Cactus League Game Whoa, Stanford, Holy Crap
marc w · March 23, 2014 at 12:29 pm · Filed Under Mariners
Randy Wolf vs. Josh Lindblom, 1:05
Lindblom is a fly-baller RHP with a fastball, slider, change and the odd curveball. At this point, he’s probably more well known as a secondary piece in a surprising number of trades. Drafted by LA, he went to Philadelphia as a part of the Shane Victorino deal, then went to Texas when Michael Young headed east. This off-season, the Rangers included Lindblom in the Craig Gentry-for-Michael Choice deal.
1: Almonte, CF
2: Magic “Fingers” Beans, SS
3: Cano, 2B
4: Smoak, 1B
5: Seager, 3B
6: Morrison, RF
7: Ackley, LF
8: Saunders, DH
9: Zunino, C
SP: Wolf
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33 Responses to “Cactus League Game Whoa, Stanford, Holy Crap”
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We’ll, this is close to what I expect will be the opening day roster… sort of.
Seeing Almonte repeatedly leading off is hurting my eyes. He is just not good enough at getting on base.
Right now he seems to be suffering from Brian Hunter disease. Love the speed… but you can’t steal first base.
Whoa. I’m ok with that ending. Sure we can’t just send Almonte back to AAA and keep Romero up?
So, Jurickson Profar is out 3-4 months with a shoulder tear, do we dare trade Nick Franklin to the evil Rangers? Maybe they have a 1B prospect, that would be nice to have? (ba dum *cymbal crash*)
Ooh, or how ’bout a blockbuster… Franklin and Miller for Elvis Andrus?
That and the Yankees are looking to move Ichiro, and will eat some of his salary… Maybe we take Ichiro for $2 million, and they have to take Montero back?
Existential rosterbation… Where “just like that” (finger snap) Montero and Smoak are no longer our mistakes, and/or we have the best infield tandem in baseball…
I would not make that trade, MrZ – I’d actually prefer the Mariners hold onto Brad Miller.
Andrus is an excellent defender, but I think he’s going to be a somewhat lesser version of Brendan Ryan soon.
Wow, Rangers are reaching hilarity in their misfortunes… Starting catcher (Soto) now out 10-12 weeks with torn meniscus in his knee, and as a catcher, that could be a LONG rehab…
They get rid of last year’s 2nd basemen, and this year’s is now injured… They get rid of last year’s catcher, and now this year’s is injured… It’s practically Mariners-esque in its accidental ineptness… I almost (emphasis on “almost”) feel bad for them.
The only thing surprising is that it’s not Fielder or Beltre breaking down… (Close call there too, ’cause their OTHER Beltre, the backup infielder, is out with a broken tibia…)
Not to mention the amount of money Andrus is making. I wouldn’t trade Miller straight up for Andrus.
Maybe include Hart in that trade package. I forecast a wasted $6-7million on that signing.
Buh-bye, Scott Baker.
For the record, I wouldn’t do the trade for Andrus OR Ichiro… Bad humor attempt. I hope I’m better thought of than that around here? But probably not…
Kinda saw the Baker thing coming, Westy… I know his contract called for us to tell him he’d made the MLB team or release him by tomorrow… I don’t think anything was clear enough to give him the spot yet. He was probably welcome to wait it out longer, or go his own way, I imagine…
Darn, I was hoping it was Geoff Baker who was released
What’s all this the Mariners have depth at pitching comments?
If we assume, to begin the season, Hernandez, Paxton, and Ramirez will be three of the starters, who will be the other two?
Besides Elias, Beavan and Wolf, who else is still in the mix.
Ouch.
Roenis Elias and Randy Wolf starting the season in the rotation is not my idea of a good time.
Personally I’m fine with Elias and Wolf starting the season in the rotation. 5 or 6 starts max between the 2… Wolf is throwing better than Harang and Saunders did last year… And a rookie with decent stuff can usually do okay the first time he faces teams, so his starts are sort of proverbial coin tosses. And we don’t need either one after the first month, so it’s not like it’s meaningful (fingers crossed). Our 4 and 5 guys to start the season ARE our pitching depth, because Ramirez and Paxton will be filling those two spots in a month.
MrZ, I hope that is the case, but are pitcher injuries every really that simple? The odds of them both missing the minimum time and then playing the rest of the season seem slim.
I’m with you Mr Z – can Elias and Wolf be as good as Saunders, Harang and Maurer who started last year in the rotation. Outfield defence will be considerably better with Ackley, Almonte and Saunders as well so I see a plus over last year’s 71 win rotation provided Kuma is not out much past the end of April. Finally nice opportunity for both lefties – one could end up being in the rotation all season so some incentive to pitch well in their 4-8 start trial.
Wolf is throwing better than Harang and Saunders did last year…
Saunders last year was basically the guy we should have expected, if you look at xFIP and realize that, DUH, don’t expect a lot from a flyball lefty if you give him a crappy defense…
http://www.fangraphs.com/statss.aspx?playerid=4366&position=P
Harang wasn’t that bad, either:
http://www.fangraphs.com/statss.aspx?playerid=1451&position=P
The thing is that, yes, a bottom-end starter is much more likely to look pretty awful if you have awful defense. So Harang and Saunders looked terrible, but the defense-independent peripheral stats were what you thought they were going to be. Unfortunately, the 2013 Mariners forgot about the defense.
So… we gave up on those guys because of the crappy ERA and went for the one who hasn’t pitched since 2012, and who, like them, was a mid-4’s FIP/xFIP, and who is even MORE a FB pitcher than Saunders. So clearly this is an improvement as opposed to a lateral move at best because of… reasons.
All righty then.
(Personally I have more faith in Roenis Elias sticking than Veteran Reclamation Project Of The Year.)
Outfield defence will be considerably better with Ackley, Almonte and Saunders as well
None of them is really a CFer. Just sayin’.
Wow, Rangers are seriously driving the bus over a cliff before the season even starts…
Yu Darvish has now been shut down, and scratched from his Opening Day start, and sent to see a neck specialist. All from an injury caused by “sleeping on it wrong”.
So Opening Day currently for the Rangers finds their starting catcher, starting 2nd basemen, and starting pitcher all out… Plus two more starting pitchers out… And their starting SS (Andrus, sore forearm/elbow) and starting LF (Choo – getting injections for pain/inflamation in his elbow) fighting to stay healthy…
The curse of Ian Kinsler?
Well, that’s one way to outrun the bear…
Ooh, KC just DFA’ed Peggy… I wonder if he’ll be heading for Japan?
I know spring training stats don’t matter but I didn’t realize how terrible Scott Baker was doing. Guess it was probably the right move. And I still liked taking a chance on him to see what he could do. It didn’t work out, no big deal.
In other news, Quintero and Endy Chavez aren’t making the team. Looks like Romero will make the team as a result. Someone want to tell me who the backup catcher is? I can’t remember anyone besides Sucre off the top of my head.
Scratch that catcher comment, just remembered Buck haha
No Wolf, so Beaven gets to start? Joy.
BTW since there’s no announcement here…
I was happy to see the first StatCorner podcast (Matthew and Jeff) 0f 2014 show up on my phone this morning!
Apparently Wolf cut himself (ie, asked to be released) instead of signing a 45 day “relief” form that essentially says his $1 million salary still wasn’t guaranteed unless he was still pitching for the M’s in 45 days. The club asked him to sign such a clause. He said “no thank you” (or perhaps something more obscene).
Elias and Beavan it is… Unless we hear shortly that Erik Bedard is a Mariner again. (Stranger things have happened here, like the “relief” form.)
The scary and obvious question about how this team is shaping up:
Who is going to be the Mariner’s #3-#5 starters come August/September when Walker, Paxton, and Elias all run out of innings? Our Wildcard push will be lead by who? Beavan, Noesi, and… uh… Jamie Moyer, making a miracle comeback?
(This is based on a “best case scenario” where Elias actually does well enough they keep him around when Kuma and Walker are back.)
Yeah MrZ that’s going to be a problem. The starting pitching depth is laughable. What about if more injuries happen? (Which is always likely with pitchers). I thought I was done with Beavan and he freaking keeps coming back.
^They still have Maurer, and Noesi could very well pass through waivers.
No reason to sweat at all.
Freddy Garcia! Braves released him yesterday in favor of… wait for it… Aaron Harang.
Circle of life.
And today’s minor league performances by Walker and Pryor show both have a ways to go.
So is Maurer expected back sooner or later?
The Ms pitching situation, both the starting rotation and bullpen, is another front-office debacle.
I hope things work out for Wolf.
I expect Chavez back on the 25-man sooner than later.
hilarious how signing a good Starting Pitcher is the hardest thing for us, and they were so available. “At what cost?” someone responded once….
AT WHATEVER THE HECK THEY WANT!
Can’t keep signing garbage and expecting happy returns. This is a re-run.
“This is a rerun”…
Yo.
Every good piece has to perform as expected. Every penciled in expectation of improvement in what was disappointing last year, has to improve. Anything that might go shaky, has to not go shaky. Zero margin. And that zero margin projects out to about… .480.
Well, at least this year, we can only be pleasantly surprised.
I’m willing, for one. WTF not?
Go M’s…