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?
Game 4, Mariners at Athletics
Hernandez vs Colon, 6:05 pm.
Happy Felix Day!
Sorry I haven’t been around much lately. I’ll be back on Monday.
Figgins, LF
Ackley, 2B
Ichiro, RF
Smoak, 1B
Montero, DH
Seager, 3B
Olivo, C
Saunders, CF
Kawasaki, SS
Source: FanGraphs
Game #3 – Mariners at Athletics
Welcome back to the regular season, which is just like the last time we had regular season games, only more sparsely attended and without quite as much focus on Ichiro.
Oakland’s ace Brandon McCarthy gets the ball, just as he did in the first game in Tokyo. Jason Vargas gets another shot at the A’s, and hopes his bullpen’s a little stingier this time. The A’s have another righty-heavy line-up with Jonny Gomes DHing and batting cleanup, Josh Donaldson at 3B and Kila Ka’aihue at 1B; he only lefty is Josh Reddick.
The M’s counter with seven lefties (man, it’s nice having switch hitters) with Michael Saunders in CF and Seager at 3B.
1: Figgins (LF)
2: Ackley (2B)
3: Ichiro! (RF)
4: Smoak (1B)
5: Montero (DH)
6: Seager (3B)
7: Olivo (C)
8: Saunders (CF)
9: Ryan (SS)
SP: Vargas
GO M’S
James Paxton makes his 2012 debut tonight for Jackson, Jeff Marquez starts for Tacoma. Chris Sorce makes his first start for High Desert and Ambioris Hidalgo’s already a few innings in to his start for Clinton.
Minor League Opening Day Wrap-Up
No, we’re not going to do one of these every day, and no, this site hasn’t become a minor-league focused site, but you can see why fans of bad MLB teams focus attention on the minors. We do it because the organization has been telling us that help is on the way, and that they’re building from the bottom up. We also do it because we all know that the M’s simply haven’t been anywhere near as good as Texas (and now, presumably, LA), and so the minors are something of a respite from the hopeless fight the big club was engaged in the past two seasons.
Beyond the prospect of short-term assistance in the war against irrelevance (the M’s were technically relevant in July, but they felt irrelevant by late May or so), the start of a new minor league season always brings new story lines that may take years to unfold. It was at about this time last year that hardcore fans began to view Taijuan Walker not as a hyper-raw reach pick, but as a very interesting prospect. Of course, last year we were all paying special attention to Johermyn Chavez and Rich Poythress after their solid 2010 seasons, and at this point last year, Nate Tenbrink was perhaps more interesting than either Kyle Seager or Vinnie Catricala. Forrest Snow was an organizational arm, Mike Carp was still a blah 1B, and we had no idea that Detroit had a 3B prospect named Francisco Martinez, nor why we would care if they did. These are essentially anecdotes, and while encouraging, they don’t directly address the fact that the Rangers have better baseball players than we do. But we keep looking, hoping to find a pattern – a sign that something fundamentally different is going on, and that the next core of club-controlled stars are going to wear M’s jerseys.
To the cynic, this is the cruelest fate for the true M’s fan: relegated to scanning minor league boxes, divining evidence that the “Mariners Way” the commercials keep talking about is paying dividends somewhere. To the optimist, it’s the beautiful possibility that the AL West’s next cohort will be pretty evenly matched, or that the M’s have the edge once all of these all-stars in Arlington and Anaheim start declining. There’s plenty of room in the middle, of course, and there’s plenty of joy in seeing the contours of a new, more even division and league emerge. I have no idea who this year’s James Paxton might be, or who this year’s Kyle Seager is, but it’s a hell of a lot of fun to try and find out.
So, opening day for the four full-season clubs was a mixed bag, but I can’t express how cool it is to start looking through the box scores again.
Cameron Hobson had a so-so debut for Clinton, giving up 6 runs thanks to 3 walks and a grand slam in just 3 innings. The top three hitters, Jamal Austin, Guillermo Pimentel and Daniel Paolini went hitless. Jabari Blash tripled and Ramon Morla tried to help everyone forget about his 2011 with a double, a walk and a steal.
High Desert hung on for a 9-7 win over Lancaster in Adelento. SS Brad Miller homered and tripled, John Hicks hit 2 doubles from the DH spot (Jack Marder played C tonight), and Stefen Romero went 4-5 with a double and a homer. Jay’s pick as the breakout player of 2012 isn’t wasting any time.
Jackson cruised to a 3-2 win over Birmingham, as Andrew Carraway stole the spotlight from Paxton/Walker/Hultzen with 6 scoreless innings. He yielded 2 hits and 1 walk and racked up 6 Ks, and while Birmingham’s light on legitimate prospects (as it’s a White Sox affiliate), Carraway’s line is excellent. Rich Poythress had a two-run, two-out double and Nick Franklin was 2-3. Stephen Pryor gave up 2 runs in the 9th, but got the final out.
Tacoma dropped its opener to Salt Lake 3-2. Angels pitching prospect Garrett Richards was extremely tough, with a well-located 94-97 mph fastball, a big breaking curve ball in the 70s and a slider in the 80s. He struck out Trayvon Robinson and Carlos Triunfel (the 1 and 2 hitters) twice, en route to 7 Ks in 7 innings. Mike Wilson homered and Carlos Peguero managed two hits off of Richards, including a triple that probably carried 415 feet on a frigid night in Tacoma. Vinnie Catricala didn’t appear overmatched, but he also didn’t look too comfortable at the plate. The first grounder hit to the left side turned into a grisly run after a bad bounce and a bad throw left the batter on third and a runner scoring from first. Catricala didn’t move well to his left to grab it, and then things went downhill from there. Catricala made a decent play later on (that was dropped by the 1B), so it’s too soon to say much about his defense. Angels uberprospect Mike Trout went 3-5 as the DH, as he’s been nursing a shoulder injury and some sort of virus.
Pictures after the jump:
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Rainiers Opening Day Game Thread
Season Preview below. I’d link to it, but just scroll down – it’s not that hard.
Tacoma is opening up at home tonight against Salt Lake City. First pitch is at 7:20, with pregame festivities beginning at 7:00. Matt Fox will be on the hill for the Rainiers, which isn’t super exciting, but if you go to Cheney, you’ll get to see Vinnie Catricala, Carlos Triunfel, Adam Moore, and some guy named Mike Trout for Salt Lake. Garrett Richards, a good prospect for the Angels, is taking the hill for SLC as well.
If you don’t want to trek down to Tacoma, you can listen to the game or watch it on MILB.tv.
2012 Tacoma Rainiers Preview
Before we get into it, there is one last, less exciting aspect of “who’s going where?” and that is the usual round of releases. The first one in mid-March cleared out thirteen while the second got rid of another ten. A lot of these releases, I was initially pretty surprised by, but then I went to look up the stats from last season and saw that it’s largely the non-performers and guys who saw limited time, but it will remind you of certain things, like how Danny Cruz never lived up to the bonus, how Kasparek’s career stalled, and how McOwen and Shaffer were both interesting fourth outfielder prospects at one time.
And did you know that Colorado Springs has a humidor now? It’s true!
This is the end of this round of graphomania. Thanks to Marc, who let me use some of the pictures he’s taken to help break up the text slightly. I’ll be back not this Monday, but the Monday after to talk about what’s been going on in the first week and a half. For now, enjoy opening day.
2012 Jackson Generals Preview
I’ll say it publically because the rest of you are thinking it anyway: there are going to be many, many days where I would rather watch this team than watch the Mariners. Good lord, it’s like all of our best prospects landed here. This will be either the stuff of legends or the most depressing footnotes you will ever read.
2012 High Desert Mavericks Preview
So what, nine hours later and one response to the previous preview? I feel like I’m throwing these to the wind, like so many batted balls leaving Mavericks Stadium. Segue!
I was looking it up the other day and it surprised me to discover that the Mavericks have been the Mariners’ Cal League affiliate since 2007, which was when Saunders went through. 2007! It’s such a long time! Someone could have entered and completed an entire PhD program in that span! And which of the two collections of data would prove more valuable? Of the hitters and the degree holder, who would have a more inflated sense of self-worth, who would stand a better chance on the job market within the same field? Further jokes! Okay, let’s get on with it.
2012 Clinton Lumberkings Preview
I’m going to hit this one up before I have to run to classes and the rest will trickle in as I get time. Sadly, I have a busy week, and really could have used these rosters two days ago, insert meaningful glares and such.
So there have been some changes for the Lumberkings over the offseason. For example, Alliant Energy Field is now Ashford University Field (naming rights!) and Dave Lezotte bounced for the Gwinnett Braves and so now Chad Seely, formerly of the Daytona Cubs, is the “Voice of the Lumberkings”. He’s originally from Wisconsin, so this gets him closer to home I guess. Also of consideration, since the Lake County Captains shifted to the Midwest League not long ago, is that someone may see fit to combat “Moby Dick”, a $20, fifteen-inch sandwich which features fish filets, cheese, clam strips, French Fries, cole slaw, lettuce, tomatoes, pickles, tartar sauce, and the threat of myocardial infarction. The Lumberkings won’t be visiting Lake County this year, but one of these years, it could happen. Lord help us, it could happen.
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Cactus League Game 27 – Mariners at Rockies (again)
We’ve finally made it to the end of spring training. It’s minor league opening day eve, and there’s another oddball “real” MLB game tonight, ahead of tomorrow’s opening day for most and Friday’s “did we forget anyone?” opening day redux.
The M’s will send Hector Noesi to the hill in what’s actually a fairly interesting game for the presumptive #3 starter. With Charlie Furbush and Erasmo Ramirez in the bullpen (one in Tacoma and one in Seattle). If they lose a starter, it won’t take long for one of them to get stretched out, but you’d think one of the 6th or 7th starters would be…starting somewhere.
The Rainiers roster is finally set after this morning’s moves, and Mike Curto’s got a list of what to watch for here, ahead of tomorrow evening’s opener against Salt Lake.
High Desert kicks off tomorrow as well, and the High Desert Daily Press has a great interview with new manager (and last year’s Minor League Coordinator) Pedro Grifol.
Jackson’s roster’s the one everyone will focus on thanks to the presence of Paxton, Walker, Hultzen and Franklin – but it’s under-the-radar command pitcher Andrew Carraway who’ll get the ball on opening day. According to Chris Harris, it’l be Carraway, then Paxton, then Brandon Maurer, then Hultzen and then Taijuan Walker. That means high-ceiling prospect Carter Capps will start in the pen for Jackson, fresh off his eye-opening inning in a big league game last week. I know a lot of us were eager to see what he could do as a starter, but he could move very quickly as a late-game reliever.
Here’s the line-up for the final game of the second phase of spring training. Yes, yes, it started a while ago. Oops.
1: Figgins (LF)
2: Ackley (2B)
3: Suzuki (RF)
4: Smoak (1B)
5: Seager (3B)
6: Ryan (SS)
7: Saunders (CF)
8: Wells (DH)
9: Jaso (C)
Sp: Noesi