Cactus League Game #8 – Diamondbacks at Mariners
Fresh off of their fifth win in a row, the M’s resume beating up on National League teams today at 12:05. Today’s victim? 2011 NL West champs, the Arizona Diamondacks. Jason Vargas, who went four perfect innings over the weekend, gets the start against #3 overall draft pick and big-time prospect Trevor Bauer. The studious righty was discussed as a potential late-season call-up in the year he was drafted. He details all nine (9) pitches in his Darvishian repertoire in this fascinating story at MiLB.com.
Here’s the lineup, courtesy of Larry LaRue:
1: Figgins (3B)
2: Ryan (SS)
3: Ichiro (RF)
4: Carp (LF)
5: Wells (CF)
6: Peguero (DH)
7: Liddi (1B)
8: Jaso (C)
9: Kawasaki (2B)
SP: Vargas
Other notes:
The M’s have scored a total of 20 runs from the 7th inning on during their current 5 game winning streak. Our bench players/minor leaguers are clearly the cream of the Cactus League crop.
Three players who weren’t quite creamy enough to remain in major league camp were reassigned today – Philippe Valiquette, Steve Garrison and Jarret Grube.
Adam Moore’s injury may not be as severe as once thought, as he’s not going to have a cast. He’ll be held out of action for at least two weeks, but it’s a little bit of good news for a guy who could use some.
Cactus League Game 7
Kevin Millwood takes the mound for the M’s against the Chicago Cubs in Mesa at 12:05 today in the A game while the B team faced the Rockies this morning.
The “real” Spring Training line-up:
1: Ackley (2B)
2: Saunders (CF)
3: Montero (DH)
4: Smoak (1B)
5: Seager (3B)
6: Olivo (C)
7: Peguero (RF)
8: Wells (LF)
9: Kawasaki (SS)
SP: Kevin Millwood
Aaaand the kids who played Colorado were:
1: Brad Miller (SS)
2: Jaso (1B)
3: Catricala (3B)
4: Sucre (C)
5: Robinson (CF)
6: Jimenez (DH)
7: Chavez (RF)
8: Chiang (LF)
9: Romero (2B)
SP: Noesi
Yu Darvish’s start dominated the headlines as you might expect.
Go M’s – no injuries today, please.
Adam Moore Suffers Wrist Fracture
In what’s beginning to seem like an annual tradition, Adam Moore sustained a serious injury that will keep him out of action for weeks or months. Greg Johns reports that Moore broke the wrist while blocking a pitch in the dirt in the Cactus League game against Cincinnati.
Dave Cameron’s already made the requisite Chris Snelling analogy, but it’s not a good sign that his last two serious injuries have occurred in non-contact defensive plays – he’s not been hurt by a runner trying to score like Buster Posey, and it wasn’t a Verlander fastball that broke a bone. I feel bad for Moore who’d started the spring playing extremely well, and he’ll be able to play this season, but these injuries make his future as a catcher even more uncertain.
Cactus League Game #6 – Mariners at Angels
Today’s game offers a sneak preview of an AL West rival, and both teams are running out quite a few opening day starters (though not that free agent 1B the Angels brought in from the National League). Blake Beavan gets the start for the M’s against Jered Weaver of the Angels. Today’s game’s in Tempe, so there won’t be any pitch fx/velocity information in gameday for us to worry about. Yesterday’s win over Cincinnati featured a solid performance from King Felix, some shaky innings from Hong Chih-Kuo and Chance Ruffin, and great hitting from Ichiro and the forgotten man in the M’s new found catching depth, Adam Moore. Ichiro went 3-3, while Moore went 2-2 (and was also hit by a pitch) with a double that carried 410′ on the fly.
One of the big stories for the Angels this spring is Mark Trumbo’s move to 3B. The slugger played 1B last year while Kendrys Morales recovered from surgery, but with the arrival of Pujols and the possible return of Morales, Trumbo needed a new position. Trumbo himself was coming off an injury to his foot which held him out of drills in February, so he’s had less practice at the hot corner than the team would probably like. Even before he was cleared to play – in informal workouts with Angels coaches – he made the news when a bad throw pegged GM Jerry DiPoto in the leg, and when a bad hop resulted in a bloody nose. This is something to watch – if he’s able to play at a not-abysmal level, then the Angels aren’t forced to move/bench a guy who hit 29 HRs last year.
The line-up for today’s game, which starts at 12:05:
1: Figgins (CF)
2: Ackley (2B)
3: Seager (3B)
4: Montero (C)
5: Carp (LF)
6: Olivo (“DH”)
7: Saunders (RF)
8: Ryan (SS)
9: Rodriguez (1B)
Good to see Jesus Montero back in the line-up (and at catcher) after a few days off with stomach flu/food poisoning. Michael Saunders moves over to right field to accomodate Chone Figgins in center, and Luis Rodriguez plays first base just to remind everyone that this is spring training and ultimately doesn’t matter.
Back in Peoria, the Rangers take on the Padres, a game which is notable as it marks Yu Darvish’s first game action since coming over from Japan. Thus, we WILL get some data on his arsenal and velocity.
Carlos Guillen Retires
After dealing with more knee problems this spring, Carlos Guillen has decided to retire. This opens up the reserve 3B/1B role on the roster, and now makes it possible that the Mariners could carry both Kyle Seager and Michael Saunders on the opening day roster. That’d be my guess for how this plays out now, anyway – Seager/Figgins will split time at third, and Figgins/Saunders/Wells will split time in center field.
Having Seager around instead of Guillen might also make Carp the backup first baseman, a role that would have otherwise been filled by Guillen instead, so Wells might see less time in center field but a little more in left field as a result. Essentially, this shifts some playing time from an older guy with no future in Seattle to a younger player who might be able to establish some value with additional playing time. No offense to Guillen, but this is probably a positive development for the club.
Cactus League Game 5, Reds at Mariners
I’m throwing this up good and early because I won’t be around later when the game actually starts. Yesterday’s thread was a bit disappointing though, as is usually the experience whenever I try to throw in a gameday post on a non-radio, non-TV day. Should I continue? Should I persist in throwing my efforts into the void? Here are some things that happened yesterday:
* Dustin Ackley had every part of the cycle except the home run. This was only because he didn’t get a fourth at-bat.
* Iwakuma threw mostly in the mid-to-high 80s and touched 90. Most of his pitches were identified as splitters or sinkers. He was pulled early after a bunch of errors behind him sent him to 30+ pitches in the first. (The M’s made five errors in all and had one assist from Trayvon).
* Sherrill was mid-to-high 80s as well, but maybe a little less than Iwakuma. Sherrill is usually a slow starter in spring training so this may not be a deal.
* The scrubs did damage late in the game. Through the fifth, the Mariners scored five runs, and in the final four innings, they scored eight. Included here: Adam Moore hitting a home run to right-center.
* Our top three pitching prospect all pitched in a B game against the Reds. That article has quotes, but Shannon’s article has gun readings that really liked what Hultzen was doing.
So now we’re here and the Mariners are going to send up Felix today. We all like Felix, right? Go and watch this. We really love Felix.
SS Figgins
2B Kawasaki
RF Ichiro!
1B Smoak
LF Carp
CF Wells
3B Liddi
DH Chavez
C Moore
P Felix!
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.
Saunders or Seager
With Franklin Gutierrez set to miss all of April and potentially more time depending on his rehab, the working assumption has been that the main benefactor of the open roster spot will be Michael Saunders. He’s probably the best defensive outfielder on the team besides Guti, and as a left-handed bat, he’d form a pretty natural job-share partner with Casper Wells. And, despite his miserable Major League performances to date, he was still a pretty highly rated prospect, and the team maintains some hope that he can translate his minor league numbers to the big leagues and become a useful player.
However, going with Saunders/Wells in CF until Guti gets back is not the only option, and may not even be the team’s best option. Chone Figgins has been getting some time in center field early in camp, and while he hasn’t played out there since 2006, I think there’s a pretty compelling case to be made that he should get a decent amount of his early season playing time in center.
Essentially, the options break down like this:
Vs RHP: Figgins (3B) and Saunders (CF)
Vs LHP: Figgins (3B) and Wells (CF)
or
Vs RHP: Seager (3B) and Figgins (CF)
vs LHP: Figgins (3B) and Wells (CF)
If Figgins shows that he can play a half-decent center field during March, the team could essentially use his ability to move between CF and 3B to create a platoon of Seager and Wells, giving Seager the roster spot that Saunders is the presumed favorite for. There are several advantages to going that way instead.
For one, Seager is likely to be quite a bit better than Saunders this year, especially at the plate. ZIPS doesn’t love either player, but projects Seager for a .267/.323/.372 line compared to Saunders’ .220/.298/.339 mark. Neither is likely to be an offensive force, but Seager could be a competent hitter against RHPs, and help the team score more runs and win more games early in the season.
There’s also the fact that Seager is the more likely of the two to have a real future in Seattle. Even if Saunders shows some improvement at the plate, he’s probably still not going to be more than a fourth outfielder going forward, and he’ll have to prove more useful than Casper Wells to wrestle that job away going forward. Meanwhile, Seager has a real chance to be the team’s regular third baseman for the next couple of years, and even if the bat doesn’t prove up to the task for a starting job, he’s the best in-house candidate for a utility infielder/super-sub role. There’s an open spot on the roster for Seager going forward, which is not true of Saunders unless he shows remarkable improvement.
Finally, there’s also some potential added value for Figgins if he shows he can play center field. Right now, the Mariners are hoping that he has a nice start to the season so they can try to unload some of that contract this summer, but in reality, there aren’t many teams shopping for a third baseman with absolutely no power. Figgins’ skillset is much more commonly accepted in center field, and if he hits well while holding down CF at a respectable level, the team could expand the pool of clubs that would potentially be interested in his services. As strictly a third baseman, you might only have one or two teams that could be talked into taking some of Figgins’ remaining salary, but if he’s showing some positional versatility and could profile as either a 3B or an OF, you could have five or six clubs looking at him as an option for the second half of the year.
Seager and Wells are probably the two young guys on the team who aren’t currently slotted in as starters that the team should be most interested in looking at, and they’re the two most likely to produce at the plate in the early part of the season. Bouncing Figgins between third and center field could also help his trade value, and give the team a better chance of getting him off the books sooner than later. If Saunders shows some real improvement in his contact abilities during March, I’m not opposed to giving him a chance, but that’d probably be Plan B for me. I’d rather have Seager and Wells get that playing time rather than hoping Saunders has figured out how to hit something on the outer half of the plate over the winter.
Cactus League Game 3, Padres at Mariners
Good day to you and welcome again to baseball. This marks the first game of the Cactus League season against our rivals, the Padres. It feels like a return to normalcy. I know that for the past two days, I had felt as though something was “off” about this spring training that I couldn’t quite articulate. Now I know: we weren’t playing the Padres yet.
The news circuit is somewhat slow this morning. Rick Rizzs guest blogged an article about Griffey at the official Mariners blog. It’s formatted like a Steve Kelley article. The actual Steve Kelley talked to Jamie Moyer, who is attempting that comeback with the Rockies. Imagine for a moment if he ended up in the Springs instead to start the season. Oh my. Larry Stone talked about Trayvon Robinson and some of the struggles he experienced at the end of last season. Larry LaRue talked to Alex Liddi and apparently he’s a big deal back home. If none of these do it for you, re-read Marc’s piece on Noesi and/or be glad that no one on the team has Valley Fever.
As playing the regulars proved somewhat ineffective yesterday, we’re doing something weird again. Wedge wants to play the guys and so we will play the guys. With the way things look now, I can only imagine what it will be like this coming Saturday, when we get our first split squad.
CF Figgins
SS Kawasaki
3B Seager
1B Carp
DH Montero
C Jaso
2B Rodriguez
LF Robinson
RF Chiang
P Vargas
The bench today features fourteen guys. Pitchers we might see include Furbush, Henn, League, Snow, Marquez, Fox, Grube, Ruffin, and Patterson.
Hector Noesi Impressive – Rest of Team Less So
Back in January, Dave wrote about Hector Noesi and his surprising velocity. Dave’s article cited his scouting report of an 89-93 MPH fastball (a pretty big range, really) with the ability to touch 96 (making the range even bigger), and also mentioned that Noesi was able to sustain good velocity in his longer outings with the Yankees. Then came reports from the Dominican Winter League that Noesi was touching 98 MPH, despite working as a starting pitcher. Needless to say, I was looking forward to Hector Noesi’s first start this pre-season. In Peoria. With Pitch FX.
Let’s be clear – this was a two-inning start in early March. It’s tempting to over-analyze the 30-odd pitches because they’re all we’ve got so far and because it’s March and all the M’s have done is play pretend games against Oakland’s minor leaguers. This isn’t intended to settle the question about Noesi’s stuff – it’s just a snapshot. The fact that his outing was so short may inflate his velo, though to be fair, the fact that it’s his first spring training start might depress it. I have no idea. However, what Pitch FX showed was a guy averaging 94–95 on two different fastballs. In the first inning, he hit 96.6 MPH against Seth Smith.
He didn’t allow any hits, but he had poor command, which led to two walks. Many of his “misses” weren’t exactly borderline; he threw four consecutive balls- none of which were close – to Michael Taylor/Anthony Recker before straightening things out. Still, Noesi’s been a command guy in the minors, with walk rates under 5% until 2011. If he’s now got an above average fastball (and perhaps an above average sinker/two-seamer), then he really changes the nature of the trade. If they got an MLB-ready arm that tops out as a middle-reliever, then the loss of Jose Campos might sting a bit. But if Noesi can maintain this (or maintain this velocity without the command issues), he’s an intriguing starting pitching prospect who could begin the year with the big club. If he’s consistently 93-95 in the rotation, he’s not a swing-man/#5 starter, he’s got a shot to be the #3 starter by July.
Unfortunately, the rest of the game didn’t follow suit. Hong-Chih Kuo – trying to make the team as the second lefty in the bullpen behind George Sherrill – had a forgettable inning, throwing about 30 pitches with velocity below his career average and giving up three hits including a HR. The line-up. which many noted looks similar to what the M’s might roll out on opening day, managed just two hits in the first six innings (one of them, a HR, came off the one guy everyone agree will NOT be in the opening day line-up – Carlos Peguero). Michael Saunders didn’t do much, and Franklin Gutierrez is still going to miss a month or more.
Despite the poor hitting, Noesi’s performance offered something for optimists to grab on to. Despite the presence of Jesus Montero (who’s fine, despite being held out today – he should be in the line-up against San Diego tomorrow), the M’s don’t project as a league-average offense. They’re going to need to maintain their sterling runs-allowed if they want to avoid another run at 100 losses, and they’re going to need to do so without Michael Pineda. Noesi offers one of the best opportunities on the roster to blow the PECOTA/CAIRO/Gut-feeling projection out of the water.
Other stories today:
* In 2011, the M’s saw one of their best players, CF Franklin Gutierrez, felled by a mysterious illness that led to a horrific 2011 batting line. Well, the Mets may be in the same boat. Adam Rubin of ESPN is reporting that 1B Ike Davis of the Mets may have Valley Fever, the strange fungal infection that stopped Conor Jackson’s career in its tracks and, for the old-timers out there, basically ended Barry Bonnell’s career as soon as he joined the M’s. Jackson said it’s like “mono on steroids” and the Mets are trying to reduce Davis’ workload and make sure he’s well-rested. But this is a player who relied on power to excel, and the examples of Bonnell and Jackson aren’t exactly encouraging. Davis is a great talent, and having just seen Gutierrez attempt to play through IBS in 2011, I wouldn’t wish this on anyone. Here’s hoping Davis is able to make a full recovery. And, since I’m already discussing crappy luck, that Gutierrez’s musculature stops tearing so easily.
* Yoenis Cespedes’ deal with the Oakland Athletics became official after the Cuban CF passed a physical today. The A’s don’t have to think hard about a 40-man roster move, as the injury to starting 3B Scott Sizemore makes it easy – Sizemore will go to the 60-man and will likely miss the entirety of the 2012 season and Cespedes will take his spot on the roster.