Cactus League Game 4, Mariners at Padres
We’re only three games in and already, we have our first game off radio. From the standpoint of needing to get some work done, I can appreciate it, sure, but it interrupts the flow of things. Of course, it could be worse. We could have a game shut down by bees.
Instead we had a different sort of “B” opening the day, a “B” game against Cincinnati. This one features a few things of interest like Franklin at second (he made two errors) and Catricala at third, along with a pitching lineup that was schedule to include Walker, Hultzen, Paxton, Robles, and Erasmo Ramirez. Walker pitched a couple of frames, allowing a hit and a walk while striking out a pair. The walk was caught stealing with Quiroz behind the plate. All told, it took him twenty-six pitches. Then Hultzen came on for two more innings with a hit, a walk, and four Ks. The Franklin errors happened to come during his stint, so the bases were loaded as Hultzen was striking dudes out to end the inning. Awesome. Erasmo then threw a perfect two innings with just sixteen pitches. That’s less than three pitches a batter. That’s what Erasmo can do when he’s on. The seventh inning brought in Paxton, but he was struggling a bit more than his chums. He got pulled after an inning and two-thirds, three runs given up on six hits and a K. That’s the line as of 11:30. Of course, there’s also video at the TNT of Paxton, Hultzen, and Walker talking about each other. It’s neat.
Other news? We extended the lease with the Peoria Sports Complex by twenty years, but apparently no new TV deal is imminent. Steve Kelley talked about Mike Carp a while. The minor league camp is opening for pitchers and catchers today, which may mean that we’ll see the camp shrink soon.
The actual lineup, for the A-game, for which we will only have Gameday and our own wild speculation to serve us, runs like this:
2B Ackley
SS Ryan
RF Ichiro!
1B Smoak
LF Wells
3B Seager
C Olivo
DH Peguero
CF Saunders
P Iwakuma
George Sherrill is also supposed to debut today. Anticipation.
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Bear hasn’t thrown anything identified as a four-seam yet, and has had a hard time working around two errors and a wild pitch/passed ball situation.
Mid-to-high 80s for Iwakuma, topped at 90. Patterson now on the mound.
MLB Network – 30 clubs in 30 days – begins with Mariners today at 2:00 Pacific Time. Not sure when (or if) they may replay it, so it sounds like a good excuse for me to leave work early today and tend to more important things.
As such ………..
Iwakuma topped out at 90 … that’s very workable for him. He relies on a lot of movement. Mid 80’s doesn’t sound so good, but it it so early, I wouldn’t worry about his velo yet.
Sherrill topped out in the high-80s, which I guess is the new normal for him. Did get a RH bat to ground into a DP though, after walking another. Somewhat encouraging?
Iwakuma’s fastball wasn’t so hot, and probably a bit slower than we (or at least I) had expected.
On the positive side of things, his splitter/change thing worked fairly well.
JY mentioned it, but Sherrill’s velo was terrible. Probably doesn’t matter all that much given he was never a flamethrower to begin with, but I’d missed the fact that he was now in the mid 80s routinely. Ahh, lefties. He had success w/the Braves last year despite an average FB below 88, so this may not be concerning. I was just stunned to see his first FB come in a touch under 85.
Yesterday of course the gun/pitch fx seemed a bit high because Andrew Cashner’s four-seamer averaged 103 MPH. (If not, uh, wow).
Looking at Sherrill/Iwakuma, I wondered if they’d adjusted it, but it looks OK for Tom Wilhelmsen, who touched 98 and threw a 91mph change-up.
Oliver Perez looked OK in the first, touching 94 and working around 92 consistently, but was down to 89-91 in his 2nd inning. He’s been replaced by Shawn Kelley.
I know, I know, it’s spring training, and I know that the major offenders have been guys who won’t play in Seattle this season, but Jesus, guys, catch the damn ball.
Sherrill has a long-standing tradition of looking downright awful in spring training, so just as long as he isn’t throwing low-80s, I’m okay with taking the marginal as good.
Adam Moore with a HR – that’s encouraging.
Poor guy’s still buried on the C depth chart right now, but he’ll hopefully get a shot at a rebound year in Tacoma.
Adam Moore hit a dinger to right-center. Life would sure be neat if he turned out to be good again.
if more depth at catcher means Olivo goes away, then even better!