Thank you content week woooooo!
Last night, I spent a good chunk of time catching up on USSM emails, in particular, writing a ton of thank-yous to people who’ve tossed some money in the tip jar (and I think I caught up). I try to write a note to everyone, and if you didn’t get one, thank you and apologies that it bounced, or got tagged as spam for having a title like (“Re: Payment…”) which happens more often than it should, or, probably most likely, I screwed something up. So I was filled with gratitude and wanted find something to write.
At the same time, I have to admit that I’ve been a little at a loss for ideas for things to write about. Until the season ends and the rumor mill for GM candidates cranks up, there’s not a lot for us to do but watch the season wind down. Even the September call-ups will be a welcome infusion of possibilities and things to watch (including Morrow, Starting Pitcher!).
So here’s the scoop: if you’ve donated, whatever the amount, and there’s something you’d like to see me write about in the next week or so, either drop us an email or comment here. I’ll try and cover as many as we can, but no less than 1/day, for the next week or so. I might batch short questions up or whatever, but we’ll see how it breaks out.
And yes, we’ll be finishing the All-Mariner All-Time series.
I’ve always been sensitive to concerns around having subscriptions, and I’m a little wary of setting a precedent for abusing us as organ-grinder monkeys, but this seems like a cool way to return the good turn many of you have done us. If it turns out to be a bad idea, well, it was worth trying.
And if you haven’t donated and there’s a topic you’d like to see us write about, as always, we’re happy to take suggestions.
Or you could join your peers in supporting the site:
And please keep in mind: I am not Dave. This may affect your suggestions.
Game 134, Mariners at Indians
FELIX DAY
4:05
That is all.
The Groundballingest Groundballer Who Ever Groundballed
You know, I need to apologize to Roy Corcoran – I don’t know that we’ve said more than 20 words about you on the blog this year, and your performance deserves recognition. In a season where few things have gone right, you’ve been a shining beacon of success, and I can’t believe it’s taken us this long to write about you. So, mea culpa, Roy – here’s your post.
Corcoran, a career minor leaguer, has a K/BB rate of 1.27 – that’s not good at all. Anything below 2.00 is usually a problem, and for a quality reliever, the general expectation is closer to 3.00. Shut down late inning pitchers generally throw strikes and miss bats, while Corcoran doesn’t do either. His command isn’t good and he’s a pitch to contact guy, which is generally a terrible combination. However, Corcoran has been extremely effective this year, thanks to one special skill – ground balls.
Corcoran is a ground ball machine. His 70.2% GB% is the highest of any pitcher in baseball with at least 50 IP this year, and it’s not close – Brandon Webb is second at 65.5%. He gets more ground balls than Brad Ziegler, the A’s rookie side-armer who made national news by not allowing a run for the first few months of his career. In fact, the only pitcher who can compete with Corcoran in ground ball tendencies is Chad Bradford, also a side-armer, who is barely edging out Corcoran with a 70.6% GB% (but in fewer innings).
Corcoran gets so much sink on his fastball that the only guys in the majors who induce the grounder as often are guys who release the ball from as close to their shoes as possible. There isn’t another traditional pitcher alive who gets hitters to pound the ball into the dirt with the same frequency. Considering that the average AL hitter has a .499 OPS on ground balls (compared with a .782 OPS on fly balls and a 1.727 OPS on line drives), it’s easy to see why Corcoran has been able to rack up so many outs through sheer quantity of grounders.
Now, like pretty much every other sinker/slider right-handed pitcher, Corcoran isn’t nearly as good as left-handed hitters, and his skill set basically makes him a Sean Green clone – a few more ground balls, a few less strikeouts, but overall, the same package. It’s not the traditional relief ace package, but it works wonders against RHBs, and as part of a bullpen that has situational specialists, it works great.
Corcoran isn’t going to be a star, and because of his lack of a weapon against lefties, he’s always going to be better suited to a role where the manager can use him to face a run of right-handed bats, but don’t let the high walks and low strikeouts fool you into thinking that Corcoran’s getting lucky. He really can get outs with his sinker, and he’s just more evidence that you simply don’t need to spend any real resources to build a bullpen.
With Corcoran, Green, and Putz, the M’s have a very good collection of RH relievers. Don’t let all this talk about them missing Morrow fool you – this organization doesn’t need a classic strikeout reliever who dominates with a high 90s fastball. Just get a good lefty to complement the groundball twins, and you’ll have a great bridge to Putz.
A slightly different note
Attempting to be ridiculously specific since there’s always people complaining about the poll question or options or trying to invent their own poll or what the heck ever and it’s really really annoying, even though I know this will do nothing to prevent it:
The Overlooked Organizational Issue
As has been covered, well, everywhere, the Mariners have a few problems. They’ll be hiring a new GM and a new manager this winter, and we’re hopeful that they’ll recognize the need for a new direction and new philosophies in how the team is run.
However, just hiring a new GM isn’t going to just miraculously turn this team around. He’s going to have to do more than just make good trades and free agent signings, because this team needs to do a better job of developing talent from within. This isn’t a scouting problem – the M’s are one of the best teams in baseball in acquiring amateur talent through the draft and international free agency. They’re constantly bringing talent into the fold, including some guys with star potential.
However, once the kids get into the system, there are some problems. Here’s one of the glaring ones.
Carlos Triunfel: 6.3% BB%
Gregory Halman: 6.2% BB%
Matt Tuiasasopo: 9.8% BB%
Michael Saunders: 8.6% BB%
Adam Moore: 8.4% BB%
Rob Johnson: 8.4% BB%
Matt Mangini: 5.3% BB%
Daniel Carroll: 6.0% BB%
Alex Liddi: 9.1% BB%
Denny Almonte: 7.7% BB%
Jharmidy DeJesus: 7.4% BB%
That is, basically, a list of the draft picks or significant bonus international signings over the last few years, or guys who are considered real prospects by the organization. And, of course, their walk rate is listed next to their name. The A’s used to have a policy that they wouldn’t promote a prospect from one minor league level to the next unless he had a walk rate of at least 10% – none of these guys meet the mark.
Yes, Clement walks, and so does Dennis Raben, but both of those guys learned how to take the base on balls in college – they already had a set philosophy of how to hit by the time they got into the organization. Of the guys the M’s are trying to turn from teenagers into major leaguers, they just don’t develop anyone with any real patience at the plate.
This is obvious at the major league level as well. Obviously Lopez and Betancourt are hackity-hack-hack-hacks. Balentien is still a free swinger, even despite a lot of improvement the last few years. Adam Jones learned how to swing at everything before going to Baltimore. Even the big league guys the team has gone after have a grip-it-and-rip-it approach, from Beltre, Johjima, Guillen, and even Ichiro – the M’s love guys who swing a lot, and that’s what they’re developing.
This has to change, and just hiring a new GM and hoping that fixes the issue isn’t going to work. Whoever takes over is going to have to have the freedom to make sweeping changes in how the organization coaches its young talent and the things that they’re stressing in player development. It simply isn’t good enough to be developing a bunch of clones who have to hit .300 to succeed since they never learned how to make a pitcher work the count.
Out of curiosity…
AFL rosters out, M’s sending some dudes for additional sun
John D pointed out that Baseball America has published the AFL rosters with commentary. M’s headed out are:
RHP Gabriel Hernandez
LHP Justin Thomas
RHP Joe Woerman
C-R Adam Moore
OF-R Greg Halman
Game 133, Twins at Mariners
A rare 1:40pm start!
Perkins v Feierabend.
The ’09 Pitching Staff
For all that is wrong with this team, I wonder if people have realized that M’s have a pretty good pitching staff in place for next year.
A rotation of Felix, Bedard, Silva, Morrow, and Rowland-Smith is solid. Yes, there are question marks surrounding Bedard’s health, Silva’s talent, and how Morrow and Rowland-Smith convert from the bullpen, but there’s risks with any pitching staff, and there’s actual upside to that rotation. Rowland-Smith fills the Washburn role as the back-end flyball lefty who pitches well in Safeco, while Silva should regress back toward his mean (he’s not this bad) and be just mediocre instead of awful, while Morrow joins Bedard and Felix as the guys who miss a lot of bats and get outs by themselves.
The bullpen could use another good lefty, but Putz/Green/Lowe/Corcoran/Dickey gives the team lots of right-handed options. Bring in a guy like Jeremy Affeldt and all of the sudden you’ve got a contention-worthy bullpen.
When was the last time a team lost 100 games and still went into the following season with a complete pitching staff that didn’t need an overhaul to contend? Realistically, if the M’s are going to improve their roster this winter (and that’s TBD, of course, depending on the GM), they just need to overhaul the position players. The pitching staff isn’t a big problem, and for once, we can look forward to a winter where we’re not throwing ridiculous money at back-end starting pitchers.
Comment of the day
I’m getting tired of this race to the bottom/Strasburg sweepstakes shit. Cheering against your team is — purely in my opinion — sucky behavior even if it results in a long-term benefit. But it goes beyond that.
Look:
1. The Nationals are a way worse team (hard as that is to believe) and they have a much harder schedule over the remaining weeks. The M’s are not going to catch them at the bottom.
2. Even with first pick, the Nationals might not bust slot to pick Strasburg
3. Even if the M’s have first pick, or the Nat’s do but pass on Strasburg, the M’s may not bust slot to pick him either.
4. Even if the M’s do end up with Strasburg, he may never see the majors (Ryan Christianson ring a bell?) or he may end up not being anything special (Jeff Austin? Tim Stauffer?) or he might blow up his arm (too many to list).All of this means that talking about Strasburg all the time makes you sound like the guy who insists he’s going to move to California where Angelina Jolie will divorce Brad Pitt and marry him. Yeah, it’s possible but it’s unlikely, and even if it happens it’s still getting annoying to listen to. I realize there’s essentially no reason left to watch the team except the pure love of baseball, but tedious and repetitive is tedious and repetitive, no matter how likely (or not). You’re being worse than a bad fan. You’re being boring. Don’t be boring.