Seattle Sports Insider

M's 4, A's 0 - Props and Slops

Posted by

4/22/11

PROPS TO JACK ZDURIENCIK for putting Michael Pineda in the Opening Day rotation. The season's still alive, because of that.

"Sickly" and "Dead" are two different things. The players are reacting to Felix/Pineda, and Capt Jack has a little time yet to come up with a 90 OPS+. You feel me?

Baker pointed out that Pineda is the first Mariner ever to notch Quality Starts in his first four attempts. Like to see the list of guys who did that since 1994. In MLB, I mean. Not many, I'll bet.

SLOPS TO THE M'S BATTING ORDER which, absent Bradley and Smoak, is well-and-truly into PCL territory.

We don't mean that as hyperbole. The eight guys following Ichiro the last two days? As a group, they are PCL-caliber. You're watching a minors-quality offense attempt to play baseball in the American League.

Adam Kennedy has been carrying the offense. Anybody remember the strike season in which Jeff Kemp carried the Seahawks' scab team? That is what you're seeing when Adam Kennedy is our go-to guy. Which he is!

PROPS TO ERIC WEDGE'S PITCHING CHANGES. This offseason, SSI's quickshot impression was that Wedge was an average-solid ML manager with one big minus: bullpen changes.

Dr. D hopes this hits you right: For 21 games, he has felt like Eric Wedge has done a better job with pitching changes than he could have done.

I wonder why Wedge has such a consistently weird record with "blown quality starts." I really like his feel for pulling a starting pitcher. As well, I've nodded along with his bullpen changes -- particularly how quick he was to get on Jamey Wright, and how quick to get off Chris Ray and Josh Leuke.

Piniella was encumbered by player loyalty in the bullpen. Wedge has been agile. Granted, there's nobody here that he owes anything to, which is easily the best thing about a new manager.

SLOPS TO GUTIERREZ' GI. Another setback, and as we wrote last month, SSI's over/under on finding the solution is ten years.

I like Saunders, and when he squares it up the ball jumps off his bat. But right now his EYE stands at 2:13.

Will cheerfully admit that Saunders has not looked as good in CF as I thought he would. Don't remember a single specific out-of-zone play he's made.

CF is the biggest 162-game problem right now.

Well, maybe. Don't look now, but Safeco may be tarp-rolling Miguel Olivo again (3:19 EYE, 25 OPS+).

PROPS TO BRANDON LEAGUE'S FASTBALL, which at 95.6 mph is #7 in both leagues right now.

We all know about League's wipeout splitter, and Wedge had a GRRRRREAT comment that with the game on the line Friday, Brandon League maintained a relaxed tempo.

League's a closer, gentlemen.

..........

They say that Aardsma hit 97 on the gun at Tacoma. Get the 8th and 9th squared away, and you can probably figure out the rest without too much problem.

PROPS TO THE BABIP - impossibly bad for 17 games, the last three-four games those ground balls have rolled through. Notably the 2-RBI single Friday.

Now the HR/F rate, please...

Comments

Slops to Jack Cust.

I'm gonna keep hammering away at this until Cust is DFAd. He's done. Over. A total and complete hand-wave. He needs to go away. Soon.
You know it's bad when he's late on a 91 mph fastball and fouls it back...and then breathes a sigh of relief when the pitcher gifts him an RBI walk. I know Tyson Ross had good movement on his pitches (which is why he was literally unable to throw a strike all night) but c'mon Jack...you are supposed to be our power threat and Adam blinkin' Kennedy is looking more aggressive with the bat than you. You look afraid to swing. Pathetic.

Slops to Michael Saunders

Not to beat a dead horse...(and I hope this is not taken as mean spirited), but I honestly hope some folks are having some lightbulbs turned on regarding the value of Franklin Gutierez (healthy). Doc (eg) assumed that because Guti was not fast and Saunders was...that Saunders would be at least as skilled defensively in CF...but his defense just cost us a ballgame (as did his idiotic baserunning) when he inexplicably dove for a ball that Guti would have caught with ease (and standing up) and had it hit him in the wrist and face.
No...Safeco did not invent Guti...Guti is a fabulous defensive CFer and Saunders...isn't. Mostly because Saunders has no instincts. We need Guti back...even if all he can do right now is play pretty defense. We can throw away his line-up spot to hold together our outfield if we can get more offense from 2B, SS and C than we have thus far.

Slops to Chone Figgins' speed.

Or lack thereof. For a guy like Figgins to be worth something to this club, not only does he have get his BABIP back to normal and start drawing his walks..he's got to actually be fast. Which he isn't anymore. As evident by his feeble attempt to score on Kennedy's first-inning double. Ichiro...at age 37...would still easily have scored on that play...Figgins looked like he was running in slow motion. And was out by five feet.

Slops to Josh Lueke

Great stuff...not ready for the show yet...not even close. He needs a whole year in AAA to learn how not to groove a fastball every third pitch. Mechanics do indeed look very raw and non-repeating...get him outta here before he kills our season entirely.

last night's game - Cust

Being on the east coast I have not had a chance to watch any Mariner games this year until yesterday (Saturday). The thing that struck me the most was Jack Cust, who had the look of a defeated man before even stepping into the batter's box. Nothing about his approach looked right. I wonder if it would be possible to send him down to Tacoma so he can at least try to figure it out. Uggh.
I believe that Saunders did the best he could with the line drive. Good effort, poor outcome. He's not the best defensive CF by a long shot, but I cannot agree with the statement that his defense is hurting this team. There is a long list of things that need fixing, and I am not convinced that Saunders defense in CF would appear in a list of the top ten. As noted above, it is only a short term problem as Guitierez is now expected to return in a few weeks anyway.
Happy Fister day. Can we say that yet? I hope so.

Agreed that Saunders did his best on that liner

I wasn't saying Saunders made no effort...I was saying that a good outfielder catches that line drive on his two feet...that Saunders felt the need to stretch out is a sign of how limited his range is compared to Gutierrez, and that I believe Guti is every bit the +15 to +20 run outfielder he appeared to be. That was the source of an important debate around these parts...Doc posed the theory that Safeco was turning an average fielder in a boy wonder and I think Saunders is disproving that rather nicely.
And yes...I was saying that CF defense was a major problem last night and has cost the Mariners a number of runs in close games to start the year...that we need Gutierrez in the line-up...and that I believed even if he was a RL hitter, he would still be better than Saunders. I stand by that assessment.

Sorry, I did not mean to

Sorry, I did not mean to misrepresent what you were saying. I agree, the addition of Gutierrez solves many problems.

No need to be sorry

If that last post sounded confrontational at all...that was not my intent. I think we agree on most points anyway...I definitely think that CF defense is about problem 7 on a list of major problems that start with 3B/DH/LF offense, Catching in general, bullpen depth, Bedard, etc. But it's a source of some frustration because if we're going to play the low scoring "must win the close ones" strategy...we need to actually field our best team defensively without hitting critical mass on weak offense. We have to have Guti...he's the key to this whole defense. I really hope he can find a way to get back...but IBS is a diagnosis of exclusion...what it really means is that all of his doctors are too stupid to find the real problem...I firmly believe that IBS is not a real disease...that it's an umbrella term for all of the bowel problems that doctors aren't smart enough to figure out the real problems for.

Really?

"all of his doctors are too stupid to find the real problem"
Really, Ghost? You think that? The best specialists they can find are too stupid?
Not in my experience.

The doctors at the Mayo

The doctors at the Mayo clinic are stupid? Seriously? Your credibility just dropped to zero.

No one watches "House"?

I most certainly did not mean that literally, folks. I thoguht that was a common enough reference that it would be clear...to quote Greg House, "Idiopathic...from the Latin "Idiop" for idiot. It means we are too stupid to know what's really going on."
You literally cannot be stupid and be a doctor...but where human knowledge fails...where current medical science does not yet tread...that is a form of stupidity, for lackm of a better word. A diagnosis of exclusion with no known cause, treatment, cure...that's medical ignorance. Everything has a cause...everything is explainable if only we knew it all. But we don't. My point is...calling what Gutierrez has "Iritable Bowel Syndrome" is an abject admission of failure. We don't know what it is...it is therefore IBS. That's the bottom line.

Let's step back for a second...story time.

This is the experience of someone whose loved one has been given one umbrella diagnosis after another leading inexorably to misery.
Her symptoms: constant fatigue, joint pain, conective tissue problems, chronic muscle pain and headaches. A constellation of weird blood tests that are only slightly out of spec...energy crashes happening at random.
This woman got at least five umbrella diagnoses including: Epstein Bar (the perfect diagnosis for random pains and fatigue...an undetectable virus at that time with no known treatment), Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (basically...the name for people who were tired for reasons undefined), Fibromyalgia (another classic), psychosomatic illness (it's all i your head!), and...oh yes...let's not forget...addiction to pain medication (laughable since she never took medication that wasn't prescribed...never took more than the therapeudic dose, never took medication when not in pain...)
Every doctor was smart...every doctor knew a lot of medicine...a lot more than me. And every doctor was stumped. Eventually...every doctor gave up...continues to give up. No one can find the reason...medical science has come only so far. And just because they hung an umbrella term on her condition doesn't mean she improved.
That's what my family deals with every. day.
So I am well acquainted with the deep knowledge Doctors have...and the limitations of that knowledge. And I know a "we give up" diagnosis when I hear one. And IBS is such a diagnosis. They have no idea at all what is wrong with Franklin Gutierrez and probably never will. Meaning the Mariners are going to have to pray that he figures out how to be balanced on his own...pray that he doesn't have some underlying condition that makes such balance impossible. "He'll be back in three weeks...that may be what they put on his career tombstone...because he may never be right again. not as long as medical science is at this wall...not as long as his diagnosis is meaningless.

I gotta agree with ya,

I gotta agree with ya, ghost.
IBS = Irritable Bowel Syndrome = A Collection Of Symptoms Present Because Your Digestive And Elimination Systems Are Not Functioning Properly
I'm a total layman, but to me this hardly qualifies as a diagnosis. Rather it's a description of an array of symptoms. Diagnosis implies identification of the cause of the symptoms, not a description of the symptoms. As ghost says, it is what doctors label something when they know the symptoms but not the cause.
In the case of IBS, they might know general causes like a diet poor in fiber and high in things that tend to collect in the bowels rather than pass through, like red meat, etc. But that sort of treatment was tried back early in spring training and apparently has not had the desired effect. Some people, I would guess, are genetically disposed to poor digestion and elimination. The doctors know these sorts of general factors. Apparently what they don't know is the specific reason the treatments are not showing the hoped-for improvement. Thus the label IBS.
Then you go the naturopathic route, as no doubt you have done, ghost. Sometimes you get relief there, sometimes not. Sometimes, as you say, the doctors are at a loss and they have no choice but to keep plugging at it. Doesn't mean they are stupid, and you clearly aren't saying they are stupid. They are just, in this case, in the dark.

Just too much bluntness from House...LOL

I happen to be a fan of that particular franchise...although their most recent direction has disappointed me. I see House as a terrific argument against atheism and utilitarianism and the psychology they explore is usually quite fascinating. I did, however, guess wrong regarding how well know one of his famous expressions would be. Sorry about that...:) We say doctors are too stupid to know what's going on all the time in my family...not because they are objectively stupid...just because in our particular case (and Guti's), they're ignorant and can't really help.
When you go all the way to the Mayo clinic and get IBS as your diagnosis...that is a crushing setback...not a solution. Actually, in Gutierrez' case, I would reccomend he try a fast, followed by a lquid diet (protein shakes and the like), followed by very slow inclusion of easy to digest foods one thing at a time until he has a bad day...at which point, the boundaries have been defined for what he can and cannot eat.

IBS

Well, yes. That's what "syndrome" means, medically. A collection of symptoms which tend to occur together but without reference to a particular etiology.
It turns out that the digestive system is immensely complicated. It has its own (partially to poorly understood) nervous system, endocrine system, microbial biome, and immune system. "Minor" complaints (eg non-lifethreatening) have understandably received less attention through the history of medicine than things like cancer, ulcerative colitis, Crohns disease, etc.
IBS is a waste-basket diagnisis indeed, although there are specific criteria (Rome Criteria), so it is not like it is a meaningless term. However, it is quite likely that similar symptoms are caused by entirely different processes and therefore some patients will respond to one treatment while others will not. I'm a GI surgeon and the treatment of IBS is not surgical, but we do see a fair number of pts that have that diagnosis in adition to something else.
Currently a hotbed of research, there are some thoughts that some variants may be secondary to bacterial overgrowth into the small bowel, poor digestion of certain food molecules (eg fructose or fructans), or visceral nerve hypersensitivity. Really, those thoughts only take us another level (eg these theories do not tell us *why* someone might have visceral hypersensitivity) but at least there are now some targets for treatment besides nonspecific treatments.
I was pretty surprised to hear a dx of IBS in Gutz because it is pretty rare for people to have "IBS" with weight loss, inability to function physically etc. Obviously the Mayo Clinic is top notch, so I would trust what they have to say. We'll see.

nice to hear from an expert

Hey, grumpy...
I had to research IBS for a friend who gets sudden attacks in response to certain foods...and those foods vary wuth time. I even ran across two of the theories youentioned for root causes...didn't encounter visceral hypersensitivity...I do understand why obviously damgerous stuff takes priority in research, but I've seen first hand how a non lethal illness can destroy a person...several times. I am concerned its happening to Guti too. :(

I'n not really an expert, at

I'n not really an expert, at least not in the sense that my practice focuses on IBS (because it is a nonsurgical problem). However, I do see a lot of pts that have had their IBS symptoms ignored and no one else wants to deal with them.
Recs for visceral hypersensitivity:
desipramine 10 mg po tid

Sometimes nothing works. Is severe constipation a prominent feature?

Not severe...

...more like sudde excruciating cramps leading to a long time struggling to evacuate and then a day of low level pain afterward. This was always unpredictable and seemed to crop up right at the most inconvenient times.

There's a study drug which

There's a study drug which proportedly is helpful with constipation and visceral hypersensitivity. I've seen good improvement (n=1) in a patient who is also on my office staff. If you want, you can PM me about it.

Of a long list of questions here

I'll restrain myself to one, Dr. G :- )
The M's advertise his problem as a "slow" GI, by which I assumed they meant that constipation was almost certainly an issue... could be wrong of course...
What about a magnesium citrate drink twice a week as needed? 10 or more hours before game time, needless to say :- )
..............
I respect the stuffing out of the sheer brainpower offered at the Mayo Clinic, but fear that the paradigm may be dubious... if I'm in Guti's shoes I'm talking to a Chinese digestion expert, not a Western one...
Have a lady friend whose IBS was cured by a sifu's recommendation to avoid COLD foods and certain combinations...
Surely the occurrence of IBS was less in Neanderthals* and the late-emerging Western processed diet is the root cause of the epidemic...

Ask away! Least I can do

Ask away! Least I can do with all the great content you guys churn out.
Regular constipation will almost always respond to simple solutions such as a fiber supplement (preferred), increased fluid consumption, milk of magnesia, Mag Citrate, Miralax, or occasional use of a stimulant laxative.
Gutz clearly does not have simple constipation... he is rendered physically nonfunctional and it looks like to me he's had a fair amount of weight loss.
As far as chinese/alternative meds go, they can definitely be useful. I will sometimes recommend certain ones to pts... and some have proved to be useful in rigorous studies. Afterall, these "herbs" etc are really just unrefined drugs. Most of the "drugs" we use today were originally isolated from "natural" products (eg asprin, morphine etc).
In my opinion, centuries of accumulated anecdotal wisdom (eg Chinese Medicine) can have significant value. Certainly shouldn't hurt. Although, if as you suggest, IBS is a disease of modern times only, then Chinese medicine won't have much helpful to say about it...
Counterintuitively, even modalities such as accupuncture can be helpful in IBS. There is also some possibility that marajuanna is helpful (although it may be that users just don't care about their IBS anymore, LOL).
No one really knows the root cause of IBS (it is pretty likely that there is no one cause and that IBS really represents a spectrum of problems currently undifferentiated). It may be diet related, it may be an infectious etiology that only effects those genetically predisposed, low level autoimmune disease, out of balance microbial biome etc.
For example, it could be that the hyper clean environments we live in in the west (at least compared to the rest of the world) fail to "educate" the immune sustem properly, leading to dysfunction. This is thought to contribute to possibly to asthma, Crohn's disease. We just don't know yet. There are lots of theories.

Clean hygeine hypothesis.

That one is gaining a LOT of traction in re: western high incidence of autoimmune diseases. It's a full fledged epidemic now...something like 30% of Americans have some autoimmune condition (mostly RA, Lupus, Inflamatory bowel, Hashimoto's, that sort of thing...but there's a wide range)...all of that immuno-nuttiness seems linked to hygeine. Solution...tell your kids to roll in mud at least five times a week. :)
In all seriousness...it does seem that we live such clean lives these days that our immune system gets confused.