Game 63, Yankees at Mariners
Joe Saunders vs. Andy Pettitte, 1:10pm
First it was Blake Beavan who absolutely dominated the Yankees on Thursday. Last night, it was Jeremy Bonderman’s turn, in what would’ve been the most unlikely pitching line of the year had Aaron Harang not thrown a complete game shutout recently. At home, this is…and I hesitate to say it…a decent match-up for the M’s.
As I mentioned when the M’s faced him in the Bronx, this late-career version of Pettitte seems to have larger platoon splits thanks to his outpitch, a slider-like cutter. It’s an effective pitch to both righties and lefties, but he tends to go to it against righties only when he’s ahead (he’ll throw it in any count to lefties). That means he’ll use his fastball (four- and two-seam varieties) to righties early or when he’s behind, and that pitch hasn’t fared as well. They’re slugging well over .500 this year on both fastball types, and he’s not getting them to swing and miss.
Having Morse back in the line-up helps, but it’s countered by the team’s lack of OF depth (sigh, Franklin Gutierrez) and turning Nick Franklin around to his weaker right-side. We’ll see.
1: Bay, RF
2: Seager, 3B
3: Morales, 1B
4: Morse, DH
5: Ibanez, LF
6: Franklin, 2B
7: Saunders, CF
8: Ryan, SS
9: Bantz, C
SP: Joe Saunders
I used to think absolutely nothing would get Brendan Ryan out of the #9 spot in the line-up. If he wouldn’t move up for Robert Andino or Jesus Sucre, then he was basically #9 in perpetuity, right? Today we get the answer to that question: Brandon Bantz can push Ryan up to #8. It’s Bantz’s major league debut, and this ensures he won’t Yepez his way into being on a MLB roster without ever cracking a major league game. Congratulations to him.
Speaking of depth and injury woes, the M’s put Jesus Sucre on the 15 DL with his finger injury and brought back Carlos Triunfel.
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Today could be a potentially important game for the M’s. If they can win today, they have the chance of taking three of four from NYY tomorrow with King Felix on the mound, and then we get three against Houston at home. We could and SHOULD be looking at a 32-35 record by the time we head to Oakland.
Sucre on the DL? There goes the season.
It’s interesting that Wedge sat Saunders yesterday against a righty but is playing him today against a lefty (hey, the season’s lost – I’m grasping at anything that might keep my interest). It wasn’t a day off, since he then brought him in as a defensive sub. “Punishing” him for slumping, perhaps? The timing would be weird for that, too.
Testing Bantz early. Can’t be worse than Montero, right?
Hey! The Mariners drafted Kyle Seagers brother today in the 12th Round. College Junior who plays 1B.
How many Seagers are there? Could we field an entire team of them?
It would be totally cool if Two Mitt Girl would thump the “Let the Rings Do the Talking” shirt dude sitting in front of her on the head.
I think they said 3 baseball playing brothers last night. I vaguely thought there’s another one who’s supposedly better and another team already has him?
I think there are 3 Seager boys and they all pretty much look alike, but have varying heights. The younger of the 3 was the Dodgers first round pick last year.
LA drafted Seager #2 last year, I think. But they seem to be churning a new one out every year. 🙂
Oops, Mike already answered.
Does there dad coach by any chance?
Argh! Nick!
I just LOVE when the team immediately gives up another run after evening the score. Not.
I love it when I screw up my own jokes with bad spelling.
As a faithful daily reader of this blog, there’s very little on which I disagree with the writers. One of the tropes I believe that I’ve seen here is that coaching makes little to no difference.
But when I see player after player come to the Mariners and stop hitting/pitching well, then leave and immediately do well…I have to wonder. Isn’t there only so much that can be explained away by “He went to the NL” or “He at AAA now”?
Hell, even the coaches have left here and improved!
On the game: Lidi in! Game ov-er for the Yanks!
I gotta assume Seager Dad coaches. Maybe the M’s can bring him on? ’cause that boy seems to be ignoring the team coaches pretty successfully.
Getting a little fed up with Saunders. I know we need to have patience with these young guys, but in comparing him to Ackley, Smoak and Montero:
Saunders – 1,361 PAs, 82 wRC+, 2.4 WAR
Ackley – 1,215 PAs, 85 wRC+, 3.9 WAR
Smoak – 1,601 PAs, 92 wRC+, -0.5 WAR
Montero – 732 PAs, 94 wRC+, -0.1 WAR
Saunders had a solid year last season, but is he really much more than a solid fourth outfielder? I guess we have to live with him as a regular for a while because this organization has no OF depth.
Hopefully Kendrys Morales’ back tightness isn’t a big deal.
I wonder if Seager’s advantage is that his natural approach aligns pretty well with what Wedge preaches, so the coaches haven’t seen fit to mess him up.
I would really love to hear and see exactly what Wedge says to these players and what he asks of the other coaches when addressing the hitting.
Oh, Alex…
*sigh*
Whenever they have Bone in the booth and he’s going on and on about grit and getting squishy (this is apparently a good thing) while hitting, I imagine that’s what Wedge is like too.
Last time, he basically said he expects to start coaching for the M’s fulltime when the last kid’s out of the house. We’ll see how that goes!
Haha, I think you’re probably spot on Juneau.
His nickname will evolve (or de-evolve) from “Bone” to “Bonehead”.
What…huh? They have a chance here?
Watching M’s games through the opponents broadcasts, has proven to be very entertaining.
Hey, somebody told Wedge that Perez isn’t a LOOGY. He’s pitching multiple innings!
He must have saw your comment, G-Man.
I wonder if anyone has ever approached Edgar about taking a stab at Hitting Coach.
Oh, no. Too many pitches taken. Not aggressive.
I saw that come up someplace else recently, Westy. I would imagine they have. Even in the minors, you would think his advice could be really helpful.
Nice of them to finish in time for me to switch to the Sox-Angels game on Fox.
Wedge: “Edgar – you were a pretty darn good hitter, back in the day. It’s too bad you weren’t a little more aggressive, though – you could’ve been a truly great hitter like Michael Morse or Miguel Olivo!”
Check out the coaching staff of the A’s.
Mariners only have to go 63-36 to win 90!
Ackley has now been on base 29 times in 54 plate appearances for Tacoma. Very reminiscent of his college numbers. Wedge’s version is that Ackley had stuff he needed to work on (my read through the sabremetrics comment was that he needed to get more aggressive and stop watching so many first pitch strikes). He has 10 walks in 54 plate appearances – wondering if this is Ackley being more aggressive with strikes or if this is Ackley going back to hitting how he always hit and maybe before Wedge and ML club coaches started preaching to him. Will be interesting to see this one evolve particularly if Ackley continues to OPS around 1.200
Reading these posts, I find most of the points cogent.
But don’t most of you agree that successful teams in all sports are the ones that attract talent?
Let’s not blame Seattle for a MLB player’s disdain for coming here. The Hawks don’t.
Sure there is a lot more travel in baseball than in football, but the NFL player puts his health and his very life on the line every time he takes the field.
We need decent player development and a change of culture and I believe this will only start with new ownership.
M’s should hire 13 hitting coaches. One for each…ah nevermind….