Rainiers Opening Day Game Thread
Season Preview below. I’d link to it, but just scroll down – it’s not that hard.
Tacoma is opening up at home tonight against Salt Lake City. First pitch is at 7:20, with pregame festivities beginning at 7:00. Matt Fox will be on the hill for the Rainiers, which isn’t super exciting, but if you go to Cheney, you’ll get to see Vinnie Catricala, Carlos Triunfel, Adam Moore, and some guy named Mike Trout for Salt Lake. Garrett Richards, a good prospect for the Angels, is taking the hill for SLC as well.
If you don’t want to trek down to Tacoma, you can listen to the game or watch it on MILB.tv.
2012 Tacoma Rainiers Preview
Before we get into it, there is one last, less exciting aspect of “who’s going where?” and that is the usual round of releases. The first one in mid-March cleared out thirteen while the second got rid of another ten. A lot of these releases, I was initially pretty surprised by, but then I went to look up the stats from last season and saw that it’s largely the non-performers and guys who saw limited time, but it will remind you of certain things, like how Danny Cruz never lived up to the bonus, how Kasparek’s career stalled, and how McOwen and Shaffer were both interesting fourth outfielder prospects at one time.
And did you know that Colorado Springs has a humidor now? It’s true!
This is the end of this round of graphomania. Thanks to Marc, who let me use some of the pictures he’s taken to help break up the text slightly. I’ll be back not this Monday, but the Monday after to talk about what’s been going on in the first week and a half. For now, enjoy opening day.
2012 Jackson Generals Preview
I’ll say it publically because the rest of you are thinking it anyway: there are going to be many, many days where I would rather watch this team than watch the Mariners. Good lord, it’s like all of our best prospects landed here. This will be either the stuff of legends or the most depressing footnotes you will ever read.
2012 High Desert Mavericks Preview
So what, nine hours later and one response to the previous preview? I feel like I’m throwing these to the wind, like so many batted balls leaving Mavericks Stadium. Segue!
I was looking it up the other day and it surprised me to discover that the Mavericks have been the Mariners’ Cal League affiliate since 2007, which was when Saunders went through. 2007! It’s such a long time! Someone could have entered and completed an entire PhD program in that span! And which of the two collections of data would prove more valuable? Of the hitters and the degree holder, who would have a more inflated sense of self-worth, who would stand a better chance on the job market within the same field? Further jokes! Okay, let’s get on with it.
2012 Clinton Lumberkings Preview
I’m going to hit this one up before I have to run to classes and the rest will trickle in as I get time. Sadly, I have a busy week, and really could have used these rosters two days ago, insert meaningful glares and such.
So there have been some changes for the Lumberkings over the offseason. For example, Alliant Energy Field is now Ashford University Field (naming rights!) and Dave Lezotte bounced for the Gwinnett Braves and so now Chad Seely, formerly of the Daytona Cubs, is the “Voice of the Lumberkings”. He’s originally from Wisconsin, so this gets him closer to home I guess. Also of consideration, since the Lake County Captains shifted to the Midwest League not long ago, is that someone may see fit to combat “Moby Dick”, a $20, fifteen-inch sandwich which features fish filets, cheese, clam strips, French Fries, cole slaw, lettuce, tomatoes, pickles, tartar sauce, and the threat of myocardial infarction. The Lumberkings won’t be visiting Lake County this year, but one of these years, it could happen. Lord help us, it could happen.
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Cactus League Game 27 – Mariners at Rockies (again)
We’ve finally made it to the end of spring training. It’s minor league opening day eve, and there’s another oddball “real” MLB game tonight, ahead of tomorrow’s opening day for most and Friday’s “did we forget anyone?” opening day redux.
The M’s will send Hector Noesi to the hill in what’s actually a fairly interesting game for the presumptive #3 starter. With Charlie Furbush and Erasmo Ramirez in the bullpen (one in Tacoma and one in Seattle). If they lose a starter, it won’t take long for one of them to get stretched out, but you’d think one of the 6th or 7th starters would be…starting somewhere.
The Rainiers roster is finally set after this morning’s moves, and Mike Curto’s got a list of what to watch for here, ahead of tomorrow evening’s opener against Salt Lake.
High Desert kicks off tomorrow as well, and the High Desert Daily Press has a great interview with new manager (and last year’s Minor League Coordinator) Pedro Grifol.
Jackson’s roster’s the one everyone will focus on thanks to the presence of Paxton, Walker, Hultzen and Franklin – but it’s under-the-radar command pitcher Andrew Carraway who’ll get the ball on opening day. According to Chris Harris, it’l be Carraway, then Paxton, then Brandon Maurer, then Hultzen and then Taijuan Walker. That means high-ceiling prospect Carter Capps will start in the pen for Jackson, fresh off his eye-opening inning in a big league game last week. I know a lot of us were eager to see what he could do as a starter, but he could move very quickly as a late-game reliever.
Here’s the line-up for the final game of the second phase of spring training. Yes, yes, it started a while ago. Oops.
1: Figgins (LF)
2: Ackley (2B)
3: Suzuki (RF)
4: Smoak (1B)
5: Seager (3B)
6: Ryan (SS)
7: Saunders (CF)
8: Wells (DH)
9: Jaso (C)
Sp: Noesi
M’s Option Furbush, probably Peguero
The Mariners haven’t officially announced just announced their final two moves to get down to a 25 man roster before Friday’s opener, and Charlie Furbush and Carlos Peguero are going to join Shawn Kelley down in Tacoma, which will leave open roster spots for Rule 5 LHP Lucas Luetge and 3B Alex Liddi.
Luetge isn’t a surprise, as he pitched well during the spring and the team obviously saw something they liked when they added him over the winter. The shift here is Liddi making the team, as this is essentially the fallout from Mike Carp landing on the DL.
With Liddi apparently making the team, the plan appears to be to move Chone Figgins to left field in Carp’s absence. Essentially, the team is choosing to give Kyle Seager playing time instead of Casper Wells, which is probably a direct result of their spring training performances. With Figgins in LF, they wanted another third baseman on the roster, so Liddi will backup/platoon with Seager at third, and Wells will remain in the fourth OF role even with Carp on the DL.
It will be interesting to see how the team handles Carp’s return, given this change. With Seager getting regular playing time to start the season, he probably has a chance to take the starting job and run with it. If he’s hitting .300 with some doubles and triples mixed in, they’re not going to stick him back on the bench, and Wedge has been pretty adamant that Carp was going to get regular playing time this year.
So, my guess is that this means that Figgins now has about 7-10 days to show something in order to maintain his hold on a starting job. If Seager struggles out of the gate, he might get a little bit longer of a leash, but Carp’s injury opens up the door for Seager to take some playing time that probably was going to go to Figgins had Carp stayed healthy.
Nothing’s set in stone, and I’d imagine Wedge will probably still mix-and-match some, but with Liddi making the team, I think Seager’s hold on the third base job just got a little bit stronger. Also, it means we won’t have to watch Carlos Peguero, which is nice.
Cactus League Game 26 – Mariners at Rockies
First things first – the M’s made the first of three roster moves ahead of tomorrow’s deadline by optioning Shawn Kelley to AAA. This is something of a surprise, as I think most of us thought he was safe. He put up decent numbers this spring, but his fastball’s still not back where it was in 2010. In fact, it’s not back where it was last year, when he was coming off of partial Tommy John surgery. It’s gone from 94 mph in 2009 to 93mph in 2010 to 91.5 last year to a tick under 91 this spring. That’s not entirely fair, as Kelley’s velo would presumably be higher later in the year, but it’s obviously not where the M’s wanted it. Jack Zduriencik explained the reasoning to Greg Johns here.
Felix Hernandez mentioned the fact that he was in fact throwing a cutter yesterday in a post-game Q and A with reporters. I wouldn’t say he has a good feel for the pitch yet and the FB velocity drop is still perplexing, but it’s hard to quibble with yesterday’s results. A part of me is stunned that Felix can be effective at 89-90, even in a Cactus League game, but a larger part of me is no longer capable of being surprised by the myriad ways Felix can be awesome.
Jesus Montero’s fine.
The full-season minor league affiliates kick off their 2012 season on Thursday – all four are at home. If you’re local, Tacoma’s taking on Salt Lake (Angels) – it’ll be a good opportunity to check out Catricala, Carlos Triunfel and Chance Ruffin. If you’re near Jackson, Tennessee, one of the big three pitching prospects figures to get the opening day start. Hell, Jackson’s one of most intriguing minor league affiliates in baseball this year. High Desert hosts Lancaster (Houston), while Clinton hosts Burlington (Athletics).
Erasmo Ramirez gets a spot start today, which (together with Kelley’s demotion) solidifies his presence on the 25 man roster. It’d be odd to pitch him today if he was going to head to Tacoma tomorrow, and taking a righty out of the pen would seem to make the remaining righties pretty safe. Alex Liddi and Charlie Furbush figure to be the other two sent down. It’s just nice to see Erasmo get longer outings, as he figures to be the team’s de facto #6 starter.
The line-up for today’s game (on 710am/Mariners Radio and Root Sports tv):
1: Kawasaki (SS)
2: Ackley (2B)
3: Seager (3B)
4: Olivo (C)
5: Saunders (CF)
6: Liddi (1B)
7: Peguero (RF)
8: Wells (LF)
9: Jaso (DH)
SP: Ramirez
Go M’s.
Cactus League Game #25: Moyers at Felixes
This is a spring training game. This is a spring training game that, improbably, takes place after the M’s have played two regular season games, and after they’ve played two additional Cactus League games since returning in a sea of viruses. We’ve heard reports that Franklin Gutierrez was near returning, but he hasn’t and won’t today. There’s just about no way that this could capture your attention. Unless….
There’s a line-up for this game, but it’s of lesser importance. This game is just one joke, repeated for 4-5 innings. That’s actually OK; this joke happens to be fairly amusing. The avuncular looking man pictured above, grinning and holding a baseball as if describing it to a first-grade class, has made the Rockies rotation after a great spring. Moyer was the oldest active player when the M’s sent him east in 2006. He told everyone that he would rehab from Tommy John surgery and come back better than ever, and while no one would’ve wished him ill, I don’t think many thought this was possible. Opposing him is Felix Hernandez, another one of the three best M’s hurlers ever. Tune in at 1; I believe this one’s on ROOT sports, as well as 710am/Mariners Radio/MLB Gameday audio/etc.
The line-up of lesser importance:
1: Figgins (LF)
2: Ryan (SS)
3: Ichiro! (RF)
4: Smoak (1B)
5: Montero (C)
6: Wells (CF)
7: Peguero (DH)
8: Liddi (3B)
9: Kawasaki (2B)
SP: King Felix
Cactus League Game 24, Royals at Mariners
Last night’s game sure was a hoot. Some things I took away from erratically listening to the broadcast:
1) People were impressed with Brad Miller’s defense, which leads me to think that they may have fixed his throwing mechanics.
2) Chris Gwynn was talking minor leaguers for a while and mentioned that Guillermo Pimentel had won their “Control the Zone” award, which probably had something to do with the strikezone. This is interesting insofar as I look at Pimentel as being a bit of a hacker and not especially coachable, so, positives?
Larry Stone is reporting that, post-flight, the sick list is growing, with Ackley, Peguero, Saunders, and Sherrill all heading home with some kind of illness. And the regular season starts on Friday! I would hope that everyone’s recovered by then. Speaking of Stone’s work, I believe the season preview is up in the Times today.
LF Figgins
SS Kawasaki
RF Ichiro!
1B Smoak
DH Montero
C Olivo
2B Seager
3B Liddi
CF Wells
P Beavan
This one’s on TV and radio at 1 pm, as will be the next three games. Have at you.