Author Archives: Matthew

by | April 8, 2010 · 10:25 pm

The Need For A Bat

I’m not one to get too worried after the first series of the year.  It takes at least a couple of weeks and sometimes a lot longer for a team to settle in.  Roles have to be defined and adjustments made.  Players get injured or don’t perform at the level expected or the level they did in spring training.  Billy Beane, GM of the now fearsome Oakland A’s, famously said that you spend the first two months of the season figuring out what you’ve got, the second two months getting the team you want, and the last two months playing with that team.  It’s a long season, and the Mariners will have spells where they hit the ball so well they’ll look like the best team in baseball.

What the Mariners won’t have with this current roster no matter how long the season goes is That One Bat.  Anderson today and Braden a couple of days ago threw excellent games.  When your pitcher throws like that, you expect to win the game.  That’s the principle that the Mariners are built on, with Felix and Lee and hopefully Bedard and a potentially shutdown bullpen.  But when some hitters go to the plate, they are on equal ground or at an advantage no matter who the pitcher is and how well he’s throwing.  These are the types of hitters who go down in history, the Ruths and Mays and Williams, at the extreme end, but also the Texeiras and Hollidays and Guerreros.  Some guys reach that level for a season or so, while some play their careers there and go down in history.

The Mariners don’t have that guy.  Ichiro is the only thing close, and some people would put him in that category, but I think his lack of constant power moves him out.  There aren’t many players I’d rather have up in the ninth with the winning run on second, but there are plenty of guys I’d rather see when we’re down one in the fourth against Roy Halladay (thankfully that won’t happen this year).  Milton Bradley could possibly be that guy.  He was at that level in 2008 in Texas, but for him to get back there might be a stretch.  It’s not inconceivable that Guti or maybe even Tui or someone could get there, but it’s pretty doubtful. Continue reading →

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by | April 7, 2010 · 12:09 am

Mariner Recap – 4/6/2010

The idea that the season really starts with Game 2 is common with baseball fans and writers.  Opening day has all the ceremony and a couple of aces throwing (theoretically for some teams), but the next day brings a little more routine and Ian Snell vs. Dallas Braden.  Braden was excellent.  The first couple of innings, he didn’t seem like much, but the Mariners weren’t hitting him either.  By the third or so, he had them in-between on every pitch.  Not sure he can do that every game, but he was impressive, just one well-hit Franklin Gutierrez double away from a shut out.

I’m not quite sure what Ian Snell was.  I guess you take 6 innings, 1 run, 3 hits and 2 walks however you can get them, but he just makes me nervous.  Actually, it’s not so much that he makes me nervous, it’s that I feel no confidence when he’s on the mound.  It looked a little bit like smoke and mirrors today.  Maybe he’ll get better.  I’m not writing him off, and I’ll take that outing anytime.  The problem is that if he throws like that against a better offense, the results will not be anywhere near as good.  Can he improve?  I’m not holding my breath.  His stuff looked decent at times and very hittable at others.  I guess I’ll just be happy that he didn’t get crushed and not make any judgments until we see a few more outings.

Unfortunately, the offense was everything we feared it might be tonight.  They certainly ran into an unexpected buzz-saw in Braden, but without Ichi and Figgy on base as much, with Kotchman struggling against lefties, Bradley just struggling and nothing from the bottom of the order, well that’s pretty much everyone.  Guti had the lone good day, and it still took a balk and wild pitch to score him.  It won’t always be this bad, but we’re going to see a lot of these types of games.  Some will go the M’s way, some won’t.  No reason to panic, but anytime they want to trade for a big bat, go right ahead.

Hero: Ian Snell. It wasn’t very pretty, but you have to give credit to Snell, who pitched 6 innings, and only gave up 4 hits and 1 earned run.

Goat: The Offense. 5 hits in 10 innings won’t cut it. Guti had 2 of those hits so maybe he should be exempt.

Some bullets:

  • I told Andrew a couple of times Monday how natural I thought Jose Lopez looked at third, but tonight brought a few hiccups.  Still, he didn’t make any mistakes due to a lack of tools that I could see.  That spinning throw is something he’ll get better at.  No reason to worry, I’d say.
  • We definitely saw the value of Kotchman’s defense today.  He gave no signs of being able to hit lefties at all, but he dug out a couple of tough throws, and that short-hop play he made was excellent.  Still, amazing how much worse he looked against a lefty, rolling everything over for weak grounders.  Then his first at-bat against a righty, he smoked a line drive straight to Ellis.  Time to see if Sweeney can still play first on occasion?
  • Bradley looks extremely uncomfortable at the plate, like he’s guessing on everything.  He seemed to take better cuts later in at-bats, especially in the ninth.  I’m betting once he gets a couple of hits he’ll lock in pretty good, but I’ll be anxious until that happens.  The longer he goes without success, the better the chance of something bad happening.
  • Welcome to the big leagues, Kanekoa Texeira!  Looked nervous, but that slider/sinker/whatever is nasty.  He looked a lot better than Sean White, not that that’s saying much.  Getting out of a bases loaded one out situation is no small feat, especially in your debut, even if he put himself in the situation.  Too bad he couldn’t do it again.
  • Shawn Kelley and Mark Lowe, on the other hand.  I like those guys.  Kelley is a much better pitcher than Ian Snell right now.  Just not sure that would hold true if he moved to the rotation.

Game 3: Justin Duchsherer vs. Ryan Rowland-Smith, 7:05

-Matthew

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by | April 5, 2010 · 4:59 pm

Happy Opening Day!

One of the best days of the year, but there’s really not that much to say. If you don’t know everything there is to know about this team at this point, you probably don’t care all that much. So, enjoy the game and we’ll have something new to talk about afterward.

In the meantime, let’s play the always enjoyable, Which Player Would You Rather Have Game, wherein we compare each position in the Mariners’ and Athletics’ starting lineups and pick which player we’d rather have.

C: M’s Rob Johnson A’s Kurt Suzuki
Pick: Suzuki

1B: M’s Casey Kotchman A’s Daric Barton
Pick: Barton, but that’s a currently pretty sad set of 1B with decent potential

2B: M’s Chone Figgins A’s Mark Ellis
Pick: Figgins

3B: M’s Jose Lopez A’s Kevin Kouzmanoff
Pick: Lopez

SS: M’s Jack Wilson A’s Cliff Pennington
Pick: Wilson. (I know absolutely nothing about Cliff Pennington. Nice name though.)

LF: M’s Milton Bradley A’s Travis Buck
Pick: Bradley

CF: M’s Guti A’s Rajai Davis
Pick: Guti

RF: M’s Ichiro! A’s Ryan Sweeney
Pick: Ichiro

DH: M’s Griffey A’s Eric Chavez
Pick: Wow. Slim pickings (no pun intended). Chavez

P: M’s Felix A’s Ben Sheets
Pick: Felix

Mariners win, 7-4!

A few quick notes after the jump! Continue reading →

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by | April 4, 2010 · 7:46 pm

Y2010M! Chone Figgins

(Y2010M! stands for Your 2010 Mariners! and is a series of posts aiming to touch on every player possibly important to the Mariners’ season.)

For the better part of a decade, the Angels have dominated the AL West.  They’ve endured major personnel changes, a stream of seemingly terrible contracts, and the confusion of changing the location in their name without changing the location of the team.  They owe this dominance to a lot of great players obtained by both those terrible contracts and a steadily excellent farm system, but equally important is the identity they’ve formed as a franchise.  The common description for the Angels is “annoying”.  They do whatever is necessary to win, which means they win a lot of games they seem to have no business winning.  They usually have a couple of stars and few weak points in the line up, good to excellent pitching, and an undeterrable focus on the small things: base-running, defense, manufacturing runs.  Led by one of the best managers in baseball in Mike Scioscia, they play baseball “the right way”, which means that no matter what adversity a new season brought, they still managed to come out on top.

No player came to exemplify Angel baseball more than Chone Figgins.  He was always on base, ran like crazy, played everywhere on the diamond; he was in the middle of every rally and big play.  Vlad Guerrero was the big bat Mariner fans feared, Figgins was the one he was hitting in.

This year, Figgins is a Mariner.

It’s easy to proclaim Seattle signing Figgins to a four year contract as a changing of the guard in the AL West.  Seattle is building a team along the Angels blueprint, and LA looks weaker than at any point since they started their run of dominance.  With any luck, the Mariners will win the division and the Angels will finally succumb to injuries and age.  We’ll see.  Until the Angels don’t win, they deserve the benefit of the doubt.  It’s possible Figgins loses a step and a tick of bat speed and plays in only 100 games like 2007 and 2008 and the Angels plug the hole and keep winning.

But putting aside the metaphorical symbolism, Figgins is a huge add for the Mariners.  My uncle, a more casual Mariner fan, asked me about him this weekend, and I told him he might be the biggest offensive addition for any team in the league this year.  The reason: Figgins is always on base.  He led the league in walks (101) and was among the leaders in on-base percentage (.395), which is typically space reserved for guys with a little more power.  The biggest key to scoring more runs?  Having people on base.  Once on the bases, he runs like crazy, with 42 stolen bases last year.  2009 was a definite career year, so a downturn should be expected, but I wouldn’t expect it to be significant.  He’ll bat second behind Ichiro, a decision that has drawn attention and some criticism this spring.  Many argue that the team would score more runs with Chone drawing a walk to get on first and then Ichiro advancing him with a hit, rather than Ichiro hitting his way on and Chone then walking.  The current configuration likely will cost a few runs from instances where Figgins would be on second and an Ichiro single would drive him in, but as Dave Cameron pointed out, Figgins being on first during one of Ichiro’s infield hits would cost Ichiro the hit a lot of time, because it would be easier to get the fielder’s choice on Figgins.  We’ll just say it’s a wash and leave Ichiro to what he does best.

Hopefully the two of them will run wild whatever order they’re in, and the guys behind them will drive them in with some regularity.  Whether that happens or not, a guy who is constantly on base will be a nice change from the free swinging, low on-base guys the Mariners have had in recent year.  It’s worked for the Angels, so maybe it will work for the Mariners.

Happy Opening Day!

-Matthew

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by | March 30, 2010 · 9:41 pm

Clarence Trent, Football Player

Just a quick note.  As Andrew mentioned, Clarence Trent, a freshman forward on the basketball team, is on the football roster this spring.  It sounds like it was his idea and both sets of coaches were all for it.  He’s playing defensive end and took part in the first practice today.  See Andrew’s practice report for a few more notes.

It’s pretty unlikely that Trent ever has an impact on the football team, or is even on the roster when they start play in the fall.  But with most of the other defensive ends out, he’ll get every chance to show whether he has any future in football beyond this spring.  He’ll get lots of coaching and practice time, and he certainly has the body and athleticism to make it happen.  No one seems sure that he’s ever played football before, though, and jumping into the Pac-10 isn’t easy.

If he is playing come fall, there are some interesting implications.  As pointed out by the Percy Allen and others, any scholarship athlete who plays football has to be on a football scholarship, regardless of which sport originally gave them the scholarship.  So if he’s playing football, he’ll be on scholarship with the football team, which will open up another spot on the basketball team.  Not a big deal for the football program, which has 85 scholarships to work with and generally has a lot of turnover year to year.  It’s a huge deal for the basketball team, however, which has just 13 scholarships.  Trent’s scholarship could then go to an extra recruit this year or next.  Essentially, it would mean an extra player, who, honestly, would probably have more promise as a basketball player than Trent. 

This will probably be a distant memory by this time next year, but something to think about.  Best case scenario, it could be a move that helps both programs in multiple ways.

-Matthew

Andrew’s note:  I’m jumping on at the end of this post because I didn’t think my thoughts were worth it’s own post.  I read somewhere that the last time Trent played football was his sophomore year.  As I noted earlier, Trent looked a little lost in practice today.  It was impressive to see how the coaches didn’t leave him in the dark.  They could spend their time with players who could have an immediate impact but they didn’t, they treated Trent as a very valuable asset to the team.  I wouldn’t write Trent off, he is a freak athlete. He has just as much speed of any of the ends and looks very strong.  He’ll need to put on quite a bit of weight but, who knows, this might just work. 

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by | March 30, 2010 · 5:15 pm

The Big Questions

With the Huskies starting spring football practice today, here are some of the biggest questions and issues they face going into next season.  Solid answers likely won’t come this spring, but we should have a better idea about the team after the Spring Game on April 30th.
  1. Can the offense become a consistent threat?As good as the offense looked in the last few games of 2009, it spent too much time being inconsistent and pushed around earlier in the season.  If it can play every game at a high level, this team has a chance at the upper tier of the conference.  Much will depend on the offensive line, which has more talent and experience than any Dawgs line in recent memory, but needs to take a big step toward dominance.
  2. Can the Dawgs field a defensive line that will stop anyone?Between graduations, injuries, and an unfortunate suspension, the defensive line, especially the end position, is undermanned this spring.  End was already a question after the graduation of Daniel Teo-Nesheim and Darron Jones, and now will spend the spring without three players who would have been in the two-deeps.  Tackle is in a little better shape, but was not exactly a dominant spot last year, either. 
  3. Will quality depth emerge on offense?The starting offense is fairly loaded with experience and a decent amount of playmakers, with fullback the lone position with little experience.  With the possible exception of receiver and tight end, depth is a question mark, however.  The back-up QB will have never taken a snap, RB doesn’t have anyone who’s shown a consistent ability to run the ball, and the offensive line is still lacking a little in bodies.  There is talent at each spot, especially considering the freshman class coming in, but it remains to be seen if that talent can turn into production.
  4. Can the defense take the next step?Last year, the defense went from absolutely horrible to thoroughly mediocre, but the last two games showed a team that could make some plays without giving up the big one.  Can the defense get stingier, despite some losses and personnel shuffling?
  5. Will special teams find any playmakers?Like most of the rest of the team, special teams improved last year, with fairly good years from the two kickers and decent coverage more often than not.  The expected increase in strength and speed throughout the team should further help coverage, but the team could desperately use a threat returning kicks.   Their best bet seems to be with the freshman class, but anyone with speed and some moves will get a shot.
  6. Will we see any changes in Nick Holt’s defensive game-calling in his second year?Opinion on Nick Holt’s first year remains mixed.  The defense certainly improved on his watch, but Dawg fans would love a return to the attacking defense of the glory years.  Will the expected strength of the secondary allow more one-on-one coverage, meaning more blitzes?  What can Holt do to improve the pass rush, especially with the worrisome line he currently has?  Can this be the year that the defense neither bends nor breaks?
  7. Who will emerge at safety and linebacker?Safety and linebacker both have solid returnees and talent to fill holes.  Spring should provide a good glimpse of who is in line to replace Donald Butler at linebacker.  Mason Foster and Cort Dennison are two of the better players on defense, but the other backer will be short on experience.  At safety, Nate Williams is a solid, if unspectacular, three-year starter.  A host of youngsters will battle for the other spot, with Nathan Fellner and Justin Glenn appearing to be in the lead to start.  Most believe this battle won’t be over until the team gets a look at Sean Parker when he arrives in the fall, however.
  8. How much of the team’s success is dependent on Jake Locker?  How far can he lead them?Jake Locker is undoubtably the strength of the team.  The past two years, any success the team had was almost solely due to his playmaking.  Hopefully, the team has improved enough where he doesn’t have to shoulder as much of the load.  Right now, 6-6 or 7-5 seems a fair projection for their 2010 record, but could a great year from Jake and improvement from the rest of the team push them into contention for the Pac-10 title?

In his best move besides making the team not hopeless, Sarkisian has opened all spring practices to the public, so take advantage.  It’s a lot of fun, especially the Spring Game, which will be played under the lights this year on April 30th.  We’ll have plenty of practice reports, and we’d love to hear your observations.  See you at Husky Stadium!

-The Good Guys

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by | March 29, 2010 · 12:30 pm

Monday Quick Notes

Who doesn’t like some quick notes on their Monday lunch break? 

  • Just when it looked like the Mariners season was going to fall apart before it started, it now looks like it probably won’t.  Of course, both feelings were based on spring training, which is usually not a good way to go.  Cliff Lee is still injured, but there have now been good performances in the last week from everyone else expected to be in the rotation.  Ryan Rowland-Smith looked sharp yesterday, although his velocity was a little down from what you’d like to see.  Has anyone heard if it’s just a slow gun in Peoria?  Fister threw four innings today as he’s mostly recovered from that forearm bruise, and looks like he should be good to go to start the year. 
  • Speaking of Lee, his suspension appeal hearing that was supposed to be today was postponed indefinitely.  He also was shut down for 5 days to rest his abdominal strain.  I think that time is about up, so hopefully we’ll know more about when he’ll be back later this week.  At this point, I think he’s a 95% bet to start on the DL.  Even if he recovers quickly, he’ll still need to stretch out a little bit after a spring of little work.  In the interest of keeping hopes down, I’m planning on him returning around May 1st.  Anything before that is a great bonus.
  • Bedard threw off a mound today, which is a huge step.  He didn’t throw real hard, of course, but the added strain from throwing from a mound compared to flat ground is a big hurdle to overcome.  It sounded like everything went well today, so hope for very little soreness tomorrow.  The team sounds very enthused about his comeback, and he’s theoretically way ahead of schedule, but setbacks can happen in a hurry.  May 1st or shortly thereafter isn’t out of the realm of possibility form him either, but I would plan on closer to June 1st.
  • We are now seeing the downside of an NCAA tournament with a ton of upsets, in my opinion, that being a pretty uninteresting Final Four.  As great of a story as Butler is, I just can’t get excited about seeing them in a semi-final, much less the final.  I want the big names!  I couldn’t even tell you who the best NBA prospect still playing is.  Any thoughts?  It’s been a great tournament to watch thus far though.
  • Spring practice for the Huskies starts tomorrow.  I’ll try to get to a few practices, and I’m sure Andrew will make a few more.  See Andrew’s spring preview posts for an idea of some of the issues the Huskies are looking at.  I’ll try to put up a quick post with some of the biggest questions the Huskies have this spring later today or tomorrow.

Mariners season opener is in a week, April 5th!  Everybody getting excited?  You know I am! A few things to watch this last week of spring training:

  • Roster moves: the roster seems fairly set, but watch for injuries or a random surprise.
  • Cliff Lee: once there’s some resolution on the appeal and he throws again, we should have a better idea of a return date.
  • Can the pitching staff, especially the rotation stay sharp and stretch out to 80+ pitches in their last starts before the season?
  • This should be the time where numbers start to mean a little more for the hitters.  The veterans especially should be getting a little more locked in.

-Matthew

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by | March 27, 2010 · 1:06 pm

The Great Bench Debate

Not all benches are created equal. Johnny Bench?  Greatest catcher ever. Park bench?  Not so comfortable.  And wooden.  While not nearly as important as the Johnny or park varieties, the Mariners’ bench might be the most debated bench in history.  So, let’s break it down!

The opening day roster as I see it (position players only):

Starters

C Adam Moore

1B Casey Kotchman

2B Chone Figgins

3B Jose Lopez

SS Jack Wilson

LF Milton Bradley

CF Franklin Gutierrez

RF Ichiro!

DH Ken Griffey Jr.

No real debates here, I don’t think.  Johnson might start at catcher, but it’ll be one or the other.  Griffey won’t see all the DH at-bats, but will probably start out seeing the majority of them, and is a lock to be on the team.

Bench (after the jump!) Continue reading →

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