Tag Archives: Matt Tuiasosopo

by | April 8, 2010 · 3:11 pm

Game Recap – 4/8/2010

I will make this as short as possible, because frankly I am not sure how many folks actually watched the game (day game), and it was brutal to listen to and follow.

Doug Fister started the game and only went 4 innings, 96 pitches. That tells the story right there. 56 strikes, 40 balls, not many swings-and-misses. Oakland was able to put the ball in play and force the issue offensively. Now, Oakland has no power, it was a lot of singles and doubles, and running the bases (sounds like what the M’s would like to do…). Davis, Barton and Ellis did all the damage for Oakland…

The Mariners on the other hand struggled yet again offensively. Brett Anderson took a shutout into the 7th inning. (An aside: If you look at Fister’s and Anderson’s lines for the game, they are also identical, yet Anderson was much more effective. That speaks volumes to how bad the Mariners hitting is right now…) Tuiasosopo played well at 1B, had 2 hits and an RBI. That’s a GREAT day for a Mariner right now. Good for him, I like his bat in the M’s lineup. Hopefully Wak can fit him in more. Gutierrez and Sweeney had the other RBIs. I like what Guti is doing at the plate. Overall though the offense sucks right now at generating runs. Trying to tag Figgins up at 1B to 2B on a fly ball to right really shows the hand Wak is playing, and what he is saying to the team: I know we will struggle to score so Ichiro and Figgins must steal and tag up all the time or we’ll never score. That’s a tough spot to be in. Other teams know this and are very aware of the steals and tag-ups.

Hero: Matt Tuiasosopo. He had two hits, an RBi and played 1B well. Sounds like a good day. (Jesus Colome is a close second, 3 very solid innings out of the pen…)

Goat: Doug Fister. Gotta go more than 4 innings. We all know the bullpen will be (is?) over-worked, so Fister only going 4 really sucks.

There is nothing else to observe from this stinker. (I really want to be optimistic, but this game set me back a bit…)

–Joe

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by | March 23, 2010 · 5:07 pm

Two More Weeks

The Mariners season opener is just two weeks from yesterday.  Luckily we have the NCAA tournament and the Huskies to watch those two weeks, because we have reached the official spring-training-is-incredibly-boring point.  This is also the point, though, where players start to round into shape and stop experimenting with swings and new pitches and such, so the results begin to mean a little more, but not really.  A look at some issues and questions still out there in Peoria after the jump! Continue reading →

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by | March 15, 2010 · 5:04 pm

The Greatest Team Ever

In the Mariners spring training bout with the Arizona Diamondbacks today, new ace and enforcer Cliff Lee was ejected for throwing over Chris Snyder’s head.  The two had gotten tangled up on a play at the plate earlier when Snyder was waving for a teammate to slide and Lee took him out going to back up the play.  Snyder’s quote on the incident, taken from Baker’s blog, written by Good Guy Bob Condotta, 

“Two guys going to where they need to be and we collided. Hell, he got me good, man. He Charley-horsed my leg. I still feel it. He almost clipped me twice. My leg hurt every time I squatted, then he threw a ball at my head. He’s up two-nothing on me. … He got me better than anybody coming around third. I aint been taken out like that in a couple of years (sic).”

His next time up, Lee threw one inside and then another that went over Snyder’s head.  Snyder dropped his bat and took a few steps toward the mound, benches cleared, etc.  Lee was ejected.  The two said the earlier incident had no impact on the latter, Lee said he wasn’t throwing at him, everything played down like usual, although the benches did clear again later.

Anyway, good story, but what I’m really writing about is my response to the text Andrew sent me about Lee being ejected, which was, “Nice! Way to go Cliff! This team could do almost anything and I’d be excited.”  And that’s totally how I feel about the Mariners right now.  They have so much goodwill built up from last year, and they’re so genuinely fun to root for, that I’d almost rather hang out in the clubhouse with them than watch them play a game.  Not that I don’t enjoy watching them play.  They’re just an incredibly entertaining, enjoyable, dynamic team.  Everything they do I get excited about.  A short list of awesome things from spring training off the top of my head so far:

  • Lee getting ejected
  • Griffey and Sweeney putting together A Mariner Idol and then coaching a practice in the span of a couple of days
  • Sweeney starting 12-15 when no one gave him a chance to even think about making the roster
  • Tuiasosopo hitting almost .500 while playing 4 positions so far, one of which he was playing it for the first time in over 2 years even thought it’s the hardest position on the field (SS)
  • Shawn Kelley possibly starting
  • Garrett Olson being just as bad as last year, so as not to delude anyone
  • Lopez and Chone trading positions, just because
  • Wak’s never-ending positivity about everything, including Lopez’s continued errors
  • Adam Moore playing like a good catcher and Rob Johnson not playing at all
  • Byrnes and Moore (? I think) falling flat on their faces before reaching the bag in consecutive games

There’s just an overall feeling that this team can do no wrong.  That’ll probably change at some point this year, but maybe not.  Coupled with the realization that this team has a lot of really good players (Lee, Felix, Ichiro, Figgins, Guti, hopefully Bedard), it’s hard not to be excited.  I don’t think we’ve discussed how great Felix, Lee and Bedard at the top of the rotation would be if Bedard comes back throwing well.  Those are three pitchers who could each be the best in baseball any given year.  Will it happen?  Maybe, maybe not.  But that’s kind of how the whole year is.  Maybe they’ll win a lot, maybe not.  It’s just the excitement of knowing there’s the possibility that’s enough for now.

A FEW QUICK NOTES AFTER THE JUMP! Continue reading →

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by | March 11, 2010 · 12:59 pm

Y2010M! Matt Tuiasosopo

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

From the shores of the Pacific Islands to the Mongolian Grill in Woodinville, the name Tuiasosopo rings with peals of grandeur.  Any occasional local football fan knows that dad Manu played for the Seahawks, and first son Marques (maybe my favorite Husky of all time) is near the top of a long list of excellent Husky quarterbacks.  Some of his feats of greatness: Rose Bowl win, the first 300 passing 200 yard rushing game in history, and beating Miami in one of the most exciting games I’ve seen at Husky stadium.  Middle son Zach was a solid Husky fullback and linebacker, and cousin Trenton a serviceable linebacker who just graduated.  The sister (Lesley?) even starred for the volleyball team, if I remember correctly. Continue reading →

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by | March 10, 2010 · 12:21 am

Spring Training Thoughts- 3/9

Good Guys Sports, where you go to read more thoughts about spring training that mean absolutely nothing and will probably be rendered irrelevant in about three days!

  • Coming into the spring, the bench was expected to be Hannahan, Byrnes/Langerhans, Garko, and a catcher, with the other outfielder making it if they went with 11 pitchers instead of 12.  It’s certainly too early to make any declarations, but some guys might be forcing their way into the picture.  Matt Tuiasosopo is hitting the cover off the ball and playing some at SS, and reportedly playing it well.  He’s actually playing there a lot more than Hannahan has, as far as I’ve heard.  Good Guy Mike Sweeney, an expected extreme long shot for the roster, has been the best hitter in camp so far.  He’s still a long shot, especially since he can’t really play the field, but do they keep him if he’s looking like he’s going to have a resurgence?  It was kind of missed, but his second half last year was surprisingly good.  There’s a long way to go and things will certainly change, but either of these guys forcing their way onto the team means they’re hitting well, which could be an unexpected positive.
  • Tuiasosopo is an interesting case.  The people who like him feel he doesn’t get his due.  Others say he just hasn’t shown much so far.  A quick profile (which might be a Y2010M! post soon): excellent athlete (elite college QB recruit); drafted as SS, moved off position fairly quickly; most think 3B or outfield would be best position; frame to hit for power, hasn’t really shown it yet; promoted aggressively by Bavasi, which might have slowed him a bit.  He had glowing reviews when drafted, so it’s possible it could gel for him to be an impact player.  I’ll save further thoughts for another post, but I was interested in Wakamatsu’s quotes today (or maybe Van Burkleo’s) saying how getting him some versatility is important.  It certainly makes sense for this year, but I wonder what they’re thinking for the future for him.  Not sure if they see him as a potential regular or just a utility guy.
  • Handicapping the 5th starter race, if you can call it that: I think Vargas and Fister are clearly the two being considered most strongly, followed by French and then Olson.  Vargas has performed well.  Lots of groundballs, few runs, some Ks. I heard The News Tribune’s Ryan Divish point out that last year he was coming off surgery still and couldn’t prepare very well, and this year he looks a lot more confident and just better.  Might not make any difference, but some unexpected improvement is always welcome.  Fister was a little rough today, but not horrible like Olson was the other day.  It sounds like French might have a little more juice back in his arm than last year, but he probably isn’t in the discussion with the other two yet.  Lots of time left, so who knows.  We might even see another arm added, but if not, I’m sure we’ll see plenty of both Vargas and Fister and a few others as well.
  • First round of cuts coming this week, I believe.  Who goes doesn’t matter at all at this point, but things start to get a little more serious with each cut.  Between spring training and college basketball, not too many times of year I like better than this for sports.

-Matthew

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