Game 10, Athletics at Mariners
I’m not sure if Dave or anyone else is going to want to chime in. Last night was a disappointment, in a word, but certain things broke against us and it’s still pretty early. A team like this is going to have days of exciting baseball and days of mediocre baseball. It’s part of the process. Trusting the process eventually might work in Kansas City and elsewhere.
Noesi vs. Milone, 6:10 pm PDT
Today, the M’s are going up against someone they’ve never seen before. Jokes about being utterly dominated as the natural consequence of that. Milone was acquired from the Nationals in the Gio Gonzalez deal. He’s your basic left-handed change-up artist with average or slightly worse velocity and good command of his offerings. He’s unexciting, but he’s also in the major leagues, and his first name is Tomaso, not Thomas. Tomaso Milone sounds like a more exciting pitcher, or maybe the leader of some Cuban-inspired swing band. Last time out, he walked three, allowed three hits, and struck out no one in eight innings. That 100% strand rate has got to break sometime. Why not against the Mariners?
As a result of the match-up, we’re going heavy on right-handers tonight.
CF Figgins
2B Ackley
RF Ichiro!
1B Smoak
C Montero
3B Liddi
DH Olivo
LF Wells
SS Ryan
P Noesi
Game 6, Mariners at Rangers
Yesterday, the M’s got to face a guy making his US/MLB debut, and today they face Neftali Feliz who’ll be making his first MLB start. Feliz was one of baseball’s hottest commodities in 2008/9; he was acquired in the massive Mark Teixeira deal that essentially remade the Rangers, and Feliz quickly rose through the ranks to become a top 10 prospect in all of baseball. He had the classic power pitcher’s arsenal and high-90s velocity, and it seemed like it was only a matter of time before he began laying waste to the AL.
The Rangers eased him in to the bigs in 2009 by using him as their set-up man in the bullpen. In 31 innings, he struck out 39 hitters and yielded 8 walks. The next season, the Rangers made the seemingly curious decision to keep him in the bullpen, this time as their closer. As much as it seemed counterproductive to keep your best pitching prospect limited to 1IP stints, it didn’t seem to hurt the club or the pitcher, as Feliz enjoyed another sub-3.0 FIP season and the Rangers won the pennant. In 2011, the Rangers again pulled the plug on a possible role change for Feliz and kept him in the pen, and they again won the pennant with the Venezuelan as their closer. But Feliz seemed like a different pitcher.
Instead of the good control he’d exhibited in 2009-10, he was something of a mess as his walk rate increased from under 7% to nearly 12%. His K rate continued to fall, ending the year at 21.4%, well behind the likes of Craig Kimbrel or Mariano Rivera, but also behind Grant Balfour, Matt Albers, Will Ohman and a scuffling Joakim Soria. A low BABIP (though he’s always had a low BABIP-against) helped his ERA, but his FIP was now a fairly pedestrian 3.57. This spring, the Rangers committed to moving Feliz to the rotation and they’ve stuck with it (Boston, you could learn something here), despite some scares like shoulder soreness this spring.
Feliz hasn’t really demonstrated big platoon splits the way you’d expect given his FB-SL heavy repertoire. He does throw a change, but it’s his fastball that he’s relied on thus far, using it about 80% of the time in 2010-11. The sudden wildness and a curious lack of strikeouts make him a real question mark for a team without many. Since these are the Rangers, even if Feliz struggles, it shouldn’t hurt their chances: they could always swap him out for Alexi Ogando who moved from the pen to the rotation last year with great results. Still, the M’s get yet another shot at an immensely talented pitcher who’s also strangely vulnerable right now.
On the other hand, the M’s are the one team who didn’t seem to notice that Feliz was suddenly human last year. The M’s were famously 0-28 with 13 Ks (about 1/4 of his overall strikeout total on the season) against him, and it says something that what jumped out at me the most from his line were the two walks (“Really? Someone got on base? I don’t remember that”). That said, it’s a new, Cust-less line-up the M’s are trotting out, and it’s one that gave Yu Darvish a rude welcome last night. They were patient, but they also punished mistakes – it’s sort of a truism, but that’s the approach they need to use against Feliz. Making the pitcher throw a lot of pitches and work hard early isn’t some novel strategy, but it’s particularly relevant when facing a converted closer who battled arm troubles in March.
The M’s line-up is loaded with left-handed hitters to counter Feliz’s slider; Miguel Olivo’s the only righty in the group. Jesus Montero returns from the stomach flu to DH, and Munenori Kawasaki’s in the line-up again at SS, as Brendan Ryan’s sore somewhere.
1: Figgins (LF)
2: Ackley (2B)
3: Ichiro! (RF)
4: Smoak (1B)
5: Seager (3B)
6: Montero (DH)
7: Saunders (CF)
8: Olivo (C)
9: Kawasaki (SS)
SP: Beavan
Gametime’s 5:05
Go M’s
Game #3 – Mariners at Athletics
Welcome back to the regular season, which is just like the last time we had regular season games, only more sparsely attended and without quite as much focus on Ichiro.
Oakland’s ace Brandon McCarthy gets the ball, just as he did in the first game in Tokyo. Jason Vargas gets another shot at the A’s, and hopes his bullpen’s a little stingier this time. The A’s have another righty-heavy line-up with Jonny Gomes DHing and batting cleanup, Josh Donaldson at 3B and Kila Ka’aihue at 1B; he only lefty is Josh Reddick.
The M’s counter with seven lefties (man, it’s nice having switch hitters) with Michael Saunders in CF and Seager at 3B.
1: Figgins (LF)
2: Ackley (2B)
3: Ichiro! (RF)
4: Smoak (1B)
5: Montero (DH)
6: Seager (3B)
7: Olivo (C)
8: Saunders (CF)
9: Ryan (SS)
SP: Vargas
GO M’S
James Paxton makes his 2012 debut tonight for Jackson, Jeff Marquez starts for Tacoma. Chris Sorce makes his first start for High Desert and Ambioris Hidalgo’s already a few innings in to his start for Clinton.
Cactus League Game #25: Moyers at Felixes
This is a spring training game. This is a spring training game that, improbably, takes place after the M’s have played two regular season games, and after they’ve played two additional Cactus League games since returning in a sea of viruses. We’ve heard reports that Franklin Gutierrez was near returning, but he hasn’t and won’t today. There’s just about no way that this could capture your attention. Unless….
There’s a line-up for this game, but it’s of lesser importance. This game is just one joke, repeated for 4-5 innings. That’s actually OK; this joke happens to be fairly amusing. The avuncular looking man pictured above, grinning and holding a baseball as if describing it to a first-grade class, has made the Rockies rotation after a great spring. Moyer was the oldest active player when the M’s sent him east in 2006. He told everyone that he would rehab from Tommy John surgery and come back better than ever, and while no one would’ve wished him ill, I don’t think many thought this was possible. Opposing him is Felix Hernandez, another one of the three best M’s hurlers ever. Tune in at 1; I believe this one’s on ROOT sports, as well as 710am/Mariners Radio/MLB Gameday audio/etc.
The line-up of lesser importance:
1: Figgins (LF)
2: Ryan (SS)
3: Ichiro! (RF)
4: Smoak (1B)
5: Montero (C)
6: Wells (CF)
7: Peguero (DH)
8: Liddi (3B)
9: Kawasaki (2B)
SP: King Felix
Cactus League Game 24, Royals at Mariners
Last night’s game sure was a hoot. Some things I took away from erratically listening to the broadcast:
1) People were impressed with Brad Miller’s defense, which leads me to think that they may have fixed his throwing mechanics.
2) Chris Gwynn was talking minor leaguers for a while and mentioned that Guillermo Pimentel had won their “Control the Zone” award, which probably had something to do with the strikezone. This is interesting insofar as I look at Pimentel as being a bit of a hacker and not especially coachable, so, positives?
Larry Stone is reporting that, post-flight, the sick list is growing, with Ackley, Peguero, Saunders, and Sherrill all heading home with some kind of illness. And the regular season starts on Friday! I would hope that everyone’s recovered by then. Speaking of Stone’s work, I believe the season preview is up in the Times today.
LF Figgins
SS Kawasaki
RF Ichiro!
1B Smoak
DH Montero
C Olivo
2B Seager
3B Liddi
CF Wells
P Beavan
This one’s on TV and radio at 1 pm, as will be the next three games. Have at you.
Game 1: Mariners vs. Oakland @ Tokyo
Opening Day of 2012. I know it’s tougher to get excited about the game when it’s on at 3am, when we’ve got more spring training games to slog through and when it’s only March 27th. Er, 28th. But opening day is still opening day, and Felix is still Felix.
Here’s the first M’s line-up of the season:
1: Figgins (no, stay awake, it gets better)
2: Ackley (2b)
3: Ichiro! (RF)
4: Smoak (1B)
5: Montero (DH)
6: Carp (LF)
7: Olivo (C)
8: Saunders (CF)
9: Ryan (SS)
SP: KING FELIX
The M’s face off against Brandon McCarthy, twitter superstar and 2011 league leader in FIP. Yoenis Cespedes gets the start in CF, but hits 9th. Seth Smith, the OF acquired from Colorado for Guillermo Moscoso starts in the clean-up spot and plays DH. The name the A’s have selected to get the start today from their impressive collection of AAAA 1Bs is…Brandon Allen. Eric Sogard gets the start at 3B ahead of Josh Donaldson, which is funny because Eric Sogard gets an opening day start.
GO M’S! I NEED CAFFEINE!
UPDATE: This isn’t exactly news, but, for the good of the order: the M’s have moved Franklin Gutierrez and Adam Moore to the 15-day disable list.
Feel free to use the comments of this as the game thread, or follow along with Dave’s commentary in CoverItLive below.
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.
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.
Game 145, Royals at Mariners
This game could hope to be half as interesting as last night’s game.
Paulino vs. Pineda, 7:10 pm
Pitch face aside, Paulino doesn’t interest me much, but he may manage to give up a home run or two.
Pineda’s second start in August was the point at which he broke his previous season high in innings pitched and he’s getting a full month of starts on top of that. Last year, towards the end there were reports of his mechanics starting to fall apart a little and he lost some command as a result, so if I were around for this game (hint: I won’t be) I would be checking to see how he looked physically. Any evaluation should also take into account that recently he’s been warming up while he’s out there instead of prior to the game. I would throw in some kind of remark about Pineda’s past elbow problems, but that was in an era when the org was shutting down pitchers left and right at the slightest sign of trouble, which makes it difficult to judge the severity of said elbow issues.
This is all an avoidance of talking about the lineup which will spur its own comments.
RF Ichiro!
SS Ryan
2B Ackley
LF Carp
1B Smoak
DH Kennedy
C Olivo
3B Seager
CF Saunders