Game 21, Mariners at White Sox
Felix! Wooooo!
Dave adds: You know what would have been nice last game? A left-handed bat off the bench. I’m just saying.
Game 20, Mariners at White Sox
Double-header! Woooo! 2:05 our time.
Jakubauskas v Colon in the first, and I’ll probably try to throw a second game thread up later for #21.
Also, read Dave’s post below if you haven’t already.
Assessing Wakamatsu
When you have a rookie manager, your expectations have to be toned down, because what a manager says he’s going to do and what he actually does are often quite different. Wakamatsu said a lot of intelligent stuff during spring training, and he impressed a lot of smart people, and I had hopes that he’d be a pretty good manager, but there was always that nagging feeling of “you never know”.
A few weeks in, and while we still don’t know, we actually have some evidence of what Wak values and what kind of manager he is. And I couldn’t be any happier.
At the end of March, I wrote that the measure of Wakamatsu would be how he handled the Griffey situation. It was an exaggeration, but not a huge one. In seeing how he dealt with a beloved superstar who the fans adored, who simultaneously had an inflated sense of his defensive value, was a pretty big litmus test for what kinds of things Wakamatsu valued. As we wrote about extensively, Griffey could help the team as a DH vs RHP, but would hurt the team in pretty much any other capacity. Whether Wak would be able to convince Griffey of that was going to tell us a lot about him.
He gets two thumbs way up on that so far. Junior played 23 innings in the outfield while Ichiro was on the DL and hasn’t touched a glove since he returned. Despite telling the media that he wanted to play the OF regularly and would only DH once in a while, Junior hasn’t said one peep about his relegation to bat-only player, and has reportedly been nothing short of fantastic in the clubhouse. For those that were afraid Griffey’s return would lead to Ibanez 2.0 in left field, I think those have been chased away.
While the Griffey scenario was the biggest challenge, he’s also proven adept in other areas. His handling of the bullpen has been very good so far, finding the right options for high leverage situations and relegating Batista to a back-up role despite his vast experience lead over the rest of the relief arms. He’s shuffled the line-up depending on opposing pitcher handedness, something the previous managers simply weren’t willing to do. He’s stuck with struggling starters when the team needed innings and managed the workloads without riding anyone excessively hard.
He hasn’t been perfect – the team is bunting too much for my tastes, especially Lopez and Gutierrez, and I’d like to see him be a bit more willing to pinch hit for platoon advantages late in games – but he’s been very, very good. After a short period of reservation when Zduriencik was hired, we all justifiably got excited when he gave us reasons to. I think it’s time to get excited about Wakamatsu as well. It’s hard to think of anyone I’d prefer as manager of this team.
Tacoma’s Playing, Though
Since the M’s are rained out, here’s a game thread for the Rainiers match-up against Colorado Springs. Chris Seddon vs Jason Hirsh, with Jeff Clement playing first base for the first time as a professional.
Game 20, Mariners at White Sox
Game rained out. Double header tomorrow, starting at 2:05 pm pacific time.
5:11 our time. Jakubauskas v Danks.
CF Ichiro
LF Chavez
DH Sweeney
3B Beltre
1B Branyan
2B Lopez
C Johnson
SS Betancourt
CF Gutierrez
I like Wak (and have a post on why I like him scheduled for tomorrow), but I have to wonder what Wladimir Balentien has to do to get off the bench (and I’ve been one of the main Wlad detractors over the years…). He’s hitting .350/.381/.550 through his first 21 plate appearances, and the team isn’t exactly overflowing with power hitters. Balentien has holes in his swing, and he’s not very good defensively, but he can hit a fastball a long way, especially if a left-hander throws it to him.
Given this team’s need for some offense, the obvious Griffey-platoon, Branyan’s stiff back and general weakness against LHPs, the M’s had a nifty chance to run out an RHP-heavy line-up tonight and get Wlad’s long ball power in the line-up. Instead, Danks gets three LH bats in the first five spots in the order, and the right-handed bats are mostly punchless and clumped together at the bottom of the order.
I’m sure Mike Sweeney’s a great guy and Russ Branyan had a great weekend, but I’d rather see Wlad in the line-up tonight than either of them.
Shuffling The Bullpen
Coming out of spring training, the plan for the bullpen was that the arms would begin to sort themselves out at the start of the year, and the team would adjust the roles from there. We’re three weeks into the season, and that appears to be happening. Here’s the current structure:
Morrow has established himself as the closer, despite initial struggles. He’s the best arm in the pen, and in 2009, that means he pitches the 9th inning.
Aardsma has taken over the 8th inning setup/backup closer role. He’s Wak’s #2 guy in the pen right now.
Shawn Kelley has done nothing but impress, and has moved into the high leverage 7th inning role.
Roy Corcoran and Mark Lowe essentially have the same role – middle guy who goes a few innings, depending on which one didn’t pitch the day before. Corcoran started out ahead of Lowe, but has pitched his way into lower leverage situations.
Sean White is the long reliever/low leverage mopup guy until RRS gets healthy, and then will hand that role back to Jakubauskas.
Miguel Batista is the fill-in – he backs up everyone else (except Morrow), and fills whatever role can’t be filled by the normal pitcher for whatever reason.
However, this structure isn’t going to last that much longer. Cesar Jimenez is rehabbing in Tacoma, and the team can only keep him down there for a few more weeks before they have to make a decision on him. Once his rehab assignment expires, they’ll have to put him on the roster or designate him for assignment. He’d almost certainly be claimed on waivers, so he’s got a decent shot at a roster spot. In addition, Tyler Johnson isn’t that far behind him, and barring a setback, we should plan on Johnson and Jimenez both claiming bullpen spots in the next couple of weeks. And then there’s RR-S, who may or may not be back shortly.
How’s this all going to shake out?
White is probably the first guy to go, with one of Jakubauskas/Batista/RR-S taking his job, depending on which of the three lefties comes back first. Corcoran is probably number two on the chopping block. If all three come back and no one else gets hurt in the mean time, the team would have to make a decision on Batista – is he worth keeping around in lieu of a guy like Mark Lowe? Almost certainly not. However, Lowe has options and Batista would have to be DFA’d, so if their performance levels are similar, that could be a tie-breaker.
All of this ignores both Chad Cordero and Josh Fields, both of whom could also factor in at some point this summer.
It’s a crowded bullpen, and the depth gives the team lots of options. It also will force them to make some decisions fairly soon, however.
More interestingly, to me, will be how the 8th inning will shake out. Aardsma has gotten good results through unsustainable processes (walks + flyballs do not equal dominance), so he’s either going to have to throw more strikes or lose his job to Kelley. Personally, I prefer Kelley to Aardsma right now, and I wouldn’t have a problem swapping those two out, but I imagine Wak wants to take it easy on the rookie.
It will be interesting to see how all this sorts out. The bullpen has been a huge part of the team’s 12-7 start, and while they aren’t the highest regarded group out there, there’s enough talent and depth for them to continue to post above average performances. We probably won’t lead the league in bullpen ERA, but I’ve seen enough to think that it won’t be the disaster many were expecting.
New WSJ Piece(s)
My latest Wall Street Journal article was published today, and this one is actually relevant to the M’s upcoming series. As mentioned in the piece, the White Sox have yet to throw out a base stealer this year. Opponents are 18 for 18 against them. They were last in the AL in CS% last year as well. The M’s should run like mad men in this series. Ichiro, Chavez, and Gutierrez should be heading for second base practically every time they get on.
I’ve also begun contributing shorter pieces to WSJ’s “Heard On The Field” section, which encompasses little nuggets from various sports. Today’s section includes a quick bit on Zach Greinke’s current run of near perfection.
Minor League Wrap (4/20-26/09)
This week’s rundown will be a bit abbreviated, by my standards at least, as I just haven’t had the time to commit to it after a rather eventful week. Consequently, I had to cut out the quotes, happenings, and ground/fly ratios. They may be back again for next Monday, but it’s hard to tell at this point. Everything else is as it’s been before.
In the meantime, if you’re truly starved for more, I recommend an impressive Baseball America article by Matt Eddy that scouts the Mavericks pitching staff and the kind of things they’ve been doing to avoid the notorious effects of their home park.
To the jump!
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Game 19, Mariners at Angels
12:35 our time, FSNW.
Jarrod Washburn v Jered Weaver. Hmm.
The M’s supply Washburn with the outfield defense o’ delight.
RF-L Ichiro!
LF-L Chavez
DH-L Griffey
3B-R Beltre
1B-L Branyan
2B-R Lopez
SS-R Betancourt
C-R Burke
CF-R Gutierrez
Get on the Bus Bandwagon, folks! Sweep! Sweep! Sweep!
Silva, pitching machine
Generated off the Brooks Baseball tool
Carlos Silva again had two pitches. Neither of them had much sink to them.
Here’s Vertical Movement Against Speed.
Nothing drops at all, and those fastballs are coming in at 89 over and over.
And here’s how much movement he’s getting on his pitches in both directions: horizontal movement against vertical movement.
Smear of that mediocre, not-moving-even-if-you-call-it-a-sinker fastball up, and nine other pitches.
This was the same start he’s given the M’s all season. I’m sure we’ll see some kind of celebration because he would up with a “W” next to his name, but opposing teams are going to catch onto this really quick.