Saunders New Swing
Yesterday, Jeff Sullivan wrote about Michael Saunders three doubles to left or left center. Then, last night, Saunders did this.
Spring Training performances are still worthless, but this isn’t really a performance thing – this is Saunders doing a thing he just couldn’t do before. This doesn’t mean he can do it in the regular season against pitchers who aren’t just getting their work in, but the old Michael Saunders was unable to go the other way with any kind of authority. Last night, he almost hit one out to left center by staying back on a 95 MPH fastball.
At this point, I’d say it’s pretty likely that Saunders plays the lion’s share of center field the first few weeks of the season. He won’t play out there every day, but it’s probably in the team’s best interests to see if he can keep doing this in the regular season. Even if there’s no obvious roster spot for him when Guti returns, having a potentially useful Michael Saunders around would give the team options, and this is a team that needs production from guys who can play the outfield.
Don’t go overboard with what this means, as lots of guys have looked great in March and reverted to pumpkins in April. But opposite field power from Michael Saunders? That’s new, and that’s encouraging.
Cactus League Game 14, Royals at Mariners
The Mariners are hosting the Royals tonight out in Peoria in the spring’s first televised game, so you can tune in to watch a pretty representative Mariners line-up play at 7:05. I’m still down here in Arizona and will be headed up to Peoria to watch the game in person, and will be live blogging the events here. Well, to a degree, anyway – no one needs constant updates on Kevin Fox’s results on the mound.
The line-up for tonight:
2B – Ackley
DH – Wells
RF – Ichiro
1B – Smoak
LF – Peguero
C – Olivo
CF – Saunders
3B – Catricala
SS – Ryan
SP – Millwood
Cactus League Game 13 – Mariners at Brewers
The Brewers face both the A’s and M’s today, but it’s clear which team they see as the bigger threat. Milwaukee ace Zach Greinke starts today against the M’s, while someone named Michael Fiers faces the Athletics. As flattering as that is, today’s game is still somewhat disappointing as it marks the last game before Root sports gets some TV cameras down to Arizona and starts televising these things.
It seems like everyone in the M’s press corps wrote about Erasmo Ramirez over the past day or two, and he’ll get the start on Thursday in a televised game against the Giants.
Speaking of TV, the M’s unveiled the 2012 ads that you’ll see over and over on M’s broadcasts. For those that love these things, do you love this year’s crop more than last year’s, or more than whatever sort of baseline you apply in these situations? Is there a replacement-level ad (OK, there probably is, that crappy one with Pokey Reese in the faux-infomercial year)? An average ad?
(Forgot the link to the ads…sorry, here they are.)
Today’s line-up:
1: Ackley (2b)
2: Wells (RF)
3: Carp (LF)
4: Smoak (1b)
5: Montero (C)
6: Peguero (DH)
7: Seager (3b)
8: Saunders (CF)
9: Kawasaki (SS)
SP: Hector Noesi
Go M’s
Cactus League Game 12, Rangers at Mariners
This is another game that won’t be on radio or TV. That’s the bad news. The good news is that games will be broadcast on Wednesday and Thursday at 7 pm, giving us a bit of a fix, and then the following Sunday’s game will also be on TV at 1 pm. Be apprised.
For a lineup, we have this:
CF Figgins
SS Ryan
RF Ichiro
DH Montero
LF Carp
C Olivo
1B Liddi
3B Catricala
2B Kawasaki
P Beavan
I’m not really all that enthusiastic about that, so instead what I’m going to do here is use the post as an outlet for neat news stories that have come out over the past day or so. Geoff Baker had the most detailed story I’ve yet seen on who Erasmo Ramirez is and where he came from, which talks about how he had to go to El Salvador and train there before he was noticed by the scouts (little known fact). This goes along with the Shannon Drayer piece that Marc posted yesterday. Right now, there’s talk that Erasmo could break with the M’s to start the season. This has led to a few comparisons popping up now and then so I’ll address that even if the two aren’t really comparable in build.
A: 122.1 IP, 16.4 K%, 9.5 BB%
B: 110.1 IP, 16.8 K%, 5.6%
A is Doug Fister in his second year in West Tenn (curiously, his first year was better in some respects). B is Erasmo in Jackson last year. Fister had a another full year of time in the minor leagues that, at which point his walks dropped to 3.6%. That’s one of the reasons I don’t especially like the comp. But both are right-handed strike-throwers that don’t walk dudes, so it keeps coming up. I wouldn’t necessarily be opposed to Erasmo breaking with the team, but his secondary offerings still need some work and he’s right on the threshold of the strikeout comfort zone. We’ll see.
As for the national media’s attention to our pitching prospects, Ken Rosenthal had a comprehensive article on the three that brought in a lot of quotes from Zduriencik, Willis, and Miguel Olivo, who has been catching all of these guys. It also brings in an interesting point that I had forgotten about: Zduriencik was the Mets farm director back when Generation K was coming up. On the whole, I would characterize it as cautiously positive about the plan as it stands, though I’m of the opinion that we also really need to develop some hitting internally in order to carry this through.
The last piece I have to share is one on the main site where Carl Willis talks about the bond between Walker, Paxton, and Hultzen. The Paxton/Walker relationship had been talked about a bit last year when both were in Clinton, and Hultzen seems to have slipped into that pretty easily. Now they’re talking about not wanting to split the group up so, I don’t know, maybe all of them end up in Jackson? It would be pretty ambitious to slot Walker there and have him skip over advanced-A entirely, but given the conundrums that High Desert presents us with, it may end up as the better option.
So, baseball?
Cactus League Game 11: Mariners at Giants
Yesterday’s impressive win against the Diamonbacks behind the pitching performance of the M’s big three big four pitching prospects opened a lot of eyes nationally. Erasmo Ramirez transformation from undersized/underpowered righty to a prospect (almost) in the class of the three pitchers who followed him last night is nothing short of remarkable – Shannon Drayer’s got a great story on him here.
Yesterday’s split squad games featured a legitimate M’s line-up in the A game and the exciting pitchers in the B game. Today, we get the best of both worlds with a good line-up and, well, Felix. The M’s made 15 cuts this morning, but they haven’t made the list official as of yet as they were waiting for some player to arrive after he had a flat tire this morning. That should get the number of players in MLB camp down to 47.
The Lineup for today’s game at 1:05:
1: Ackley (2B)
2: Rodriguez (SS)
3: Seager (3B)
4: Smoak (1B)
5: Peguero (RF)
6: Catricala (DH)
7: Saunders (CF)
8: Jaso (C)
9: Robinson (LF)
SP: King Felix
Behind Hernandez, the M’s will get a look at Steve Delabar, Tom Wilhelmsen, Cesar Jimenez, Lucas Luetge, Forrest Snow, Shawn Kelley and Oliver Perez.
Go M’s.
Cactus League Game 9/10, Split Squad Day!
Split squad day! Among my most favorite of days! The first game is going to be vs. the Dodgers at the usual time which, tomorrow with Daylight Savings Time, will become unusual. Then game two will be off the radio and a 6:10 in the evening and we will again combat those loathsome Snakes.
How about some lineup action?
vs. Dodgers
SS Figgins
2B Ackley
RF Ichiro
1B Smoak
3B Seager
C Olivo
CF Saunders
DH Wells
LF Chiang
P Iwakuma
That’s pretty much a lineup. The bench will feature Jaso, Miller, Triunfel, JABARI BLASH, Liddi, Sucre, deJesus, Hicks, and Trayvon. I would guess that the bullpen will not see Roenis Elias or Jonathan Arias, though both are listed, instead favouring Furbush, League, Robles, Ruffin, Heilman, and Marquez. But who knows?
This is a second lineup:
2B Kawasaki
SS Ryan
1B Carp
C Montero
3B Catricala
RF Wilson
DH Jimenez
LF Chavez
CF Ford
P Erasmo Ramirez
The bench here consists of Peguero, Alfredo Morales, Francisco Martinez, Noriega, Baron, Quiroz, Luis Rodriguez, Franklin, and Henriquez. Why does squad B need three backup catchers? I don’t know. I just don’t know. Their pitching staff features Hultzen, Walker, Paxton, Fox, Henn, and Medina in backup capacities. Those of you who have Gameday Audio will be able to listen in on the Arizona portion of the broadcast. Those of us without will weep.
The news from camp today is that Wilhelmsen and Kelley might end up in late relief roles with veterans faltering. Both certainly have the stuff to manage it. I know we went on a sudden reliever splurge at the end of the offseason, but the early returns on that were not especially good and the investment in relative terms, not particularly high. Jim Bowden apparently thinks our rebuilding plan positions us to be the next Rays, which means that our pitching is so interesting that it diverted his attention away from athletic outfielders. The TNT says Peguero is trying to curb the strikeouts. Keep pushing that boulder, kid. And today is the first day of full minor league workouts! They will be working hard even though they will not get to go to Japan, or any place other than the leagues that they are intended to go to.
Cactus League Game #8 – Diamondbacks at Mariners
Fresh off of their fifth win in a row, the M’s resume beating up on National League teams today at 12:05. Today’s victim? 2011 NL West champs, the Arizona Diamondacks. Jason Vargas, who went four perfect innings over the weekend, gets the start against #3 overall draft pick and big-time prospect Trevor Bauer. The studious righty was discussed as a potential late-season call-up in the year he was drafted. He details all nine (9) pitches in his Darvishian repertoire in this fascinating story at MiLB.com.
Here’s the lineup, courtesy of Larry LaRue:
1: Figgins (3B)
2: Ryan (SS)
3: Ichiro (RF)
4: Carp (LF)
5: Wells (CF)
6: Peguero (DH)
7: Liddi (1B)
8: Jaso (C)
9: Kawasaki (2B)
SP: Vargas
Other notes:
The M’s have scored a total of 20 runs from the 7th inning on during their current 5 game winning streak. Our bench players/minor leaguers are clearly the cream of the Cactus League crop.
Three players who weren’t quite creamy enough to remain in major league camp were reassigned today – Philippe Valiquette, Steve Garrison and Jarret Grube.
Adam Moore’s injury may not be as severe as once thought, as he’s not going to have a cast. He’ll be held out of action for at least two weeks, but it’s a little bit of good news for a guy who could use some.
Cactus League Game 7
Kevin Millwood takes the mound for the M’s against the Chicago Cubs in Mesa at 12:05 today in the A game while the B team faced the Rockies this morning.
The “real” Spring Training line-up:
1: Ackley (2B)
2: Saunders (CF)
3: Montero (DH)
4: Smoak (1B)
5: Seager (3B)
6: Olivo (C)
7: Peguero (RF)
8: Wells (LF)
9: Kawasaki (SS)
SP: Kevin Millwood
Aaaand the kids who played Colorado were:
1: Brad Miller (SS)
2: Jaso (1B)
3: Catricala (3B)
4: Sucre (C)
5: Robinson (CF)
6: Jimenez (DH)
7: Chavez (RF)
8: Chiang (LF)
9: Romero (2B)
SP: Noesi
Yu Darvish’s start dominated the headlines as you might expect.
Go M’s – no injuries today, please.
Adam Moore Suffers Wrist Fracture
In what’s beginning to seem like an annual tradition, Adam Moore sustained a serious injury that will keep him out of action for weeks or months. Greg Johns reports that Moore broke the wrist while blocking a pitch in the dirt in the Cactus League game against Cincinnati.
Dave Cameron’s already made the requisite Chris Snelling analogy, but it’s not a good sign that his last two serious injuries have occurred in non-contact defensive plays – he’s not been hurt by a runner trying to score like Buster Posey, and it wasn’t a Verlander fastball that broke a bone. I feel bad for Moore who’d started the spring playing extremely well, and he’ll be able to play this season, but these injuries make his future as a catcher even more uncertain.
Cactus League Game #6 – Mariners at Angels
Today’s game offers a sneak preview of an AL West rival, and both teams are running out quite a few opening day starters (though not that free agent 1B the Angels brought in from the National League). Blake Beavan gets the start for the M’s against Jered Weaver of the Angels. Today’s game’s in Tempe, so there won’t be any pitch fx/velocity information in gameday for us to worry about. Yesterday’s win over Cincinnati featured a solid performance from King Felix, some shaky innings from Hong Chih-Kuo and Chance Ruffin, and great hitting from Ichiro and the forgotten man in the M’s new found catching depth, Adam Moore. Ichiro went 3-3, while Moore went 2-2 (and was also hit by a pitch) with a double that carried 410′ on the fly.
One of the big stories for the Angels this spring is Mark Trumbo’s move to 3B. The slugger played 1B last year while Kendrys Morales recovered from surgery, but with the arrival of Pujols and the possible return of Morales, Trumbo needed a new position. Trumbo himself was coming off an injury to his foot which held him out of drills in February, so he’s had less practice at the hot corner than the team would probably like. Even before he was cleared to play – in informal workouts with Angels coaches – he made the news when a bad throw pegged GM Jerry DiPoto in the leg, and when a bad hop resulted in a bloody nose. This is something to watch – if he’s able to play at a not-abysmal level, then the Angels aren’t forced to move/bench a guy who hit 29 HRs last year.
The line-up for today’s game, which starts at 12:05:
1: Figgins (CF)
2: Ackley (2B)
3: Seager (3B)
4: Montero (C)
5: Carp (LF)
6: Olivo (“DH”)
7: Saunders (RF)
8: Ryan (SS)
9: Rodriguez (1B)
Good to see Jesus Montero back in the line-up (and at catcher) after a few days off with stomach flu/food poisoning. Michael Saunders moves over to right field to accomodate Chone Figgins in center, and Luis Rodriguez plays first base just to remind everyone that this is spring training and ultimately doesn’t matter.
Back in Peoria, the Rangers take on the Padres, a game which is notable as it marks Yu Darvish’s first game action since coming over from Japan. Thus, we WILL get some data on his arsenal and velocity.