Rainiers vs. Nashville Sounds Game Thread
Jeremy Bonderman vs. Zack Kroenke, 7:40pm
The Rainiers have been worth watching all year, with Hultzen and Paxton in the rotation, Mike Zunino catching and the inevitable Franklin Gutierrez rehab appearances. Now, they’ll get extra scrutiny as we all see if Jesus Montero can revive his career and possibly learn a new position while remembering how to hit.
Now, full disclosure here, Montero hasn’t reported yet/isn’t in the line-up tonight. Mike Curto reports that M’s minor league IF coordinator Chris Woodward will stick around in Tacoma to help Montero learn 1B, but presumably that’ll start tomorrow. For tonight, the M’s front office’s collective eyes will be on Jeremy Bonderman as he tries to make the case that he’s a better bet going forward than Aaron Harang. He’ll have to make that case in wet, cold, dreary conditions. It’s presumably for said dreariness that Franklin Gutierrez will DH tonight with Abe Almonte in CF.
The M’s are off, but Zunino and Franklin are playing. If you count Guti, Stefen Romero and possibly Bonderman, a good portion of this team could be suiting up for Seattle in September, if not before. Bonderman’s opt-out is in about a week, so this is a critical game for him. If they don’t call him up soon, they’d presumably lose him to free agency.
The R’s brought up Brandon Bantz, another D-first catcher who played a bit for the R’s in 2012, to replace Jesus Sucre. They also sent 1B Rich Poythress back to Jackson to make room for 1B Jesus Montero.
Line-up:
1: Gutierrez, DH
2: Franklin, 2B
3: Liddi, 3B
4: Peguero, RF
5: Romero, LF
6: Zunino, C
7: Tenbrink, 1B
8: Triunfel, SS
9: Almonte, CF
SP: Bonderman
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9 Responses to “Rainiers vs. Nashville Sounds Game Thread”
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I not convinced Harang is totally useless. Bonderman is not a long term answer either but he could be useful. That said, if there is a way to get Harang on the DL and give Bonderman a shot… that works for me. Erasmo is still out, Mauer’s OPS vLHB is 1.083, and he needs AAA time or we risk hurting his development. None of the big 3 are ready. Noesi will be a useful pitcher out of the pen and occasional spot starter, but he too will be overexposed at this point. Keeping Harang around is a crummy option, but better than letting the kids get beat up before they are ready.
Steady she goes. This is just part of the rebuilding process. Why we keep Andino around… now that is a real mystery.
Yes, you may be right. They could also swap Bonderman for Maurer, esp. as it appears the M’s have said Harang will make his next start. But they’ve got a somewhat big decision to make coming up and they’ve got half the front office at this game tonight. We’ll see.
1-0 Sounds in the 3rd.
Couple of potential double play balls not fielded produce at least one more run. Bonderman’s now given up 4 with runners at the corners. Not a great start for him (it should be mentioned that one of the potential DP balls was misplayed by…Jeremy Bonderman).
I’m having a hard time finding encouragement today. At least Brad Miller hit a homer.
Brad Miller hit a HR, and though I only watched the 9th inning, made an amazing play on a slow ground ball.
Unfortunately, Bonderman has given up HRs on consecutive pitches, and has given up 8 runs in 4+ innings. It’s ugly.
They may just let the opt-out date slide by.
HR for Nate Tenbrink is the only bright spot for Tacoma.
Let’s see. This organization was supposedly flush with pitching. Now they proved over a three year period you can’t win with just pitching. So they trade Fister for ???. Pineda for ????. And pass on Garland. Two solid starters and one half starter is what we have. Rameriz is at least July. Hultzen ??Face it the season is shot. I’d bring up Treinfel and Franklin, cut Andino and Ryan. Z won’t do that so dump Andino and bring up Treinfel. Give Sucre some AB’s he might be a good back-up. If he gives solid D and is above the Mendoza/Ryan/Andino/Montero line it’s a plus. I’d let Franklin continue in Tacoma for a while. He is the only top position prospect that is close. Oh my God we are the Cubs!!
Jesus Montero ended up pinch-hitting and lining the 2nd pitch he saw directly at the LF.
I can’t believe I miss Jason Vargas. I don’t care what the pundits said about Joe Saunders when we got him — he’s no Vargas, that’s for darned sure.
In any case, Zduriencik should be looking to claim Garland who just hit the wire. Whatever happens, we sure do need some arms to progress rapidly in our system.
Woah, Andino waived. What’s next?