Will The M’s Miss Yuni?
Last night, Yuniesky Betancourt pulled a hamstring, and Wak said after the game that there’s a strong chance he’ll land on the disabled list. Given how bad Yuni has been this year, both offensively and defensively, this looks to be an addition by subtraction thing. With a .270 wOBA and -8.6 UZR, Yuni has been worth almost a win less than a replacement level shortstop, so the M’s should actually hope for better production from Josh Wilson/Ronny Cedeno than they got from Yuni the first couple of months.
However, as much as we’ve bashed Betancourt for his reverse development, regressing every year since he got to the majors, over the last few weeks, it looked like Wak might have actually been getting through to the guy. There have been multiple plays recently where I found myself shocked that Yuni got to the ball – grounders up the middle, balls in the hole, slow rollers that he’s had to charge. He’s made plays defensively that he simply wasn’t even getting close to in April and May. I’m sure I’m not the only one who has spent the last few weeks saying “ahh, crap, base hi – wow, Yuni, where’d that come from?”
UZR agrees with my shocked eyes, too. After the May 24th update on FanGraphs, Yuni’s UZR stood at -9.1, on pace for a -30 season and easily the worst mark of any shortstop in baseball. A month later, he stands at -8.6. Yes, UZR is prone to noise in small samples, but it’s heartening that the best defensive metric we have thinks that he’s been making more plays at the same time we’re watching him and saying “hey, he didn’t make that play a month ago”.
It’s not just on defense, either. After swinging at nearly 40% of pitches outside the strikezone the first two months, he’s only chased 26% out of the strike zone this month. Yes, it’s small sample size, but after getting benched and lectured repeatedly about his lousy approach at the plate, an improvement in his decision making about which pitches to swing at shouldn’t be ignored. The results haven’t been what you’d hope for, but the process is more important than the results, and if Yuni’s process at the plate is taking steps forward at the same time that he’s putting a little more effort into his defensive play, well, that’s reason for optimism.
So, amazingly enough, I’m not convinced that Yuni to the DL is a good thing. Two months ago, it would have been a pretty big help, but I’d have been interested in seeing if he could keep showing improved range and discipline at the plate. Instead, now we get to watch Cedeno and Wilson fight over who can make more outs.
I can’t believe I’m saying this, but hurry back Yuni.
Game 71, Padres at Mariners
Morrow, still up, still in the rotation.
USSM Goes To Safeco Reminder
A few weeks ago, we told you about our next USSM event, which is going to be held at Safeco Field on Saturday, August 8th, prior to the Mariners-Rays game that night. The response has been tremendous, as we’re closing in on 200 tickets sold, which leaves about 100 spots left. Given how good the response has been, I’ll be shocked if we don’t sell out, so if you’re planning on attending, I’d suggest buying your tickets sooner than later.
For those that missed the original announcement, here’s the description of the event.
Saturday, August 8th, 5 pm, Safeco Field. We have reserved 300 seats in sections 321/323 for a USSM group outing to Safeco Field for the Mariners-Rays game that evening. In addition, when you purchase a ticket to join our group for the game, you’re also invited to join us for a pre-game Q&A with the Mariners front office and your local blogging community (Derek, myself, Jeff Sullivan, Matthew Carruth, and Graham MacAree will all be there). One week after the trade deadline, the guys who run the baseball club will be spending a good portion of time talking to us and answering your questions. After that, we’ll all head upstairs and watch the game together.
The total cost for the event, including your ticket to the game, is $25. This is, quite frankly, a steal. You get to watch the M’s play the defending American League champs and get a chance to talk to the decision makers of the ballclub for the price of a normal ticket. We’re happy to partner with the Mariners to provide this opportunity for you guys.
To buy tickets to the game/event, go here and follow these instructions:
2. Select “Find Tickets†then enter USSMARINER as your promo code and click “Verify†(ignore the “e-mail address†option).
3. You will need to use the “Create an Account†option on the right side of the following page. This is a Seattle Mariners Group Account (NOT a Ticketmaster account) and will consist of your e-mail address and a unique password that will enable you to order tickets for future Mariners events. Note: If you have previously purchased through this system and already have an account created, please proceed with your existing account information.
4. You will be able to locate your seating, purchase your tickets, and print your tickets instantly- all from your home or office computer!
5. Join us for a pre-game event from 5:15-6:45pm in the Ellis Pavilion! Please enter through the door along 1st Avenue located next to the Third Base Entry. Entry into this pre-game event is limited so purchase your tickets early!
6. To order more than 25 tickets or if you require wheelchair seating, please call Yoko McCann at (206) 346-4505
Your tickets will have a special marking on them which will allow you entrance to the pregame Q&A. The room where we’re having the pregame Q&A can only hold 300 chairs, so we’re going to have to restrict entrance to the Q&A to people who have purchased tickets through our group event. If you’re a season ticket holder and already have tickets for that game, my advice would be to sell them and just buy a ticket to come hang out with us. We’ll be more fun, even if your seat might not be as good.
Once you’ve purchased a ticket for the event, you’re almost done. In order to be able to communicate with everyone and keep a firm head count for the chair setup, we’re going to ask that you fill out the form below with your name and email address for each person you buy a ticket for. If you’re bringing someone but don’t know who yet, just add a “Your Name’s Guest” entry, so that we can know that your contact information accounts for more than one person. If you’re bringing multiple unknown guests, just number them “Your Name’s Guest 1”, “Your Name’s Guest 2”, etc…
Finally, when you’ve done that, and you have a ticket in hand and have let us know you’re coming, we’d like to ask you to consider potentially kicking in a few dollars via paypal to help cover our costs for the event. When we have done these in the past, we added our overhead into the cost of the event, but since we’re having you pay through ticketmaster this time, that’s not an option. I’m forking out a decent amount of cash to fly out to Seattle, and Derek, Jeff, Matthew, Graham, and myself are all paying our way into the event just like the rest of you. If you feel like you want to send $5 our way to help defray some of our costs for this, that’d be great. We love hosting events like this, and we think you enjoy them too, so it will be easier for us to keep doing them if we don’t go in the red in order to pull them off.
So, that’s the USSM event in August. Pregame Q&A with the M’s front office and a ticket to watch to the M’s-Rays game with 300 other USSM readers for $25, plus suggested $5 donation to help offset our costs, and don’t forget to fill out the form so that know how many to plan for and can communicate with you guys if need be.
See you all in August!
Game 70, Padres at Mariners
Gaudin v Olson. Didn’t we just see this game? There’s the wonder of interleague play for you.
Condolences to the Lopez family
As Geoff Baker reports, Jose Lopez was not able to reach Venezuela before his sister died. Unlike with his brother’s tragic motorcycle accident, he was at least able to attend her funeral. To lose two siblings, both so early in life, must be incredibly heartbreaking for the entire family. And in the case of Lopez, who should return in the next day or two, the kind of travel challenges these situations present highlight just how far away Latin American players are from the support network most of us take for granted, and why the cultural hurdles they deal with should not be discounted.
The ’09 Pulaski Mariners, In Brief
The last of the Mariners affiliates, the Pulaski Mariners, will start up in a few minutes. The latest roster for them can be found here. Dave will likely chime in with some details as the season goes on, as they play some games in his neck of the woods, but here are a few brief bullet points on what to expect from them.
Aardsma
My noon post over at FanGraphs is about David Aardsma. If you don’t want to follow the link, I made the same argument over there that I did when we acquired him – that we shouldn’t be surprised that he’s pitching well, since he was a pretty good reliever before he got hurt last year.
However, I wanted to expand on Aardsma a bit here. He was a pretty decent reliever for the M’s in April and May, limiting the long ball and getting enough strikeouts to minimize the walk problem. But man, he’s been something else in June.
8 IP, 4 H, 0 R, 2 BB, 15 K.
He’s faced 28 batters this month and struck out more than half of them. He’s just blowing people away lately. This hasn’t been his high-wire act, where he throws a bunch of pitches out of the zone and tries to get hitters to chase them. He’s just throwing fastballs in the strike zone and hitters can’t catch up to it. For the last couple of weeks, he’s been a true relief ace.
Will he keep pitching this well? Probably not. His command is still poor, and it’s almost impossible to get by on one pitch for too long. He’s not a Joe Nathan/Mariano Rivera/Jonathan Broxton shut down reliever where we can expect him to keep doing this all year. But, he’s got the ability to be that kind of shut down guy in stretches. He doesn’t have the command to do it consistently, but when David Aardsma is throwing strikes, he’s lights out.
For all the talk about how great of a pickup Russ Branyan was (and it’s all true), Jack deserves a bunch of credit for picking up Aardsma and being willing to go into the season with a bullpen that the media was convinced was going to be terrible. Once again, more evidence that bullpens can be developed for nothing, and good teams don’t spend assets to acquire veteran relievers. Talent > Experience. The Mariners have spent the smallest percentage of their payroll on the bullpen of any team in baseball, and being able to get quality work out of guys like Aardsma is why that works.
Aquasox Game Thread
With no game for the Mariners or the Rainiers, let me direct you to the Aquasox home page and suggest you listen to Pat Dillon call Everett’s game against Vancouver. Luke Burnett, all 6’8/240 of him, takes the mound against Vancouver at 7:05 pm. The Aquasox have their home opener tomorrow, so you can listen to tonight’s game to get a head start on the roster before you head up to Everett tomorrow night.
Ryan Langerhans
With Endy Chavez’s season cut short and the team deciding that Michael Saunders could use some more time in Triple-A, the M’s are down an outfielder. Wlad will get the chance to play regularly, but the team can’t seriously go forward with Ronny Cedeno or Chris Woodward as the 4th OF. The team needs a legitimate outfielder on the bench to give the team a major league player to stick in the line-up if someone needs a day off or has to leave a game early. Given the construction of the team, it would really help if that outfielder was left-handed and could get on base a little bit. With the team’s success being heavily dependent on quality defense from the outfield, it would also be nice if that left-handed hitting outfielder had some range. And, with Saunders potentially being ready in the not-too-distant future, that guy shouldn’t cost a lot to acquire, since he might be a very short term fill-in.
Where would you find a left-handed hitting, quality defensive outfielder with decent OBP skills who won’t cost much to acquire? In Syracuse, New York, going by the name Ryan Langerhans. He’s about 49th on the Washington Nationals depth chart, and has basically no hope of getting any playing time in D.C. this year. That is despite the fact that he posted a .353 wOBA for the Nationals in 139 plate appearances last year while playing outstanding defense for them in RF/LF. He was worth 0.8 wins in about 20% of a season, and yet, because MLB is still so tied up in batting average (Langerhans hit .234), he couldn’t land a major league job this winter.
He’s absolutely perfect for what the M’s need. His preseason ZIPS projection had him as a .239/.341/.375 hitter, which would make him about the fourth best hitter on the M’s right now. ZIPS doesn’t know that he’s gone down to Triple-A and started whacking the baseball this year, hitting .279/.383/.508 and showing the best power of his career. He’s drawn 30 walks and has 23 extra base hits in 216 plate appearances for Syracuse, and those secondary skills combined with his range in the outfield make him a very useful role player.
It’s not like he’s some minor league wonder who can’t hit major league pitching. His career line in the big leagues is .233/.335/.378, and that’s dragged down by a disastrous ’07 season. In 2005, 2006, and 2008, he’s been a solid average-ish hitter, and his defensive numbers are terrific (career +27.2 UZR in 2,000 innings in LF/RF), which match up with all the scouting reports about his athletic ability.
Even with the miserable ’07 included, Langerhans has been about a +1 to +1.5 win player per 150 games over the course of his major league career. His minor league numbers suggest he could be even better than that. We’re talking about a legitimate, quality outfielder, with the exact skillset the M’s need right now. And he’d cost as little as anyone on earth to acquire – the M’s could give the Nationals free tickets to the aquarium or a neat picture of the Space Needle or something, and voila, quality fourth outfielder with left-handed stick, good plate discipline, and good defense could be theirs.
Ryan Langerhans please.
Minor League Roundtable #2
It’s been too long, but we’re finally ready to post our second minor league roundtable discussion between Jay Yencich, Marc W, and myself. We started off with a conversation about Joe Dunigan in early May, but then got side-tracked by the draft, so we finished it off last week talking about Aaron Pribanic, Doug Fister, and Tyson Gillies. Hope you enjoy.