Game 112, Mariners at Orioles
Blake Beavan vs. Zach Britton, 4:05pm
Zach Britton’s season RA/ERA is 8.35. In his last two starts, he’s pitched 8 1/3 IP and given up 13 runs on 13 hits, 6 walks and 5 Ks. He’s pitched 18 terrible innings, and will probably lose his rotation spot with a poor performance tonight. It’s all gone wrong for the pitcher that started 2011 so strong, just missing out on an all-star bid. He was clearly out-pitching his peripherals in the first half last season, but his second half looked like a gambler’s fallacy version of regression – instead of regressing to the mean, he had equal and opposite luck. Of course, there was also a physical problem as well: shoulder stiffness that landed him on the DL in August.
This spring the shoulder was still sore. Instead of breaking camp with Baltimore, he went to AA and then AAA where he’s been solid, but considerably worse than he had been before. He made his debut with the Birds in mid-July and has one quality start in four tries. His velocity’s right where it was in 2011, but he’s not fooling hitters.
His primary pitch is a sinking two-seamer, but he had a good slider and change as well. The slider generated a lot of whiffs and helped him attack lefty hitters, whereas the change was a good weapon for whiffs as well as weak contact against right-handers. He’s throwing the same pitches this year, and his two-seamer’s getting just as many grounders, but poor command has put him in hitters’ counts, and he’s been awful in such situations.
Since his return from Tacoma, Blake Beavan has pitched 28 1/3 IP, struck out 18 hitters and given up only 1 walk (and 2 HBPs). He hasn’t been great, but this version of Beavan could be serviceable, as his FIP in that stretch is essentially right at 3.0. Today he faces a line-up with plenty of power, but with just as much swing-and-miss. He needs to expand the zone and get hitters to chase sliders off the plate, which is something he’s struggled to do in his career.
The line-up:
1: Ackley
2: Robinson (LF)
3: Saunders
4: Montero (DH)
5: Seager
6: Wells (RF)
7: Carp
8: Olivo (C)
9: Kawasaki
SP: Beavan
James Paxton takes the hill for Jackson tonight. Tai Walker was solid yesterday, giving up a run in 4 IP, but you can probably expect a few more short starts from him as the M’s ease back on his innings-pitched and total pitches. He threw 75 yesterday, which may be his limit going forward. The Rainiers still haven’t used Danny Hultzen since his turn was skipped last Thursday, but I’d imagine he’ll be on a pitch limit too. Paxton’s been so good recently that I find myself hoping for a late-season call-up to AAA. He’s thrown fewer innings thanks to his DL trip, and I’d want to see if he has any of the command problems that have bedeviled Hultzen.
The Indians DFA’d ex-Mariner Jose Lopez today, while ex-Mariner Garrett Olson was called up by the Mets – he’s pitched 4 innings in MLB since the M’s cut ties with him.
As Jason Churchill reported, the M’s signed right-hander Matt Anderson as a free agent this week, and have assigned him to the Arizona League. He’d been pitching in a wood-bat collegiate league in California where he apparently showed better velocity than he had during the regular season. The more well-known Cape Cod league’s wrapping up now, as some of the better collegiate players position themselves for next year’s draft. Lefty Sean Manaea‘s been a break-out star, striking out 85 (to only 7 walks) in 51 2/3 IP, running a 1.22 ERA, and reportedly touching 98mph. Sitting 3rd in the league strikeout table is UW product Austin Voth, with 52 in 35 2/3 IP; he’s had two games of 11 Ks in 6 innings. His RA and K:BB stats are down thanks to a poor start in one game, but his experience on the Cape should set him up well next season. Voth had a disappointing season for UW, and could be another player who’s used a wood-bat league to prove that they’d be more useful in pro ball than their college stats would suggest – Forrest Snow is the poster boy for this.
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74 Responses to “Game 112, Mariners at Orioles”
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Lets go M’s! Get on another winning streak, and DFA Figgins! Call up Romero from AA, or Truinfel/Liddi/Rodriguez.. or anyone who bats right handed that has a pulse!
Why on earth is Trayvon Robinson batting second?!
Also… Seager!
Atta not Seager. 3 run bomb with two outs. Sweet! And probabky about half the runs Beavan will need today.
Zach Britton: still bad.
Well, at least this is ONE bad pitcher the Mariners aren’t going to make look like a Cy Young candidate!
Westy: Facing a left handed and the choices were him or Wells or Olivo – I guess.
Wells is struggling and Trayvon did line out three times the other day, so ………………
Marc – awesome content today (and always) – many, many thanks!!
Hey hey Olivo!
Britton is having issues – hurrah!
Team must’ve remembered Ichiro isn’t around anymore.
Yay Tray!!!
NV M’s fan – thanks a lot! Very kind of you.
ha ha ha Zach Britton.
It’s schadenfreude, but it’s nice to see one other org whose had worse luck with pitching prospects than the M’s.
Olivo, Kawasaki, and Robinson igniting a rally…..
Seager so close to driving in 2 there
Gameday keeps running these Choco Taco adverts… I really want one now.
Beavan being Beavan. I hope this is the last year he starts a game for the M’s
Beavan is such a caring individual – he doesn’t want Britton to feel bad.
for Breaking Bad fans: anyone think Carl Willis looks like “Mike?” Talk about a visit to the mound.
Choco Tacos are gross. They seem like the perfect food in principle, but in reality they are so poorly and cheaply constructed that anything that resembles quality in them is destroyed.
Hahaha I watch Breaking Bad and I see the resemblance.
Chuckling heartily at ROOT listing the Mariners on the Wild Card race graphic…
Good “add on” inning.
If we ever have a chance to get a switch-hitter with power from Goose Creek, we should go for it.
And all this without Brandon League even being available.
Mariners!
Sorry to have dropped out its difficult to follow the game while I’m on the train.
Of course now I wish I hadn’t looked…
Am I the only one having issues with the audio of the ROOT HD broadcast? Sounds like it’s buffering constantly. Beyond annoying.
ROOT HD ok for me.
Someone forgot to pack the rubber bands.
OMG
Just don’t leave one of these over the plate… Jones is swinging at crap.
Ackley is going to have all of us belching thunder pretty soon.
Trayvon has me belching thunder after that last swing.
Sweet!
Okay, Michael, it’s about time you join the hit parade…
Ouch, Michael. Been getting tips from Peguero or something?
Yeah, seriously? 4 Strikeouts tonight, ouch!
Muni is shaming you, Condor.
Line drive time!
Energy Boy!!
I don’t like this Kelley – Davis matchup at all.
I can’t get as excited about this extra inning game – there’s no chance Olivo could pitch.
I think I’m glad I can’t actually watch the game. I think.
Can’t get excited? What if we saw Chone Figgins pitch? Lol!
Great steal by Thames.
Is tomorrow your travel day, Steve?
I think Martin Scorcese might need a distemper shot.
I am dreading a world where everyone is talking at their phones like that. It’s bad enough currently with all the people yakking on the phone.
Oh, yeah Steve – you’ll need to hop on here sometime from Brazil and let us know how the move went.
I wouldn’t be surprised if Steve can’t watch the Marlins or the Braves from down there because the teams have claimed Brazil as part of their territory.
I would like to see Carter “The Cannon” Capps pitch tonight, but Wedge seems reluctant to let him earn a nickname. Kelley can’t go out there again, can he?
So, let me get this straight – we’re watching Krueger and missing at bats?
I think we’ll see Tommy tonight before we see Capps.
We won’t see Wilhelmsen unless the team gets a lead. Even if Wedge wears him out warming up five innings in a row…
Yep, tomorrow, Mike. Working my ass off right now. Gonna be a long night.
Lot of Brazilians in Florida, doubt many are into baseball though.
Good old Olivo.
Ha! Mike, he ran Kelley out there again…
Wedge wants to go back to the hotel.
Apparently so does the first base umpire.
Clearly a horseshit call at 1B. Carp kept his foot on the bag.
I hope Wedge pulls a Bob Melvin and gets thrown out of tomorrow’s game, too.
Seriously, Wedge needs to go out tomorrow with a set of glasses and a magnifying glass.
It’d be just like Olivo to miss an intentional ball.
Again.
Either that or with first base, and then he can politely ask that that lazy ass first base umpire can shove it all the way up his ass.
How fitting Jones up to bat.
This will only end in sadness
I missed women’s beach volleyball for this.
Walter the Prophet.
Now is the time for Mike Carp to rage on that piece of feces behind him.
Told ya
Nice try by Wells, but there was no way he’d come up with that.
Orioles MVP: Brian Knight.
Ha ha… The highlight shows that he wasn’t even looking at the base when he made the call. What a moron. Should be suspended for that crap.
It would have been nice to see Wells catch the ball – and then try to gun the guy out. It would have been a short throw for him. He whiffed on the line drive while sliding. I can’t say I have seen that one in a while. Maybe the ball was tailing. Fast runner at 3B. I think it would have been close.
Quite seriously, this game goes 100% on the umps. The M’s scored one more run during the first 9 innings, and then had an obviously incorrect call.
But of course, MLB is going to continue to allow inept fucktards to run the game while not allowing instant replay to correct their daily fuckups.
The men and women who just landed my car on Mars should devise automated umpiring systems. Take ‘em a week – tops.
^ Plus the lander module would make for a really cool way to have the team take the field. It could come flying in over the walls of the stadium and drop the fielders into place, one by one.
Thay’s a pretty epic idea to be cometely honest Westy.