When I'm home watching the game, while being distracted, I don't see every at bat and have been obliging of the the Figgins/Olivo system. Being at the game and concentrating on the happenings I can say very clearly that there is never a time that Figgins or Olivo should be taking an at bat from Seager, Saunders, Wells, Kawasaki, Felix, Jr or Ruppert Jones for that matter. Never, ever, not even once. Wedge is close to losing the respect he has gained with his tough talk, do things the right way, yada yada if he keeps putting Olivo out there.
Figgins is not an outfielder, defensively speaking. He took terrible routes last night and his throw on Thursday was poor. Not his fault, it's Wedge's for playing him out there. Baseball people aren't actually dumb, they know what Figgins is and no matter how many cheap little hits he produces they are not going to give up anything of value or take on much salary for him. The M's are just blocking the development of some good young players.
I rant, because I care.
..............
=== Hector Noesi ===
G-Money has taken to providing postgames that echo my own observations with 96.37% consistency. Do you think he should be more worried, or me? Here is his own mini-postgame. This will apparently serve as the expanded version. You're a sports fan, so you're good with replays. Question is whether you want fourteen replays of Adam Dunn's home runs.
Montero called for the same stripped-down Max Scherzer style attack game that he did last time around. Fully 40 of 58 pitches were fastballs, and the rest* were changeups. Noesi demonstrated that, as of April 2012, this is a bit much to ask also. Montero's pitch call, and Noesi's result, is analogous to giving Tim Tebow, or Andrew Luck, a 12-play arm wrap ... and then watching the QB turn the wrong way in the backfield half the time, and get decapitated for six sacks and four picks.
If you don't shed the dude for anything else, shed him for the tempo. C'mon. It's fastballs low and away every pitch. What is with the 30-second internal dialogue when it's the pitch he threw at 11 years old? He's standing there thinking, "Oh, man. This is going to be SOOOOooooooo fun that I just need to savor the moment ooonnnnnne more second."
...........
Wedge took his own turn in decapitating Noesi, yanking him in the 2nd inning with the bases empty, giving him no opportunity to finish on a stronger note. This could be a presage to a role change.
Hector Noesi is young, rich, and he has had pro scouts say that he's going to be better than Michael Pineda was last year. It's no tragedy for them to hit the reboot button on him. He's a big boy.
.
=== Erasmo ===
You know the Red Light game we played as kids? One kid is the stop light, turns her back to the crowd, then whirls around RED LIGHT! and if she sees anybody moving, they're back to the start. But while she's turned and the light is green, you try to step several strides forward...
Erasmo four looonnnnnng, gleeful hops forward tonight towards getting to be the next stoplight kid. He looked thiiiiiiis close.
.
=== Und Take Zis Mit You ===
M'man Sgt. Wedge wasn't kidding about DH'ing Miguel Olivo, was he? The men asked me to tell you. We feel it's a bit over the top there, sir.
We've got a saying in chess. If you find yourself having to play pawn to King's Knight Four to save yourself on move 10, you should find yourself another opening. ... if you find yourself DH'ing Miguel Olivo, you should find yourself a different 25-man roster.
.
=== Montero's Throwing ===
After the early 3-for-3 returns on SB's, we issued full disclosure on Montero. All three throws had been dubious. Bears watching.
Tonight, first runner took off and Montero picked a slider out of the dirt to ALLLMMMOST nail him at the bag. WEXXcellent throw. Then the second runner, Montero gunned down and Blowers raved. Great jump by the runner, he says, the kind of great jump that will make rookie catchers panic.... nope. See ya, wouldn't wanna be ya.
The major league SB rate was 72.2% last year, meaning that runners averaged 3.6 stolen bases per 5 attempts, so Montero's 4-for-5 rate has cost the Mariners nothing,* in terms of results. We're just saying. What we'd wanted to rule out was the idea of 17 stolen bases per evening. Rather, we've gotten league average stolen base returns. Par is a good score.
.
=== Chris Sale ===
As G-Money said, he was a zombie redneck horror daddy version of Charlie Furbush. Or a Randy Johnson wannabe. I don't care if I have to say it 90 times in a row; Chris Sale woulda locked down anybody on Friday. (Against Josh Tomlin it was their own fault. There, happy?)
In the first inning, Baggins worked a walk and Ackley hit a mondo tough low-away pitch for a line drive over SS. Ichiro went to 2-0, if I recall correctly, and then .... Chris Sale threw him a Randy Johnson slider. Ichiro missed the ball like I don't know when. Chris Sale went, uh, what? Are you serious there, meat?
Sale threw another slider and Ichiro took another stinky garbage swing. It was like John Kruk and Randy Johnson. Sale threw another one and Ichiro topped it into the dirt. Sale threw another one and Ichiro fanned. The baseball game was OVER.
.........
You might remember that Carter Capps is on the same career timeline as Chris Sale. We don't wanna hear any excuses, Jack. We want Carter Capps. Don't bother writing for an extension; the answer will be, "No."
Slap me silly, what glorious roto pickups Chris Sale and Carter Capps would be.
.
BABVA,
Dr D
Comments
1. We're running a Punch and Judy (with no punch) whacking LF/CF out there every day, even as his average/OBP nears beyond dismal. Wedge raves about his approach, so we've got that going for us. Doc, you and I opined, before opening day, that we feared the situation where Figgins hit just enough to create the illusion that he had a bat but not enough to create a trade market for him. Are we below that point yet?
2. Our DO (Designated Out) last night has now gone completely past the "beyond dismal" point and currently rests at "total futility." Wedge raves about his gamey, courageous nature, so we've got that going for us. I think he's a gamey player, too....something smells rotten.
3. That DO currently has 48 PA's and a line of .130-.149-.174. Liddi (who slugged .525 last year), Wells (career .472 slugger) and Jaso (slugging .727 this year, and who catches just fine, thank you) have a COMBINED total of 35 PA's this year.
Uh....have I missed something here. Earl Weaver is complete spinnnnnnnnnning in his grave. Perhaps the DO's smoking '11 is keeping him in the lineup. That must be it.
Raise your hand if you would rather see Figgins/Baggins (Had to use it once Doc....it is too perfect) than Wells in LF right now. Oooooooooh, not many hands up.
OK, raise your hand if you would rather see Figgins than Carp/Catricala (in that order). Not many there, either, I see. Carp did finally play LF last night after DHing every game. I assume that mean the shoulder is now ready. He hasn't hit squat in Tacoma....but let's see him up.
Heck, I would rather see Trayvon or Peguero in LF right now.
It was pretty clear during the spring that there was no market for Figgins. We've tried to run him out there day in and day out to establish some value. It isn't working. We might be able to give him away....and it's time to do just that.
We're young. Last night's loss, combined with the previous one, will sting for just a bit. But the critical point is whether something is learned from last night and we see some different faces.
Every night now we should see Wells in the lineup. Let Figgins caddy for Saunders, I can stand for that. Every day now, we should see a catcher/DH duo that includes Montero, Jaso and Liddi. Miggy? Uh......no. Bat Jaso leadoff when he's in the lineup, Seager when he isn't.
Let Liddi get the odd day at 3B when Seager gets the rest.
Wells gets a bunch of CF starts when Carp gets here.
Capps? Here tomorrow.
If we score a few runs, we might win today.
That's my story and I'm sticking to it.
moe
Besides the issues moe laid out, here are a couple others that are bugging me.
1) our Walkers are not walking. Smoak and Ackley are BB nuts. Smoak's .isoW is .040 and Ackley's is .047. That's not anywhere near where they need to be. Smoak is supposed to be able to survive streaks where he has a low BA because he can still get on base. He's not getting on base.
Seager isn't walking either, but he actually doesn't walk much. Seager is like a lefty version of the Ultimate Jose Lopez template: can play 2nd or 3rd, high average, not a lot of walks or Ks, doubles by the handful. The guys who do walk, need to.
Look, Brendan Ryan is leading this team in walks and OBP. Brendan RYAN. If they keep piping things in the zone to you gentlemen, then HIT THEM. Once they move outside the zone, take your free bases. Thanks in advance.
2) we have our black-hole hitters all next to each other. Guys are getting on base right before the two lowest batting averages on the team (Olivo and Ryan) are coming up.
It's like having two pitchers in the lineup. Ryan at least hits doubles on the rare occasions he makes contact. Olivo does nothing. Ryan's 4-walk game is skewing his total line a bit, but he's still been more productive by a long way.
The benchies are doing well when we let em in, but it's hard to get production from them because no one can drive them home.
Gotta work out the kinks in this lineup. We kept saying that last year until our June implosion. Better work faster this time.
~G
Might be for Mark Reynolds since the Orioles are apparently desperate to trade him, I haven't even seen a half hearted defense from the front office to contradict. At this point though, it's hard even for me to figure a space for Reynolds on the team. I guess he could spell Seager at 3rd and Smoak at first and Montero at DH, but thats maybe 3 games a week.
it'd make your head spin. Reynolds has a $500k option for next year, while Figgins is on the books for another 8 large, guaranteed.
Reynolds is a killer against LHP, and since Ackley, Ichiro, Carp, Saunders and Seager are all lefty, it's nice to have the option. Hence the reason Liddi is hanging around, and Wells.
I'd do that. Reynolds has a viable skill - power - that we can deploy against lefties that neutralize some parts of our lineup (he also has like a .370 lifetime OBP vs LHP), while Figgins has a skill (versatility) that has already bitten us. His poor outfield form is not a plus to his value for us.
Any chance we can do a Figgins + Liddi for Reynolds + a prospect? I like Liddi but I don't see him getting the shot here to really perform. Gonna Mike Morse his way off this team, so we might as well get something for him. And that gives the Orioles two players that could work for them at 3rd.
And it frees up 8 million bucks for us next year, as well as getting playing time for the kids that need it and strengthening our pinch-hitting and vs. lefties lineups (which Wedge would then need to use...but one thing at a time).
~G
Figgins and Olivo again today. And we currently don't have a base runner through 4 innings......just got home to watch the game.
Seems like Wells had a couple of doubles last night in a two for three effort. I guess Figgins just hits righties better than Wells. His .238-.292-.381 clip this season indicates that, as did his .207-.270-.238 rate last year.
Man, if you're not bringing Carp up then at least give Wells a chance. This is ridiculous.
Olivo? Again? Really? Honest?
Shaking my head,
moe
21st perfect game in history.
Of course, for me personally all I could do is listen to the radio like it was 1927 because MLB BLACKED OUT THE GAME. Geniuses. Argh.
This was not exactly what I meant by "improve the offense" though. I'm really glad we ran Olivo out there again. That definitely helped. At least we pinch hit for him in the 9th, although we also included Ryan as a pinch-hitter. I don't think he swung at that last pitch, now that I've seen it, but you can't give the umps the opportunity there to go with the emotion and call a strike to make history rather than a walk to screw up the perfect-o. Ah well.
We had almost all of our lefty lineup out there. Getting a perfect game thrown by a righty against 4 lefties and 2 switch hitters...eesh.
I choose to say: great game, Mr. Humber. Welcome to the pantheon of perfect games. Your new nickname should immediately be Blackjack, since you're #21. Well played, sir.
~G
...Other than maybe Wedge was trying to let the perfect game happen. Kawasaki probably would have dropped a bunt!