Category Archives: Mariners

Posts dealing with the Mariners

by | March 11, 2011 · 7:43 am

Liddi Watch

To top off the Huskies great win last night and the most enjoyable half of basketball I’ve seen all year, my favorite little Mariner is making news.  Alex Liddi is not little in any way, to be clear, but that’s what I’m going to call Mariner minor leaguers.  He hit a grand slam yesterday for his second in two days, which ultimately means little, but it did give us this excellent headline in the Times today:

Fantastico! Liddi Launching Salamis

Hard to not be happy with that.  Here’s the article.

-Matthew

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by | March 2, 2011 · 8:42 pm

M’s Acquire Aaron Laffey

To put a cherry on top of one of the most boring off-seasons in recent organizational history, the Mariners traded for left-handed pitcher Aaron Laffey today.

Laffey broke into the majors at the age of 22 and has been extremely mediocre ever since.  Over his 4 year career Laffey has pitched 320.1 innings, has gone 18-21 and posted a 4.41 ERA.  His K/BB ratio is bad, at 1.21 but his ground-ball rate is decent.  His repertoire includes a sinking fastball (the reason for his decent groundball rate), a slider and a change-up.

The folks over at Lookout Landing are not very high on him, comparing him to Horacio Ramirez (all of our favorite Mariner).  Dave Cameron takes a little more of a positive outlook on Laffey .  My thoughts are a little closer to Cameron’s.  I think Laffey can find a spot on the team, and would fit best in the bullpen.  He could fill in part time as a 5th starter, but anymore than part time would be a little too much as of right now.  There are a group of other left-handed, soft throwing pitchers (Nate Robertson, Luke French, Garrett Olson, Royce Ring, and so on) that Laffey will be competing against.  Laffey does have a minor league option left, so he can provide rotation depth right down I-5 in Tacoma.

Unlike the other lefties in the “pile” (a term that Lookout Landing has called all of the mediocre pitchers assembled by the Mariners) Laffey does have postseason experience.  He was good.  4.2 innings of shutout baseball, in the midst of a game where his team was getting blown out.  Yes, this paragraph is a joke.

In return for Aaron Laffey, the M’s gave up Matt Lawson.  Lawson is a 25 year old prospect, who was the 4th piece in the Cliff Lee trade last summer.  His upside is to be a utility infielder, so we’re not losing much. Lawson did post good numbers in AA last season, but I don’t think we’re losing the next Shin-Soo Choo here.

All in all, this trade leaves me with a feeling of indifference.  It seems that most of the blogosphere agrees there.  This isn’t much to get excited about, but it’s also not much to get upset about.  It’s just not much, period.

There is one reason why this trade is exciting.  Try to keep up with me here.  Laffey was traded to the Mariners for Lawson.  Lawson was traded to the Mariners with a few other players for Cliff Lee.  Cliff Lee came to the Mariners via the Phillies and came to the Phillies via the Indians.  In 2008, Lee and Laffey were competing for the 5th spot in the Indians rotation.  Lee won the job and then went on to win 22 games and the Cy Young.  This leads me to believe that whoever beats out Laffey for the 5th spot in the rotation will win the Cy Young.  Everything will come full circle.

Andrew

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by | March 1, 2011 · 5:01 pm

News From the Desert

Sadly, I’m not taking in Spring Training in person.  On this dreary Seattle day, watching baseball under the warm sun, with a Pepsi and hot dog in hand, sounds about perfect.  Instead I’m stuck reading about every bit of Mariner news coming out of Peoria.

Nothing major has happened in Spring Training.  No news is good news at this point, because it means that people aren’t getting injured.  Sooner or later, there will be roster cuts to discuss but for now we’re left talking about these very not-news worthy bullet points:

  • Undefeated!  The Mariners have not lost a game in Spring Training yet.  What does this mean?  Nothing.  But, I suppose you’d rather win than lose.  On Saturday, the Mariners won in the 10th inning because of the late-game heroics by Carlos Peguero and Josh Bard.  On Sunday, our Mariners tied with the Padres.  Then today, they beat the Rangers 5-4.  If these results continue, the Mariners will give us some of the most exciting Spring Training (oxymoron) Seattle has ever seen.
  • Erik Bedard is still healthy.  Pitchers and catchers reported to camp 16 days ago and there has been no news of Bedard falling apart.  We’re still a long ways away from the season starting and to expect Bedard to pitch a full year is a bit unrealistic, but this has been a good start.  He pitched on Saturday against the Padres and had a 1-2-3 inning.  If he is healthy, the Mariners rotation starts to look pretty decent.
  • There have been several stories about Dustin Ackley and Michael Pineda staying in the minors because of the service time issue.  Jeff Sullivan, over at Lookout Landing, gave us the reasons (or excuses that will be given) as to why Ackley and Pineda might start the season in the minors.  Geoff Baker also touched on what those two are working on.  The sensible thing is to start these guys in the minors.  If the organization keeps them in Tacoma for 2 months, then they gain a year in which they’re under contract.  But, there are reasons why they should start with the team too.  If the Mariners don’t improve, Jack Z won’t be around in 2016 when Ackley’s and Pineda’s extra year would be played.  If these two are the best option for the team right now, I can see why the organization would want to put them out there.  It might not be the most sensible thing but it could result in a few extra wins that would save Z’s job.
  • In today’s game Steve Baron and Adam Kennedy both hit a home run.  For those of you that don’t know anything about these players, they aren’t exactly known for their hitting.  Dan wrote a post about making 3 half court shots in a row the other week.  He wondered what the odds were.  I can guarantee the odds of Steve Baron and Adam Kennedy each hitting a home run in the same game are far worse.  Baseball is great because of things like that.
  • Maybe the biggest news out of the Spring thus far doesn’t have to do with the team working out.  The biggest news may be the signing of James Paxton.  He hasn’t officially signed yet, but he’s in Seattle today having a physical.  Paxton was the 4th round pick by the Mariners in last years draft, and was the 37th overall pick in 2009.  He’s left-handed starter who could really bolster the Mariners minor league pitching depth.  Once he enters the organization, Paxton will most likely be in the organizations top-10 prospects and one of the best pitching prospects the Mariners have.  He has barely pitched over the last year and a half, but if he shakes off the rust good things could be in his (and the Mariners) future.  Lookout Landing has a piece on him.Prospect Insider, which has the best insight on the Mariners farm system in my opinion, says they’d place Paxton as the number 9 prospect on the organization.  That’s assuming he can get back to the pitcher he was before the long lay off.

That’s about all the news that I’ve found interesting.  Of course, it’s hard to follow this team without think of the man missing in the broadcast booth.  The loss of Dave will be felt throughout the season, and it has already began.

Thanks for reading!

Andrew

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by | February 27, 2011 · 5:37 pm

2012

In 2005, the Sonics made it to the 2nd round of the playoffs, UW basketball earned a 1 seed after winning the pac-10 tournament, and the Seahawks won the NFC. Despite the Mariners and UW football sucking, 2005 was a good year. Seattle sports fans have only seen blips of success since, and nothing close to ’05. But in 2012, not only may the world be ending, our fan frustration may also.

Here’s how much I have been looking forward to the year 2012-for the past 2 years, anytime I have created a password, 2012 is included. I might regret giving out that info, but oh well. When I think of 2012, it puts a smile on my face. The way things are shaping up, the 5 local teams should all be good, if not great. The word re-building should be replaced by contending, and young prospects should be on their way to becoming stars. Let me elaborate, by looking at how the local teams project a year from now.
Continue reading →

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by | February 25, 2011 · 4:28 pm

Would You Rather?

Last week, Dan put up a post with his pre-season all-AL West team.  Matthew, in the comments, alluded to the lack of star power in the division.  When you look at the list Dan has assembled (which I think is pretty accurate, especially the first team) the amount of stars on the team are a bit underwhelming.

With that in mind, I thought I’d compare Dan’s list to the best players in the AL East (which is the strongest division in my opinion).  These are all my opinions and I’ve based them on prior season stats, sabermetrics, and potential.  I choose to just assemble a first team for both divisions because the topic is star power, not depth.

1st Base
AL West:  Kendry Morales, LAA
AL East:  Adrian Gonzalez, BOS
The Winner:  Gonzalez (AL East)

Overview: I’m pretty high on Morales, I think he is vastly underrated, but Adrian Gonzalez is one of the top players in the game.  Gonzalez edges out Teixeira for the 1st baseman in his division.  Teixeira would be a first teamer in the AL West.

2nd Base
AL West:  Ian Kinsler, TEX
AL East:  Robinson Cano,  NYY
The Winner:  Cano (AL East)

Overview: This one’s a fairly obvious choice also.  Kinsler is a good player, and is an all-star when completely healthy, but Cano is the best 2nd baseman in the league (edging out Utley).  Cano posted a 6.4 WAR in 2010 (he hit .319 with 29 homers while playing decent defense).  Kinsler can post similar offensive numbers when healthy but he’s only played over 130 games once in his career.  Cano has played 159 or more the last 4 seasons.  Maybe in a couple years we’ll be seeing how Ackley stacks up against Cano.  Here’s to hoping.  A healthy Pedroia enters into this conversation, also.

Short-Stop
AL West:  Elvis Andrus, TEX
AL East:  Yunel Escobar, TOR
The Winner:  Andrus (AL West)

Overview: I might take some heat for putting Escobar over Jeter but I put him there because Jeter is one of the worst defensive short-stops in the league, while Escobar is pretty sharp.  The AL East is pretty weak at short-stop and Andrus wins this one easily, based on potential alone.  Both Escobar and Jeter put up WAR’s in the 2’s last year and Andrus put up a WAR of 1.5.  But, if I had to choose one of those 3 players to be on my team this year, I’d take Andrus without question.  His bat will continue to get better, while his defense is superb (unless he has a Yuniesky-type flop).  J.J. Hardy could also sneak into the picture for the East.

3rd Base
AL West:  Adrian Beltre, TEX
AL East:  Evan Longoria, TB
The Winner:  Longoria (AL East)

Overview: The East shows their dominance in this position.  They have Longoria (a top-5 player in the league), A-Rod (a future hall-of-famer, who’s put up at least 30 HR’s and 100 RBI’s each of the last 7 seasons), and Kevin Youkilis (who’s more annoying than A-Rod, but just as effective) who each have a strong case to be picked over Beltre.  I love Adrian, he’s one of my favorite players in baseball, but Longoria wins this one easily.

The rest of the positions after the jump.  Continue reading →

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by | February 24, 2011 · 9:47 pm

Know Your Mariners: The Big Three

Every offseason, countless minor league prospect reports are released.  Media sources big and small release top 10 lists of prospects for every major league team, some good, some a little bizarre, all of them fairly meaningless except as a distraction until the season starts. 

For the Mariners, every list I saw has the same three prospects at the top.  Dustin Ackley and Michael Pineda are 1-2 in varying order, and Nick Franklin is pretty well always third.  Baseball America, easily the most well-known of all the prospecting media sources, just released their Top 100 Prospect list, and these three are the only Mariner guys to make the list.  That’s not a bad thing, as that’s about the average.  It’s the same amount as the Rangers and Angels, and one more than the A’s.  Furthermore, two of the Mariners are in the top 20 (Ackley #12, Pineda #16) and Nick Franklin is at #53.  Not a bad showing, overall.

So, what do the Mariners have in these three?  We’ve written to varying degrees on each, but to put it simply, they are, along with Felix and Justin Smoak, the foundation of the Mariners’ current rebuilding plan.  Here’s a quick rundown of each after the jump: Continue reading →

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by | February 23, 2011 · 8:27 pm

Know Your Mariners: Alex Liddi

Because of the Seattle snow, I had a whole day off today.  Unfortunately, there is still nothing whatsoever to write about in the Mariners spring training camp.  Luckily, Geoff Baker over at the Times has a feature up today about my favorite non-big leaguer, Mr. Alex Liddi.  Baker’s story provides a little insight into how a kid from the coast of Italy ends up as the top third base prospect for the Seattle Mariners.  I’m not generally a big fan of these profiles, but this one was good.  Go read it.

My love for Alex Liddi is based almost entirely on the fact that he’s Italian.  I should also say now that, like most minor leaguers, I’ve never seen him play, outside of a few video clips.  With that disclaimer, he’s a decent prospect, considered by most to be among the Mariners top 20 prospects, top 10 by some.  He’s 6’4″, 220 lbs with solid power.  He exploded offensively two years ago while playing at high-A, putting up some of the best numbers in all of the minor leagues.  Unfortunately, his home park, and the whole league to some degree, is probably the best place to hit in all of baseball, so everyone was waiting to see how he’d perform at AA in 2010.  His numbers took a hit, but he still gave a solid performance, far from the disaster some predicted.  Continue reading →

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by | February 17, 2011 · 12:40 pm

2011 AL West Team & Winter Wrap-Up

Unlike NCAA sports, pro sports don’t come out with pre-season 1st and 2nd teams, but if the AL West had it’s pre-season team, this is how I think it would shake out. My selection process looks at last year’s performance, as well as potential this upcoming year. That’s why a guy like Brett Anderson is a 1st teamer in my eyes, because of his ace potential. Erik Bedard has ace potential as well, but he hasn’t pitched since 2009. Some of the picks are obvious, but many could go either way. Cliff Pennington, for example, ranked 2nd in WAR among all AL shortstops last year. Elvis Andrus was 5th, but potential, and the fact that Andrus seemed to flourish in the playoffs, are reasons why I see him as a 1st team guy. 2nd base is a toss up too, between Howie Kendrick and Mark Ellis. Is Dallas Braden one of the 10 best starting pitchers in the division? Last year he certainly was, but projecting to 2011, who do you bump off the list? Needless to say, this list is up for debate, which is why I’d love to hear your comments!


Here are more team by team observations, after the jump…
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