Game 34, Mariners at Pirates
Aaron Harang vs. James McDonald Jeanmar Gomez, 4:05pm
There are rivals, interleague “natural” rivals, and then there are teams like the Pirates, who exist solely on the ESPN crawl, in 1979-Pops-Stargell highlights, and old Barry Bonds baseball cards. I know about them – I know some of their players, I know their new ballpark looks gorgeous, know all about their 20-year plan for a winning season, and about the new-school front office that was going to instill a new culture and build a sustainable winner within 5 years. But I just don’t think about them. It’s harder and harder for teams to exist like this. With so much coverage, and with mlb.tv, mlb network, etc., you’re going to hear about it when Andrew McCutchen develops into a star. As a kid, I was fascinated by the Montreal Expos and their ‘other’ness. Their radio announcers spoke French. Their pitchers hit. They had all of these stars (the had a *catcher* who could seriously hit. Not just “not bad for a catcher” but real, actual hitting. This was more bizarre to me than the French thing, honestly) who existed in This Week in Baseball highlights and as All-Star Game ringers, but I had no sense of them as a team. That’s the Pirates for me now.*
Righty James McDonald starts tonight’s game. He’s a fastball/curve/slider pitcher who’s never quite put it all together. At one point, he had an above average fastball and a decent curve, and who looked like he could become a #3 in the Pirates rotation. He started experimenting with a slider, and got incredible results with it, so he used it as his two-strike outpitch in 2012 and raced off to a brilliant first half. Then, just as suddenly, he collapsed again. His first-half FIP of 3.00 turned into a second-half FIP of 6.37 and he was back to being the same old frustrating #4/5 starter on a below-.500 team. It’s fascinating, because his slider still got good results, even in 2012. His curve was solid too, even when hitters put it in play in the second half. His problem seemed to be that he couldn’t get into those two-strike counts, and when he’s behind, he relies heavily on his four-seam fastball. It’s a perfectly understandable, perfectly rational approach that 80% of MLB pitchers use, but it’s not working for McDonald.
Aaand now it would appear that McDonald’s been scratched and put on the 15-day DL. Huh. Taking his place is righty Jeanmar Gomez, a sinker-slider guy with a change-up against lefties. Gomez is a pitch-to-contact, groundball guy who came over from the Indians organization. He doesn’t miss many bats, has poor control, and a bit of a home run problem. If that sounds like a replacement-level starter, you’re dead on. He’s pitched about one full season over the course of his career with a FIP of about 5, good for 0.1 WAR. It’s a bit surprising that his platoon splits aren’t higher, considering his repertoire and arm-angle, but it’s just that he’s been bad against righties and lefties alike. The M’s start Aaron Harang tonight, so it’s not like this is a total mismatch on paper, but this is a game the M’s need to win. The Pirates aren’t a bad team, and they’re playing at home, but the M’s caught a break, and they should capitalize. To add to the Pirates problems, catcher/pitch-framer Russell Martin’s out with a neck injury, so the M’s get to face a B-team battery.
Line-up:
1: Saunders, CF
2: Bay, LF
3: Seager, 3B
4: Morse, RF
5: Smoak, 1B
6: Ackley, 2B
7: Shoppach, C
8: Ryan, SS
9: Harang, SP
No Morales, as the M’s lose the DH. We’ll see how many starts Morales gets at 1B in NL stadiums this year.
Reigning PCL pitcher of the week Jeremy Bonderman takes the hill for Tacoma in Oklahoma City today, and Roenis Elias leads Jackson against Huntsville.
The Rainiers won the final game of their homestand behind Andrew Carraway and homers from Corey Patterson and Carlos Peguero. Victor Sanchez lost his first decision of the year yesterday, but is still pitching beyond his years in full-season ball.
Go M’s!
* First thing I thought of when I thought about the Pirates just now: this game. The game in Safeco when Jeff Weaver shut out the Pirates on four hits, despite coming into the game with an ERA over 10, and 0-6 record, one DL trip for “tendinitis”, and generally being the worst pitcher in the league up to that point.
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45 Responses to “Game 34, Mariners at Pirates”
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Morales should be starting every game in NL stadiums at 1B.
Nice one, California. Why start a better player when you need to have someone else to “get going.”
Maybe they want to save him to pinch hit… oh who am I kidding, it’s just stupid to start Smoak here.
Nice to see Bay in left versus a righty while Chavez sits. On top of that, we get to see him hit second.
Maybe Wedge is overconfident and wants to toy with the Pirates?
Wedge is betting on Bay wanting to stick it to his old team and magically perform better.
I really wouldn’t have a problem seeing him replaced immediately. Probably wont happen, but even Brown could take over on an interim basis.
Can Harang somehow get left stranded in Pittsburgh? Don’t think anyone would notice.
On a more interesting note than Aaron Harrang pitching, Nick Franklin has started several games in a row at short for Tacoma, it looks like their grooming him for a call-up.
Tommy Harper trivia, since Blowers and Sims mentioned him:
Harper led the Seattle Pilots in steals in their one year of existence.
EDIT: and now he said it.
It’d be cool to not have two or three (depending on how you count) atrocious starters in the rotation.
They need to work in a “Ball Four” reference now. 😀
If someone on TV says “Zits him” we will know they are well-versed in “Ball Four” vernacular.
That was a crappy looking swing even by pitcher standards!
I missed it, so please clarify … Ryan or Harang?
Ha ha – it was Harang.
Ryan’s hit it right at the shortstop twice, apparently (I missed the first few innings).
Nice to see Ackley get that one.
RAUUUUULLLL!!
Nice to see Ibanez get that one.
Endy next? Please.
Rauuuuuuuuuuuuuul! About time.
What’s this? Sunny weather in Seattle and Raul with an RBI? I must be dreaming.
Ugh. Now Andino is playing shortstop.
Well, at least they got one.
Zunino’s 2 for 2 so far tonight. He’s really been suckin’, so it’s nice to see him have a good game for Tacoma. Franklin’s struggled a bit the last few games.
Bonderman’s struggling a bit tonight.
Really wonder why they never really considered Furbush an option for the rotation this year. If there’s a durability issue, I could understand. But it really seems more like stubbornness and stupidity.
Attaboy Wedgie. Playing the top of the 7th like it’s the bottom of the 9th. Uh oh, no bench, no backup catcher. Here’s an idea, you coulda run Morales out there and kept some players for later.
That pick off was closer than it should have been.
Umpires calling balls and strikes really needs to go. I have seen horrible calls this year and that Ball 3 call was up there. It doesn’t matter where the catcher sets up, if the ball crosses the plate, it IS a strike.
Well, that settles that.
M’s now down three…
Yep, that should do it.
Just realized something…. Pryor went on the 15 day DL April 15th. Haven’t heard anything sense, including a roster move. Anyone hear anything about that situation?
Zunino now 3 for 3 tonight. Franklin has a couple of walks. No runs for Tacoma yet, though.
…Pryor (back) is not close to returning from the disabled list anytime soon, the Tacoma News Tribune reports. “Pryor is making good progress, but it’s still going to be a while,” manager Eric Wedge said. “Being such a big guy and how he throws, it’s going to be a while.” (May 5)…
Haven’t heard anything sense, including a roster move.
This was a test to see if anyone caught my intentional use of bad grammar. You all failed.
Thanks, Woodcutta.
I love Grilli. It’s just too bad that he has to give up all these runs right now.
You’re welcome. I didn’t know what was going on with him either. What is the 5 minute countdown for?
I gotta 5 min countdown too. Does everyone have it? Our insightful posts are outdated by they time they’re posted.
Slow week for Mariners baseball. Monday no game, today crappy game, tomorrow morning game, Thursday no game. I was hopin for a good game today.
Gotta love having two old, decrepit pitchers on the staff!
Not good now, and no hope of being good in the future. Yeah, I’m gonna pay money to see this. I’m not sure how much longer I’m going to watch starts by anyone other than Felix or Kuma at all, even on TV – I tuned out of this one about 2/3 of the way through.
I wonder if Ibanez will be rewarded for his double last night with a start today?
Also wondering if Morse needs to have his hand re-examined and maybe spend some time on the DL.
Only if his hand is the reason why he continually swings at breaking balls off the plate and in the dirt.
Lasik might be a better idea for Morse
I expect Wedge may have finally figured out Iba̱ez best role is pinch hitting against a rightie Рas was the situation yesterday.
We certainly haven’t seen much of Raul lately…
The one thing I remember about the Pirates is that they played the Cincinatti Reds in the NLCS the year that the Reds won the World Series. I remember they had Bobby Bonilla, Barry Bonds, Doug Drabek, Tim Wakefield, and maybe Andy Van Slyke or someone like that. Jim Leyland was the manager, and during the first game of the series, he changed the starting pitcher at the last minute. The starting pitchers knew it was going to happen, and it seemed like there was a big deal made of the fact that Jim Leyland had made his starting pitchers lie to reporters about who was going to start.
Those Pirates are sneaky bastards.