Carlos Guillen Retires
After dealing with more knee problems this spring, Carlos Guillen has decided to retire. This opens up the reserve 3B/1B role on the roster, and now makes it possible that the Mariners could carry both Kyle Seager and Michael Saunders on the opening day roster. That’d be my guess for how this plays out now, anyway – Seager/Figgins will split time at third, and Figgins/Saunders/Wells will split time in center field.
Having Seager around instead of Guillen might also make Carp the backup first baseman, a role that would have otherwise been filled by Guillen instead, so Wells might see less time in center field but a little more in left field as a result. Essentially, this shifts some playing time from an older guy with no future in Seattle to a younger player who might be able to establish some value with additional playing time. No offense to Guillen, but this is probably a positive development for the club.
Cactus League Game 5, Reds at Mariners
I’m throwing this up good and early because I won’t be around later when the game actually starts. Yesterday’s thread was a bit disappointing though, as is usually the experience whenever I try to throw in a gameday post on a non-radio, non-TV day. Should I continue? Should I persist in throwing my efforts into the void? Here are some things that happened yesterday:
* Dustin Ackley had every part of the cycle except the home run. This was only because he didn’t get a fourth at-bat.
* Iwakuma threw mostly in the mid-to-high 80s and touched 90. Most of his pitches were identified as splitters or sinkers. He was pulled early after a bunch of errors behind him sent him to 30+ pitches in the first. (The M’s made five errors in all and had one assist from Trayvon).
* Sherrill was mid-to-high 80s as well, but maybe a little less than Iwakuma. Sherrill is usually a slow starter in spring training so this may not be a deal.
* The scrubs did damage late in the game. Through the fifth, the Mariners scored five runs, and in the final four innings, they scored eight. Included here: Adam Moore hitting a home run to right-center.
* Our top three pitching prospect all pitched in a B game against the Reds. That article has quotes, but Shannon’s article has gun readings that really liked what Hultzen was doing.
So now we’re here and the Mariners are going to send up Felix today. We all like Felix, right? Go and watch this. We really love Felix.
SS Figgins
2B Kawasaki
RF Ichiro!
1B Smoak
LF Carp
CF Wells
3B Liddi
DH Chavez
C Moore
P Felix!
Cactus League Game 4, Mariners at Padres
We’re only three games in and already, we have our first game off radio. From the standpoint of needing to get some work done, I can appreciate it, sure, but it interrupts the flow of things. Of course, it could be worse. We could have a game shut down by bees.
Instead we had a different sort of “B” opening the day, a “B” game against Cincinnati. This one features a few things of interest like Franklin at second (he made two errors) and Catricala at third, along with a pitching lineup that was schedule to include Walker, Hultzen, Paxton, Robles, and Erasmo Ramirez. Walker pitched a couple of frames, allowing a hit and a walk while striking out a pair. The walk was caught stealing with Quiroz behind the plate. All told, it took him twenty-six pitches. Then Hultzen came on for two more innings with a hit, a walk, and four Ks. The Franklin errors happened to come during his stint, so the bases were loaded as Hultzen was striking dudes out to end the inning. Awesome. Erasmo then threw a perfect two innings with just sixteen pitches. That’s less than three pitches a batter. That’s what Erasmo can do when he’s on. The seventh inning brought in Paxton, but he was struggling a bit more than his chums. He got pulled after an inning and two-thirds, three runs given up on six hits and a K. That’s the line as of 11:30. Of course, there’s also video at the TNT of Paxton, Hultzen, and Walker talking about each other. It’s neat.
Other news? We extended the lease with the Peoria Sports Complex by twenty years, but apparently no new TV deal is imminent. Steve Kelley talked about Mike Carp a while. The minor league camp is opening for pitchers and catchers today, which may mean that we’ll see the camp shrink soon.
The actual lineup, for the A-game, for which we will only have Gameday and our own wild speculation to serve us, runs like this:
2B Ackley
SS Ryan
RF Ichiro!
1B Smoak
LF Wells
3B Seager
C Olivo
DH Peguero
CF Saunders
P Iwakuma
George Sherrill is also supposed to debut today. Anticipation.
Saunders or Seager
With Franklin Gutierrez set to miss all of April and potentially more time depending on his rehab, the working assumption has been that the main benefactor of the open roster spot will be Michael Saunders. He’s probably the best defensive outfielder on the team besides Guti, and as a left-handed bat, he’d form a pretty natural job-share partner with Casper Wells. And, despite his miserable Major League performances to date, he was still a pretty highly rated prospect, and the team maintains some hope that he can translate his minor league numbers to the big leagues and become a useful player.
However, going with Saunders/Wells in CF until Guti gets back is not the only option, and may not even be the team’s best option. Chone Figgins has been getting some time in center field early in camp, and while he hasn’t played out there since 2006, I think there’s a pretty compelling case to be made that he should get a decent amount of his early season playing time in center.
Essentially, the options break down like this:
Vs RHP: Figgins (3B) and Saunders (CF)
Vs LHP: Figgins (3B) and Wells (CF)
or
Vs RHP: Seager (3B) and Figgins (CF)
vs LHP: Figgins (3B) and Wells (CF)
If Figgins shows that he can play a half-decent center field during March, the team could essentially use his ability to move between CF and 3B to create a platoon of Seager and Wells, giving Seager the roster spot that Saunders is the presumed favorite for. There are several advantages to going that way instead.
For one, Seager is likely to be quite a bit better than Saunders this year, especially at the plate. ZIPS doesn’t love either player, but projects Seager for a .267/.323/.372 line compared to Saunders’ .220/.298/.339 mark. Neither is likely to be an offensive force, but Seager could be a competent hitter against RHPs, and help the team score more runs and win more games early in the season.
There’s also the fact that Seager is the more likely of the two to have a real future in Seattle. Even if Saunders shows some improvement at the plate, he’s probably still not going to be more than a fourth outfielder going forward, and he’ll have to prove more useful than Casper Wells to wrestle that job away going forward. Meanwhile, Seager has a real chance to be the team’s regular third baseman for the next couple of years, and even if the bat doesn’t prove up to the task for a starting job, he’s the best in-house candidate for a utility infielder/super-sub role. There’s an open spot on the roster for Seager going forward, which is not true of Saunders unless he shows remarkable improvement.
Finally, there’s also some potential added value for Figgins if he shows he can play center field. Right now, the Mariners are hoping that he has a nice start to the season so they can try to unload some of that contract this summer, but in reality, there aren’t many teams shopping for a third baseman with absolutely no power. Figgins’ skillset is much more commonly accepted in center field, and if he hits well while holding down CF at a respectable level, the team could expand the pool of clubs that would potentially be interested in his services. As strictly a third baseman, you might only have one or two teams that could be talked into taking some of Figgins’ remaining salary, but if he’s showing some positional versatility and could profile as either a 3B or an OF, you could have five or six clubs looking at him as an option for the second half of the year.
Seager and Wells are probably the two young guys on the team who aren’t currently slotted in as starters that the team should be most interested in looking at, and they’re the two most likely to produce at the plate in the early part of the season. Bouncing Figgins between third and center field could also help his trade value, and give the team a better chance of getting him off the books sooner than later. If Saunders shows some real improvement in his contact abilities during March, I’m not opposed to giving him a chance, but that’d probably be Plan B for me. I’d rather have Seager and Wells get that playing time rather than hoping Saunders has figured out how to hit something on the outer half of the plate over the winter.
Cactus League Game 3, Padres at Mariners
Good day to you and welcome again to baseball. This marks the first game of the Cactus League season against our rivals, the Padres. It feels like a return to normalcy. I know that for the past two days, I had felt as though something was “off” about this spring training that I couldn’t quite articulate. Now I know: we weren’t playing the Padres yet.
The news circuit is somewhat slow this morning. Rick Rizzs guest blogged an article about Griffey at the official Mariners blog. It’s formatted like a Steve Kelley article. The actual Steve Kelley talked to Jamie Moyer, who is attempting that comeback with the Rockies. Imagine for a moment if he ended up in the Springs instead to start the season. Oh my. Larry Stone talked about Trayvon Robinson and some of the struggles he experienced at the end of last season. Larry LaRue talked to Alex Liddi and apparently he’s a big deal back home. If none of these do it for you, re-read Marc’s piece on Noesi and/or be glad that no one on the team has Valley Fever.
As playing the regulars proved somewhat ineffective yesterday, we’re doing something weird again. Wedge wants to play the guys and so we will play the guys. With the way things look now, I can only imagine what it will be like this coming Saturday, when we get our first split squad.
CF Figgins
SS Kawasaki
3B Seager
1B Carp
DH Montero
C Jaso
2B Rodriguez
LF Robinson
RF Chiang
P Vargas
The bench today features fourteen guys. Pitchers we might see include Furbush, Henn, League, Snow, Marquez, Fox, Grube, Ruffin, and Patterson.
Hector Noesi Impressive – Rest of Team Less So
Back in January, Dave wrote about Hector Noesi and his surprising velocity. Dave’s article cited his scouting report of an 89-93 MPH fastball (a pretty big range, really) with the ability to touch 96 (making the range even bigger), and also mentioned that Noesi was able to sustain good velocity in his longer outings with the Yankees. Then came reports from the Dominican Winter League that Noesi was touching 98 MPH, despite working as a starting pitcher. Needless to say, I was looking forward to Hector Noesi’s first start this pre-season. In Peoria. With Pitch FX.
Let’s be clear – this was a two-inning start in early March. It’s tempting to over-analyze the 30-odd pitches because they’re all we’ve got so far and because it’s March and all the M’s have done is play pretend games against Oakland’s minor leaguers. This isn’t intended to settle the question about Noesi’s stuff – it’s just a snapshot. The fact that his outing was so short may inflate his velo, though to be fair, the fact that it’s his first spring training start might depress it. I have no idea. However, what Pitch FX showed was a guy averaging 94–95 on two different fastballs. In the first inning, he hit 96.6 MPH against Seth Smith.
He didn’t allow any hits, but he had poor command, which led to two walks. Many of his “misses” weren’t exactly borderline; he threw four consecutive balls- none of which were close – to Michael Taylor/Anthony Recker before straightening things out. Still, Noesi’s been a command guy in the minors, with walk rates under 5% until 2011. If he’s now got an above average fastball (and perhaps an above average sinker/two-seamer), then he really changes the nature of the trade. If they got an MLB-ready arm that tops out as a middle-reliever, then the loss of Jose Campos might sting a bit. But if Noesi can maintain this (or maintain this velocity without the command issues), he’s an intriguing starting pitching prospect who could begin the year with the big club. If he’s consistently 93-95 in the rotation, he’s not a swing-man/#5 starter, he’s got a shot to be the #3 starter by July.
Unfortunately, the rest of the game didn’t follow suit. Hong-Chih Kuo – trying to make the team as the second lefty in the bullpen behind George Sherrill – had a forgettable inning, throwing about 30 pitches with velocity below his career average and giving up three hits including a HR. The line-up. which many noted looks similar to what the M’s might roll out on opening day, managed just two hits in the first six innings (one of them, a HR, came off the one guy everyone agree will NOT be in the opening day line-up – Carlos Peguero). Michael Saunders didn’t do much, and Franklin Gutierrez is still going to miss a month or more.
Despite the poor hitting, Noesi’s performance offered something for optimists to grab on to. Despite the presence of Jesus Montero (who’s fine, despite being held out today – he should be in the line-up against San Diego tomorrow), the M’s don’t project as a league-average offense. They’re going to need to maintain their sterling runs-allowed if they want to avoid another run at 100 losses, and they’re going to need to do so without Michael Pineda. Noesi offers one of the best opportunities on the roster to blow the PECOTA/CAIRO/Gut-feeling projection out of the water.
Other stories today:
* In 2011, the M’s saw one of their best players, CF Franklin Gutierrez, felled by a mysterious illness that led to a horrific 2011 batting line. Well, the Mets may be in the same boat. Adam Rubin of ESPN is reporting that 1B Ike Davis of the Mets may have Valley Fever, the strange fungal infection that stopped Conor Jackson’s career in its tracks and, for the old-timers out there, basically ended Barry Bonnell’s career as soon as he joined the M’s. Jackson said it’s like “mono on steroids” and the Mets are trying to reduce Davis’ workload and make sure he’s well-rested. But this is a player who relied on power to excel, and the examples of Bonnell and Jackson aren’t exactly encouraging. Davis is a great talent, and having just seen Gutierrez attempt to play through IBS in 2011, I wouldn’t wish this on anyone. Here’s hoping Davis is able to make a full recovery. And, since I’m already discussing crappy luck, that Gutierrez’s musculature stops tearing so easily.
* Yoenis Cespedes’ deal with the Oakland Athletics became official after the Cuban CF passed a physical today. The A’s don’t have to think hard about a 40-man roster move, as the injury to starting 3B Scott Sizemore makes it easy – Sizemore will go to the 60-man and will likely miss the entirety of the 2012 season and Cespedes will take his spot on the roster.
Cactus League Game 2, A’s at Mariners
Welcome back for this, the second game of our Cactus League schedule. Feels easy slipping back into this routine, right? Like falling off a bicycle.
There were three big stories from this morning, I suppose. One is that Jesus Montero is A-OK, something that might surprise you as being an issue if you weren’t listening yesterday. The cool thing to come out of that game was that Montero hit one of those opposite field dingers we’re counting on him to hit this season. The uncool thing is that he was removed after getting smacked in the jaw twice by consecutive foul balls. The Mariners figured that after that, he had done his work and probably didn’t want to play anymore. It’s a common thing to not want to play a game anymore after being knocked in the jaw twice. Man, once I was locked in just this intense match of Guess Who? and… anyway…
The other bit of news was that Saunders hit dingers, which affords us the opportunity to talk a little about him. I think we also did that one of the last time I was posting links too. Shannon Drayer wrote a little piece on it yesterday, talking about the 60 oz bat in practice (we were always looking for those big bats!), the rubber bands that he used to stabilize himself, something involving a dog tennis ball tosser that I’m not quite sure I understand. He’s also trying to change his approach to the point where he’s less passive and now I have Wedge’s talk about aggressiveness ringing in my ears. But the important thing is that we’re talking about him in a positive light for things that he’s actually accomplished. In one game, I know. Still, he seems like he’ll have a good chance to pick up the center field job to open the season.
And Guti? It turns out that the tear in his pectoral muscle was partial and won’t require surgery, and that may mean he’ll get back a little sooner. He won’t be able to participate in any upper body work in the short-term and will be in a sling for a little while. Guti seems positive about his abilities to get back though, which is good because I know that more than a few of us were probably afraid he was cursed or something and looking at the third year of being somewhat broken.
Here’s a lineup. It looks more like an actual Mariners lineup. Take that however you will.
3B Figgins
2B Ackley
RF Ichiro!
1B Smoak
LF Carp
C Olivo
DH Peguero
CF Saunders
SS Ryan
P Noesi
Since they’re playing at home, today’s bench features everyone. Seriously, nineteen-man bench over here. After Noesi, Millwood and Kuo are supposed to pitch. Then other guys will pitch until there are enough innings.
Cactus League Game 1, Mariners at A’s
After four long and agonizing games of the Mariners beating themselves, we get the beginning of the Cactus League season and a return to baseball on the radio. Someone could argue that because the Mariners will be facing the A’s today and will also be facing the A’s to start the regular season in Japan, this is a preview of sorts for opening day. This better not be a preview of opening day. Oh man, if this ended up being a preview of opening day…
SS Kawasaki
3B Seager
LF Wells
C Montero
RF Peguero
DH Catricala
1B Liddi
CF Saunders
2B Rodriguez
P Beavan
What’s funny about this is that they’re carrying with them a sixteen-man bench. This was still the best that they could manage. If they are going to pull these shenanigans, it might as well be now, when we’re all hungry and bleary-eyed.
There are things that are going to be of some interest in this, of course. Saunders will be in center. There’s a decent chance that ends up being a real thing to start the season. Catricala gets an opportunity to do something other than try to hit Mariners pitchers. Though Ryan is not in so bad a shape, Rodriguez and Kawasaki are effectively competing for the backup infielder position. And, of course, there’s Montero, who will be catching Beavan, who will be throwing mostly fastballs.
Baseball?
“Considerable Concern” Regarding Gutierrez
Eric Wedge just gave a brief health update on Franklin Gutierrez, and while there’s no official report yet, it doesn’t sound great. Gutierrez has flown back to Seattle (bad sign #1) to get examined further, and Wedge mentioned that he has “considerable concern” about Gutierrez’s status going forward. This could turn out to be as minor as a strained pectoral or as serious as something more serious. Googling for “injuries more serious than a pectoral strain” didn’t help me out much, and I never went to med school. Anyway, I’d prepare for bad news.
So, right now, Casper Wells is probably the team’s starting center fielder, and Michael Saunders might find himself back in the mix for a big league roster spot. There will be talk about Trayvon Robinson competing for that spot too, but he’s not a good defender and an outfield with him and Carp side by side could be disastrous for a pitch to contact staff. Saunders still needs to show he can put the bat on the ball and occasionally hit something on the outer half of the plate, but at least he’s got a solid glove. Still, a Wells/Saunders job-share in CF is a pretty big step down from what the team hoped to get from Gutierrez.
If it turns out to be something that Gutierrez could come back from in April or May, maybe you live with Saunders/Wells for a few weeks. If he’s going to be out much past the start of the season, though, I’d strongly suggest looking outside the organization for help. Will Venable could probably still be extracted from San Diego for the right offer. There are guys the team could get that would keep the team from having another disaster in the outfield again.
If this is going to be a long term injury, the organization shouldn’t settle for Saunders or Robinson just because they’re young and already here. They can do better.
And we have news – torn pectoral, will be off the field for four weeks, at which time he’ll “resume baseball activities” and be re-evaluated. This basically means he’ll miss all of spring training (again), and probably won’t be back on the team before the beginning of May. And that’s assuming this thing heals on its own. If it lingers, we could be looking at another lost season for Guti.
Franklin Gutierrez Health Concerns Rise Again
We don’t really know much at this point, but reports from camp (including this one from Shannon Drayer) note that Franklin Gutierrez left camp with assistant trainer Rob Nodine this morning. Drayer adds that she was told that Gutierrez tried to make a few throws in from center field and couldn’t get anything on it, so the speculation is that the issue might have to do with his shoulder, not the IBS symptoms he had last year.
This could turn out to be nothing, but it’s not exactly good news that Guti’s hanging out with the trainers again. The team has basically no depth in the outfield, and if this turns out to be a real issue, they’ll have to consider bringing in someone from outside the organization.