Cactus League Game 12, Brewers at Mariners
Blake Beavan vs. Mike Friers, 12:05pm
:Attenborough Voice:
The pride’s fearsome hunting skills take many forms. Armed with a plethora of strategies, each seemingly tailored to the prey, the 2013 Seattle Mariners are truly remarkable predators. Most of their attacks are ambush strikes, or the product of stalking animals like Rangers and Angels. For whatever reason, many prey animals have not yet developed a flight response to the Mariners’ prominent crest or ‘hat’ with its emblematic ‘S’. This may be the result of the Mariners moving into new territories, so local animals have yet to develop a healthy respect for the interlopers. Indeed, surprise or sneak attacks do not play to the Mariners strengths, as several members of the pride are extremely tall and unskilled in crouching for long periods of time. Blake Beavan is one of these, a truly massive specimen who seems to lack the requisite genes for subterfuge.
That’s what makes today’s hunt all the more remarkable. Instead of lying in wait for prey to wander by (and risking exposure when Blake decides to ‘hide’ behind a tiny sapling, or when Carlos Triunfel begins manically laughing at a small bug), they have lured a pack of brewers to the pride’s domain. Unaware of the pride’s taste for flesh as well as ale, the beer distributors have walked into Peoria, undoubtedly drawn by tales of the mountainous giants with an unquenchable thirst for beer – tales spread, no doubt, but some members of the pride. Watching the pride now, one can sense their excitement at the prospect of such a feast. Brendan Ryan is even more energetic than normal, the elder, Raul, taps his foot impatiently, as if he was one of the cubs. Behind the hill, the beer distributors blithely discuss golf, vacations, and sales reports.
:/Attenborough voice:
Today’s line-up:
1: Gutierrez, CF
2: Ackley, 2B
3: Morse, RF
4: Morales, 1B
5: Bay, LF
6: Ibanez, DH
7: Montero, C
8: Catricala, 3B
9: Ryan, SS
Sp: Blake Beavan
Charlie Furbush and Erasmo Ramirez will follow Beavan today.
Game 57, Mariners at Angels
Vargas vs. Santana, 7:05 pm PDT
Gosh, there’s some baseball on today, isn’t there? On the TV and the radio and everything.
RF Ichiro!
2B Ackley
3B Seager
1B Smoak
DH Jaso
LF Carp
C Olivo
CF Saunders
SS Kawasaki
With a right-hander on the mound, the Mariners are going with their lefty-heavy lineup. One might prefer Montero considering he’s had multiple hits in four of his last six games, but Olivo is still around and he hit the dinger yesterday. Let Zunino’s being drafted serve as a reminder that the sun will soon set on the second Miguel Olivo Era.
Smoakamotive won AL Player of the Week. I hope he continues to chug along.
Game 50, Angels at Mariners
Noesi vs. C.J. Wilson, 1:10 pm
Last season, Fangraphs had Noesi at a 1.22 GB/FB ratio in his limited time with the Yankees. If this was something that he was consciously working on, knowing the conditions he was going to be facing in Yankees Stadium, then that was probably a good idea, but it is not representative of his career arc. According to MiLB.com, Noesi never managed a full season with more ground outs than air outs (MiLB.com includes pop ups, etc with their air outs). The closest he got was 0.93 in 2009. The worst he had was his brief stint in the International League last year when he was at 0.67, which is the same mark that he sits at right now (48.7% FB, if you prefer that metric). Given that the Angels have been knocking the ball over the fence a few times in this series, there’s a legitimate concern that this could turn ugly in a hurry. You’d also presume that with such tendencies, the Mariners would really want to bring their “A” outfield out to give themselves as much of a chance as possible.
2B Ackley
CF Figgins
RF Ichiro
DH Montero
1B Smoak
3B Seager
LF Liddi
C Olivo
SS Ryan
Oh. Ohhhhh.
I guess for this game, we’re going to have to hope that C.J. Wilson doesn’t have his good command and that the Mariners are able to draw some walks against him and do a bit of damage. His ERA right now is much lower than his tRA or FIP, so there is a chance for some kind of regression. On the other hand, Mariners.
In rare good news, Guti has been cleared to go down and work out in extended spring training, and will get his rehab assignment sometime after that. Don’t expect anything soon. He didn’t really get spring training the first time around, so this could take a while.
Game 36, Mariners at Yankees
Pettite vs. Millwood, 10 am
It would feel weird to me if I was looking at this and didn’t put a lineup up even if I don’t expect much posting traffic. In short, Pettite was out of baseball for a while, and then he came back fairly recently. The Mariners are sending their left-hander lineup to hit against him and haven’t had good results through three. No one has had a hit! Shouldn’t they have a scouting report on this guy? Unbelievable! But Millwood didn’t allow anything until the bottom of the third either so…. something. I don’t know. I anticipate silly home runs later.
2B Ackley
LF Wells
RF Ichiro!
C Montero
1B Smoak
3B Liddi
DH Carp
CF Saunders
SS Ryan
Happy Mother’s Day to all the moms out there.
Game 22, Mariners at Blue Jays
Morrow vs. Millwood, 1:07 pm
Probably the only thing that I don’t like about baseball’s rigorous schedule is that we don’t get much time to sit around and marvel over how awesome last night’s performance was. We only got seventeen hours or so and then it’s on to more baseball which does not carry with it the promise of similar fulfillment. Baseball, you are such a chore. I have things I should probably be doing and you won’t let up. And day games? Where do you get off? I bet Wedge won’t even let us see Jaso tomorrow.
LF Figgins
2B Ackley
RF Ichiro!
1B Smoak
3B Seager
DH Montero
CF Saunders
C Olivo
SS Ryan
Game 17, White Sox at Mariners
Danks vs. Millwood, 1:10 pm
There was the perfect game yesterday and then Tacoma was one-hit. The report is that the Mariners wanted to go down swinging, but instead they went down check swinging. Technicalities can be kind of a bummer.
I didn’t mind it all that much. With how bad the offenses of recent years have been, it seemed like it was going to happen eventually, and thus an ordinary loss that I would have listened to anyway became a historic event. I probably will think about it now and then, just not too much in the coming weeks. I didn’t really think of Armando Gallaraga much before his almost perfect game and I certainly haven’t thought of him after it outside of that one particular context. Oh look, he’s a free agent. And was with the Diamondbacks last year. When did these things happen? All in all, I would have preferred that this would have happened two years ago before we had promising young players in the offense, but even with the perfecto and offense seemingly down in a lot of places, we’re still on pace to score 567 runs, which is eleven more than last year and fifty-four more than two years ago. Today is another game of baseball.
CF Figgins
2B Ackley
RF Ichiro
DH Montero
1B Liddi
3B Seager
C Olivo
LF Wells
SS Ryan
Game 10, Athletics at Mariners
I’m not sure if Dave or anyone else is going to want to chime in. Last night was a disappointment, in a word, but certain things broke against us and it’s still pretty early. A team like this is going to have days of exciting baseball and days of mediocre baseball. It’s part of the process. Trusting the process eventually might work in Kansas City and elsewhere.
Noesi vs. Milone, 6:10 pm PDT
Today, the M’s are going up against someone they’ve never seen before. Jokes about being utterly dominated as the natural consequence of that. Milone was acquired from the Nationals in the Gio Gonzalez deal. He’s your basic left-handed change-up artist with average or slightly worse velocity and good command of his offerings. He’s unexciting, but he’s also in the major leagues, and his first name is Tomaso, not Thomas. Tomaso Milone sounds like a more exciting pitcher, or maybe the leader of some Cuban-inspired swing band. Last time out, he walked three, allowed three hits, and struck out no one in eight innings. That 100% strand rate has got to break sometime. Why not against the Mariners?
As a result of the match-up, we’re going heavy on right-handers tonight.
CF Figgins
2B Ackley
RF Ichiro!
1B Smoak
C Montero
3B Liddi
DH Olivo
LF Wells
SS Ryan
P Noesi
Off Day Thread, Hultzen’s Minor League Debut
The Mariners have a day off today after playing some meaningful games against the Athletics, but unlike the last time that happened, the team will not be flying back to Arizona to follow it up with a series of less meaningful games. I’m sure this is confusing for a lot of people. While we wait with much anticipation for all of our hopes to be deflated tomorrow, as we become the first team to face Yu Darvish, today there’s a different kind of baseball/hope to pay attention to. Danny Hultzen is making his debut today, right around noon.
LF Daniel Carroll
SS Nick Franklin
3B Francisco Martinez
RF Chih-Hsien Chiang
1B Rich Poythress
DH Joe Dunigan
CF Denny Almonte
C Jesus Sucre
2B Gabriel Noriega
P Danny Hultzen
The Generals, playing the lowly Birmingham Barons (how have they not lost their title already?) have won all three games in the series so far. Paxton struck out ten over five and two-thirds innings with only two hits allowed. That was pretty good.
You can head over to the Jackson site, scroll down on the audio page, and find their “Listen Live” link. There will also be a Gameday available, but it’s not up yet. I’ll add it later?
Cactus League Game 24, Royals at Mariners
Last night’s game sure was a hoot. Some things I took away from erratically listening to the broadcast:
1) People were impressed with Brad Miller’s defense, which leads me to think that they may have fixed his throwing mechanics.
2) Chris Gwynn was talking minor leaguers for a while and mentioned that Guillermo Pimentel had won their “Control the Zone” award, which probably had something to do with the strikezone. This is interesting insofar as I look at Pimentel as being a bit of a hacker and not especially coachable, so, positives?
Larry Stone is reporting that, post-flight, the sick list is growing, with Ackley, Peguero, Saunders, and Sherrill all heading home with some kind of illness. And the regular season starts on Friday! I would hope that everyone’s recovered by then. Speaking of Stone’s work, I believe the season preview is up in the Times today.
LF Figgins
SS Kawasaki
RF Ichiro!
1B Smoak
DH Montero
C Olivo
2B Seager
3B Liddi
CF Wells
P Beavan
This one’s on TV and radio at 1 pm, as will be the next three games. Have at you.
Cactus League Game 23, Padres at Mariners
I think somewhere in the Cactus League rulebook, there’s something that says that in any given game, so as not to disappoint the fans, x number of “starters” must appear so that a sense of decency can be maintained. The Mariners, returning from Japan maddened by fame and sleep deprivation, have decided that the rules no longer apply to them. The Padres will be sending out a split squad, and will find themselves adhering to that starter quota, but oh, what they have in store for them, friends…
CF Denny Almonte
LF Daniel Carroll
SS Brad Miller
1B Rich Poythress
2B Stefen Romero
3B Mario Martinez
DH Joe Dunigan
C Jesus Sucre
RF James Jones
RHP Kevin Millwood
What I like best about this lineup is how the outfielders go in order from right to left as the lineup turns over and how the basemen do the same in the heart of the order. There are some things that make sense in this, like Carroll being a decent on-base presence as the #2 hitter and Poythress, Martinez, and to a lesser extent, Romero possessing some power for the middle of the lineup, but overall it looks like an arbitrary order was imposed without consideration for what might work best.
And we even have reserves! Johan Limonta, Jamal Austin, John Hicks, Mike Dowd, Leury Bonilla, and Scott Savastano could all see time. The bullpen will be Bobby LaFromboise, Brian Sweeney, Carter Capps, Stephen Pryor, and Tyler Burgoon. This is almost entirely meaningless to anyone but me!
Tune in at 6 pm for this particular brand of madness.