Soriano up; rookies hazed
Chris Snelling has been moved to the 60-day DL; Soriano has been activated and is with the team today in Oakland. Hargrove says there won’t be any other callups until Tacoma’s season and playoffs are over.
In other news, it was rookie hazing day over the weekend. Here are accounts from both the Times and PI. If you feel bad for anyone, it should be JJ Putz — despite the fact that he went through this last year, Eddie Guardado made him to it again.
J.J. Putz, who had a black tank and sparkly hot pants, had been double-crossed — he went through the ritual nonsense last year.
“He helped pick out the stuff,” explained Eddie Guardado. “He’s been here less than a year, and that’s not enough time. So he has to go through it again.”
Atchison arrives; notes abound
The M’s have, as expected, activated RHP Scott Atchison from the disabled list and added him to the active roster. To make room, Jorge Campillo was moved from the 15-day to the 60-day disabled list (Campillo will have Tommy John surgery, but there’s no date set for this yet).
John Hickey speculates that Rafael Soriano will follow on either Monday or Tuesday. Soriano has been going very well for Tacoma, with 11 strikeouts, one walk, and three hits allowed in 5 1/3 innings of work. His total rehab work this season adds up to 16.1 IP, 9 H, 2 ER, 3 BB, and 24 K.
Over in the Times, we hear word that LHP Bobby Madritsch is able to “throw a bit harder“. He’s throwing three days in a row before taking an off day, and it sounds like all is going well in his rehab. Also, RHP Gil Meche and his funny-feeling shoulder will have another throw day off the mound tomorrow.
Eesh, looks like it’s also time for a game thread.
Meche, September callups
Meche was expected to be activated from the 15-day DL (patellar tendinitis, right knee) this week, but he had a setback while throwing. Great quote: “He said his shoulder felt funny.” — Mike Hargrove.
It’s possible Meche’s shoulder has been bugging him for some time now, and it’s also possible he changed his mechanics due to the knee problem and it put some new stress on his shoulder (or some combination of the two). In any event, I would not be surprised at all if he’s done for the year as a precautionary measure.
In the same article, the Times reports that Soriano and Atchison will be up from Tacoma this week. Finnigan speculates others will be Shin-soo Choo, Ramon Santiago (?!) and Rene Rivera. He also says Bucky Jacobsen is likely not among the first wave. The PI, however, says that after Soriano and Atchison, the M’s are likely to leave both Tacoma’s and San Antonio’s untouched through the minor league playoffs.
Finally, Tacoma starter Bobby Livingston posted the following line last night: 7 IP, 3 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 3 BB, 14 K. He’s now 6-2 for the Rainiers with a 4.70 ERA, in what has been an up-and-down stint since being promoted from San Antonio.
Week #23 in Review
Watching this Mariner team fight for a split with the Yankees has some measure of moral victory. Somewhere.
Vital Signs
Wins: 57. Losses: 76. Games out of first place: 18.
For the first time in what feels like years, the Mariners climbed the standings. And by that I mean they are 1/2 game closer to first place than they were this time last week. It’s sumthin’. The Angels were swept by the Devil Rays and dropped 5 straight, and now they’re sharing the division lead with Oakland. Texas, on the other hand, took 3 of 4 from the White Sox, and so now third place stands 7.5 games away. Unless Providence intervenes, the Mariners are on their way for their first back-to-back last place finishes in club history. In 28 years, the Mariners have finished last 7 times (or once every 4 years, just like the Olympics!), but never twice in a row. Maybe Bill Bavasi has some ‘splainin’ to do. Maybe Pat Gillick does, too. They are now 4 games below their projected wins according to third-order wins.
Runs Scored: 588 (12th in the American League). Batting average: .255 (last). On-base percentage: .316 (13th). Slugging percentage: .396 (13th). Home runs: 116 (12th). Bases on balls: 376 (8th). EqA: .249 (11th, tied with White Sox). The American league average is .262/.329/.426. The M’s are well below the league average on all counts.
Runs allowed: 619 (7th). Staff ERA: 4.47 (7th, tied with Yankees). DIPS ERA: 4.73 (13th). Strikeouts: 730 (last). Bases on balls: 426 (11th). Home runs allowed: 152 (11th). Starters ERA: 4.98 (11th). Relievers ERA: 3.43 (5th). Defensive efficiency: 70.4% (4th).
As is usual, the Mariners offense was measly this week. However, their pitching was overpowering, and thus, the Mariners outscored two playoff hopefuls in the White Sox and Yankees 32-24. They were outslugged 12 home runs to only 6, but they did draw more bases on balls 24-23.
Heroes
No Mariner hitter logged 20 or more at bats and had an OPS above .800. So we gotta go with Jose Lopez, who was 4-for-11 (.364/.417/.818) with a pair of doubles, a home run and a walk. Tuesday against the Yankees, Lopez walked to load the bases with no outs in the second inning. In the next inning with one out, he doubled, scoring two runs, making a 5-2 game “a brand new ballgame” at 7-2.
On the one hand, Joel Pineiro made two starts, pitched 12.2 innings, allowed 4 earned runs on 11 hits and 3 walks with 10 strikeouts. On the other, Felix Hernandez made two starts, pitched 15 innings, allowed 5 earned runs on 11 hits and 5 walks while striking out 15. Take out those 4 home runs Felix allowed, and that’s a pretty damn good week for Felix. But home runs really do count.
The Myth of Joel Pineiro
If you’ve been following the team for the last month, I’m certain you’ve heard about the rejuvenated Joel Pineiro. He’s finally getting healthy, he’s changed his delivery, he’s throwing the sharp curve more often, etc… You can even read about it in the P-I this morning. Jon Paul Morosi, who we like and is generally insightful, tosses out this little paragraph in the game recap:
Since (August 1st), however, Pineiro has pitched quite well. Take away his ghastly game in Minnesota on Aug. 21, in which he allowed eight runs and a career-high 13 hits, and he has a 2-1 record and 2.86 ERA since the start of August — which happens to correlate with the point Hernandez arrived and began pitching the day before each of his starts.
He even gives us a new reason for Joel’s resurgence; Felix is in town, so now Joel has someone to challenge himself against. So, we can add that to the list of theories for why Good Joel has returned.
Here’s the problem, though. Good Joel hasn’t returned. People are saying Joel is back. People are wrong.
Here’s a look at what most people remember as Good Pineiro, his 2002 season:
194 IP, 189 H, 24 HR, 54 BB, 136 K, 3.24 ERA
Now, here’s a closer look at 2002 Pineiro’s peripherals:
Walks – 7 percent of batters faced
Strikeouts – 17 percent of batters faced
Home Runs – 11 percent of fly balls allowed left the yard
G/F – 1.28
WHIP – 1.24
Pitches Per Batter Faced – 3.80
Fielding Independant ERA – 4.24
Those numbers aren’t bad, but they’re not spectacular, either.
Now, let’s look at his last six starts, you know, since the hands went up and Felix started pushing him and his stuff started coming back and all that.
41 1/3 IP, 46 H, 4 HR, 7 BB, 24 K, 4.13 ERA
Not a bad line, but not super revealing either. Let’s look closer.
Walks – 4 percent of batters faced
Strikeouts – 14 percent of batters faced
Home Runs- 7.6 percent of fly balls allowed left the yard
G/F – 1.12
WHIP – 1.28
Pitches Per Batter Faced – 3.54
Fielding Indpendant ERA -4.82
Last Six Start Pineiro isn’t even the same pitcher type as 2002 Pineiro. He cut his walkrate almost in half at the expense of his strikeout rate, and more of his flyballs are being caught by the outfielders instead of clearing the wall. Most research shows that isn’t a repeatable skill, though, so don’t get too caught up in believing that because Pineiro has allowed 4 homers when we’d expect him to allow 5 that he’s made some kind of step forward.
So, what we basically have had since August 1st is a strike-throwing machine who lets his defense do almost all of the work. In fact, if you want to compare Last Six Start Pineiro to a Mariner starter, here’s one that works pretty well: 2004 Ryan Franklin. Franklin’s peripherals from last year are pretty darn close to what we’ve seen Pineiro put up in the last 6 starts. And, well, Ryan Franklin wasn’t exactly a good pitcher last year.
Joel Pineiro hasn’t had any kind of revitalization. He has not been reborn, and he’s not on the verge of posting another year with 200 innings and an ERA in the low 3.00 range. If Pineiro continues to throw like we have seen the last six starts, we’ll have a $6 million contact pitcher who will look like he’s pitching well when the balls are getting hit to the fielders and will endure several games like that Minnesota start a few weeks ago. All in all, it’s not a very good pitcher. Joel Pineiro is not a very good pitcher.
Bad Felix
Well, that’s what a bad King Felix start looks like. Ill control, weird pitch selection, hassled by inconsistent umpiring. I don’t particularly care if you want to call a wide or a small strike zone, though I’d like to see someone call the rulebook strike zone once… but if someone puts the same pitch in the same spot three times, it should be called either a ball or a strike each time. Nobody’s happy if down-and-in is randomly a strike.
Anyway, the unhappy totals:
15 ground balls, 2 fly balls. 7 strikeouts, 4 walks, 2 home runs.
Wait.. that’s pretty sweet. Just using game score, which is, of course, imperfect, that’s better than any start made by Pineiro this year. Gil Meche had one better, as did Franklin.
Game score: 50
+1/out
+2/each inning after 4
+1/k
-2/h
-4/ER
-2/unearned run
-1/BB
Kinda dopey but amusing random stat to play with. Anyway, our best pitcher when bad is as good as our bad pitchers at their absolute best.
Prelude to the Conflagration
Whet your appetite for King Felix vs. Randy Johnson with Jim Caple’s ESPN.com preview.
The over-under on game thread comments tonight is 600. I’ll take the over, even if Corco doesn’t show.
Felix Hernandez named PCL Rookie of the Year
The Pacific Coast League’s news item is here.
Hernandez becomes the first pitcher as well as the first player from Tacoma to receive the award.
Congratulations, Felix.
Bloomquist on DL, Lopez up
Willie “the Igniter” Bloomquist was placed on the 15-day DL with a strained left hammy, suffered yesterday while running out what turned out to be an RBI fielder’s choice. 2B of the future Jose Lopez, who was hitting a robust .319/.354/.509 at Tacoma with ~41% XBH, has replaced Bloomquist on the 25-man roster.
Here’s hoping Lopez gets the bulk, if not all, of the playing time the rest of the way (though I’m guessing we’ll see Morse and Betancourt up the middle tonight). Lopez and Betancourt. Betancourt and Lopez. That’s your middle infield of the future, folks. One can pick it and the other can hit it.
Edit: Nope, appears it’s Lopez at 2B, Betancourt at SS, and Morse making his starting LF debut.
Being James Bond
“Once is happenstance. Twice is coincidence. Three times is enemy action.”
If I might borrow the words of James Bond’s nemesis Auric Goldfinger for a moment, let me apply them to Seattle P-I columnist John Levesque’s unhealthy obsession with Willie Bloomquist. The malady manifested itself again today, marking a trifecta of tedious homilies to Seattle’s most famous dirtier of uniforms.
Like a drowning man, Levesque’s going down for the third time signals a point of departure from which there is no return.
For, as the movie villain’s rhetorical flourish suggests, this constitutes “enemy action.” Not against, you, or me, or the blog, but against — you’ll forgive the hyperbole — logic and reason itself.
I argued as much previously, and there’s naught but confirmation in this latest hollow epic of homerism. He plays hard! Yes, but poorly. He plays several positions! Which makes him best suited as a utility player, not a regular. He got a hit in these few situations, which I will enumerate! But very, very few other situations.
People tend to see what they want to see. If you want to prove that a player — any player — should be a regular, you can pick his best performances and write about them ad nauseum.
It’s intellectually dishonest, though, and it serves ill the very readers to whom Levesque is pandering.
Sincerely, this is the last topic I wanted to write on. When accused of Bloomquist-bashing, we’ve replied with affirmations of what we think the man does well — offering bench depth and pinch-running at the league minimum.
Contrary to the scurrilous assertions of Levesque and others, none of us root for Our Man From Port Orchard to fail. As a fan, I root for him to hit a home run in every plate appearance. Is it critics’ fault that we’ve only seen this happen thrice — one for every laudatory Levesque column — in nearly 700 major-league at bats ?
Are we not rooting hard enough? Will Bloomquist struggle and Tinkerbell die if we do not improve our clapping?
The trick is not let your wishes run faster than your neurons can fire. It’s fine to love Willie Bloomquist, whether it be for his hustle, his attitude, or what have you. But have the courage to love him for what he is, not what you want him to be.
Appreciating Bloomquist must involve realism. It must acknowledge that yes, I appreciate this player for the grit and determination shown in the two at-bats I describe in this column, but I also see the ugly results from the other 135 at-bats since he’s been in the lineup every day.
An honest assessment would say hey, I like watching this guy play. That’s true even though he’s started 32 of the last 33 games and shown precious little. With 137 at bats, he’s raked just 34 hits and walked a mere three times, getting on base at a .264 clip. Only seven of those knocks have been for extra bases, none a home run.
True appreciation demands clear sight, and that means seeing what’s there rather than what you wish were there. If one wants to see a starting-caliber player emerging from a slump, though — well, that’s what one is likely to see, with neither fact nor formal logic to say thee nay.
A friend’s high school wrestling coach advised us, as young competitors, thusly: be James Bond, he said.
Bond was never the largest guy in the fight, we were told, nor the strongest. He was the smartest, and the most flexible, using his intellect to adapt to emerging dangers. In life and in the sport, we were told, this is worth emulating. It still is.
James Bond would only let himself be distracted by one pet obsession, and here’s a clue: it wasn’t the plight of a backup major league infielder.
Be honest. Be flexible. Be James Bond, John. Let it go.