Game 83, Royals at Mariners
Rowland-Smith vs Greinke, 7:10 pm.
The last time the M’s played Kansas City, they beat Felix and we beat Greinke, so it all evened out at the end of the series. Well, they beat Felix (sort of) again last night, but I’m not going to bet on the M’s repeating history tonight. Greinke vs Hyphen… not great for the M’s.
Line-up wise, Saunders moves up to 7th. He’s had a couple of impressive at-bats that led to walks the last few days, which is my guess for the impetus behind this move. Good to see Wak getting him a little higher in the line-up.
Ichiro, RF
Figgins, 2B
Branyan, DH
Lopez, 3B
Gutierrez, CF
Kotchman, 1B
Saunders, LF
Bard, C
Jack Wilson, SS
Dave on KGA
I’ll be doing my regular weekly spot on SportsRadio 1510 KGA in Spokane tonight, rather than in our normal Monday slot, due to the holiday. I’ll be on with Toby and Danny at 5:35. You can listen live here.
Cliff Lee Rumors
If you were around twitter tonight, you saw an interesting series of rumors about Cliff Lee and the Twins. Right about the time the first pitch started, chatter began that an unnamed Detroit radio station was reporting that Lee to the Twins was a done deal. In general, I don’t take reports like this very seriously, and advised anyone from reading too much into that sketchy, unsourced report. Sure enough, the Twins had issued a denial within a half hour or so.
Then, about an hour later, Jon Heyman of Sports Illustrated said that talks between the two clubs were getting interesting, putting a little more teeth to the rumors of a potential deal heating up. A while after that, Jeff Fletcher of AOL chipped in with a rumored offer, saying that he’s heard that the Twins have offered OF prospect Aaron Hicks and C prospect Wilson Ramos for Lee.
Fletcher has credibility, and combined with the earlier report from Heyman, it’s likely that there’s some fire behind this smoke. Will it lead to a deal? Maybe, maybe not. But it’s the kind of offer that could make this happen sooner than later.
Ramos is the guy who has been mentioned prominently because he’s a catcher and has already reached the majors, but Hicks would be the guy who makes this deal work. He was the 14th overall selection in the 2008 draft, and while he’s not close to the majors at age 20, he’s got some serious upside. He’s a switch-hitting premium athlete with five tool potential who is already showing a decent grasp of the strike zone at a young age. He’s not a polished product by any means, as he doesn’t currently possess big time power and he strikes out too much, but the natural abilities are there for him to become a star.
Baseball America ranked Hicks as the 19th best prospect in baseball before the season started. Keith Law agreed, putting him at the same spot on his list. When Law updated his list last week, he put Hicks at #9 among guys currently in the minors.
Ramos is a decent prospect who could compete with Adam Moore to figure out who would be the team’s catcher of the future. He might not be any better than Moore, but having two decent young catching prospects isn’t a bad thing. Hicks, though, could be a star – a center fielder who can hit, field, and run. He’d require some patience, but the long term value makes this an offer that Jack Z would have to seriously consider if it was really on the table.
Game 82, Royals at Mariners
Bannister vs Hernandez, 7:10 pm.
Happy Felix Day. Also, Sad But Predictable Bedard Day, as he’s been scratched from tomorrow’s start because his shoulder hurts. He’s seeing a doctor today. Yup.
Bradley’s out of the line-up again, but that’s probably mostly due to Kotchman’s performance the last few days. Wak has become a slave to the hot hand this year in his search for offense, and so he’s once again playing an inferior player due to a recent stretch of good performance. It’s a bad idea, but we’ll get into that more later this week.
Ichiro, RF
Figgins, 2B
Branyan, DH
Lopez, 3B
Gutierrez, CF
Kotchman, 1B
Johnson, C
Jack Wilson, SS
Saunders, LF
Minor League Wrap (6/28-7/4/10)
I’m flying back to NYC on Monday, so I won’t be in to answer various questions until Tuesday probably. Also, I’ll be writing up what international signings I know of next week. Nothing has yet gone official for the M’s.
To the jump!
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Pineda Seriously Impresses
Rather than writing about this, I’m just going to post the twitter messages from Mike Curto over the last hour.
Pineda 9 up, 9 down, four K’s, 28 pitches, 22 strikes. Rainiers lead 8-0 after three innings. #domination
about 1 hour ago via TweetDeckPineda 12 up, 12 down. Five K’s. 39 pitches.
35 minutes ago via TweetDeckMichael Pineda: 15 up, 15 down. 50/37 through five.
13 minutes ago via TweetDeck(from me): @CurtoWorld Mostly fastballs, or does he have the breaking stuff working tonight?
16 minutes ago via TweetDeck in reply to CurtoWorld@d_a_cameron Everything. He’s ready – call him up.
13 minutes ago via TweetDeck in reply to d_a_cameronMichael Pineda strikes out the side in the sixth. 18 up, 18 down. 64 pitches. 9 strikeouts. #domination
2 minutes ago via TweetDeck
Game 81, Mariners at Tigers
Lee vs Bonderman, 10:05 am.
Most people I’ve talked to in the game believe that this is Lee’s farewell to the Mariners. Given that teams have already made offers and the M’s are working on counters, odds are pretty good he’s traded before his start comes up next Friday. So, if this is really it, thanks for everything Cliff – it was a short union, but a great one.
Ichiro, RF
Figgins, 2B
Branyan, DH
Lopez, 3B
Gutierrez, CF
Kotchman, 1B
Josh Wilson, SS
Johnson, C
Saunders, LF
Game 80, Mariners at Tigers
Vargas vs Verlander, 4:05 pm.
Cliff Lee’s still here and will start tomorrow. I imagine that game will be more fun than this one.
Ichiro, RF
Figgins, 2B
Bradley, DH
Lopez, 3B
Gutierrez, CF
Kotchman, 1B
Bard, C
Saunders, LF (guess he’s finally a better hitter than the SS)
Jack Wilson, SS
Game 79, Mariners at Tigers
Fister vs Scherzer, 4:05 pm.
One of the criticisms of this blog that we hear most frequently is that all of our analysis is just fancy pants math, and that those who actually play the game don’t have any use for this crap. Don’t tell that Max Scherzer, the kid who is taking the hill for Detroit tonight. In this article, Scherzer talks about how his brother got him turned onto sabermetrics, and how he uses Pitch F/x and things like FIP and xFIP to evaluate how well he’s pitching between start. It’s not just for player valuation anymore – the places these new types of analysis are going are actually helping the players on the field. Exciting stuff.
Also, if you haven’t yet, watch this video – it is one of the coolest uses of Pitch F/x data you will ever see.
Ichiro, DH
Figgins, 2B
Branyan, 1B
Bradley, RF
Lopez, 3B
Gutierrez, CF
Jack Wilson, SS
Johnson, C
Saunders, LF
On With Brock And Salk Today
For the second week in the row, the M’s day game bumped me from my Thursday spot, so we’re doing our regular segment with the ESPN 710 guys today at 12:30.