Game 121, Blue Jays at Mariners
Vargas vs. Mills, 7:10pm
Jason Vargas and Brad Mills face off tonight in a match-up of soft-tossing lefties trying to keep the ball in the stadium. Both have pretty good change-ups, and that’s nice, because neither’s going to do much with their fastball. Mills’ averages a hair under 85 MPH, which isn’t good, and what’s worse is that he has trouble commanding it.
Will wonders never cease? This line-up looks awfully familiar:
1: Ichiro
2: Gutierrez
3: Ackley
4: Carp
5: Wells
6: Olivo
7: Robinson
8: Seager
9: Wilson
If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. It’s amazing how much easier it is to fill out a line-up card when you’ve got hitters. Wells vs. Mills seems like a good match-up for the M’s.
The Rainiers open a series against the Omaha Storm Chasers tonight at Cheney. I’d circled this one at the beginning of the season, as Omaha had what looked like the best assemblage of talent in the minors – Mike Moustakas, Eric Hosmer, Danny Duffy, Mike Montgomery, Johnny Giavotella, etc. Well, all of the above except Montgomery are now playing in Kansas City. They’re still pretty good, but it looks like they’re relying more on vets (Jeff Suppan!) and once-prospects (Vin Mazzaro, Kila Ka’aihue, Robinson Tejeda). That’s fine, as I want the Rainiers to keep up their scoring pace and lead the PCL in runs scored. Reno’s got a commanding lead at this point, but given that Wily Mo Pena now plays for Seattle instead, I don’t think the lead is safe.
Clinton and the entire Midwest League has a day off for travel and for roster shenanigans as they prepare to add players who signed at last night’s deadline. Should be fun to see where some of the new guys end up.
The Jays not only lost last night’s game, they also failed to sign their first-rounder, pitcher Tyler Beede. There’d been a lot of talk that they’d worked out a pre-draft deal – rumors which GM Alex Anthopolous angrily scuttled earlier (he’s been doing a lot of that these days). Anthopolous has had an amazing year, and they were able to sign their sandwich pick for a $1.65m deal (so it’s not like they’re totally empty handed), but losing Beede has to sting a bit.
Hultzen signs
Mariners 1st-round pick Danny Hultzen signed just ahead of the deadline. It’s a major-league contract, so Chris Ray was released to make room on the 40-man roster. Ray seemed to be improving after a horrible start to the year, but has never really gotten back to where he was five years ago with the Orioles. He was most recently on the disabled list, and you can probably give the team the benefit of the doubt in making the call about how well he might recover and whether he could contribute in the future. While the bullpen for next year is hardly settled, it’s not like Zduriencik can’t bring in a lot of spare parts (which is what Ray was in the first place) and cobble it together again in spring training.
All of the other high picks except for 3rd-rounder Kevin Cron have also signed. In place of Cron, they get a compensatory pick in the supplemental 3rd round next year. Unlike the 1st and 2nd rounds, makeup picks for the 3rd round come at the end of the round, not in the slot immediately after the unsigned pick. While generally you would rather have them sign, it’s nice that the front office gets another shot at finding a good player. You lose a little in terms of present value (effectively, the extra development time the player would get compared to someone in next year’s draft), but that difference isn’t nearly as dramatic as it would be for a higher draft pick like Hultzen.
Game 120 – Blue Jays at Mariners
Michael Pineda vs. Henderson Alvarez, 7:10pm
Happy Pineda Day!
The M’s welcome the Blue Jays to Safeco tonight as both teams trot out some of the young guys they hope to contend with in some glorious, Yankee-less future. 3B Brett Lawrie hasn’t slowed down following his promotion, Colby Rasmus is adjusting to life without Tony LaRussa and tonight, 21-year old RHP Henderson Alvarez makes his second MLB start.
Alvarez is a righty who sat in the mid-90s in his debut against Oakland 5 days ago, touching 97. He appears to have two fastballs, a change and a slider, but he’s not a swing-and-miss pitcher – he’s a ground ball guy. He maintained 50%+ rates at every stop in the minors, which, combined with low walk rates, helped him work around the fact that he doesn’t miss bats. Good velocity and an amazingly easy entry into the majors (Oakland, then Seattle away?) have helped him, but he’s not a good MLB player yet. He had a tRA in AA of over 4, and he got 5 swinging strikes in over 100 pitches against a terrible A’s offense in his first start. He has no business shutting out an M’s line-up that just acquitted themselves quite well against the Boston Red Sox. And yes, I now almost expect that he will.
1: Ichiro
2: Gutierrez
3: Ackley
4: Carp
5: Wells (DH)
6: Olivo
7: Robinson
8: Seager
9: Wilson
Other notes:
* Carter Capps makes his M’s system debut tonight for Clinton in the Midwest League.
* The Detroit Tigers acquired Delmon Young from Minnesota to shore up their corner OF situation, a situation they caused/exacerbated by trading Casper Wells to the M’s. No take-backs.
* The Rainiers close out a 4-game series at home against the Iowa Cubs, led by slugging 1B Bryan LaHair (who broke up Erasmo Ramirez’s shot at a CG shut-out last night with a 9th inning homer).
* Nick Franklin’s working his way back into game shape, playing in the Arizona League. Unfortunately, he went 0-5 with 4 Ks and two fielding errors today. Patience.
* The aforementioned Erasmo Ramirez had his best outing with the Rainiers last night, going 8 1/3 IP of 1 R, 7 H, 0 BB, 11 K ball against Iowa. He really struggled near the end of his tenure with Jackson, but this is still a great year for him. He sat at 94 for much of the game, and while he’s not been very consistent, I will call Henderson Alvarez a poor man’s Erasmo Ramirez for however long the former’s in the league.
Minor League Wrap (8/8-14/11)
Today is signing deadline day, and we’ll know who’s in and who isn’t at 9 pm PDT. To make some rounds on the latest from each, things with Hultzen are still ongoing, Cron hasn’t talked much with the M’s and has supposedly checked into his dorm at TCU, Chleborad has a pinched ulnar nerve that has kept him from pitching much this summer, and may either result in a lower dollar signing or jumping to college in the hopes of raising his stock, and Null, who was just named a Louisville Slugger All-American, has remained in contact with the M’s since the draft. I’ve found no news on Miller, Smith, Cohoes, Kela, Hawthorne, Brennan, Grifol, or Tresgallo. Marc and I might end up throwing together a podcast when things get finalized.
To the jump!
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Game 119 – Red Sox at Mariners
Furbush vs. Wakefield, 1:10pm
There’s something compelling about the prospect of Wily Mo Pena facing Tim Wakefield. Neither one’s a star, but Wakefield (and really knuckleballer, really) looks bizarre and almost superhuman when they can get through an MLB line-up throwing 55-65 MPH.
Pena, on the other hand, has some significant holes in his swing, but offers the possibility that he’ll one day sublimate a baseball. There’s plus power, there’s “80 grade” power, and there’s Pena. He may or may not be a productive DH for the M’s, but I’m going to watch, because I want to tell my grandkids about the time Pena swung and the ball vaporized into a small white cloud that confounded the opposition and umpires.
Tough assignment for Kyle Seager, but I’m glad he’s still getting some PAs. Olivo returns to the line-up as well. Other than those changes, the line-up’s pretty similar to the one that beat the Red Sox last night. This is a terrible match-up for Charlie Furbush. It’s a learning opportunity! Someday, in a game/season that matters, you’ll be glad you went through this.
1: Ichiro
2: Gutierrez
3: Ackley
4: Carp
5: Pena
6: Olivo
7: Wells
8: Wilson
9: Seager
Erasmo Ramirez pitches for Tacoma today against Iowa if you’d like to go to a ball game without thousands of Sawx fans.
Game 118, Red Sox at Mariners
Felix vs. Beckett, 7:10pm
Happy Felix Day, and joyous Wily Mo gloaming.
Another shake-up of the roster, and the M’s again add a bit of power. The loss of Smoak hurts; I was looking forward to seeing how he finished his season. But given the injury, it’s pretty tough to complain about calling up the red-hot Wily Mo Pena. Pena homered in his first PA with the Rainiers and hit a massive HR the other day in Round Rock. The M’s haven’t had a guy who the opposing team wants to watch in BP, but they’ve got one now.
Jack Wilson returns to the line-up in time to face Josh Beckett, who was sharp against the M’s a few weeks ago.
1: Ichiro
2: Gutierrez
3: Ackley
4: Carp (1b)
5: Pena (DH)
6: Wells
7: Bard
8: Rodriguez (3B)
9: Wilson (SS)
The other big news of the day is that the M’s came to terms with their 5th round draft pick, Tyler Marlette, a prep catcher from Florida. He signed an over-slot deal, and has a higher ceiling than the other catchers that the M’s drafted. Nice work; I was beginning to think he might head to Central Florida. Now go get Kevin Cron!
Justin Smoak -> Disabled List, Wily Mo Pena -> Seattle, Luke French -> DFA
In his first start back from a thumb injury caused/exacerbated by a bad-hop grounder, Justin Smoak suffered a broken nose and maxilla on a bad-hop grounder. The M’s haven’t given a time table for his return, but the plan seems to be for Mike Carp to take over at 1B, as he did in the Texas series.
Smoak’s spot on the active roster will go to Wily Mo Pena, who’s putting up a remarkable season in AAA. He’s got 4 HRs and an wOBA of over .550 in his short stint in Tacoma, and a wOBA of .499 in over 250 PAs for Reno. His hot start helped get him a call-up with the Arizona Diamondbacks, but they cut him after about 50 plate appearances in which he put up pretty much the most Wily Mo Pena line imaginable: 5 HRs (out of 9 total hits), 19 Ks and 0 walks. This is a limited player, but a fun one. The massive righty should get some work as the DH; we’ll see if they platoon him with a lefty (like Kennedy, though at this point I’d much rather see the 29-year old Pena face righties than Kennedy). Pena gets the start tonight against Boston.
To get Pena on the 40-man roster, the Mariners DFA’d Luke French, who’s having an abysmal season for Tacoma. His tRA is 7.54, his RA is 6.82, and his FIP is a shade over 7. He got shelled by the Iowa Cubs yesterday, giving up 7 runs in 2 1/3 IP. His velocity was never a strong point, but he’s been around 85 MPH this year, but then, he averaged 86 on his FB last year. That’d be a long time to keep pitching with an undiagnosed injury, and he was very successful for Tacoma last year. In any event, the promise he showed in 2009 before and after he was acquired from Detroit hasn’t been in evidence in quite a while.
Game 117 – Red Sox at Mariners
Beavan vs. Lackey, 7:10pm
The last time Lackey faced the M’s, I talked about his poor year and the fact that he was giving up fewer grounders and thus a lot more home runs. Earlier in the year, this meant very little, as the M’s were wholly incapable of hitting home runs. But they’ve shown a bit more power lately with the addition of Robinson and Carp’s hot streak. Lackey’s got a half-decent K:BB ratio, but he’s still been bad this year, but he’s facing the M’s in Safeco. Justin Smoak returns from his injury, and the M’s (including Carp and Ackley) saw Lackey somewhat recently, so hopefully they can drive a mistake out and get a win tonight.
The line-up:
1: Ichiro (RF)
2: Gutierrez
3: Ackley
4: Carp
5: Smoak (1b)
6: Kennedy (3b)
7: Olivo
8: Rodriguez (SS)
9: Robinson
A Quick Update On My Health
I probably won’t make this a regular thing, but so many of you have been so remarkably supportive since I was diagnosed with leukemia that I didn’t want to keep you all out of the loop as we moved down the path. I’ve now been in the hospital a little over two weeks, and have completed my first round of chemotherapy.
To determine how effective the chemo was, they performed a bone marrow biopsy on me earlier in the week. The results of that test are in – I officially have no more leukemia in my body. The doctors won’t say I’m in remission until they discharge me from the hospital in a week or two, but given that I’m currently cancer-free, I’m happy to use that term, even if it is technically a little premature.
This doesn’t end my journey, as I’m still going to be in for three more rounds of “consolidation chemo” over the next few months, and will be in and out of the hospital for most of the rest of 2011. Remission isn’t the same thing as cured – the goal is to keep this thing from ever coming back. However, it’s a great first step.
Someone please explain this to me
Is ESPN contractually obligated to show preseason football on its flagship channel? I know, I’m out of things, I don’t understand who is getting paid for what… and yet the NFL lockout makes pre-season NFL football look like split-squad (and B-squad at that) spring training games. And just in the world of baseball, there’s two games between teams #1 and #2: the AL Central division Indians-Tigers, with Verlander, and an NL Central division title game with Pujols.
There’s even a Yankees game on! How does that not get televised?
Is it tied to Monday Night Football? Help me understand.