff Baker.

  8. juneau_fan on September 4th, 2011 3:18 pm

    Thanks, henryv. I guess you can’t have enough breast cancer…Er, wait, that doesn’t sound right.

  9. henryv on September 4th, 2011 3:18 pm

    If Ackley isn’t the second coming, he does a good impersonation of it.

  10. GrandmasRyebread on September 4th, 2011 3:21 pm

    Ack attack!

  11. henryv on September 4th, 2011 3:22 pm

    Ichiro may very well get a 5th at bat in the 9th.

    If not, I will be slightly more agitated than I normally am anyways.

  12. henryv on September 4th, 2011 3:24 pm

    I would give a team ANY 2 of our 47 outfielders in Seattle or Tacoma for a good MLB-ready catching prospect.

  13. juneau_fan on September 4th, 2011 3:24 pm

    LOL! That was an unconscious tribute to Old Dave’s tendency to call a ball a homerun when it’s a flyball by Newer Dave.

  14. juneau_fan on September 4th, 2011 3:27 pm

    Robinson’s got to work on his throws. Not that it mattered there, but that was a bit of a loop-de-loop throw.

  15. henryv on September 4th, 2011 3:33 pm

    Robinson’s got to work on his throws. Not that it mattered there, but that was a bit of a loop-de-loop throw.

    I’ve been noticing that he has a weak arm but a very fast release. I think he has realized it, and so has made it a point to get rid of the ball faster.

  16. juneau_fan on September 4th, 2011 3:41 pm

    It does seem to have that Johnny Damn noodle quality. If he could get more accurate, and like you say, a fast release, he’ll at least not be Ibanez awful.

  17. juneau_fan on September 4th, 2011 3:50 pm

    Ow. Don’t swing at those balls on the outside of the plate.

    Who’s left for the outfield?

  18. SadPanda on September 4th, 2011 3:52 pm

    I would rather see Wells and Robinson then Guti. Injury prone sissy.

  19. henryv on September 4th, 2011 3:58 pm

    I think calling Guti an “injury-prone sissy” is about the same as calling Lou Gerhig a “disease-prone sissy”.

  20. Westside guy on September 4th, 2011 4:00 pm

    Lou Gehrig – what a wimp!

  21. UnderTheClouds on September 4th, 2011 4:00 pm

    I still don’t get what people see in Lueke, but then no one is really pitching well right now out of the bullpen.

  22. SadPanda on September 4th, 2011 4:01 pm

    Lou Gerhig had a .340 lifetime average and 2,000 rbis. Please don’t compare him to Franklin.

  23. juneau_fan on September 4th, 2011 4:03 pm

    Count on the Mariners to make lemons from the lemonade of too many outfielders.

    To join in the ragging from the on air crew about Lueke throwing a first pitch fastball. Shouldn’t Olivio been telling him not to throw one? It’s time like this that we miss the genius game caller that was Rob Johnson.

  24. Edgar4Hall on September 4th, 2011 4:03 pm

    Henry I was going to defend Guti but I saw your post and can’t think of one thing that’s better, well played sir. How can anybody even say that bout him?

  25. Westside guy on September 4th, 2011 4:04 pm

    Sure, when he was healthy – but once Gehrig got sick, his batting average plummeted dramatically. Then he totally quit. Wimp.

  26. SadPanda on September 4th, 2011 4:06 pm

    Then Gutierrez needs to quit if he can’t play at a major league level with his ailment. Gehrig had the decency not to drag his team down.

  27. Edgar4Hall on September 4th, 2011 4:07 pm

    Seriously Panda? So all time numbers show that he’s not a whimp. That’s about the worst conclusion I’ve heard on this site

  28. henryv on September 4th, 2011 4:09 pm

    Damnit, Ackley. If you keep this up, we’re going to downgrade you from deity to just savior.

  29. henryv on September 4th, 2011 4:09 pm

    Don’t feed the trolls!

  30. Edgar4Hall on September 4th, 2011 4:12 pm

    Hey so this is the first game I’ve watched since Smoak has returned. How has he looked so far? Any impressions?

  31. henryv on September 4th, 2011 4:14 pm

    Hey so this is the first game I’ve watched since Smoak has returned. How has he looked so far? Any impressions?

    Hasn’t been hit in the face by a single ball!

    It’s looking up, for sure!

  32. henryv on September 4th, 2011 4:22 pm

    If Kennedy gets any more at bats on this team I’m going to scream.

  33. The_Waco_Kid on September 5th, 2011 3:07 pm

    How ’bout if he started at 1B and hit 6th?

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