Cactus League Game 11, M’s at Dodgers
RF Ichiro!
3B Figgins
CF Gutierrez
DH Cust
1B Kennedy
2B Jack Wilson
LF Saunders
C Bard
SS Josh Wilson
P Fister
A lineup without Gabe Gross and Sean Kazmar? This seems improbable to me but I’m sure that they can fix it later. Pauley, League, Olson, Cortes, Ring, Ray, Roe, and Paredes are possibilities for pitching later in the game.
The game notes inform me that the upcoming rotation is Bedard, Pineda, and Blake Beaven. If they are to be believed, we’ll have radio feeds on Friday and Saturday. If you have MLB Network, then this particular game will be broadcast at 8 pm.
Yesterday was just the second spring training shutout we’ve had since ’94, according to Greg Johns. And we have a winning record! Savor every moment.
Split Squad Cactus League Games 10, 11. Or 10a/10b.
Head vs. heart, nature vs. nurture, man vs. wild, blue vs. gray, and now this – the first split squad game of the spring. How will the A team react to not having dozens and dozens of teammates cheer them on? How will the B team react to being labeled ‘the B team?’
The A game features Jason Vargas making his Cactus League debut and a line-up that looks like so:
1: Josh Wilson
2: Brendan Ryan
3: Justin Smoak
4: Jack Cust
5: Ryan Langerhans (CF)
6: Michael Saunders (DH)
7: Gabe Gross
8: Matt Mangini
9: Adam Moore
The B game’s noteworthy in that the M’s are trying Milton Bradley in CF.
1: Dustin Ackley
2: Adam Kennedy
3: Milton Bradley
4: Mike Carp (DH)
5: Tui (1B)
6: Mike Wilson
7: Alex Liddi
8: Luis Rodriguez
9: Steve Baron
SP: Luke French
(Line-ups via Larry Stone)
Cactus League Game 9, M’s at A’s
RF Ichiro!
3B Figgins
CF Gutierrez
1B Carp
2B Jack Wilson
SS Ryan
LF Saunders
C Gimenez
DH Mangini
P Felix! and then Pineda!
If Twitter isn’t lying to us, then it seems as though the game won’t be on radio after all. I’m going to tune in anyway and be horribly disappointed.
Jack Wilson is back in the lineup. That’s something.
Stories From Camp That I’m Reading, pt. 3
Has it been a week? Yes, it has been a week. Here are some things to tide you over until Felix! and Pineda! around noon.
Read more
Cactus League Game 8: M’s at Giants
12:05 start, on 710 radio and MLB gameday audio.
Line-up:
Dustin Ackley 2B
Adam Kennedy 3B
Milton Bradley LF
Jack Cust DH
Justin Smoak 1B
Ryan Langerhans CF
Carlos Peguero RF
Josh Bard C
Luis Rodriguez SS
Nate Robertson P
* Ichiro gets the day off, so Carlos Peguero gets some at-bats against Tim Lincecum and Madison Bumgarner. I don’t know that you could get more dissimilar players, physically, at one position (pitchers don’t count: Randy Johnson and Rich Garces).
* Behind Robertson, the M’s have Blake Beavan, Brandon League, Garrett Olson, Chaz Roe, Cesar Jimenez, Fabio Castro, Chris Smith and Yusmeiro Petit.
* The low-leverage righty competition has been ugly so far. Today’s entrant is Chris Smith, who’s a huge longshot to make the team, but, but between Dan Cortes’ disastrous inning yesterday, Manny Delcarmen’s poor command/velocity, Denny Bautista’s struggles…no, he’s still a longshot. I have no idea how these guys have looked in workouts, and they can’t make the decision based on the results of tiny samples, but a lot of these NRI/prospect guys are not exactly making a case for themselves. We knew this was going to be a battle this spring, but I think we’d all like tough decisions that aren’t least-worst options.
* Greg Johns notes that Olivo had his MRI, but the doctors won’t actually review it until tomorrow.
* Minor league pitchers/catchers report to Peoria today, with physicals tomorrow and workouts beginning Tuesday.
Cactus League Game 7, Indians at M’s
DH Ichiro!
3B Figgins
CF Gutierrez
1B Kennedy
C Olivo
LF Saunders
SS Ryan
2B Kazmar
RF M. Wilson
P Bedard
Bedard could be followed by Jamey Wright, Chris Seddon, Dan Cortes, and Manny Delcarmen on the mound today. I’d tune in early and then see what happens later with Cortes. Jack Wilson was a late scratch from the lineup because he was sick or something, which is better than the usual reasons he’s not in the lineup.
• Paxton signed yesterday, and I’ll probably talk about that more in the links dump on Monday, but two early and very important bits of info are that he’s been working out at Boras’ complex and that the Mariners view him as a starter.
• Yesterday, someone asked me when we might see Nick Franklin in the Mariners lineup during the Cactus League season and my immediate answer was “whenever we get to split squads.” Seems like an easy response, right? After all, we’ve already faced a D’Backs split squad, are facing an Indians one today, and from here out will be facing the Angels twice, the Cubs, and the Dodgers. We only have one split squad day in all of spring training. The Astros have six this April, as do the Diamondbacks. This all seems weird to me, but it’s more common than I thought as the Nats, Pirates, Rays, Twins, and Padres are all playing just one split squad day too. I’m sure the Padres were just copying us though.
• Mauricio Robles and Erik Bedard share a birthday. That day is today.
Cactus League Game 6 – Reds at Mariners
Back in Peoria, meaning more pitch fx! Woo! Which means we get to check on Doug Fister’s velo, which Felix and Pineda play a road game in pitch fx-less Phoenix.
Anyway, the line-up thanks to Greg Johns:
1: Ichiro!
2: Figgins
3: Bradley
4: Cust
5: Smoak
6: Gross
7: Josh Wilson
8: Ackley
9: Moore
P: Doug Fister
That’s Gabe Gross in CF and Jack Cust in LF, which would be concerning if this game meant something. As it is, this may be a way of reinforcing the importance of GBs to the pitching staff.
Cactus League Game 5, M’s at White Sox
Edit: Video feed. AWESOME.
Still no radio feed for this. Isn’t spring training supposed to be about the radio? And broadcasters asking “hey, who is this #89 kid?” and then not being able to pronounce it anyway?
SS Ja. Wilson
CF Guti
DH Bradley
LF Cust
C Olivo
3B Kennedy
2B Ryan
1B Carp
CF Halman
LHP French
* This marks the first time we’ll be seeing hearing reading about the double play duo of Ryan and Jack Wilson, which is something that has been talked up a bit as a possibility this spring.
* Felix threw a simulated game and is already well on his way to simulating a repeat of his Cy Young win.
* Omar Vizquel is batting ninth and playing short for the White Sox and at one point we were concerned about his medicals to the point where we would not trade for him. Those years seem funny now.
* Brandon League is working on a slider, which is probably more like a cutter for its effect. He can call it whatever he pleases so long as it helps him improve.
* Aaron Laffey is being looked at as a reliever, after bouncing back and forth between the bullpen and the rotation and struggling because of it. This sounds vaguely familiar.
M’s Acquire Aaron Laffey
Not satisfied with their current crop of left-handed pitchers whose fastballs average 87 MPH, the Mariners added another one to what the guys at LL call “The Pile” by acquiring Aaron Laffey. The team is certainly taking a quantity approach to stockpiling southpaws, as Laffey joins the likes of Nate Robertson, Garrett Olson, Cesar Jimenez, Luke French, Royce Ring, and Chris Seddon as options for either the fifth spot in the rotation or a job as a left-handed arm out of the bullpen. While his velocity isn’t going to impress, Laffey does offer a couple of skills that set him apart from most of this crew:
1. He’s a sinkerball guy who gets grounders in decent quantites. While the M’s have had no shortage of fly ball lefties over the last few years, Laffey offers something a bit different, in that 51.6% of his careers balls in play have been hit on the ground. While this means that he won’t get as big of a boost from Safeco as someone like Jason Vargas, it does mean that he’s more likely to be able to induce a double play when its called for, and that does have its advantages. Especially if he ends up as a reliever, where he would be called upon to enter situations with men on base.
2. Speaking of being a reliever, Laffey has some pretty significant platoon splits. Here are his career marks against hitters from each side:
Vs LHB: 2.86 BB/9, 6.39 K/9, 0.57 HR/9, 46.9% GB%, 3.77 FIP, 4.38 xFIP
Vs RHB: 3.90 BB/9, 3.50 K/9, 0.64 HR/9, 53.4% GB%, 4.68 FIP, 5.04 xFIP
While he gets ground balls against hitters from either side, the big difference is the strikeout rate. Laffey’s slider gives him a pitch he can use to get whiffs against left-handed bats, but his change-up isn’t very good and the slider doesn’t work against right-handed hitters. The lack of any kind of out pitch means that he has to nibble on the corners, and that drives up the walk rate. Laffey is not much use against RHBs, but because the Indians have used him primarily as a starter, he’s faced 1,000 of those in his career compared to just 408 left-handed batters.
If used as a reliever, the team could get a far more favorable distribution of batters faced, and Laffey’s numbers would look quite a bit better simply from not facing the same proportion of right-handed bats. Without significant improvement from his change-up, he’s probably not cut out to be a starting pitcher in the big leagues, but his repertoire has shown that it’s at least somewhat effective against lefties. Given that the M’s have a bunch of southpaws who aren’t that great against lefties, Laffey actually gives the team another option as a lefty specialist. It’s not the sexiest role on a roster, but as we saw quite a bit the last few years, it can be important to have that kind of guy on the roster who can go after a tough lefty or get a ground ball when you need it.
He’s not a great pitcher by any stretch of the imagination, but Laffey is useful in the right role. If the team doesn’t like what they see from Robertson or Ring, Laffey could be a better option as a left-on-left reliever than many of the other incumbents. On the surface, he might look like a nothing acquisition, but he’s got a chance to actually help the team.
To acquire Laffey, the M’s surrendered Matt Lawson, the infielder they received from Texas in the Cliff Lee deal. Lawson was a utility infielder in the making, so this isn’t much of a loss. In order to make room for Laffey on the 40 man roster, the team has placed Shawn Kelley on the 60 day DL.
Cactus League Game 4, M’s at D’Backs
You might want to tune into this one (12:10 pm, 710 AM) because the Mariners are sending out Michael Pineda for a few innings against a Diamondbacks split squad that is headlined by Mariners footnote Aaron Heilman and has Willie Bloomquist leading off. One thing I really like about Pineda: he tries to soak up as much knowledge as he can, recently taking time out to watch Felix’s bullpen sessions to see what he might be able to pick up. If Pineda ever busts (knocking on wood as we speak), it won’t be for lack of effort on his part, but something else entirely.
DH Ichiro!
3B Figgins
LF Gross
1B Smoak
CF Saunders
SS Ryan
RF Chavez
C Bard
2B L. Rodriguez