Game 92: Mariners at White Sox; Bats over (the) Pelfrey
King Felix vs. Mike Pelfrey, 5:10pm
Happy Felix Day! It’s nice to say that with a bit more optimism and joy than in the recent past.
After a solid win to open the second half, the M’s face the soft underbelly of the White Sox rotation today in the person of well-traveled Mike Pelfrey. Pelfrey was originally a decent #4-5 who made up for a lack of strikeouts with decent grounder rates, leading to low HRs. That worked for a while, but the approach requires great command, especially since Pelfrey’s never been a Keuchel-level ground ball guy. The low K rate meant that getting out of tough situations was even harder for him, leading to a low strand rate. A move to the AL several years ago brought these flaws to the fore – no pitchers hitting (surprisingly) didn’t affect his K rates, but it ensured that his strand rates would stay low. Then, as HRs crept up league-wide late in 2015, Pelfrey’s one signature skill, avoiding HRs, was rendered moot. You can survive in this league without a ton of strikeouts, but you can’t survive without strikeouts AND without some HR-suppressing mojo.
As a sinker/slider guy, you might expect Pelfrey to run big platoon splits. You’d be right. This is a great match-up for the M’s lefties.
A few weeks ago, I mentioned that while Felix was indeed throwing higher fastballs this year, it hadn’t helped. In particular, his sinker was abysmal. It’s worth noting that his pitch mix in his last start leaned a lot more on his four-seam, and while that pitch isn’t great on its own, it may have helped him turn back the clock with his change-up, that got 8 swinging strikes by itself against the A’s. Now, that’s not to say he’s fixed; he had isolated games with more four-seamers and comparatively few sinkers, but it’s only his second start of the year with a ratio like that. The other was his brilliant start against Texas back on April 14th – a game in which he went 7 1/3 giving up just 1 run on 6 hits and no walks. I have no idea why he’d abandon that approach after a game like that, but he did. Keep doing this, Felix, if only just to see how it goes.
1: Segura, SS
2: Gamel, LF
3: Cano, 2B
4: Cruz, DH
5: Seager, 3B
6: Valencia, 1B
7: Haniger, RF
8: Dyson, CF
9: Ruiz, C
SP: FELIX!
Rough night in M’s system, as only Clinton and the AZL M’s won. Two affiliates got shut-out. Fresno used several pitchers to rack up 9 consecutive strikeouts against the Rainiers (what’s the opposite of batting around?). The pitching performance of the day goes to Jose Santiago, who struck out 10 in 5 great innings, giving up 1 R on 3 H and 2 BBs, but…Everett was one of the teams that got shut-out, so Santiago took a hard luck loss. Batting line goes to Adam Law, the 27-year old minor league veteran the M’s signed a month or so ago, who went 3-4 with 2 2Bs in a 4-1 loss to Springfield. Tyler Cloyd, Reggie McClain, Steven Ridings, and Justin DeFratus are among the pitching probables tonight in the system.
Game 91, Mariners at Wheeling,Dealing White Sox
James Paxton vs. James Shields, 5:10pm
Wow. This past offseason, the White Sox prized the #1 international prospect, Yoan Moncada, away from the Red Sox in the Chris Sale blockbuster. Not content with ONE #1 international prospect, they spent $26 million to secure the rights to Cuban sensation Luis Robert, and then spent an additional $26 million to MLB as penalty for obliterating their international draft pool limit. What’s a team to do when it craves #1 international prospects and can’t get one at the J2 deadline? Trade again, of course. Yesterday morning, the White Sox traded Jose Quintana to their cross-town rivals, the Cubs. In exchange, they received a package headlined by 2015 #1 international prospect, Eloy Jimenez. They also get hard-throwing SP prospect Dylan Cease, making it surprisingly hard to argue that the White Sox suffered by waiting to deal Quintana and watching him put up his worst season in the majors (not a bad season, by any stretch, but not what you’d want as the last thing in the minds of potential buyers).
It was always a bit surprising that the White Sox launched into a rebuild with a young, cost-controlled core about a year or 18 months after a flurry of win-now moves propelled the club to the fringes of contention. In 2015, the Sox acquired Jeff Samardzija from Oakland and then added closer David Robertson in free agency. The club had a young Adam Eaton in the OF, and a rotation headed by Sale and Quintana, both of whom were signed to what were by then almost insultingly low-paying extensions.* Their abysmal 2013 allowed them the opportunity to draft Carlos Rodon in 2014, who made the majors midway through 2015. The rotation was just about set (despite Shark’s impending free agency), and it was *cheap*. And like a slightly less manic AJ Preller, Rick Hahn decided to undo most of what he’d done, scattering the pieces to the winds. In the process, he’s amassed one of the most talented collections of prospects ever. What he hasn’t yet done is come close to assembling a .500 team in the majors.
This all feels very relevant to the M’s, who are once again threading the needle between going for it and rebuilding, as this great Bob Dutton piece outlines. The M’s, according to GM Jerry Dipoto, have no need for anything so vulgar as a fire sale. Despite a roster that is once again older than most teams in the AL, and essentially all of their rivals, “”We’ve got, I think, 11 players on this team,” [Dipoto] said, “who are in their 20s, who are controllable for five more years and who are all making positive contributions in some way or another.” This is true, and it’s essentially the pithy version of the hopeful-ish post I had yesterday. The problem is that it might not be enough.
There’s something to be said for waiting things out, for avoiding the boom-and-bust cycle of tear-down and rebuild. As great as it is to stockpile prospects, it’s not any sort of guarantee, as the Padres know well. The Royals and their lauded/mocked “best system in a generation” didn’t actually turn into winners until they traded some of their golden boys for today’s Sox starter, James Shields. And Shields himself (*and* the guy he was traded for) was then part of Preller’s seemingly coke-addled win-now splurge in 2015, before moving on in 2016’s sell-everything-that-isn’t-bolted-down rebuild. Dipoto’s not wrong: the M’s are as talented as their wildcard opponents, with the possible exception of the Yankees. They’ve shown they’re capable of hanging around the wildcard hunt, but then, so has literally everyone. That’s what makes the White Sox full-bore tear down so interesting. They were at least as well prepared to make a run at the 2nd wildcard this year as the M’s, but they wanted no part of it. Why not? Why do the Mariners care, and why don’t the Sox?
At this point, it’s harder and harder to argue that the M’s front office has its hands tied by miserly owners. When you commit $250 million to Cano, extend Felix, Seager and now Segura, sign Nelson Cruz, etc., the argument just doesn’t work. On the other hand, I think it’s easier and easier to say that the M’s playoff drought may be a factor – maybe a tacit one, maybe explicit, I don’t know – in at least some of their decision-making processes. This is a team that feels pressure, and a lot of it, to end the streak. That sounds like a good thing, but I wonder about it. The White Sox, with a relatively recent World Series win, can focus on becoming the Next Cubs, something pretty much every team is trying to do. The Sox are on their way, though, as they just picked up a third player ranked in the top 20 in all of baseball. They now have 2 of the top 6-7 position players in their system, along with 3-4 pitching prospects touching 100 MPH. Lucas Giolito, who came in the Adam Eaton trade, has disappointed, but they still have Michael Kopech, Reynaldo Lopez and Nick Burdi to go with Dylan Cease, Giolito, Carson Fulmer and Alec Hansen. This is a ridiculous assemblage of talent. The White Sox have long had one of the worst farm systems in the game. In 2012, their BP top 10 list was literally a ranking of characters in the movie Real Genius to avoid talking about a system headlined by Nestor Molina or Courtney Hawkins. Their preseason 2016 list looks utterly unrecognizable, but recognizably bad (and I’m an M’s fan!). Did the WS win give Hahn the latitude to pull this off? Or is this just a case of baseball following a fad – trading a Jeff Samardzija for prospects and being seen as an all-conquering hero?
So, how’s James Shields faring in the HR era sweeping MLB? About as well as you’d think. After giving up an astonishing 73 dingers over 2015-16, he’s given up 10 in 7 starts and 36 IP thus far in 2017. Thanks to his great change-up, he always had really even platoon splits, but these days lefties are hitting him hard. In fact, both LHB and RHBs are hitting well off of him over the past 2-3 years, so platoon splits just aren’t a big factor in setting the line-ups against him anymore.
1: Segura, SS
2: Gamel, LF
3: Cano, 2B
4: Cruz, DH
5: Seager, 3B
6: Valencia, 1B
7: Haniger, RF
8: Dyson, CF
9: Zunino, C
SP: Paxton
The PCL won the AAA All-Star Game 6-4 on a big 3R-HR from A’s prospect Renato Nunez.
The Rainiers were back in action yesterday against Fresno, and while Sam Gaviglio was perfect through four, he was significantly less perfect – you might even go so far as to say “bad” – in the next one, giving up 4 runs in an eventual 5-1 loss. Casey Lawrence starts today’s game at beautiful Cheney Stadium.
The Cardinals’ #7 prospect, Sandy Alcantara, has had a rough go-round in AA this year, but he was solid in a 4-1 win over Arkansas last night. He pitched 6 IP with 1 R and 2 H allowed. Control still isn’t there, as he walked 4 to just 3 Ks, but he’s still just 21. Anthony Misiewicz took the loss, but still pitched pretty well in just his 2nd AA outing. Not bad for a guy drafted in the 18th round in 2015. Tonight’s Travelers starter is Lindsey Caughel.
Visalia beat Modesto 6-1 behind a solid start from D-Backs prospect Cody Reed. Braden Bishop and Willie Argo doubled for the Nuts (Argo singled off of rehabbing San Jose starter Madison Bumgarner recently). Reliever Spencer Herrman gets the spot-start tonight for Modesto.
Dayton doubled up Clinton 8-4. The Dragons got a HR from lead-off man Jose Siri, who I’m sure has never heard any jokes about his surname, and racked up 12 hits and 4 walks. The Lumberkings got a dinger from Gareth Morgan, one of his 3 hits on the day. CF Billy Cooke took home a golden sombrero.
Everett’s Andres Torres tossed 6 shutout innings to run his record to 4-0 in the AquaSox 4-1 win in the Tri-Cities. JP Sears allowed batted balls against him, and only had 1 K in his 1 IP, giving up an unearned run. Joe Rose went 0-5 after I wrote him up the other day. Jose Santiago starts today’s game.
I don’t spend a lot of time on the complex leagues, but it’s worth noting that M’s 2nd-round pick Sam Carlson made his pro debut last night with a scoreless inning against the Rangers team. Reports had him sitting 92-93, touching 95. The opposing starter was Rangers’ first-rounder Hans Crouse, another polished prep arm from Southern California. Crouse went 2 scoreless, giving up 3 hits, and sat 95-97 with his fastball.
* I mentioned it whenever the M’s went into the South Side, but the Sox paid more per year for John Danks than Sale and Quintana combined.
Midseason Thoughts + All Star Game 2: This Time, It’s In Tacoma
This has been a bizarre season in the big leagues, with the AL West bunched together behind the league’s true superteam, the Houston Astros. A group of three teams near the top in the AL East means that while you could envision a scenario in which the M’s jump back into the wildcard race, it’s starting to sound pretty out there. The M’s are, frustratingly, 4 games below .500, but despite another year of sky-high expectations and sub-par results, so much has gone *right* for the club. We entered into 2017 thinking it was a make or break year: either they broke their playoff drought, or they were in for a long spell wandering the baseball desert. What we got is something different – the team isn’t threatening to go to the playoffs, but we’re starting to see what an M’s team capable of making the playoffs might look like.
The key to this strange state of affairs has been the two-headed monster of Jean Segura and Mitch Haniger. The trade seemed like a good one even without knowing how good Haniger would be *in 2017*, and the fact that the M’s will have him for years now looks like an absolute coup. But it’s Segura who’s been even better, a decent SS who’s clearly brought most of his 2016 career resurrection with him to Seattle. Obviously, the M’s agreed, as they quickly extended him. Ben Gamel’s development into something that looks like a playable MLB corner OF is, by far, the most stunning thing I’ve seen this year, but for sheer importance to the franchise, that Walker-for-Segura trade is one we’ll look back on and smile about for years and years to come.*
All of that hope-for-the-future stuff is balanced by the realization that the pitching staff is now further from being competitive than when we started the year. Drew Smyly won’t pitch for the M’s. I’m not sure if Hisashi Iwakuma will again. Yovani Gallardo is doing his best in the bullpen, and the rotation absolutely requires continued excellence from Ariel Miranda and Andrew Moore. Edwin Diaz has been a frustrating mess, and while Nick Vincent is doing his best impersonation of Shigetoshi Hasegawa-in-2003, the bullpen needs help, and it’s just not clear where that help’s going to come from.
The M’s are said to be biding their time before the trade deadline, deciding whether to buy or sell, but both options are going to be tough. Dave’s popular Trade Value series over at Fangraphs is running this week, and Kyle Seager – All Star signed to favorable long-term deal – only managed to make the “Honorable Mention” post. Nelson Cruz might fetch a prospect at the deadline, but while teams certainly still value rentals, they’re getting pickier about the kind of rentals they’re willing to splurge on. I’m not sure Cruz fits the bill, especially given that it’s only AL teams that could really use him. Robinson Cano’s contract (which I still like) means the M’s would either have to send a ton of money somewhere or get nothing much in talent in return. James Paxton and Mitch Haniger are the most tradeable players they’ve got, and they can’t trade two hugely important pieces of the core they’re trying to build around.
Likewise, it’s tough to see what they could dangle to upgrade the rotation. Dan Vogelbach’s doing well in the PCL, but his value’s rightly going to be lower after a second small-sample faceplant in MLB. Tyler O’Neill’s made huge strides this last month, but that’s after a very slow April+May. Max Povse got hurt, and Kyle Lewis is still trying to get consistent AB’s after his injury last summer. There are opportunities out there if the M’s wanted to either take on a bunch of salary or trade a guy like Nick Neidert, but going all-in on a very unlikely wild card bid strikes me as something Dipoto and Company won’t do. They can add some bullpen depth and the like and frame it as a win-now move without spending what little high-value MiLB talent they’ve got.
Speaking of MiLB talent, let’s take a quick look at the biggest stories thus far in the M’s affiliated minors and review who’s improved their standing the most. Overall, it’s been something of a disappointing year for the M’s affiliates, at least after last season’s remarkable turnaround that saw every full-season club make the playoffs and the M’s run the best overall MiLB record. This year, the group’s a bit under .500, with a winning percentage of .482. Interestingly, they’ve done a good job of upholding the organizational mantra of controlling the zone, as the pitchers’ K-BB% of 13.86% ranks 3rd in baseball, behind the Yankees and Tigers. The batters have held up their end of the bargain too, with a .444 BB/K ratio, good for 6th-best. The problem is how they’ve gotten there. No group has a lower walk rate than the M’s crew, and that balances out a dearth of pure, bat-missing stuff. The M’s position players have a better-than-average K rate, but they have to: they have below-average power. In all, this feels like an organization doing a decent job with a number of up-the-middle defenders who derive a bunch of value from their glove/speed/etc., but that’s short on impact talent. The team would look a bit different with Kyle Lewis 100% and playing in AA or whatever, of course.
Everett:
Position Player: Joseph Rosa
The biggest story of the year thus far, and as a short-season league, that’s not a lot of time, has been 2B Joseph Rosa. This was supposed to be Brayan Hernandez’s time to shine, and Chris Torres and Evan White arrived not long after the season started. Instead, it’s been the diminutive 20-year old 2B who’s shown impressive pop and a nearly 12% BB rate. He leads the club in HRs, and while the K rate’s over 20, it’s not too worrying given the positives.
Pitcher: JP Sears
Wyatt Mills was the 3rd round pick, a guy who’ll move quickly, and who’s put up great numbers thus far, but people are still struggling to make contact off of JP Sears. There’s the deceptive delivery and the meh fastball velocity and all of that – all points well taken. But it seems pretty relevant that JP Sears is striking out a cool 58% of the batters he’s faced. These are numbers that don’t make sense; that seem made up, or dropped in from some bizarre variant of baseball. He hasn’t pitched much, but this is a guy who struck out 20 in a game this year for the Citadel and may be a huge bargain, even if the upside is more like Nick Vincent or, dare to dream, Chris Devenski.
Clinton:
Position Player: Anthony Jimenez
The 21-year old Venezuelan is on the DL now, but it’s been a breakout season for the OF. While it’s partially BABIP driven, his wRC+ of 137 is far and away the best on the Lumberkings, and his 24 steals rank 2nd in the organization – not bad for a guy who’s played fewer games than most. He’s also tied for the team lead in HRs, and while that’s not saying a whole lot, a power/speed combination in a pitcher’s league at age 21 is nothing to sneeze at.
Pitcher: Robert Dugger
Ljay Newsome had that great run in April, and Brandon Miller’s been the steadiest performer (and the closest thing to a true prospect), but I’m going to give the nod to the just-turned-22 RH SP, Robert Dugger. An 18th round pick last year, Dugger’s given up just 43 hits in 60 IP with 60 Ks to just 14 walks. A college-trained pitcher doing reasonably well in the Midwest League isn’t a shock, but Dugger looks like a different pitcher from the guy with a 2.3 K:BB ratio in college (it’s 4.3 now). Not sure what his future holds, but an 18th round pick needs to make a statement, and that’s what Dugger’s doing. He’s worked his way into the rotation and he’s maintained – or even improved upon – his results.
Modesto:
Position Player: Braden Bishop
UW-product Braden Bishop needed to do one of two things: either significantly increase his ISO or improve his eye and contact skills to the point where power didn’t really matter. Bishop hit .290 last year in the Midwest League, which would normally be something to celebrate. The problem was that he *still* couldn’t post an OPS over .700 because his power was non-existent, and while he had a great eye, pitchers could attack the zone against him. Moving up to the Cal League, Bishop’s improved his walk rate, cut his strikeout rate, AND improved his ISO. That ISO is still awful, especially in the Cal League, but it doesn’t start with a 0 anymore, and it shows he hasn’t sacrificed contact quality while improving his contact quantity. Pair all of this with legitimate CF-caliber defense, and you have yourself an old-school kind of prospect.
Pitcher: Nick Neidert
I’ll be honest: it’s been kind of tough to pick pitchers for most affiliates. Not here. Nick Neidert got pushed to the Cal League at just 20 years old, and he’d have plenty of excuses if he put up a perfectly decent but nothing great line. Instead, he’s dominating the mostly college-trained and very experienced hitters he’s facing, giving up 83 hits in 94 1/3 IP with a 98:14 K:BB ratio. Neidert’s the #1 pitcher in the org for a reason, but this is great to see. Compare Neidert with the other big names in that draft, like the Braves’ Mike Soroka/Kolby Allard or the Tigers Beau Burrows, and Neidert looks pretty good.
Arkansas:
Position Player: Ian Miller
All of that stuff above about Braden Bishop? Yeah, same. Miller has always had plus speed and defense, but it was hard to see how that was enough to make him an actual prospect. He had Bishop’s 2016-in-Clinton in 2014. His spell in the California League didn’t prove as transformative either, and his first tour of duty in AA was his worst statistical season yet. I think Miller likes the Texas League. Like Bishop, he’s now got an ISO juuuust over .100, but with his speed, that’s enough to post a 134 wRC+. A .400 BABIP screams out for regression, but Miller’s stolen 28 bases – most in the system – and only been caught 4 times. He’s not going to run a “normal” BABIP. Given how much of his value is tied up in contact, his K% rising to 17% is a bit scary, as is the fact that he’s already 25, but Miller seemed destined to be org depth or leading an independent league in steals soon, and instead he’s back on the map in the M’s org.
Pitcher: Max Povse
Can I say Tyler Herb? The TL All-Star whom the M’s unceremoniously dumped for ol’ Cash Considerations a week or two ago? No? Ok, fine, we’ll default to Max Povse. This feels like a cop-out because Povse’s been hurt for a chunk of the year and now plies his trade in Tacoma, but the pickings were slim outside of Andrew Moore, who blew through the league quickly, and Thyago Vieira, who throws incredibly hard, but has been maddeningly inconsistent this year. Povse was a solid starter for the Travs, and I hope he still gets the opportunity to start down the road. He worked out of the pen for the Mariners, and they’re keeping him there in Tacoma in preparation for a recall.
Tacoma:
Position Player: Boog Powell
I know, I know, this sounds crazy. Powell’s MLB upside is a 4th OF who can take a walk and not embarrass you in CF. I get that. But the guy was buried on the depth chart, had to start the year on the restricted list after last year’s suspension, and had no shot at a big league job. He’s now in the big leagues. How do you get your prospect shine back? Draw 24 walks to 16 strikeouts in an org that cares passionately about K:BB ratio, that’s how. To be fair, he mixed in a bit of everything, with surprising-for-him pop and some stolen bases, but he is who he is. As a platoon bat, there’s some value there, but he’s in the one org that already employs *three* cost-controlled young OFs who all do a bit more. That said, well done to the still-just-24 year old Powell. Also: as consistent as Dan Vogelbach has been, his OPS is barely over .800 in the PCL as a bat-first 1B. That’s higher than DJ Peterson’s. Tyler O’Neill has come on very strong since the calendar hit June, and should run away with this if we’re doing a year-end list, but his wRC+ is just 96 right now. It’s easy to say that O’Neill’s age gives him a pass, as he’s facing considerably older players now. But O’Neill’s prospect status was really tied up in his trajectory: from swing-and-miss lottery ticket to intriguing power-hitting OF. Last year’s great 152 wRC+ showed he could make adjustments, and I don’t think he needed to repeat that. But he needs to do a bit more than he’s done. (Luckily for all of us, he’s killing the ball right now).
Pitcher: Uhhhh Emilio Pagan?
If the position player thing was difficult to pick, this is even harder. By results, the title goes to Christian Bergman, but while that earned him a shot in Seattle, he didn’t exactly take advantage of it. The other eye-opening starter was Ryan Weber – remember him? After pitching brilliantly for a month in Tacoma, he made the big leagues and promptly blew out his shoulder in his Mariner debut. Andrew Moore was great, but barely stayed a month. Jean Machi’s been decent, but also DFA’d by the M’s already. Nick Hagadone was a good story, but he opted out of his MiLB contract. That leaves Pagan, the live-armed reliever out of tiny Belmont Abbey, who’s given up 19 hits in 31 2/3 AAA innings, with 36 Ks and only 8 walks. He’s just been called up again, so we’ll see if he can build off his last few appearances with the M’s, where he went a combined 8 IP with 1 hit and 1 BB allowed against 9 Ks.
Speaking of Tacoma, tonight’s the AAA All-Star Game, and it’s happening in beautiful Tacoma, Washington. It’s sold out, but it’s streaming on MiLB.tv,** and, best of all, you don’t need a subscription. The International League team headed up by HR-derby champ Bryce Brentz and Rays prospect Willy Adames take on the PCL, led by Amed Rosario of the Mets, Derek Fisher of the Astros, and Dan Vogelbach of the M’s. Kate Preusser, who’s been killing it with Tacoma coverage all year, has a great preview over at LL here. The game starts at 6:05pm.
* The Chris Taylor trade, not so much.
** Click the Milb.tv icon. Or, go old school and listen to Mike Curto call it on 850 am or on MiLB gameday audio.
Game 90, Athletics at Mariners – A Disappointing First Half Comes to a Close
King Felix vs. Daniel Gossett, 1:10pm
Happy Felix Day. With all the talk about how/if to retire or at least downplay the King’s Court, I wonder how happy these days are anymore? When’s the last time you were unambiguously happy watching Felix? I get it; the results clearly aren’t where they need to be, but this blog started as a rallying cry against what Dave/DMZ termed “results-based analysis.” Happy Felix Day used to signify a game that was worth watching, no matter the context. Even games in 2010 were worth watching if Felix was on the hill, and you never quite knew when you’d see something remarkable, something you’d tell your grandkids about. We’re not seeing many of those games anymore, a fact which changes the context of this familiar phrase. Happy Felix Day now signifies a way to say thanks, a way to be loyal to the most loyal athlete in Seattle sports history. Is that counterproductive? I don’t think so, not unless you want to argue that Christian Bergman needs to bump Felix from the rotation, which I think is a step too far even for the most ardent “The King is Dead” partisans. So thanks, Felix. Let’s get this figured out. And Happy Felix Day.
The M’s close out the first half facing off against A’s 2014 2nd-round pick Daniel Gossett. Gossett’s best comp, to me, is the Mariners’ 2015 2nd-round pick, Andrew Moore. Gossett throws a straight, rising four-seam fastball at about 91-92, and backs it up with a change at 82, a slider at 84, and a curveball at 78-79. After a so-so beginning to his pro career, he came on in 2016, rising through three levels and striking out a batter an inning, while limiting walks. In the majors, he’s not striking out too many, but he’s all but eliminated walks. His problem is that he’s also given up 7 dingers in his first 26 IP. After last night’s game, Andrew Moore’s walk rate of 2.4% is essentially tied with Gossett’s 2.6% mark, and Moore’s K rate of 12.2% is just percentage points lower than Gossett’s nearly 14%. Their big problem, of course, is the longball. Moore’s HR rate now stands at 6.09%…over 6% of the batters he’s faced have homered. Gossett’s mark is 6.03%.
I’d love to figure out exactly what it is that makes a player capable of generating swings and misses at one level and not at another (or at least, far fewer). One hypothesis is the popular-these-days spin rate. Andrew Moore’s fastball spins a tiny bit less than league average, which means he gets a lot of efficiency out of that spin: it has more vertical movement than average despite ~ average total spin. His problem is that his breaking stuff has decidedly below average spin. This is partly to blame for his curveball’s astonishing lack of movement. This isn’t to say the pitch can’t be effective, but it may be a reason why it’s not a swing-and-miss pitch. But why would it work in AAA, then? Why did Moore and Gossett strike out so many at lower levels? If lower-level hitters are more prone to hunt specific pitches, it may not matter that a breaking ball doesn’t have killer movement. A slightly worse hitter figures to be worse at reacting to a different pitch type. That’s the hypothesis anyway; I’m aware that the M’s had another guy with killer stuff who came up and couldn’t put MLB hitters away, *despite* elite spin on his breaking ball. That was Brandon Maurer’s problem, wherein minor league lefties couldn’t figure him out, but big league lefties destroyed him (as a starter). Still, while I don’t think spin is The Answer, it may be a part of it.
Gossett gets a lot more grounders than Moore, in part because he’s got a sinker he’ll deploy occasionally, and in part because of what parts of the zone he targets. Moore’s a pretty hard-core fly-ball pitcher right now, with a GB% under 30%. That leads me to another comp that, in hindsight, is going to sound kind of insulting. I don’t mean it to be; I’m not going for hot takes here. But doesn’t this start remind you a bit of Blake Beavan’s 2011? Beavan didn’t have elite velo, and unlike Moore/Gossett, he hadn’t struck out a ton of batters in the minors. He got fly balls and he didn’t walk anyone, that was his deal. He had a rising 4-seamer, though it wasn’t as straight and back-spinning as Moore’s, but he was astonishingly accurate with it for a while. He started his big league career with 6-straight quality starts covering 41 1/3 IP, and despite just 17 Ks, he walked only 6. He had some HR issues, but it didn’t get *bad* until the next start, his first of two consecutive games with 3 HRs-allowed. Despite a K rate of only 10% – 56% of the league average – he was a decent-ish pitcher. He wasn’t able to adapt, meaning the HRs stayed around while the low-BABIP didn’t. Moore’s K% right now is…56% of the league average. He’s weathered a HR surge, but he’s still tossing quality starts. That’s great! I just hope he’s able to avoid Beavan’s fate (Beavan’s somehow only 29, and pitching in the Mets system now after a great stint in the Mexican league). Moore’s minor league record shows he’s got more bat-missing ability, but especially in this day and age, HRs are even more of a danger for a fly-ball pitcher.
1: Segura, SS
2: Gamel, LF
3: Cano, 2B
4: Cruz, DH
5: Seager, 3B
6: Valencia, 1B
7: Haniger, RF
8: Dyson, CF
9: Ruiz, C
SP: El Rey
Game 88, Athletics at Mariners
James Paxton vs. Sean Manaea, 7:10pm
A little while ago, when the M’s made a run and were safely above .500 for a bit, I mentioned that it felt like the M’s were more relevant – more a part of the conversation in Seattle and about sports – than they’d been in some time. And while it shouldn’t be (of course sports radio talks about baseball during baseball season), it felt remarkable. The narrative about the team has always been fatalistic, and I realize I’m a serial offender on that charge. Put that together with the region’s collective passion for the Seahawks and you get a team that runs in the background a bit. For a while, they were out front. And then they fell on their faces.
It’s been rough, but the odd thing is that they’re still a part of the conversation. For whatever reason – the drama of an injury wracked, volatile season, maybe, or the King’s struggles, or Ben Gamel’s ascent – there’s still a lot to talk about. Much of it is bad! The M’s probably won’t/can’t sell off major pieces if they continue to stink, and don’t really have enough to grab help at the deadline, so there’s no savior on the horizon. But the team’s still seems intriguing, even when their pitching staff’s been a nightmare. That may be giving them too much credit; we’re all so beaten down by the 2010-2012 M’s that losing different feels exciting or novel. But the team’s getting more than they could’ve hoped for from Segura/Gamel/Haniger – players who’ll be a part of this org for many years. There’s something to build on, though we still don’t exactly know what or how they’ll do so.
The M’s face lefty Sean Manaea today, the former top prospect who’s become a reasonable, better-than-average SP for the go-nowhere Athletics. He’s seen his K rate increase considerably, approaching the levels he had in the minors. While he’s still not a great starter, he’s developing into a very interesting one. With a low-3/4, whip-like motion, he gets a ton of armside run and some sink on his fastball, which comes in at 92-93. His best pitch going back to his days at Indiana State and his jaw-dropping Cape Cod League performance is his slider, a gyro-spinning pitch at a slurve-like 80 MPH. The problem is that he faces line-ups stacked with righties, and he’s always shown huge platoon splits, in large part because of his stuff: tailing FB/SL combo is nearly always a recipe for high platoon splits. So, he’s got a change-up. He essentially has to, and with a solid amount of drop, it’s now a decent pitch. Clearly his third best, but it’s not an embarrassment.
1: Segura, SS
2: Valencia, 1B
3: Cano, 2B
4: Cruz, DH
5: Haniger, RF
6: Seager, 3B
7: Heredia, CF
8: Gamel, LF
9: Zunino, C
SP: Paxton
Haniger ahead of Seager makes sense given who’s on the hill here. And while Danny Valencia hasn’t been all that much more productive vs. lefties this year, he’s got an even K:BB ratio against them; he works the count and draws walks against lefties, which makes his position in the order understandable.
Today’s minor roster move: Emilio Pagan’s been recalled, with Sam Gaviglio optioned to Tacoma, as the M’s don’t need a 5th starter with the All-Star break looming.
Speaking of the All-Star Game, congrats to Robbie Cano, who was named to the AL team for the 8th time as an injury replacement for Starlin Castro.
Today’s minor league pitching probables include Ljay Newsome, Anthony Misiewicz, Pablo Lopez, and Randy Bell. Tacoma’s going to have a bullpen day today, as Rob Whalen’s back on the disabled list.
Dan Altavilla yielded a crushing 2-out, 3R HR in Reno’s 9-7 win yesterday. In better news, Nick Neidert delivered the pitching performance of the day, tossing 7 shutout IP with 6 Ks in Modesto’s 3-0 win over Visalia. Dylan Unsworth went 7 1/3 with 2 runs allowed in an Arkansas win. Tough call on best hitting line; guess we’ll go with Tacoma’s Leonys Martin, who doubled and tripled in 5 PAs.
Game 87, Athletics at Mariners
Sam Gaviglio vs. Paul Blackburn, 7:10pm
Recently, ex-LL and new M’s blog writer Nathan Bishop posted this optimistic piece regarding the M’s new-look outfield. We kind of take it for granted now, but let’s remember – the current alignment of Heredia/Gamel in LF, Dyson/Heredia in CF, and Haniger/Gamel in RF is a new one. This season started with Leonys Martin in CF, Dyson in LF, Haniger in RF, and Ben Gamel in Tacoma. Nathan talks about their impressive fWAR, especially given that all save Dyson are young players, and can reasonably be expected to get even better. One of the key reasons for this – their high fWAR and all of that – is that the group, as a whole, is incredibly good defensively. I’ve made a few throwaway references to that fact as the year’s gone on, and contrasted it with where we were in April, when for all of their defensive chops, the M’s outfield had a hell of a time turning fly balls into outs. What’s happened since then is pretty jaw-dropping, as the M’s defensive efficiency has increased at an incredible rate and here we are in July with the M’s in a dead heat for first place in team DER. They’re not the best OF by DER, but they’re up there, and that’s impressive given how much more ground they have to cover than, say, the Yankees’ OFs. The infield, too, has made shocking progress since being an anchor on the team’s DER, so this may be a story about positioning changing as the club’s coaches got more information. It could also have something to do with the gap between Jarrod Dyson and Leonys Martin. It could be a lot of things, but the FO set out to improve their OF defense, and it looks like they have.
If there’s such a thing as the anti-Mariners OF, it plays for Oakland. With corner OFs like Khris Davis, Mark Canha, Jaff Decker, and Matt Joyce, the A’s have a combination of waiver-wire guys and platoon guys along with some high-power, low- uh, movement guys. Davis has been the biggest offender, which makes sense as he’s played the most and given the fact that he has the OF armstrength of your average 2nd grader. All told, they’ve given away 36 runs compared to the average OF, and 45 worse than the M’s. We’ve all been focused on Marcus Semien and the A’s poor IF defense, and we missed the, according to these stats, more important story.
Paul Blackburn was the back-of-the-rotation prospect the M’s got along with Dan Vogelbach in the Mike Montgomery trade. The M’s flipped him to Oakland when it became clear that the A’s had no interest in keeping him around. At the time, I thought it was more of a salary dump than a trade, but to their credit, the A’s have Blackburn in the big leagues now. With the M’s, he was a command and control righty whose primary skill was keeping the ball on the ground. He made up for a lack of Ks with a lack of HRs, and while he was never a dominant pitcher, he kept his team in the game. His ERA/FIP were consistently between 3 and 4. That’s nice and gives you some degree of hope that he wouldn’t embarrass a big league team, but there was clearly no standout skill there. I think Andrew Moore, another righty without a big fastball who relied on command, had to overcome the belief that he was *just* a command pitcher who’d be overmatched in the bigs, and he’s struck out a ton more batters, including in the high minors, than Blackburn.
Especially in this day and age, the key’s going to be avoiding HRs. A GB% rate near 50% helps, sure, but there’s some evidence that the fly balls hit off of ground ball pitchers are more damaging; they give up fewer flies, but worse flies, as each one is more likely to be a mistake. He was great at limiting HRs in the minors, and he didn’t give one up in his MLB debut, but it’s something to watch for with him. Sam Gaviglio’s projected HR rate is a bit higher than Blackburn’s, but the two are fairly similar. Both are righties without a ton of velo, who rely on control and sinking stuff to keep hitters off balance. Both were not prospects and seen as 5th-starters by the very few who saw them as MLB-material in the first place. Gaviglio’s kept his team in it, but he’s been seriously battered by homers. We’ll see if Blackburn shares that problem. I’m sure he’d kill for Gaviglio’s results through his first 50 big league innings.
1: Segura, SS
2: Gamel, LF
3: Cano, 2B
4: Cruz, DH
5: Seager, 3B
6: Valencia, 1B
7: Haniger, RF
8: Dyson, CF
9: Zunino, C
SP: Gaviglio
Game 86, Royals at Mariners – Jason Vargas Is Doing What Now?
Ariel Miranda vs. Jason Vargas, 7:10pm
Baseball fans love an underdog story. Sure, we love Noah Syndergaard’s 92mph sliders and we love Aaron Judge moonshots, but every year the out-of-nowhere stories capture our attention, and highlight just how little we know about this game. Jake Arrieta going from busted prospect to ace (and then back to something more run-of-the-mill) seemingly overnight. RA Dickey going from medical freak, to AAA depth, to knuckleballing Rule 5 guy to Cy Young winner. Collin McHugh or Dallas Keuchel going from punching bags to excellent starters, and, in Keuchel’s case, an elite, ace-level guy. Even well-known guys who have a clearly, unambiguously lucky year, it’s cool, and even fans of other teams can tip their caps: Phil Hughes’ insane 2014, maybe, or Kyle Hendricks’ 2016. Fangraphs takes a lot of flack for the formulaic, “Is X sustainable? Probably not,” articles, and part of the reason is that “Is X sustainable?” isn’t a question many are asking. They’re saying, “Isn’t this fun?”
Well, most of them. There’s a dark side of all of this, “Isn’t that nice for Jason Vargas,” who is currently 2nd in BBREF’s version of WAR and is leading the AL in ERA by a mile. Even by Fangraphs’ WAR, which ignores Vargas’ success in stranding runners, he’s in the top 20. The top of leaderboards isn’t where one looks for Jason Vargases (Vargii?). We all know Jason Vargas. Vargas was a perfectly reasonable, effective, generally durable middle-of-the-rotation starter with Seattle for a few years, and has been one for Anaheim and then Kansas City in the years since. This is not a Jake Arrieta story; he was never really a prospect, thanks to the fact that he’s never sat at 90 MPH. He hasn’t really “broken out” as he’s not striking out a ton more batters, or become a Keuchel-level ground ball guy. He’s just stranding runners and avoiding home runs despite giving up fly balls like they’re going out of style (they are most assuredly NOT going out of style). He’s just the same old Vargas, now throwing 1-2 MPH *slower* than he did in Seattle, and he’s leading the AL in ERA. It’s great, right? No, it’s not.
For every out-of-nowhere, or even fluky-great, season, there’s the equal and opposite. A beloved star falling back to the pack, or being mauled by it. For every Logan Morrison hitting bombs everywhere in Tampa, there’s the quiet, there’s Evan Longoria. For every Ben Gamel, there’s a Kyle Seager. And for Jason Vargas, there’s Felix. To state the obvious, Jason Vargas’ success hasn’t come at Felix’s expense. At least, I can’t prove that it has (I’m watching you, Jason). But the juxtaposition of Felix’s not-so-slow decline and Vargas’ look-what-I-found year rankles me for completely irrational reasons. That’s what being a fan is, I guess. We love a player and that means rooting against regression, age-related decline, injury, bad luck, and all manner of opponents that are $^&*ing invincible. The game chews up players like Felix, publicly, in front of their own themed cheering sections, and then has the cheek to elevate some completely average player to the upper tiers of the game. My mind has drawn a bizarre line between the two, and while that’s kind of indefensible logically, the two ARE related, albeit tangentially. You can’t crack a top 10 without someone else dropping out of it.
Here we were concerned about elbowing the Angels out of the Wild Card race, and we kind of missed the fact that Kansas City’s been, well, good, after taking the first month-6 weeks of the season off. The Royals now have a 3 game lead over the M’s in the WC race, and find themselves tied for 2nd in the odd AL Central. Like with the Twins, I look at the club and don’t see a good team, but there they are, 3 games up on the M’s after beating them in 2 straight with the back end of their rotation. As with Vargas himself, I do not find this team, this macro-Vargas story, very entertaining. I still *do* find the M’s entertaining, though the more entertaining they are, the more it raises expectations, and if you’ve been with us for a while, you know what the M’s do to high expectations.
1: Segura, SS
2: Valenica, 1B
3: Cano, 2B
4: Cruz, DH
5: Gamel, LF
6: Haniger, RF
7: Zunino, C
8: Dyson, CF
9: Motter, 3B
SP: Miranda
Tyler O’Neill hit 2 opposite-field HRs in Reno last night in Tacoma’s 12-4 romp over the Aces to run away with the win for best batting line of the night last night. Not a banner night in the system for pitching, but I’ll go with Justin DeFratus’ start for Arkansas – he went 6 IP, giving up 2 earned runs in a loss to Corpus Christi. CC Hooks starter Framber Valdez held the Travs in check, with 9 Ks and 1 R allowed in 6 IP; the Astros may have another decent pitching prospect. Greeeaaat. He didn’t make the Astros’ top 30 list, but now has 85 Ks in 73 1/3 IP this year between hi-A and AA.
Game 85, Royals at Mariners
Felix Hernandez vs. Danny Duffy, 3:40pm
Happy Felix Day and Happy Independence Day. I love double holidays.
King Felix and the M’s take on Danny Duffy, the Royals exciting but injury prone starter, a sort of midwestern James Paxton. Duffy first came up back in 2011, and is still looking for his first 200 IP (or 180 IP) season. He came close last year, in a breakout season that saw him post 2.8 fWAR and earn a big 5-year contract extension this off-season. He’s pitched decently this year, but he’s missed over a month with an oblique injury; this’ll be his first start since May 28th.
Duffy’s got good velo for a lefty, reaching 94 pretty routinely, and has lots of spin on his rising fastball, and running change-up. He uses a slider at 84 as his putaway pitch; the curveball that he came up with is now rarely seen. He’s got pretty normal platoon splits, and as such, he’s seen heavily right-handed line-ups. Today figures to be more of the same. Let’s hope the M’s can figure him out a bit more than Ian Kennedy, whose high 91 MPH fastballs seemed to flummox the M’s (though Jarrod Dyson said he had a deceptive delivery).
Andrew Moore overcame some early shakiness to pitch 8 innings in yesterday’s loss. He’s still averaging 91+, and he’s still not walked anyone, but he left a few too many pitches in the heart of the zone. His command’s better than that, and it’s interesting to see that he still got plenty of outs in the heart of the zone, but he’s going to want to stick to the edges as best he can. He gave up a HR on his slider, and seemed to be using his curve more. That hook was supposed to be a work in progress, and his 4th-best pitch, but it’s been the most successful through two games.
Ben Gamel’s now 0 for his last 12. Is he seeing fewer FBs? Eh, kind of – his overall FB% has dropped from about 58% to 56%, so that’s not a huge shift yet. The share of pitches that end a plate appearance is identical, too. It’s predictable/boring, but this is probably just a bit of BABIP luck evening out. The poor guy’s seen his BABIP tumble from .471 waaay down to .432.
1: Segura, SS
2: Valencia, 1B
3: Cano, 2B
4: Cruz, DH
5: Seager, 3B
6: Haniger, RF
7: Heredia, CF
8: Ruiz, C
9: Motter, LF
SP: El Rey
Good to see Nellie Cruz back in the line-up.
Casey Lawrence hurled a CG shutout for Tacoma in their big July 3rd game against Albuquerque. Lindsey Caughel went 6 scoreless in Arkansas’ shutout win, but Lawrence’s 9 IP gives him the nod. Tuffy Gosewisch was the hitting star of the day, with a HR and 5 RBIs. Brayan Hernandez and two other AquaSox homered as well, and Greifer Andrade hit 2 2Bs, continuing to show that he needs a new challenge soon.
Game 84, Royals at Mariners
Andrew Moore vs. Ian Kennedy, 7:10pm
This has always been one of my favorite days on the baseball calendar, as Tacoma always had its big fireworks show on the 3rd. It was always the biggest game of the year, and when we didn’t go (which was most of the time), I’d climb on my roof and try to see the fireworks to the south. Safeco’s now doing a big fireworks show on the 3rd as well, and from all reports, they do a great job. In any event, if you want to take in a ball game and see some fireworks, you’ve now got a few options locally.
Andrew Moore’s back up to make his second big league start. Honestly couldn’t have gone much better in his first game, so you have to think he can approach this game with some confidence. His opponents, the Royals, have been a terrible team at the plate, but of course that’s been true for a long time and it never seemed to slow them down. The heart of their order’s actually better than it’s been in a while thanks to a decent season from Eric Hosmer, and Lorenzo Cain’s still great, but awful seasons from Alex Gordon and Alcides Escobar saps the ability of the line-up to string hits together. Escobar’s always been bad, but Gordon’s face-plant is pretty remarkable for someone who hasn’t suffered some freak injury. He’s had nearly 300 PAs this year and both his OBP AND SLG% are under .300.
Ian Kennedy was always a curious free agent pick-up by KC, but he turned in a surprisingly decent year last year. Home run issues made him expendable in San Diego, and – not surprisingly – he gave up a ton for the Royals last year in the Year of the Home Run. Still, an insane strand rate and his second-best season BABIP led him to a sub-4 ERA. FIP was suspicious, but he helped a Royals team that desperately needed some stability in their rotation. So who was right, the ERA or the FIP? To the surprise of no one, FIP seems to have won this hypothetical battle. Kennedy’s K% is down, his walk and HR rates are up, and now not even a .201 BABIP can save his season. He’s probably one of those guys who’s always going to be a bit better than his FIP, but that’s exceedingly faint praise.
He’s been remarkably even platoon-wise, with an equivalent K rate and too many HRs against both. Lefties figure to have the advantage, but that’s not because Kennedy’s a righty-killer. He throws a rising 4-seam fastball at 92-93, a cutter, a curve and a change-up.
Andrew Moore averaged 91.4 MPH on his arrow-straight, rising four-seamer in his first start. He struggled to miss bats, but was around the strike zone and yielded tons of fly ball and elevated contact. That’s his game plan and all, but despite the great results, he gave up a lot of hard-hit balls. I’d love to see him get some more pop-ups and mishits against a poor offensive club.
1: Segura, SS
2: Gamel, LF
3: Cano, 2B
4: Haniger, RF
5: Seager, 3B
6: Valencia, 1B
7: Dyson, CF
8: Zunino, C
9: Powell, DH
SP: Moore
Casey Lawrence starts for Tacoma tonight. Game’s at 7, with the first pitch at 7:20. Other starters in the system include Lindsey Caughel, Anthony Misiewicz, Danny Garcia, and Andres Torres. Tyler Herb had the start of the night yesterday. Best batting line (tough call, as two teams were shut out) will go to Leonys Martin, who had 3 hits including a double.
Game 83, Mariners at Angels + Happy J2 Day
James Paxton vs. Jesse Chavez, 12:37pm
After one of the most dispiriting losses of the year – getting shutout by a guy who came in with a well below-replacement-level WAR – the M’s look to right the ship against well-traveled Jesse Chavez and the Angels. James Paxton starts, which is generally a good sign.
The biggest news of the day has nothing to do with the game, though, nor to the latest minor roster moves (welcome back Boog Powell!). Instead, July 2nd is the big day in which teams sign the top international free agent teenagers, largely from Venezuela and the Dominican Republic. Essentially, teams can sign players who are 16 or above. These rules came into place after Adrian Beltre signed with the Dodgers at 15, but things had been a bit…uh, unregulated for a while. The Jays signed a 13 year old in the 80s, for example, and the entire system seems kind of gross the closer you look at it. Coaches taking young kids, training them up, and teams perhaps making side deals and in general trying to drive their signing bonuses down.
The M’s have experienced the entire range of J2-inspired emotions. One of the trainers they worked with on some of the biggest signings at the tail end of Bob Engle’s reign as international directors was implicated in a sex abuse case involving M’s prospects. Years before all of that, of course, the M’s made a big move into scouting Venezuela, turning up the likes of Felix Hernandez. The M’s had been one of the most active teams in that country, but shuttered their academy there amidst concerns about the political situation there.
J2 is a big deal because the signings of an entire cohort of players are announced on the same day. Of course, that doesn’t mean that the day’s like the amateur draft. Instead, it’s just the day on which teams announce signings that are, for the most part, already drawn up. That seems to get around the whole “you can’t sign 15 year olds” but there you have it. De jure rather than de facto laws are what we have to work with. One of the M’s biggest recent signings, SS Christopher Torres, fell to them after he arranged a deal with the Yankees, only to have the Yankees renege on the deal (according to Torres and his trainer) after he gained weight.
The M’s have not been major players in the international/Caribbean market for a while; they’ve made a handful of high-dollar signings (like Everett CF Brayan Hernandez), but they haven’t gone for one of the top 2-3 players in a while, and we haven’t seen the M’s blow past their bonus pool (J2 has team-by-team bonus limits, like the amateur draft) the way so many teams have done. Indeed, Jerry Dipoto hadn’t been too active in this field even as GM of the Angels. The Angels had an international scouting director was the subject of an MLB investigation into “bonus skimming” where a team pays an inflated bonus to a trainer and then receives a kickback from the trainer. That was well before Dipoto’s time, but pretty much the only big international signing the club made while Dipoto was at the helm was of Cuban 2B Roberto Baldoquin for $8 million, quite a high bonus at the time – though to be fair, Baldoquin was 20 at the time, and not a wiry 16 year old. That move has yet to pay dividends, as Baldoquin immediately put up a 52 wRC+ in the hitter-friendly Cal League, and then somehow got worse in 2016. He’s currently all the way back in the Midwest League. Given that, it’s perhaps not a surprise that Dipoto hasn’t been fighting with the Rays/Yankees/Red Sox/White Sox for top talent.
That’s changed a bit this year. The M’s have signed one of the top-5 ranked players, Dominican OF Julio Rodriguez, for about $1.75 million. They’ve also signed Venezuelan SS Juan Querecuto for a bonus exceeding $1 million. Both players are in the top J2 lists; BaseballAmerica has them ranked 6th and 21st, respectively. Chris Crawford had Rodriguez 5th, and says of Querecuto: “Mariners also got Juan Querecuto today, a shortstop with a chance for average offensive tools and a very strong throwing arm.”
Ok, ok, back to the major leagues for a bit: today’s match-up sees the M’s offense face off with yet another Angels pitcher whose HR troubles have him firmly below replacement level by FIP. Like Ricky Nolasco, he’s been better at home, though unlike Nolasco, he’s actually been decent in Orange County. He’s got strangely reversed platoon splits this year. He’s thrown his four-seamer a lot more with the Halos than he did with the A’s, but his velocity’s down noticeably this year.
1: Segura, SS
2: Gamel, LF
3: Cano, 2B
4: Haniger, RF
5: Seager, 3B
6: Valencia, 1B
7: Heredia, CF
8: Zunino, C
9: Powell, DH
SP: Paxton
As you can see, Boog Powell’s back, as Nelson Cruz sits after injuring his knee on that slide into 2nd base last night. Max Povse’s been optioned to Tacoma to make room.