Game 74, Mariners at Angels
Taijuan Walker vs. Matt Shoemaker, 7:05pm
Tonight, we’ve got an intra-divisional battle between two righties who rely on a splitter, and the start of a 9 game road trip down the west coast. I’d say that it’s a crucial one, but I think the series that meant the most to the M’s playoff odds have already happened. Nothing’s set in stone, and I’d love to see a miracle run only because more people would be amazed by Edgar Martinez, but the M’s need to go on a long run just to get to the point where going on a run might become meaningful as opposed to cosmetic. The M’s open this homestand in last place in the West thanks to the streaking A’s victory over Texas. The M’s may well catch the Rangers in the second half, and it’s not out of the realm of possibility that they reel in the Angels, too. But going into tonight’s game, the A’s run differential is nearly 100 runs better than the Mariners’.
That just means we can do what we’re so accustomed to doing, and scan each game for signs of improvement and development. Taijuan Walker’s been a joy to watch for the past month – he’s in the zone more often, and he’s missing more bats despite of it. As we’ve talked about before, he’s using the bottom of the zone more with his fastball, and he seems to have improved his deception a bit, as hitters aren’t sitting on his split like they know it’s coming – through his start in Toronto, batters whiffed on 1/4 of their swings on splitters. Since then, they’re missing on about 40% of such swings. His improved command of it means he can now use it as a putaway pitch to *right*handers, something he didn’t do early on – he either tried to blast fastballs past people, or used his cutter/slider thing, which hasn’t been good.
He’ll face Matt Shoemaker, the great out-of-nowhere story from last year who posted a brilliant K:BB ratio and helped solidify the Angels staff when Garrett Richards went down with an injury. Shoemaker was a minor league journeyman who put up a fascinating statistical profile. He had great control, struck out more batters than average, and gave up home runs at a standard rate. At home, he was dominant – mixing that K:BB ratio with an ultra-low HR rate in part thanks to his home park, and in part thanks to an average GB rate. On the road, things looked shaky – he gave up lots of HRs, and was much more of a fly ball pitcher. This is the tricky thing about rookies, especially out-of-nowhere guys that scouts/prospect guys haven’t been dissecting since their first rookie-league appearance: to what mean do you regress a guy like this to? The league average is a good idea, but what do you do with such marked home/road splits? Is he *actually* a fly-ball pitcher who got a bit lucky at home? Or is he *actually* a poor man’s Iwakuma, who’ll get enough grounders that even a high HR/FB wouldn’t make him useless? This year at least, we’re getting closer to an answer, though not the one Angels fans would’ve wanted.
Shoemaker’s GB% has dropped, and while his HR rate on the road is just about unchanged, he’s giving up more HRs at home now, too. Gone is the odd split in his batted ball profile – he’s now an equal-opportunity fly-baller. Combined with some regression in his HR/FB rate, as expected, and he’s been shockingly bad for a guy with a K:BB ratio of over 4:1. One of the things that made him so effective last year was that his splitter allowed him to strike out lefties at pretty much the same clip as righties – he had fairly small platoon splits. This year, his K:BB ratio has actually improved against righties, but it’s fallen off to lefties, and that’s pushed those splits up. The raw splits don’t look too different, but that’s only because HRs have acted as an equalizer, making righties and lefties look effective. But looking at each component, it looks like lefties have adjusted to Shoemaker. Last season, lefties hit one HR off of his split and hit a combined .152 with a .200 SLG%. This year, lefties *already* have 5 HRs off the split, and are slugging .588. They’re making more contact off of him and punishing the pitches that they make contact with. Shoemaker’s not a bad pitcher, and he now looks nearly as unlucky as he did last year; a lot of that HR/FB luck could regress back to the mean, maybe starting tonight. But while a guy with a great K:BB ratio often seems like a terrible match-up for the M’s, Shoemaker’s someone the M’s lefties can punish. Though Shoemaker has struck out 15 Mariners to just 1 walk in 2 starts in 13 1/3 IP, the M’s have FIVE HRs against him. More of that, M’s.
1: Morrison, 1B
2: Jackson, CF
3: Cano, 2B
4: Cruz, DH
5: Seager, 3B
6: Trumbo, RF
7: Smith, LF
8: Miller, SS
9: Zunino, C
SP: Walker
Tacoma beat Reno in extras last night, getting a walk-off sac fly to win 1-0. Hisashi Iwakuma started and threw 4 IP with 4 Ks. Afterword, he told the TNT’s TJ Cotterill that he wasn’t happy with his mechanics but felt healthy. He’ll probably have another couple of starts to build his pitch count up; he ended yesterday’s game with 68 pitches. Scheduled starter Forrest Snow closed the game out with 4 scoreless innings of his own; he looked quite good, except for a brief bout of wildness. He’s getting more swings-and-misses, though Reno featured a few free-swinging hitters. Today, Jordan Pries starts for the Rainiers as they welcome El Paso to town.
Jackson got blown out by Birmingham, 13-0. Edwin Diaz got hit hard, the relievers got hit hard, the Generals had no extra-base hits… it was brutal. Tonight, Moises Hernandez faces off with Mark Blackmar, a righty who came to the White Sox system from Baltimore’s in a deal for Alejandro de Aza.
Bakersfield lost in extras to Houston affiliate Lancaster 8-6. Tyler O’Neill hit his 15th HR, but the Jethawks hit two solo shots in the 10th to win it. Eddie Campbell starts for the Blaze against former D3 pitcher Austin Chrismon, a right-hander out of Christopher Newport University.
Clinton lost the first game of their 2nd half 4-2, as 2014 first-rounder and Brewers prospect Kodi Medeiros had a solid start, and then reliever David Burkhalter shut the door on the L-Kings. Zack Littell posted another solid start in a losing effort, striking out 8 in 7 IP. Tyler Herb faces Zach Hirsch, a lefty who’s shown good control in the MWL this year.
Everett continued their great start with an 11-4 win in Spokane. 3B Logan Taylor had 4 hits, and SS Drew Jackson had 3. The AquaSox head back home tonight to take on the Boise Hawks and starter Angel Lezama. Laane Ratliff will make his first start.
Game 73, Royals at Mariners
Roenis Elias vs. Danny Duffy, 7:10pm
As you’ll see in the line-up below, the M’s have made a change to their roster, bringing back old favorite Franklin Gutierrez and sending James Jones back to Tacoma. Guti’s battled ankylosing spondylitis, a condition associated with inflammation in spinal joints that cause pain and stiffness. In addition, the hamstring issues that plagued him in 2010-2012 are chronic now, and he missed a few weeks earlier this year with a strain. Gutierrez is no longer a center-fielder, and doesn’t have the speed he once did. But as we just saw, there’s no value in having a legitimate CF behind Austin Jackson if he’s not going to hit. This move improves the M’s bench, and hopefully not having to play every day will maximize Guti’s effectiveness. Franklin’s decline was painful to watch, and must have been horrifying to Gutierrez himself. The M’s had built around him, then had to scramble to fill the void when he went down, and I think we all thought we’d never see him again. I’m stunned he’s here, but then, I’ve been stunned that he’s performed so well – and so often – in Tacoma. Welcome back, Guti. If Danny Duffy gets within a foot of Guti with an inside pitch, Roenis Elias has my permission to plunk a Royal per inning in retaliation.
Danny Duffy is another ex-teammate of Mike Montgomery’s in the Royals MiLB system. Duffy always threw harder, and seemed like more of a high-risk, high-reward arm compared to Montgomery, and he’s delivered a bit of everything in his tenure. He’s averaged 95mph on his fastball, elite velocity for a lefty, and with a slider and curve as well, he’s been extremely tough on lefties. But the control issues that followed him in the minors are still something he’s dealing with, and that’s hurt his effectiveness and driven up his pitch counts. Perhaps worse than an elevated walk rate is Duffy’s extensive injury history. He suffered a strained elbow ligament in 2010, then tore it in 2012, necessitating TJ surgery. Then, he had rotator cuff issues and a strained rib-cage, which held him out of the Royals’ playoff roster last year. In late May of this year, the Royals sat him for a while with more shoulder discomfort.
When he’s on, he uses his rising four-seamer to get fly-outs and pop-ups, and uses his breaking balls and a change-up to get strikeouts. Somewhat like Yordano Ventura, his teammate, Duffy gets surprisingly few strikeouts given the explosive nature of his stuff. His K rate was slightly above average before his TJ surgery, but he’s been below average for 2014 and 2015 – which is especially troublesome considering he’s run a higher-than-average walk rate. That TOO is somewhat surprising, because, since the start of 2014, he’s been pounding the zone. The percentage of his pitches in the zone has been at least 53% in both years, while the league average is just 48+%. He’s walking people because he’s not missing bats – his swinging strike rate has plunged, and his o-swing% (swings on pitches outside of the zone) is just 22%, the lowest of his career, though that’s something he’s never been good at. Duffy has great stuff that, for whatever reason, batters find easy to identify and make contact with.
1: Jackson, CF
2: GUTI!!!, LF
3: Cano, 2B
4: Cruz, DH
5: Seager, 3B
6: Trumbo, RF
7: Morrison, 1B
8: Zunino, C
9: Miller, SS
SP: Elias
The Rainiers lost to the Reno Aces 4-3 yesterday, as a 4-run 6th spoiled Justin Germano’s strong start. Carlos Rivero homered and Jesus Montero had 2 hits for the R’s; Guti DH’d yesterday, but went 0-3. Today, Tacoma hosts Reno as Forrest Snow faces off against rehabbing righty Archie Bradley. Bradley was struck in the head by a line drive earlier this year, but is on the D-Backs DL now with shoulder tendinitis. Maaan, this game preview is soaked in blood and pain.
Everett beat Spokane yesterday 4-3, running their record to 5-1 (?!). After getting blanked by Indians starter Peter Fairbanks, Everett scored 2 in the 7th, and 2 in the 9th to win. Luiz Gohara made his second consecutive strong start, going 6 IP with 1 run allowed and 8 Ks. Taylor Bird starts today for the AquaSox as they continue the series in Spokane.
A Few Observations About Mike Montgomery
I don’t know that I’ve seen a more unlikely complete game shutout by a Mariner since Jeff Weaver’s 4-hitter against Pittsburgh almost 8 years to the day before Mike Montgomery blanked the Royals. In doing so, Montgomery became the first M’s left-hander to record a shutout with 10ks and no walks, and his stuff looked better than it has in any previous start.
Most of the focus on the game will center on his change-up, and for good reason. It’s clearly Montgomery’s best pitch, and he recorded 6 of his 10 punchouts on change-ups. But as we’ve discussed before, the change-up has been a dominant weapon against right-handed batters this season, and he’s been fortunate that the line-ups he’s faced have been so righty-dominant. Coming in to last night’s game, Montgomery had only faced a left-handed batter 24 times in the big leagues. The Royals line-up was still plenty right-handed, but in Mike Moustakas, Eric Hosmer and Alex Gordon, he was going to be facing the best group of lefty bats he’s seen thus far. They went a combined 1-12 with 5 Ks. How did the guy who struggled to some degree (he hasn’t really struggled at all yet) against lefties like Jason Castro or Colby Rasmus dominate the Royals’ three top lefties? With a very different approach.
In his first two starts, Montgomery faced a total of 5 lefties. In his last three starts, against Houston, San Francisco and Kansas City, he’s seen 31. The Giants and Astros lefties hit Montgomery hard, knocking 5 hits (including 3 doubles) and drawing another 3 walks. Last night was a very different story. We don’t have a lot of information, obviously, given that last night was Montgomery’s 5th career start. But you could start to see a game plan developing – against lefties, he used his fastball early and then paired it with his curve. Last night, he tried something else: he made much more use of his cutter. This is a pitch he developed this year – he didn’t throw it in the AFL or in spring training before 2015. Like most of Montgomery’s pitches, it’s got some extreme horizontal movement. Unlike most cutters that have close to zero horizontal movement or move gloveside like a slider, Montgomery’s still has noticeable *arm*side run. Still, it has 8″ or so less than his sinker, and it also sinks about as much as his great change. Coming into last night, he’d thrown 20 of them in 4 starts. Last night, he threw 18, including 9 to the Royals lefties.
The biggest at-bat of the game – the turning point – came in the first with the bases loaded and no out. Montgomery faced Eric Hosmer, a lefty with a 124 wRC+ and someone who presumably knew about Montgomery’s curve ball as he was Montgomery’s teammate in the minors for many years. Montgomery got ahead with a fastball low in the zone, then threw a cutter out of the zone for a swing-and-miss. After he missed inside with a change, Montgomery went back to the cutter and got a huge strikeout. In the 6th, he K’d Moustakas, one of the league’s tougher batters to strike out, on a cutter that followed a change. He got ahead of Gordon the next inning with a first-pitch cutter before getting a strikeout on his curve. It gave Montgomery something else to work with and presumably disguised his fastballs as well. Montgomery’s fastball (and sinker) generate a freakishly low number of whiffs, so having a pitch that looks similar, that’s thrown with similar velo, but dives down and out of the zone should be a big plus.
I’d love to know more about where and when he picked this pitch up, and why he decided to throw it so much last night. Like many change-up-first pitchers, he can be effective against opposite-handed hitters. But at some point, teams were going to realize that he had less to offer lefties and adjust their line-ups accordingly – something similar to the “Danks Theory” where Tampa would fill their line-up with same-handed hitters to neutralize an opponent’s best pitch. Montgomery hasn’t yet had to deal with that – and in fact yesterday showed his change could be effective against lefties too – and what few at-bats he’d HAD against lefties hadn’t gone all that well. Yesterday’s game offers a blueprint for how he can adjust once the league adjusts to him. Let’s be clear: he’s not a dominant, bat-missing lefty. He’s not going to strike out 10 all of the time, but he needs a way to prevent Colby Rasmus or Kole Calhoun from having comfortable at-bats. Now we know that he can.
Game 72, Royals at Mariners
Mike Montgomery vs. Jeremy Guthrie, 7:10pm
Last night, Joe Blanton shut down the M’s offense for 7 IP and the Royals beat Felix and the M’s easily. Today, Jeremy Guthrie, who had 2 WAR seasons in 2007, 2008 and 2010, and none since then, faces off against Mike Montgomery, who’s been one of the M’s unlikely (and all too few) success stories this year. If/when that happens, where do the M’s go from here? Sure, a loss to Joe Blanton is just the same in the standings as a loss to Chris Archer, but the difference in how you *feel* is staggering. One is soul destroying, the other doesn’t hurt at all. One makes you sure – absolutely sure – that the M’s aren’t ready for prime time, while you can pick over the bones of the other for signs of hope, good at-bat processes amidst a series of bad results. The math is already stacked firmly against the M’s. You can’t score 3.37 runs per game and win anything. All we have here is Felix Day and the hope that things are building, or that change is imperceptibly working its magic behind the scenes, and that the results will follow in a flood. How can these pleasant stories survive an encounter with Joe Blanton, winning pitcher? Of course, you can’t predict baseball and any-given-day cliches, blah blah blah, but seriously, what do we tell ourselves? And now Jeremy Guthrie, sub-replacement level hurler, aged 36, takes the mound and looks in. Et tu, Guthrie?
1: Morrison, 1B
2: Jackson, CF
3: Cano, 2B
4: Cruz, DH
5: Seager, 3B
6: Smith, RF
7: Ackley, LF
8: Miller, SS
9: Zunino, C
SP: Montgomery
Cruz came out of the game yesterday with a minor (?) injury when a bone in his pelvis dislocated. Apparently, this is a thing that sometimes happens to him, and isn’t a big deal, but there, think on that if you can stand to ruminate on yesterday any more. Gaaahhh.
Justin Germano and Luiz Gohara start for the only M’s affiliates in action. Tacoma hosts Reno, will Everett travels to Spokane.
Andrew Moore had a great debut for the AquaSox in last night’s game. The OSU product worked 3 perfect innings, striking out 5.
Game 71, Royals at Mariners
Felix Hernandez vs. Joe Blanton, 7:10pm
Happy Felix Day.
There are many, many reasons why the Royals success this year confuses me. Kendrys Morales is good again? Mike Moustakas *finally* figured something out and is no longer an anchor on their line-up? Lorenzo Cain is sneaky-elite now? But my favorite is this: the Royals rotation sucks, and the Royals have a great team runs-allowed and run differential. Ah, but Marc, isn’t this annoying? The Mariners have all manner of positive attributes, like a *good* rotation and a line-up that includes a core that’s been in KC’s class – the Royals top 5 hitters have produced about 45 batting runs, per Fangraphs. The M’s top 5 have been worth 34, which is better than the Rangers’ top 5, it’s essentially tied with Tampa’s, and it blows Minnesota’s top 5 out of the water. It hasn’t mattered, of course. The M’s are mired in 4th, and the Royals are 39-27 and 3.5 up on the Twins in the AL Central.
One of the great things about baseball is that there’s so much of it, you’re constantly seeing performances that strain credibility – baseball is always showing us 1:1,000,000 type occurrences because baseball is just firehosing occurrences at us. What that means is that there’s always something that seems to violate some pattern or rule – we’re always seeing some assumptions being stretched further than we could’ve imagined, and then we get to watch what happens. For example, Rene Rivera is having a remarkable year as the Rays everyday catcher. His slash line of .165/.203/.264 looks like something ripped from Bill Bergen’s bbref page. The question of how bad a hitter can be and keep his job has a lot of history, and it’s an important one. By wRC+, Rivera’s mark of 31 is about half that of recent “worst hitters in the league” guys like Yuni Betancourt or Rey Ordonez. Every once in a while you get a 2002-Neifi Perez, a 2013 Alcides Escobar or a 2010 Cesar Izturis – something that feels almost heroically incompetent. Rivera blows them all out of the water. If you want to argue that the M’s solid core is essentially counteracted by, say, Mike Zunino’s 50 wRC+, you have to deal with the fact that the AL EAST LEADERS will see your shitty catcher and then raise you. “Oh you think you’re not scoring as many runs as you could because your catcher has an OBP of .230? Check this out.”
That’s a long introduction to an analogy that may or may not work, but hey, tortured analogies are all we’ve got these days. The Royals rotation has a terrible ERA, a terrible FIP, and a walk rate that’s well above league average. They have the absolute WORST strikeout rate in baseball, and they have the WORST xFIP. They don’t really do anything well, though they DO lead all of baseball in the percentage of hard-hit balls they allow. Two members of their rotation enjoyed their best statistical seasons in 2007 (Chris Young and Joe Blanton), one in 2008 (Edinson Volquez), while two enjoyed their best years in 2010 (Jeremy Guthrie and Jason Vargas). They have two hard-throwing young phenoms in Yordano Ventura and Danny Duffy, but those two have been the worst performers. They have a guy with only a half-season in the majors, but he’s a 31-year-old minor league journeyman (Yohan Pino). This group isn’t young, they’re not missing a ton of bats, and, for the most part, don’t have good velocity. OK, your job is: imagine how you can take a grab bag of late-oughts near-All-Stars, marinade them until they’re 32-37 years old, stick them in the American League and produce a team that’s giving up the 2nd fewest runs per game in the league.
You can probably list a number of factors that would help mitigate the whole “our starters aren’t good” problem. A good defense? Check, the Royals, and especially their outfielders, are among the best defensive units in baseball. Sequencing luck? Yeah, kind of. By base runs, the Royals “should” be 37-29 and not 39-27. A great bullpen? Sure, and the Royals ‘pen has been good, but with a below-average K rate and a FIP that’s good, not great, they can’t be the sole explanation. How about that Chris Young magic stuff? Well, the magical giant’s powers have been even stronger this year, and he’s running an ERA 1.31 below his FIP. But the whole “beating FIP” explanation can’t explain the Royals rotation as a whole, not when their ERA is *higher* than their (bad) FIP. You can mix and match these factors, but the takeaway for me is that there really isn’t a single, twitterable takeaway. Every team has some things it’s good at, some things that’s OK at, and areas of weakness. I feel like the defense is the most important factor, but if that were the case, we’d see a low BABIP and a good ERA despite a bad FIP. It’s possible that penumbras and emanations from the brilliance of Lorenzo Cain and crew filter down in ways we can’t quite account for, or that if you get the elements just right, there’s some positive interaction between defense, sequencing and managing that produce oddly large effects. It’s also possible that this is kind of lucky, and that maybe building a rotation with Guthrie, Volquez and Joe freaking Blanton in *2015* isn’t the new market efficiency, but a shoulder-shrugging contingency plan based on injury and ineffectiveness.
I don’t *care* if it’s lucky. I don’t *care* if this is good result but bad process. I think process is important, and building a sustainable, long-term winner is the goal of every team, and something baseball analytics clearly helps to achieve. But if I had to choose between good process and good results, my long suffering brain will drop good process like a hot rock. Royals fans are still in the afterglow of an improbable pennant run, and now instead of a hangover, their bizarre team has turned the precisely *right* kind of weird, and they’re in a great position again. It looks insane. It may BE insane, but I’ve lamented M’s teams created through even dumber strategies, and I’ve hung my head as M’s teams created with “good” processes have cratered just as bad. If nothing else, the M’s have taught us that there are a lot of different ways to lose in general, and that there are number of ways to post a terrible team offense more specifically. This is dispiriting. Living vicariously through the Royals is most assuredly *not* a solution to the M’s problems, but it IS a proof of concept that, at least for for other teams, you don’t have to have *everything go right* to be a good team. You don’t come here to pray for luck, and I’m not here to abandon sabermetrics for a ouija board with a framed picture of Chris Young next to it, but maaaaaan it looks more fun to be a Royals fan right now. As recently as two years ago, we’d console ourselves by saying that as bad as things were, as dark as the long night of 2010-2011 were, at least we weren’t the Royals/Pirates, mired in a perpetual rebuild that could last 10 years or more. All of this hurts, but reflecting on that little bit of point-in-time schadenfreude hurts the most.
Soooo, Joe Blanton. Really. When last we saw him, his career was imploding in a hail of home run balls. In 2013, he managed 132+ innings before the Angels mercifully pulled the plug. He gave up 29 home runs in that period, and a terrible BABIP pushed his ERA over 6. His record was 2-14, and while saber fans may have pointed to his OK xFIP, most folks who watched him pitch would’ve argued that it was irrelevant – Blanton was no longer good enough to have any component regressed to the MLB mean. He was an EX-big leaguer, not an unlucky big leaguer. After being cut in April of 2014 following a few bad starts in AAA, it really seemed like his career was over. The Royals gave him a minor league contract, and the 34 year old produced about the line you might expect in AAA – an ERA near 4, a so-so K:BB ratio and, yes, too many home runs allowed. Injuries got him a call-up, and he’s been a swing man for a while now, and, because Royals, he’s putting up perfectly good numbers thus far.
What’s interesting about this, beyond the shock of seeing Cupcakes Blanton playing in 2015, is that he’s actually pitching a bit differently. For years, Blanton has pitched off of a good change-up. He’s got a four- and two-seam fastball, a rotating cast of breaking balls, from curve to slider to cutter, but his best pitch was a change. It’s what enabled him to post even splits over his long career and long thousands of innings despite a fastball that averaged about 90mph. A late-career velo spike disappeared in 2013, but it’s back now. I know he’s pitched mostly in relief, but Blanton *averaged* nearly 92mph in his last start. More than that, he’s throwing the ball differently. Here’s a link to his horizontal release point, which was fairly consistent between 0-1′ from the center of the rubber from 2007-2013. Now, it’s 2′ plus towards 3B. It doesn’t look like a shift in position – the ball is spinning differently. In years past, Blanton’s fastball(s) had little horizontal movement, but about 10″ of vertical rise. At this point, he’s getting a bit more horizontal movement and less rise – this would be consistent with a change in his release/mechanics. Beyond how the ball moves, he’s putting it in a different place. Here’s where he put his fastball in 2013 – essentially, he worked left-to-right, keeping the ball in on lefties and away from righties, but essentially the same height as the strike zone. Look at it now – he’s targeting the knees and a bit lower. Coaches and conventional wisdom would tell a pitcher not to be scared out of the strike zone – don’t let bad results chase you out of your own approach. Well, Blanton’s home-run barrage seems to have chased him out of his old approach, and thus far, things are working out OK.
Fundamentally, this is still Joe Blanton. This is as big a pitching match-up as you’re liable to find. You need to win this one, M’s.
1: Morrison, 1B
2: Jackson, CF
3: Cano, 2B
4: Cruz, RF
5: Seager, 3B
6: Trumbo, DH
7: Smith, LF
8: Miller, SS
9: Zunino, C
SP: El Rey
Tacoma beat Jon Gray and Albuquerque 6-5 yesterday thanks to HRs from Pat Kivlehan, Franklin Gutierrez and Carlos Rivero. Today’s a travel day for Tacoma – they’re heading home for a homestand featuring a rehab appearance by Hisashi Iwakuma.
Jackson was blanked by Birmingham 7-0; the Generals managed just 4 hits. DJ Peterson hit a 2B in the game, but his OPS is still just .614. We’ve reached the AA All-Star break (Seattle prep star Blake Snell starts for the South team), and the Generals have had a rough go. They’re 10 games under .500 thanks to a pitching staff that’s put up the worst line in the Southern league by a mile. Every other club has a team ERA under 4, but the Generals’ ERA is 4.79. Their offense hasn’t been quite so bad, but they’ve been below average as well, headlined by the struggles of DJ Peterson. Soooo, yeah.
In what’s starting to feel like a recurring theme, Bakersfield let a lead slip away in their 3-2 loss to Stockton. Tyler Pike pitched pretty well, but the bats went quiet and the bullpen gave up a run in the 8th. Tyler O’Neill had been out of the line-up in recent games, but returned yesterday, going 0-3 with a walk. It’s the high-A All-Star Break too – the Cal League All-Stars take on the Carolina League’s finest on Tuesday. RP Paul Fry of Bakersfield made the team. Fry’s part of a pretty decent Blaze staff – despite their home park, they’ve got a solid ERA thanks a to good control – they’ve given up the 2nd fewest walks, which helps balance their inability to miss bats. The problem is that their offense has been as bad as Jackson’s pitching staff. By OPS, Bakersfield has been the worst in the Cal League at just .622. It’s not just luck, either, as they lead the league in strikeouts. The rest of the Cal League clubs average 985 total bases. The Blaze have 766. I could go on, but won’t.
Clinton lost to Cedar Rapids 5-2. At the break, Clinton’s 17 games under .500 thanks to a bad (but not as bad as Wisonsin’s! Ha, take THAT ex-affiliate) offense and the second worst pitching staff (thank you, Beloit).
Everett won a slugfest with Eugene, 9-8. Alex Jackson went 3-4, and the AquaSox got HRs from Luis Liberato and Jordan Cowan. OSU star Andrew Moore makes his first professional start tonight in Everett opposite Dominican lefty Andin Diaz.
Game 70, Astros at Mariners
JA Happ vs. Vincent Velasquez, 1:10pm
Happy Fathers Day to all of the dads out there. A sweep of the Astros would be a really thoughtful gift to all of us, M’s.
Today’s game features another of the Astros’ recent call-ups, hard-throwing righty Vincent Velasquez. I mentioned some of the similarites that Velasquez shares with Lance McCullers a few days ago – both had great arms, but struggled at times in the minors. Teammates for Lancaster in the Cal League last year, both of them struggled with control and HRs, and then both of them made some adjustments and were untouchable in AA early in 2015. Both feature four-seam fastballs in the 95-97 range, and throw curveballs and a change-up. Both have somewhat low release points, with the ball coming out below 6′. However, despite the surface similarities, they’re distinct pitchers with very distinct strengths and weaknesses.
As we talked about, something in McCullers’ motion seems to make it next to impossible for left-handers to pick the ball up out of his hand. Velasquez hasn’t shown that kind of deception in his extremely brief MLB career, as lefties have swung and missed far less often, struck out less (duh), walked more often, etc. In the minors, Velasquez dominated lefties, but any M’s fan has seen that this doesn’t always translate to the majors. A half-decent change-up, especially paired with plus velocity on the fastball, can be a dominant weapon in the minors, only to get crushed in the majors – I call this “Getting Maurered.” That hasn’t happened to McCullers, though, because he hasn’t really needed his change-up – lefties aren’t seeing his fastball and curve. Velasquez is going to need that change, as the few lefties he’s seen to date seem to have been quite comfortable.
The other big difference is spin. Despite a lower arm angle, Velasquez gets an obscene amount of vertical rise on his fastball. While McCullers’ rise is essentially average, Velasquez’ 12″ of rise is nearly 2 standard deviations from the mean. That’s one reason for his intermittent home run issues – a pitch like that should get hit in the air a lot, and Lancaster (specifically) and the Cal League (in general) often punishes fly-ballers. While Velasquez’s fly ball rates weren’t off the charts in the minors (and again, minor league hitters are more likely to hit the ball on the ground), they’ve been quite high through his first two starts. They may settle down somewhat, but the movement on his fastball (and curve!) seem like they’ll push him towards the bottom of the GB% leaderboard.
It’s interesting and probably intentional that Velasquez follows Dallas Keuchel in the rotation. Keuchel is as extreme a ground-ball pitcher as there is. Thus far, Velasquez has been an extreme fly-ball guy. Does that help? Is this like Jamie Moyer getting followed by a reliever with a 96mph fastball? It’s too soon to tell now, but this seems like an interesting question to investigate – is there an advantage to following a GB pitcher with a FB pitcher and vice versa?
JA Happ has quietly put together a very solid year. As we expected, his HR problems have been lessened thanks to his new home park, and that’s reflected in his wide home/road splits. At home, Happ’s been brilliant. On the road, not so much, and while that’s less than ideal overall, today’s game – a crucial one – is at home. Speaking of vertical rise, Happ used to have Velasquez-like rise on his FB thanks in part to a very over-the-top delivery. But Happ dropped his angle noticeably in 2014, and he’s kept it there with the M’s. While he still gets a bit more rise than average, he’s dropped from 2 standard deviations above average to less than 1. It hasn’t hurt him, and his velocity has actually increased over that time, but I’d like to know more about why pitchers make changes like this, and how they evaluate the success or failure of a mechanical change.
WIN, Mariners.
1: Morrison, 1B
2: Trumbo, RF
3: Cano, 2B
4: Cruz, DH
5: Seager, 3B
6: Smith, LF
7: Miller, SS
8: Jones, CF
9: Sucre, C
SP: Happ
That’s an interesting line-up.
Interesting/depressing MiLB factoid: As you know, all four of the M’s full-season affiliates are under .500, with a combined record that sits 44 games below the .500 mark. Houston’s affiliates are all *above* .500 – at a combined *68* games over. The Rainiers have been the class of the M’s orgs at 34-36, while Bakersfield is just 26-43. For the Astros, Lancaster is “just” 37-32, but every other full-season club is at least 15 games over, headlined by Quad Cities at 44-23.
Tacoma lost 5-3 yesterday in Albuquerque, blowing a 3-0 lead thanks to another poor bullpen showing. Tyler Olson gave up 5 runs (including 2 HRs) in 3 IP to take the loss; Chris Taylor and Franklin Gutierrez each had two hits. Today, Stephen Landazuri takes on Rockies prospect Jon Gray. The M’s saw the hard-throwing Oklahoman on the 11th – that game was a pitchers duel that ended up going to extras. As we talked about at the time, Gray’s an elite talent who, for whatever reason, has struggled to miss bats in the PCL, and pitching-to-contact-at-altitude is rarely a winning strategy.
Jackson split a doubleheader with Birmingham, winning Game 1 8-7, and dropping the nightcap 3-1. Misael Siverio leads the Generals against the Barons again today.
Stockton beat Bakersfield 4-3 on a walk-off, 2-out double in the 9th yesterday. Blaze starter Dan Altavilla was solid, striking out 7 in 7IP, and the offense worked out of an early 3-0 hole. Carlton Tanabe’s 2nd HR was the big blow. Tyler Pike starts for Bakersfield today against Joel Seddon of Stockton.
Clinton beat Cedar Rapids 7-4, as the L-Kings built a 7-0 lead and held off a late challenge from the Kernels. Arby Fields and James Alfonso had three hits each. Jefferson Medina starts today’s game.
Everett beat Eugene 10-4 in Hisashi Iwakuma’s first live game action since going on the DL. Iwakuma gave up one run – a HR to Cubs’ 1st round Ian Happ – in 3 2/3 IP with 3 Ks and no walks. The AquaSox knocked another 15 hits, giving them 32 over their first 3 games. Luis Liberato had 3, including Everett’s first HR of the year. Alex Jackson singled, but continues to struggle – he’s at 1-12 with 5Ks in the (very) early-going. Lane Ratliff starts for Everett today, and Andrew Moore’s scheduled to take the hill in tomorrow’s game.
Game 69, Nice (Astros at Mariners)
Taijuan Walker vs. Dallas Keuchel, 7:10pm
Viewed from one angle, this is a total mismatch. The M’s already sagging offense has cratered in the month of June, and today they face a guy who’s giving up a slugging percentage allowed of *.251* this year. That’s much, much higher than the career SLG% of Brendan Ryan, Rene Rivera or Eric Sogard. It is worse than Eric Sogard’s worst year, and it’s slightly lower than Mike Zunino’s career on-base percentage. 15 years ago, in the height of the long-ball era, players like A-Rod and (especially) Bonds put up numbers that simply beggared belief – you could mentally account for context and all of that, and it STILL just didn’t compute. You have to dig around for similar numbers now, but they’re out there, and Keuchel’s SLG% is an example.
As you’ve heard from Blengino and Jeff Sullivan, Keuchel’s somehow able to do a number of little things extremely well, and when you put them together, it all adds up to a bizarre kind of ace. Keuchel’s ground ball percentage is the highest in the AL, about 5 percentage points higher than Felix’s. But it’s not just that he induces grounders, it’s the KIND of grounders he gets – they all seem to be hit by profoundly sick batsmen. This season, batters are slugging .132 on grounders off of Keuchel. Felix is having a remarkable season, particularly from a GB point of view, but batters are slugging .234 on GBs off the King. How about Tyson Ross, the only guy in Keuchel’s league in terms of GB% the past two years? This year, batters are slugging .364 on grounders off of him.
But it doesn’t stop there. As Jeff mentioned, his motion and pick-off move make it very difficult for batters to steal on him if they make it to first. TWO runners have stolen a base off of Keuchel thus far, and given that he’s running so high a GB rate, keeping runners on first can make a big difference. Another small but real advantage is his defense. By every fielding metric, Keuchel’s the best in baseball.
All of that said, the resurgent Taijuan Walker evens things up a bit. And the M’s have been a better club against ground ball pitchers than fly-ballers (and guys in the middle). That’s not to say they’ve been GOOD against them, but they’re better. Same with lefties – the M’s have a team wRC+ of 100 against lefties, which, while it isn’t setting the world on fire, is much better than their 87 mark against righties.
1: Jackson, CF
2: Smith, LF
3: Cano, 2b
4: Cruz, RF
5: Seager, 3B
6: Trumbo, DH
7: Morrison, 1B
8: Zunino, C
9: Miller, SS
SP: Walker
The big news out of Seattle today is that the M’s made a change at hitting coach. They’ve severed ties with Howard Johnson, and have installed M’s legend Edgar Martinez in the job. This was, at least to me, a stunning announcement because if Edgar had been interested in coaching, you’d think the M’s would have enabled that long ago. Hitting coaches probably don’t matter, but I’m not cynical enough not to squeal a little bit about seeing Edgar again. EDDDDGAAARRRRRR.
Jordan Pries, Mosies Hernandez, Jake Zokan, Dan Altavilla, Tyler Herb and a rehabbing Hisashi Iwakuma start for the M’s affiliates today. It’ll be Pries’ first start for Tacoma since May 5th.
Game 68, Astros at Mariners
Roenis Elias vs. Lance McCullers, 7:10pm
The last series against the Astros went…very poorly, and after dropping the home-and-home series with the Giants, this clash with the division leaders takes on even more importance. The M’s have languished behind Houston (and Anaheim) for months (staying mostly between 6-10 games back), and the only thing that’s changed over the past month is that Texas (?) suddenly started playing out of their mind and passed the M’s too. The M’s are running out of time. Opportunities like these, to make up a small chunk of the gap quickly, are vital if they want to get back into the race. It just feels odd, though, to talk about opportunities and playoff odds. This team has been unlucky, to be sure, but it’s flawed.
The M’s face fireballer Lance McCullers again today – the young righty held the M’s hitless for 5 innings 5 days ago. McCullers uses a plus fastball – it’s 95+ – and a big curve with two-plane break. He has a change-up that he uses sparingly, but he’s essentially been a two-pitch pitcher thus far, and that limited repertoire has been more than enough. As I mentioned last time, McCullers has shown some odd reverse platoon splits thus far, and he had them (though not as extreme) in the minors as well. His curve in particular has given lefties fits; they’ve come up empty on nearly half of their swings at it, and they’ve taken it for strikes a bunch, too. In all, lefties have put less than 9% of his curveballs in play. In the minors, McCullers big flaw was his control, but he’s been remarkably accurate thus far in the majors. His control lapses 5 days ago are somewhat noteworthy – his 4 walks were the most he’d given up thus far. The M’s need to be patient and make him work the way they did in Houston. Only this time, you know, get some hits too.
The Astros have seen essentially all of their prospects hit the ground running in the big leagues. McCullers has been dominant, Vincent Vasquez looks intriguing, if flawed, and Carlos Correa currently sports a line of .349/.378/.628, which is not too shabby. This week they’ve called up slugger Domingo Santana, a Joey Gallo-like all-or-nothing slugger that had torched the PCL this year. Santana bats righty, so we’ll see him tonight against the left-handed Roenis Elias. Evaluating prospects based on their first 1/2 season – or first month – is a fool’s errand, but it’s harder and harder to escape the conclusion that the M’s player development lags that of their rivals. Carlos Correa was the #1 overall pick, and had been anticipated for a while. But McCullers and Santana offered a mixture of upside and major question marks, but over time, they’ve…what’s that thing that prospects are supposed to do? oh yeah…*improved.* The Rangers were excellent at this until injuries and some down years pushed them to the brink of a wholesale rebuild. But Chi Chi Gonzalez arrived earlier than expected, and Joey Gallo’s prodigious strikeout rate has been balanced by his prodigious power. The M’s simply don’t have the impact prospects that can change their outlook in the near term. Chris Taylor’s a good player, but not someone who can impact the overall team offense. The M’s needed DJ Peterson to take a big step forward, but it simply hasn’t happened yet.
That’s an issue, as the M’s are noteworthy in their reliance on homegrown talent. Perhaps it’s not a huge surprise that the team led by a former scouting director is a draft-and-hold teambuilder and not a compulsive wheeler-dealer like Billy Beane or the Rays under Friedman and Silverman, but the M’s have given their prospects a very long leash. This isn’t a criticism, by the way – you can develop a team in a number of different ways, and building through the draft is a great way to do it. The Rangers have essentially done this too, making a splash in the trade for Fielder or the signing of Choo, but developing the complementary pieces themselves. But if you’re going to go that route, it’s all the more important that the players you identify and teach produce. Kyle Seager was a home run for the player development group, and Brad Miller is a solid single at this point. But the M’s badly needed to fill out the roster with others, and for whatever reason, it hasn’t happened enough.
Today’s Star Wars night line-up:
1: Morrison, 1B
2: Jackson, CF
3: Cano, 2B
4: Cruz, DH
5: Seager, 3B
6: Trumbo, RF
7: Smith, LF
8: Miller, SS
9: Zunino, C
SP: Elias
A week ago, John Lannan of Albuquerque dominated the Rainiers, firing 8 shutout innings at Cheney Stadium. The Rainiers appear to have figured out what went wrong, as they knocked Lannan around on their way to 12 runs on *22* base hits. Sam Gaviglio, who gave up 6 runs in 5 IP 5 days ago, threw 6 shutout innings for Tacoma. Zach Shank and Steve Baron, two recent call-ups from AA, both had four hits in the game. Today, Forrest Snow makes the start opposite Yohan Flande. Mike Curto reports that Justin Ruggiano is expected to join the club in time for the game.
Jackson had their own blowout win, beating Birmingham 10-1 behind another solid start from Edwin Diaz. It looks like Diaz has made some adjustments to AA. In his last three starts, he’s thrown 20 1/3 IP, given up 4 runs on 13 hits with 18 strikeouts. The Generals knocked out Barons starter Tyler Danish (a top-10/top-5 White Sox prospect) out in the 3rd, scoring 9 runs on 9 hits off of him. Today, they’ll face another big Sox prospect, righty Frankie Montas. Moises Hernandez starts for the Generals. [EDIT: This game has been rained out]
Bakersfield lost a pitcher’s duel to Stockton 1-0. Blaze starter Brett Ash was effective in 6 2/3 innings, but Stockton’s Raul Alcantara and a bunch of relievers kept Bakersfield off the scoreboard. Today the Blaze send Eddie Campbell to the mound against Dylan Covey of the Ports.
Clinton lost another tight game 5-4 to Quad Cities. Starter Lukas Schiraldi was solid, but reliever Rohn Pierce coughed up 3 runs late. Pierce, a 19th round pick out of Canisius, has had an up and down year. In late May, over four games, Pierce pitched 9 innings, giving up no runs on 4 hits while striking out *14*. But in his last 3 games, Pierce has thrown 4 innings, giving up *13 runs* on 15 hits while striking out 3. Yikes. Clinton welcomes Cedar Rapids today, and the L-Kings will send Zack Littell to the hill against Zach Tillery of the Kernels.
Everett won their season opener last night, downing the Eugene Emeralds 6-1. The AquaSox got great pitching from starter Luiz Gohara and reliever Spencer Herrman, who gave up 1 run on 3 hits while striking out 13 emeralds. The offense hit 9 singles, with 1B Ryan Uhl going 3-3 and Braden Bishop going 1-2 with a walk. Today, Taylor Byrd starts for Everett against Justin Steele – both were drafted in 2014 in the first 10 rounds – Byrd was a 7th rounder, while the Cubs popped Steele in the 5th.
Game 67, Giants at Mariners
Mike Montgomery vs. Ryan Vogelsong, 7:10pm
Two great out-of-nowhere stories face off today at Safeco. Montgomery was the ex-prospect, dealt by his 2nd org in a meaningless end-of-spring deal. Vogelsong was the guy who was never a great prospect, and who toiled as one of the worst pitchers in the NL for several years in Pittsburgh before going on to three mediocre years in Japan. After another mediocre year in the minors, he seemed like a guy who’d be selling insurance very quickly, but a new start with the Giants turned into one of the most head-scratching years in recent memory, when he went 13-7 with an ERA under 3 in 2011. Now, that was pretty unsustainable – boosted as it was by a ridiculous strand rate and a so-so K:BB ratio. He regressed in 2012 somewhat, but was still an effective, important hurler for the WS champs. His K:BB ratio even improved thanks to a decline in his walk rate; even in the minors, Vogelsong always had issues with free passes, so that was an encouraging sign. What’s more, he seemed to have a legitimate strikeout pitch – a better-than-average curve ball. He also threw a sneaky fastball at 92 and a cutter that was effective against righties.
Early on in his bizarre renaissance, his change-up seemed to be an effective pitch against lefties, too. He had regular platoon splits, but his change allowed him to battle lefties to a draw, and then his curve/cutter/FB combo made him especially tough on righties. Starting in 2013, though, everything fell apart. The change that had been so good was terrible. Lefties swung and missed less, and put it in play more. And when they did, they were hitting fewer grounders and way more line drives. Overall, Vogelsong got fewer grounders AND gave up HRs on a higher percentage of fly balls – a bad combination for a guy who was no longer missing many bats, and whose velocity had dipped noticeably, perhaps impacted by the broken hand he suffered at the plate in a May contest against the Nats.
Nothing will top the surprise of Vogelsong’s 2011 season, but 2014 was remarkable in its own way. Fully healthy, his velocity ticked up by 1 mph, and he was suddenly effective again. There didn’t seem to be any change in approach or arsenal, it’s just that everything clicked for a while. He posted a career low walk rate, and his K% crept up near 20%. The incredible strand rate was clearly a one-year phenomenon, so he’s clearly a back-of-the-rotation starter, but for a twice-buried journeyman, another effective year – and another WS title – was a hell of a reward for years and years struggling in the baseball wilderness. This year, he’s actually made a significant change in approach. He’s throwing fewer change-ups, and he’s replaced it with more reliance on his four-seam fastball. His curve’s no longer even an average breaker, but he’ll still throw it about 1/5th of the time. It’s still a decent ground-ball pitch, but he tends to hang them. The cutter’s his two-strike pitch to *lefties* these days, while righties get fastballs. His platoon split issue is more acute now, and this is another game – like we saw against Hudson – where the M’s really need to get lefties into the line-up.
Montgomery faces a team that’s worse against lefties – they’re still better than average, but it’s a distinct advantage. The problem is that Montgomery’s an odd kind of lefty. As I mentioned last time, he’s much better against righties than lefties thus far, and that pattern held true in the minors as well. The key to this match-up is how he’s able to control the troika of Joe Panik, Brandon Belt and Brandon Crawford. In Montgomery’s last start, the Astros’ lefties, Colby Rasmus and Jason Castro were 3-6 with 2 BBs, but he kept them in the park, and did enough against the rest of the line-up to be the only Mariner to walk out of Houston with his head held high.
1: Morrison, 1B
2: Jackson, CF
3: Cruz, DH
4: Smith, LF
5: Trumbo, DH
6: Miller, SS
7: Ackley, 2B
8: Bloomquist, 3B
9: Zunino, C
SP: Montgomery
[EDIT] Whoa, sorry, big (late) revision to the line-up with Cano and Seager sitting. When’s the last time Ackley played 2B? Looks like May of 2013 – not sure, though. Did he have the odd game at 2B after shifting to CF back then?
Colin O’Keefe had a good article at LL about an odd paradox: the M’s offense is terrible, despite the fact that the M’s rank highly in the percentage of balls they’ve hit at least 100MPH. The Giants offense has been great, despite the fact that they’re awful at hitting the ball hard. This *is* odd, and since ball exit speed data is so new, we don’t really know how it correlates with hitting stats. But for obvious reasons, there has to be *some* positive correlation there, and it’s probably sizable. One thought is that while the M’s are hitting the ball hard, they’re hitting a number of 100mph smashes on the ground, where they do less damage. Jeff had a great post a month or so ago about Robbie Cano’s poor start, and how he’s hitting the ball hard, but hitting more grounders. The other obvious issue concerns what happens when the M’s don’t make contact at all. The M’s strike out a lot, the Giants don’t. The M’s ISO is great, particularly once you factor in their home ballpark, while the Giants have the 24th-best ISO. The M’s hit the ball hard, but don’t hit it enough. The Giants put it in play, and good things have tended to happen as a result. There’s got to be more to it than that, of course (the M’s platoon splits are another problem, as the M’s are much better against lefties than righties) – but those are a couple of contributing factors, I’d think.
Tacoma beat Reno 9-6 to win their first series there…ever. Franklin Gutierrez extended his hitting streak to 20 games. The Rainiers head to Albuquerque, where Sam Gaviglio faces off with John Lannan.
Jackson got smoked by Birmingham 8-1 yesterday. Jabari Blash had 2 doubles in the contest, and DJ Peterson tripled, but the rest of the Generals couldn’t figure out Barons starter Myles Jaye. Edwin Diaz starts for Jackson against the White Sox #7 prospect, right-hander Tyler Danish. The sinkerballer posted a brilliant ERA last season across two levels, but that hides (as ERA is wont to do) a bunch of hidden un-earned runs. In his minor league career of 225+ innings, Danish has a 2.44 ERA, but a 3.23 RA. Lots and lots of grounders plus low-minors fields and low-minors fielders probably explains a lot of that gap.
Bakersfield beat Inland Empire 7-2 behind a solid start from Dylan Unsworth and 6 hits from the 1-3 hitters in the line-up. Today, the Blaze heads to Stockton to take on the Ports and starter Raul Alcantara, who had been the A’s #3 prospect heading into 2014, but an injury-plagued year pushed him down to #9 this year.
Clinton lost to Quad Cities 2-0 in 10 innings; Jamie Richie hit a 2-r walk-off homer to win it. Pat Peterson was great, but got no run support from the L-Kings. Reliever Hawtin Buchanon, who’d struggled mightily thus far, had an encouraging outing, throwing 1 2/3 hitless IP and getting all 5 outs as Ks. He mixed in 2 walks, but he gave the fielders a nearly 2-IP break, which is considerate of him. Lukas Schiraldi starts for Clinton tonight against Brock Dykxhoorn which is an extremely Dutch name. The Canadian faced Clinton back in May.
And today’s opening day for the Everett AquaSox. You’ve read JY’s preview, and you can listen in to Pat Dillon’s call here, or on AM 1380 in Everett. Luiz Gohara gets the opening day start this year. In his first NWL start of last season, he gave up 5 runs in 2 1/3 IP. Tonight will probably be better than that. He’s actually made one start on the year already – a 5 inning appearance for Clinton, in which the big Brazilian scattered 4 hits and a walk and kept Cedar Rapids off the scoreboard. Alex Jackson will bat 3rd tonight and play RF. DII slugger Ryan Uhl starts at 1B, and bats 8th. UW-product Braden Bishop bats 7th, while local kid Jordan Cowan leads off.
2015 Everett Aquasox Preview
The past several years, I’ve had to deal with a minor conundrum. On one hand, I liked having an extra minor league affiliate in Pulaski because yay baseball but it also provided one more thing to stare at, one more team that I probably wouldn’t preview, and an environment and park factors that I didn’t quite know what to do with. Booo baseball. Then in the offseason, the Yankees snapped up Pulaski and we went back to having effectively two short-season summer affiliates plus two abroad (now both in the Dominican because Venezuela is not safe right now).
The boon of this for fans in this region is that, since there are fewer places for top prospects to go, the Everett team looks like it could be pretty darned talented this year. This will likely place the team in contrast to last year’s last-place squad. Scout/manager Rob Mummau will also be taking over again as manager, so anyone who was anticipating seeing Dave Valle outside of the broadcast booth is not in luck this year.
The areas of intrigue for me are primarily the outfield, which has something interesting at every position, and the rotation which is unusually structured and has at least three pitchers I’m already interested in. The backstops, eh, they’ll probably handle the pitching staff, and the infield’s hitting will likely be limited to the corners if it gets it there. The bullpen, which contained thirteen men on first roster release, is a place one could get lost in and I’m not quite sure what to think of it outside of a few members. Overall, this team should have a good amount of power and enough going on in the rotation to keep them in games. Looks like a competitive squad to me. And with the accelerated signing process and the college-heavy draft, I would expect that this is mostly the team we have, barring some contributors who are filling in elsewhere at the moment. Let’s get to it.