Game 77, Mariners Sort Of At Marlins Again
Dave · June 25, 2011 at 5:33 pm · Filed Under Mariners
Vargas vs Volstad, 7:10 pm.
I wonder how often two pitchers with a last name starting with the letter v have faced off? I’d bet Jayson Stark tells us later this week.
Jason Vargas can actually hit, by the way. Don’t be surprised if he gets some good hacks in tonight.
Ichiro, RF
Ryan, SS
Kennedy, 3B
Smoak, 1B
Olivo, C
Ackley, 2B
Peguero, LF
Gutierrez, CF
Vargas, P
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Poor Peggy–
Nobody loves him, even when he hits a homer, which is the ONLY hit with a no hitter going, and then makes a beautiful throw to nail one of the fastest guys in the league, trying to take 3rd.
Neither Carp nor Halman can do either of those things as easily.
Trust me, we want to love him. His game is one that only a mother can love at this point. Flashes only last for so long and he doesn’t have enough of them yet. He could. He might. It’s possible. Here’s to hoping. But, his game needs work. A lot of work.
Reverse mojo opportunities are still in play, mind you.
Actually Halman has great power and is a better athlete
Re: Peguero
About time one of our so-called HITTERS broke up a no-hit bid.
I mean, man, the pitchers have been showing the position players up. 😛
Volstad helps himself out.
When Carlos Peguero can plausibly be defended as an asset to your offense you have an offense that isn’t worth sour owl shit.
Is there sweet owl shit?
Okay, here’s a supposition of WHY Wedge (and the Mariners) are complete idiots, and don’t know how to see Major League talent with their own two eyes (“What the hell is wrong with them!”)… Or, why he likes to run Peguero out there…
If the bottom half of your batting order is borderline awful, meaning, the chance of stringing 3 hits together to push across a run at that end of the lineup is pretty small…
Then why not run the guy out there who has the highest homeruns per at bat ratio on the team?
1 hit equals 1 run… At a rate of roughly 1 every 5 games he plays.
Peguero is hitting a homer at roughly 1 in 17 at bats… (Justin is 1 in 21, last I looked)… He comes up usually right after the better half of the lineup is up– so the chance of anyone being on base is better there, making the runs he does score be slightly more valuable than the “hope we get three singles” guys, who hope to score only 1 run.
Sure he strikes out a lot, and breaks some bats, but it’s not really a worse result than a single and then getting stranded there (assuming Carp or Halman could do that at a high clip, in his place). He has the best chance of the 3 to drive in the most runs. And any replacement for him would spend most of their time being left on base, even if they batted .275+ (ie, top of the stats for this team).
It’s not an awful decision to make… It’s just an awful thing to watch, during the other 14-16 at bats between homeruns.
I’m not SAYING this is the thought process, just trying to find ANY thought process that makes it seem reasonable…
Afterall, how can you say management is an idiot about Peguero, and judging talent, when it’s the same folks who found Pineda, Ackley, Hultzen (he of the 8 strikeouts out of 9 outs yesterday), etc.
And maybe, just MAYBE, they’re GOOD at judging talent? Evidence, you say? Well, Carp and Halman aren’t playing as much– and guess what, those two have ALREADY had their days at the majors and didn’t seize the opportunity… Meaning, they aren’t playing much because this organization doesn’t think they’re the top talent some of you guys do– and they’ve shown JUST THAT, in their previous days in Seattle.
The jury is still out on Peguero (unless you hang out at USS Mariner). He could (or most likely WILL) end up in the same boat. But they’re gonna give him the at bats to sink himself, or to cross the channel– it’s up to him (just like it was with Saunders, before him, and Carp and Halman in their previous stints).
Hate on him when he’s being awful– that’s perfectly reasonable. But when the kid does well, at least have the kahunas to compliment the results when they help us…
And be prepared to be wrong, it can be a wonderful thing in instances like this one. (AGAIN- NOT SAYING HE’S GONNA FIGURE THIS WHOLE THING OUT– but I’d rather encourage a guy with a skill lacking on this team, who’s trying to get better, than spend WAY TO MUCH TIME liking a guy like Saunders, and giving him WAY TOO much time, instead.
(Peggy lines one on cue– nice hit, kid)
PINCH HIT PLEASE
Tonight will keep Peguero in the lineup for another month. Sigh.
no figginssssssssss
I thought they were pinch hitting for Figgins for a moment. DP, here we come.
Yep, we do. It’s true. (Good assessment puppyfoot)
Mike Carp???
Hey Figgins did something
Smoak!!
SMOAK!
(And like I said before– couple times– my preference is to find a legitimate Left Fielder/Hitter and send both Carp and Peggy back to Tacoma… With Halman as a pinchrunning/hitting 4th OF.)
Come on Ichiro!!!
*sigh* And Ichiro does what he’s done all season.
EDIT: He has not been typical Ichiro. I wonder if he still feels the desire to play the game. Much the same for Figgins.
MarinerFanMike-
There was a story that he’s playing with a minor injury currently– I think it’ss a muscle strain? Happened right after his hot streak of multi multi-hit games. (Sigh) He’s just having an off year… 1 every 11 years is probably okay (ie, hope it’s not the beginning of his decline– but even so, he’ll still be an above replacement level player for a few more years, I’d hope).
For a second there I thought that girl was gonna flash the camera..
Okay-
QUICK! Trade Jamey Wright before his next inning.
(I kid– nice inning Jamey)
I think it is ridiculous the way this organization bows down to Ichiro…he is NO leadoff hitter! Why do you only take TWO PITCHES with the BASES LOADED!!!! Something needs to change this year. Somebody’s gotta grow a pair and move Ichi somewhere else…
What is Ichiros WAR this year, it really can’t be much higher than 0. This is just an awful awful season for him. OBP of 319???? pathetic…
Ichiro is minus 0.4 WAR so far this year (plus 0.7 oWAR and minus 1.1 dWAR.
Robin Hood–
Yep, awful year– but NOT a leadoff hitter? His job is to get on base, and score runs… He averages 200 hits a year, and 39 stolen bases… And until last year, he scored 100+ runs every season in the league (“thank you, 2010 Mariner offense”, he says).
That’s pretty “lead-off-y” in most people’s books.
I just wish, for his sake, he was playing better. And our sake too. (Ooh, Sake sounds good right about now).
MrZ-
I think he has done a great job as a leadoff hitter, but this year, just plain AWFUL! I don’t understand why he can’t be moved. Remember when Figgins batted leadoff a couple weeks ago and had 2 hits? I just wonder what could be…
Yeah, the reason for Figgins being so awful is that he isn’t the first Mariner to the plate in every game.
Let’s do this, 2 runs easy as pie.
No excuse to make a guy with an ERA over 5 look like Cy Young!!! Why can’t we hit when Texas loses?????
Aye rough one. Need some clutch hits to make this season work. Still think we got a hella good team. Just need a bat or two.
Is this a rumor or actual truth? Source if truth please.
OK, so it was 2:08 and not a CG.
When we get back to playing AL ball, I am hoping we get a Halman/Carp platoon with Squatch at DH. I think he needs to be in Tacoma too to work on pitch selection, but that is not happening so DH him. Once Halman or Carp shows who is doing better give them more playing time until one becomes the starter. I would prefer Halman, but those two need to show who deserves it. I think Mr Z’s thoughs on Squatch are right, he has the most chance to drive in runs.
I am a little confused as to why Halman isn’t getting more plaing time. Of the 3 he is the best fielder, and athlete. I would love to see him catch on fire and become a real major league player. It would be great if we go into the off season we don’t have to get a LF. If we can focus on C, 3rd, and DH it would be great. I am not sure that is what will happen, but it would be nice. Not real sure if Halman will ever be a ML player, but one can hope. Squatch is in the same boat. Not sure if he benefits from being up here or would be better in Tacoma. That is another question, if we were not a couple games out of 1st would Squatch benefit from being here, or more in Tacoms?
He’s a RH hitter.
eed some clutch hits to make this season work. Still think we got a hella good team. Just need a bat or two.
You can’t have a good team if you’re short a bat or two. A good team has enough hitting. This team does not.
That is another question, if we were not a couple games out of 1st would Squatch benefit from being here, or more in Tacoms?
The Mariners would benefit more by playing the better players on their team (or acquiring better players), and sending Peguero down to Tacoma until he definitively says “I am ready to hit in MLB” with his statistics.
A .282/.345/.456 line in AAA is not that line, especially after seeing what we’ve seen the past few weeks. You know what Michael Saunders’ career line is in AAA? .277/.356/.447. Is anyone crusading for him to be playing right now? No? So given that, and given what we’ve seen so far, why should you think Peguero belongs in a Mariners uniform?
So, our problem is that we don’t have even a second division OF starter? Seager projects to be a second division 2b starter (or maybe the reserve player asset the FO wishcasted Bloomquist to be).
Maybe there’s a blocked OF prospect of similar level out there somewhere…
I have a name out of left field (literally) for consideration to our OF problem.
A guy in Kansas City’s system by the name of Lorenzo Cain.
He’s a 6’2″ righthanded hitter, batted .306 in 43 games with the Royals in 2010. His OBP/SLG/OPS is pretty good, nothing spectacular..but he has stolen 7 bases in 8 tries, has the reputation as a guy who can steal a base when you need it.
His minor league numbers look good this year. As near as I can tell, the only reason he’s in Omaha is because there’s a lot of outfield options currently on the KC roster.
He’s a centerfielder by trade, but to me that means he could handle the vast expanse of our left field territory.
And he wouldn’t cost an arm and two legs in a trade. He might be able to be had for cash.
I think we have to start looking at guys who are blocked in AAA levels to alleviate our LF problem, there’s a few guys out there who need just a chance and a change of scenery.
We’re not in position to dip into the minor leagues and get proven-but-costly offensive help. Let’s roll the dice at the five-dollar craps table.
I agree. If the Mariners would have left Peguero in AAA like they did with Aclkey he would probably have a better line than he did. I mean he only had 113 PA in AAA ball where Ackley had 568. Thats a lot more seasoning to be had.
Obviously Wedge sees something in Peguero else he wouldn’t be getting playing time (see: Saunders). And I seriously doubt Peguero is sweet talking his way to playing time. //shrug//
Several analysts are now saying Seager projects as an above-average major league 2B.
If Seager’s that good, that would be great. He may still be a more valuable trading chit for us, given that he’s probably blocked.
I have a friend that is a KC season ticket holder and very knowledgable on the farm system. I will ask him about Cain and see if he might be available and worth a trade.
That’d be awesome, Auggeydog. I have some friends in the KC area, but none of them are baseball aficionados or connected to the game. So my in-depth info on Royal farmhands is almost non-existent, entirely reliant on online reports.