Game 88, Tigers at Mariners
RHP Zach Miner v LHP Jarrod Washburn.
I… I… here.
DH-L Ichiro!
3B-R Beltre
2B-R Lopez
LF-L Ibanez
1B-R Sexson
RF-S Everett
C-R Johjima
CF-R Bloomquist
SS-R Betancourt
I can’t think of the last time the M’s have fielded an outfield defense this bad. And behind Washburn? This is a meltdown in the making and all we can do is watch. This is worse than early-2004 Ibanez/the start-of-the-season lost Winn/Ichiro. Maybe a 2003 McLemore/Winn/Mabry? I know, I’m reaching here.
At the end of this game thread, the person who comes up with the most recent outfield alignment that’s comperably bad will get a congratulatory email and a year’s subscription to USSM.
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Petagine DFA’d
I guess I really should refresh every once and a while.
DFA’ing Petagine is a truly boneheaded move.
#320 – gee, thanks Derek, I really needed to relive that horror again…
I’ve never been the same since.
Speaking of mascots, though, I was once in a handbell choir in Philadelphia, and we played the national anthem at a Phillies game in July 1987 sometime. We were out on the infield grass, with three tables of bells, pads and everything and got to play a few tunes in the half hour leading up to the game. I remember a Mickey Mouse balloon flying over as part of the promo that day, too. Sometime during our half hour on the field, the Phanatic came around and anticed around a bit, culminating with goosing our middle-aged female director pretty comprehensively.
So those mascots, man you just can’t trust them. OTOH, she was recently divorced and enjoyed it to a degree…
I also failed to refresh before I posted. Thanks for the explanation Dave.
Please forgive this remark as I know it may be out of place for someone new, but what’s with the spelling/grammar police? Surely someone forgetting to capitalize “Major League” doesn’t actually prevent you from understanding what they were trying to say? I just feel like it’s a little excessive. To quote Churchill, this is the sort of errant pedantry up with which I will not put.
On a baseball related note, I wonder what the record is for most saves by a closer with an ERA over 5.00. Jones must be getting close.
Who knows? Maybe they’ll offer Petagine a Tacoma assignment … and maybe he’ll take it.
Petagine: I like him a bunch, but the thing is, the org is going to use his roster spot to give extended auditions to Clement, Doyle, and other lefthand hitters through the rest of the year.
They’re not calling up Clement this year unless he destroys AAA pitching. No need to start the clock on him.
I’m just glad Rico’s got his ML pension well locked in by now, he totally deserves it.
It’s not all that much with six years’ service time. It’s less than Social Security.
listening to Jimmy Leyland on the postgame, I have to say, it just cracks me up as someone who is also a Pirates fan to look at Leyland’s staff– Lloyd McClendon, Gene Lamont, Rafael Belliard, Andy Van Slyke …
I wouldn’t normally expect Clement up this year, no, but the org seems very clearly rushing guys up for an audition, both to show, well, _somebody_ how well the farm system is doing now, and to get a sense of where this coming offseason’s two big free agent signings need to be spent. I’m confident at this point we’ll see Clement before September.
It’s very, very unlikely we see Clement this year.
Doyle, though, you’ll see next week. Adam Jones might not be far behind.
Everett will take Petagine’s role.
Oh, THAT should go over well, considering that C-Rex has already pitched a fit about playing time when he was actually getting some. I bet he’ll be thrilled with PHing every other week and watching his chances at reaching his option fizzle.
Jeebus. Why couldn’t they just DFA him instead? Petagine wouldn’t have bitched at riding pine, and is arguably a better hitter at this point.
Matty really is an extraordinary combination of Your Baseball Cliches and Baseball Company Man. Hargrove must be using his bench well because he has been doing this a long time, and no one was complaining about it when they were winning. uh huh.
Jeebus. Why couldn’t they just DFA him instead? Petagine wouldn’t have bitched at riding pine, and is arguably a better hitter at this point.
Everett won’t finish the year on the roster. They’re not done.
At the game tonight. Lots of action for a low scoring game Watching Carl leg it out to the right corner (or nearly) to snag a flyball was a heart stopping moment but what it really did was make Willie ‘The Human Divot Machine’ Bloomquist look even worse by comparison. Willie’s obligatory diving face-plant catch brought down the house of course. Team didn’t look or act beaten — but the result was the same, no matter.
I think Everett sealed his fate with that fit he threw in Hargrove’s office the other day. He showed that he can’t handle not being in the lineup, and he has shown, by way of his performance on the field, that he should not be a regular. The only solution is to get rid of him.
More re: Clement. To me he was a fairly advanced hitter coming out of college. The reason for starting him in the low minors for the long development tour was to work him up as a starting catcher. Well, Johjima is going to be the starting catcher for the Ms for several years, so if Clement gets OJT on the 25-man as a backstop, it doesn’t matter. The ’05 offseason’s plan to darn the Ms’ lefthand sock has been, er, sucktastic. Frankly, Clement could be the LF DH on for the Mariners in ’07, and a bunch cheaper than spending 8 Large and Long this offseason for an established bat. I think that the Ms FO will take a long, good look at him in that role to decide whether or not they are prepared to risk it. Either way, Clement will be up with the Ms next year unless he totally collapses given how much the org is pressing guys up-channel from need, so starting the clock on him this year isn’t that big a deal.
They’re not rushing guys up for auditions. Bavasi is moving people up to challenge them. And right now Clement hasn’t even proven that he can hit AAA pitching, much less hit it well.
You won’t see him with the big club this year, period. It makes no sense to do that unless they’re planning on playing him every day in 2007.
Right, Dave, I’m pretty sure when Mt. Everett goes volcanic at the Hargrove Every Other Week playing time he’ll get 86’ed…but the thing is we’re losing a useful LHB (Petagine) to cater to a useless LHB (Everett).
Not that Hargrove has much of a concept of how to use a bench anyway, but still… gah.
I’ll take your word on it, then Dave, that Clement won’t be up.
Maybe we can get some organizational filler (i.e. bag of balls) for Everett. There are always stupid GMs who see “proven winner” and would take him and his contract off our hands.
Oh, Good God, Dave, you just made my day. Thank you so much for the news. That makes me deliriously happy.
Awesome. So nice to hear that right now… it washes the taste of that game right out of my mouth. And it replaces it with minty freshness.
It wouldn’t surprise me at all for the Ms to bring up Adam Jones, but to be blunt I see Clement as a more advanced hitter right now than Adam. Yes, Jones is hot, and yes, after sitting with an injury and then immediately jumping a level to an unfamiliar league Clement hasn’t taken off. Yet. Jeff’s plate discipline is much, much superior to Jones’. I’m not convinced that Doyle should be playing with the frequency yet that a starting DH against RHP would imply, and I love Doyle and hope that he’s promoted to do that role promptly even so.
#421– hmm, would Kenny Williams like him back?
KOMO just had a long (for Ichiro) interview regarding Ichiro’s displeasure with being disrespected by an umpire who should know by now after 6 years in the majors (not to mention his previous service time) that he, Ichiro! wouldn’t lie about whether he fouled a ball off or not. And oh by the way, if he HAD missed it, he would have run to first, which should have told the umpire something too.
I’m not convinced that Doyle should be playing with the frequency yet that a starting DH against RHP would imply.
He’s not going to be taking the field, and the fact is it doesn’t matter if he plays 4/5’s of the games in Tacoma or Seattle- he is what he is as a hitter regardless of where he plays. Doyle has nothing left to prove in AAA any more. We might as well know now if he can hold up for more than 30 games at a time. If the option is seeing C-Rex hit every day there’s a RHP on the hill, there’s NO CONTEST who’s the better option.
It wouldn’t surprise me at all for the Ms to bring up Adam Jones, but to be blunt I see Clement as a more advanced hitter right now than Adam.
Clement after two weeks in Tacoma: .208/.255/.292
Jones this year in Tacoma: .277/.329/.461
Jones is just getting the edges sanded off his defense. Clement needs more time.
I’m not arguing with you about their talent — Clement has far more power than Jones — but Jones is closer to Seattle than Clement is.
and Hargrove knows Doyle– one of my favorite quotes was from a spring training report: “He does love to hit,” Hargrove said. “He’s not bashful.”
It’s not quite a year since Doyle tore his ACL graft loose. It is easy to forget that, practically speaking, he’s _still rehabbing_. Yes, I want him in the Bigs for the ABs he’s getting. The stop-start, and sharp cuts running the bases are the real issue with his legs, and he’s going to need days off. That’s all. I just don’t want there to be a day when, really, he should give his leg a day, but a RHP is on the mound for the other team. I don’t really expect any re-injury for Doyle, but I’d like for there to be as little pressure to play him and as much lattitude to rest him as possible. That’s just not the case on a Hargrove team where ‘regulars’ are expected to carry the colors, and Grover and Bavasi know that 3 X 90 = Bus Ticket to Jalisco. So, yes, I want Doyle promoted to play, but let’s be cautious about the ‘regularly’ part of it, hey? And Perez is useless against RHP, so if Doyle sits . . . Ibanez DHs, maybe, with a couple of young pups in the OF?? Or maybe Choo DHs if he’s still around.
Or something.
Jones is on a hot streak, and is closer to Seattle. These last two weeks. I’m not arguing for an immediate promotion of Clement. And I like Jones. Of the two, Jones could use the rest of the year in AAA FAR MORE, though. Don’t be in any way surprised if Jones comes up and goes 1-22, with 10 Ks. Then what. This is the context of my thinking, is what I’m saying: Doyle really shouldn’t play 3/4 time, and Jones and Choo may well find Major League pitching a bit advanced for their sense of the strike zone. Then what. *drumroll*
I’m not convinced that Doyle should be playing with the frequency yet that a starting DH against RHP would imply, and I love Doyle and hope that he’s promoted to do that role promptly even so.
Which is why I would love to have Petagine around instead of C-Rex, for a once a week or so option at DH. Of course, this would mean Hargrove would actually have to figure out lineup cards and rotate players in and out of the lineup, instead of using the Xerox machine while he’s knocking back his pregame Wild Turkey, so I realize this is a rather futile hope.
msb – I’ll always think of Belliard as a Brave, I forget that he used to be a Pirate.
Yes, I would have rathered that they DFAed Carl now, ’cause he _is_ going soon, and kept Petagine, but Bavasi interferes very little with how the 25-man is used, and Grover won’t use Petagine and continues to make the call, so . . . we’ll have some interesting lineups through August, methinks.
I was hoping that Carl would be the first to go, but I guess it doesn’t really matter.
The Aussies are coming, the Aussies are coming!
Nobody has posted this yet here, but I know Jim Thomsen will need to know this info.
Garciaparra broke his nose in BP before Tacoma’s game last night. Marc W at Mariner Morsels reported it; news from a security guard at Tacoma.
Another reason not to bring up Quiroz – I think he’s hurt. He hasn’t played in Tacoma for a little while now.
Also: Today’s Seattle Times article says that after the break, they’ll send Oliveros down and bring up a center fielder. Note that they don’t say they’re bringing up a DH, but bringing up a center fielder. So, what happens to Choo? He’s the one that goes to sit on the bench while Doyle plays CF? Choo has actually been the hotter hitter in AAA this year, though I understand the whole ‘Doyle has done it before against big league pitching’ thing. FWIW also, Doyle’s legs seem to be doing okay; he’s been slamming into outfield walls and other players with some regularity over the past week….
I fail to understand the logic in bringing up Jones this year, at least from the viewpoint that he is likely to help the big club contend. If you’re going with the ‘let the kids play’ mantra, that’s about rebuilding, not contending. And while Jones has improved a lot in AAA (he made a great catch in the 1st inning last night and has been hitting well, even better since he took over leadoff spot after Choo left), it has taken him 3 months to get where he is against AAA pitching…. I’m just not sure about starting the major league clock on him, and think ‘why’?
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#435– huh?
alas sweet petagaine, we hardly knew ye…….
435: Were you still intoxicated from the night before when you wrote that? For your sake, I hope that is the case.
“Garciaparra broke his nose in BP before Tacoma’s game last night…”
This just strikes me funny in a tongue-in-cheek sort of way. The Garciaparra family isn’t exactly noted for dainty, petite little button noses…
Uh, it doesn’t say a CF is coming up in the Times notebook.
After the game, the Mariners designated Roberto Petagine for assignment, and called up catcher Luis Oliveros from Class AA San Antonio. The move bolsters the catcher spot while Kenji Johjima takes a brief absence from the team. Johjima will fly to Japan today to visit his wife and new baby boy, who was born June 30. Johjima will rejoin the team July 13 in Toronto. Oliveros, 23, has hit .232 with 14 runs batted in in the minors this year. He started the season with Class A Inland Empire. Petagine, 35, was signed as a free agent on Feb. 21. He appeared in 30 games, gathering six hits in 27 at-bats.
If the plan were to bring Clement and his woeful numbers up, wouldn’t they have done it now as a back-up catcher instead of after the break?
#441– perhaps Oly was thinking of the TNT: “And after the All-Star break, when Johjima is back, catcher Oliveros will probably return to the minors so the Mariners can bring up a center fielder.”
This topic has a post of its own now.
I think you mean the News Tribune in 434… and I’m guessing LaRue is speculating, since he didn’t attribute it to a Mariner source.
While on the subject of poor outfields, what about this for a great one? (at least in terms of their arms) Gipson-Cameron-Ichiro!
All 3 had/have cannons