Wednesday, March 28, 2012

Winner, Winner!

M's win their first game behind great pitching and some nice clutch hitting.  Felix goes eight innings and Wilhelmsen follows up with two scoreless innings and then League puts them away.  Ackley was the player of the game with a homer and RBI single.  Ichiro shows he still has it by collecting 4 hits.  It was nice to see a little action on the base paths with Ackley and Saunders both stealing a base. 

I was amazed at reading through the different comments after the M's win of how depressing everyone was.  All the comments were about the same old Mariners and look how Smoak, Montero and Carp didn't get any hits.  It's pretty ridiculous that with how far we have come with baseball stats, we are still judging players and teams on small sample sizes.  In the end, the only thing that matters is that the Mariners won and we have another game to look forward to tomorrow.

Tuesday, March 20, 2012

Let's Talk Rosters....again!

M's leave on Thursday and have to decide on the 30 players to take to Japan and then obviously the 25 they will pick for the opening day roster.

C - Olivo, Jaso, Montero
1B - Smoak
2B - Ackley
SS - Ryan
3B - Seager, Figgins
Util - Kawasaki (Mr. Single)
LF - Carp
CF - Saunders
RF - Ichiro
OF - Wells
SP - Felix, Vargas, Millwood, Beavan, Noesi
RP - Camp, Kelley, Wilhelmsen, Ruffin, Sherrill, League, Luetge, Iwakuma

Other 5 to bring to Japan - Ramirez, Furbush, Peguero, L. Rodriguez, M. Wilson

Answer the Phone?

After three doubles today, I don't know how Seager doesn't make the opening day roster and how he doesn't take a majority of the playing time at 3B.  But with the news of Utley not going to be ready for opening day and Polanco's continued minor injury issues, should the Mariners answer the phone if the Phillies call?

The Mariners obviously have Ackley at the 2B spot, so there is no room for Seager there.  Then there are the number of 3B prospects the M's currently have, which include F. Martinez, Liddi, and Catricala.  I really like Seager and I would prefer to keep him, but unless the M's plan on moving Ackley to LF, then I think you have to start listening. 

With regards to the Phillies, you just don't know what is going to happen with Utley.  Polanco is done with the Phils after this year.  The Phils have Galvis working out at 2B, but his real position is SS.  He should be ready once Rollins contract is up to fill right in there, but he needs to get at bats in the mean time.  This probably means he plays at 2B for the next couple of years, so who will fill in at 3B.  The Phils don't have anyone coming up to play 3B, so it really makes sense for them to make a trade for a guy or go after a free agent this offseason. 

Who do the Phils have to offer that other teams would be interested in?  They have the young aces, but I'm not sure that is what would be offered in return for a player like Seager and I'm don't think with their own set of aces coming up if that is what they will be looking for. 

Sunday, March 11, 2012

Love It

I'm watching the Yankees/Phillies spring training game and Lou Pinella is the color commentator.  They were talking about Pujols going to the Angels and Lou remarks he is a really good hitter.  But then he added to it that he is in the Edgar Martinez realm of hitter.  I find it interesting it isn't the other way around.  We in Seattle understand how good of a hitter Edgar was, but wouldn't it be great if more former managers and players voiced their opinion.  I guarantee that would help Edgar get in the HOF.

Monday, March 5, 2012

Way to Go Ackley Boy!

He hates it when I call him that!

M's Win 13-7
Ackley goes 3-3 with a single, double, triple and oh, 1 error, oops.
A. Moore hits a homer

I didn't want to mention this first because I didn't want it to be the focus.  I had to listen to the game on the Padres radio.  I was not very impressed with the two doing the radio broadcast.  One guy spoke in segmented words, the other kept trying to put together, in the only way I could describe as word jokes.

On the pitching end, the Padres radio guys were not impressed with Iwakuma's stuff and basically said it was pretty ordinary.  I can't say that the MLB gameday tracker was that much more encouraging.  He threw a lot of splitters, topping out at 90.  I guess he doesn't even throw a fastball.  He threw first pitch strikes to 2 of the 5 batters and both were foul balls, not even called strikes.
Patterson, Sherrill and Wilhelmsen all had nice outings.  Wilhelmsen topped out at 98mph.

Phils win 9-3
Rollins, Polanco and Thome all collect 2 hits.
Luna had a nice base clearing double and Michael Martinez hit a homer.
Rollins also had 2 SBs.
Blanton had a nice outing, so did Elarton and Herndon.

Sunday, March 4, 2012

Game Winning Double by Chavez!!

After Grube blows it in the top of the 9th, Chavez comes through with a double in the bottom of the 9th to score Mike Wilson.  Nice to watch some replacements come through in the 9th off of a decent minor league pitcher in Brad Brach.  Basically a fastball/slide pitcher with nice K numbers and low BB numbers.

For the rest of the game
Vargas had another nice outing, which is encouraging for the guy that will be manning our #2 spot.  The pitchers after him outside of Grube all put of 0's.  It will more interesting after looking at the Pitch FX data.
Figgins adds another walk but no more hits.  Kawasaki goes 1-2 and gets a walk.  Franklin replaced Kawasaki and goes 1-1, but also commits 2 errors.  This continues to be something that is concerning about Franklin.  He's still young, but it would be ideal if he could stick at SS.  If he can't figure out the defense and then he ends up moving to 2B and loses his value to the M's if Ackley is still there.  It's a little early to be concerned here, but I would just feel so much better if he can tighten the defense up.
Montero gets a double and hasn't given me a reason to think twice about the trade.
The big bat story outside of the winning double is the play of Kyle Seager (the other guy who if he can't stick at 3B, then 2B is his natural position).  Seager goes 3-3 and hits a homer in the 1st.  If he keeps playing well we may never see Carlos Guillen back in a Mariner uniform.

As for the Phillies
Halladay gives up the 1st inning homer, but other than that, he does what Halladay does.  Aumunt struggled a little bit, which is too bad since there has been a lot of hype about him lately.  Hopefully it is just first outing jitters and pressure to perform.  Looking forward to his next outing.  Savery was a little wild with the 2 walks but also had 2 K's.  If Willis can't be productive, the Savery is where they will look first.
Hunter Pence hits his 2nd homer in two days.  I can't wait for a full season out of him.  Very exciting player to watch.  D. Brown goes 2-4 with a 3B, but also gets caught stealing and an error.  There have been a lot of concerns around his defense, so it would be nice to have him tighten it up there.  On the other side, we have really just been waiting for his bat to come around, so that is nice to see.
Galvis goes 2-3 with a double, so that is nice to see.  The consensus is that his glove his great, but we need to see the bat catch up.  He is obviously destined for the minors, but it would be nice to see him build some confidence in that bat and be ready to back up Jimmy next year.

2 Losses

Phils and M's Lose.  I'm sure they will be thinking about these losses throughout the whole year.

Phils Game
Pence hits a homer
Gillies goes 2-3 with a 2B - Gillies has a lot to prove this year.
Pierre goes 1-1 with a BB and SB.  That's exactly what keep him around.
Hamels, Papelbon and Bush have decent outings.  Going to need to see better outings from Willis, Qualls and Stutes.

M's Game
Peguero hits 2nd homer of the spring, steals a base and doesn't strikeout.
Ackley walks and steals a base.
Noesi and Camp have nice outings.
Millwood and Kuo need to do better.

Saturday, March 3, 2012

Winning!!!

I'm stating this up front.  I don't care that it's spring training, the Mariners are playing games and results from these games are being reported.  I know the stats don't matter and that they are not a reliable predictor of future real game performance, but this doesn't mean I won't comment on them like they do matter.  I don't want to hear the standard, oh well those are just ST stats.  I know they are and I don't care.

Moving on!
Mariners in 5 homers
Saunders, Montero, Peguero, Rodriguez and Chavez.  Isn't this an exciting difference from the last couple of years?  Players hitting them out all over the place.  It doesn't really matter how Peguero and Chavez play they are destined for the minors.  But Saunders is fighting for the starting CF job, Montero is out to show he is what we hope we would be and Rodriguez is fighting for a backup IF spot.

It was a rough day for Montero getting hit in the chops a couple of times.  I'm sure he is fine.  Catchers are tough.

Blake Beavan also had a nice first outing.

Can't wait for today's game!