Game 40, Angels at Mariners
Felix Dayyyy!!!! Palmer v Felix. Hopefully Felix read Dave’s article. Or someone read it and told him about it. Or read it and told one of the coaches.
7:10.
M’s Sign Brad Nelson
Over the last year or so, I lobbied for the M’s to acquire Brad Nelson. Several times, in fact.
Well, today, the M’s signed Nelson to a minor league contract. He was DFA’d by the Brewers after starting the season 0-21 with 9 strikeouts – the Brewers wanted to give his roster spot to top prospect Mat Gamel, and Nelson didn’t have much of a future in Milwaukee with Prince Fielder around. He cleared waivers, declined his assignment to Triple-A and became a free agent. He reunites with Jack Zduriencik, the guy who originally drafted him, and has latched on to a team that could use some left-handed power.
The only problem is where on earth is he going to play. Tacoma currently has Clement, Carp, Shelton, and LaHair on the roster – Shelton is playing third base and LaHair is playing the outfield in order to get everyone in the line-up. I guess they could stick Nelson out in the outfield as well, with Saunders sliding over to center field, but that’s not really an ideal solution. There’s no easy way to find playing time for five 1B/DH types in Triple-A at the same time.
Simultaneously, Russell Branyan is making the M’s look like geniuses for giving him a full time job, so unless he’s traded before the deadline, first base isn’t really an open position on the team. Yea, there might be some DH at-bats available if Junior doesn’t find his power stroke again soon, but Clement’s probably first in line for those.
I like Brad Nelson, and I think he’s still got a shot at being a pretty useful major league player. I’m just not sure that the M’s were the best fit for him.
Branyan boast
I believe the last time a Mariner had 10 home runs by mid-May was Sexson’s 2005 when he got to ten on May 13th.
Game 39, Angels at Mariners
I’m just glad the Red Sox are gone. Anyway! It’s Lackey vs. New Improved Wasburn, who already faced the Angels twice and didn’t look all that new or improved, frankly.
Lackey… well, this will be Lackey’s first real start because of that getting-tossed thing. That’s kind of a weird situation for the team, right? All the pitchers are on set day-by-day routines, and suddenly there’s a starter worth putting out there a day off his schedule. Meanwhile, getting tossed so early hoses your bullpen plans… I’m hoping it all ends up working out for the M’s, obviously.
And if he plunks Ichiro! on two pitches, all rules of civilized conduct are nullified.
On the Wilson not rumor rumor
Sure, it’s titled “Improving Mariners looking to trade Yuniesky Betancourt to the Pirates for Jack Wilson?” but it’s a lot like when one of those tech rumor sites runs “Google in talks to buy Alaska Airlines?”
Or, to quote the article:
Will this deal happen? Don’t know. But it makes sense on many levels and I’m told it’s been discussed.
Been discussed as “internal discussions about trading Yuni” “internal discussions about trading Yuni for Wilson” “preliminary discussions about what it would take to get Wilson” “heated discussions about what else would need to be included in a Yuni-Wilson trade”?
Unclear. And until that’s clear, it’s not fair to say this is a trade rumor. As he says, it’s Baker’s analysis of why the deal would make sense plus that little “discussions” teaser.
If/when this becomes more substantive, we’ll opine in depth, I promise.
The Problem With The Right-Handed Line-Up
As you’ve heard me talk about incessantly since the season started, the Mariners line-up is too right-handed. With Wladimir Balentien replacing Endy Chavez as the regular left fielder, the M’s normal line-up now includes six right handed bats (Beltre, Lopez, Betancourt, Johjima/Johnson, Gutierrez, and Balentien) and three left-handed bats (Ichiro, Griffey, and Branyan). Exacerbating the problem is that the six RH bats are very similar types of hitters. Gutierrez is the only one who won’t actively get himself out chasing pitches out of the strike zone, and all of them prefer to pull the ball when hitting for power. There are no Edgar Martinez’s in that group – it’s a bunch of aggressive bats who can hit something straight but struggle with pitches that move.
Not surprisingly, the M’s offense goes to sleep pretty much any time the opposing team throws a right-handed starter. The quality level hasn’t mattered – whether it was Jered Weaver, Josh Beckett, Scott Feldman, Bartolo Colon, Vicente Padilla, Shane Loux, Trevor Cahill, Nick Blackburn.. they all look like aces against the M’s.
But why?
To answer that question, I’ve turned to Dave Allen, one of the newest and best Pitch F/x analysts out there today. He’s doing yeoman’s work over at The Baseball Analysts, helping take Pitch F/x analysis to another level. I asked Dave to use the Pitch F/x data to help reveal some of the issues that the M’s line-up currently has against RHPs. We also get into the pitching of Felix and Shawn Kelley. The transcript of our conversation is below.
Minor League Wrap (5/11-17/09)
No intro this week… I was up a bit late working on this, and probably won’t be in to answer questions until late either. This is perhaps a good thing, as you miss any possible references I could make to “statement games”.
To the jump!
Read more
Quick!
Was this a statement game? Why or why not?
Game 37, Red Sox at Mariners
Beckett v Olson. 7:10.
As much as I’m an M’s fan, it’s going to take a lot to produce a better moment than John Lackey getting tossed in two pitches. That’s just cool. Interestingly, the Sox-M’s game wasn’t the longest odds of the day in Vegas: you could get that for the Mets over SF, NY over the Twins, and Tampa over Cleveland (Twins… value bet?).
Anyway, my point: sure, Olson got called up just over a week ago. But last night the M’s squeaked out a game they didn’t have much business winning. No reason they couldn’t do it again. Hopefully it won’t involve getting Ichiro! plunked.
Two things
Ichiro hits two home runs in a game. Yuniesky Betancourt draws two walks in a game. From this, we must obviously conclude two things:
1) We should discuss trading Ichiro more often
2) Betancourt should be benched more often