Adios to One Stiff, Bienvenidos to Another.
According to Geoff Baker, we’ve seen the last of Rene Rivera. Hallellujah.
Jamie Burke has made the team as the backup catcher. We’ll see how long he sticks, but anyone not named Rene Rivera is an upgrade.
Also, Jeremy Reed was optioned to Tacoma. The team apparently feels fine with Broussard as the backup corner outfielder and Bloomquist as the backup center fielder, and there’s a legitimate chance that Hargrove The Great carries 13 pitchers on opening day that frees up room for the (dis)organization to carry Rey Ordonez. No, I’m not kidding.
110 million dollar payroll, and the best these clowns can do is Rey Ordonez, Jamie Burke, and rushing Brandon Morrow to the show.
Fire them all. Antonetti in ’08.
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If you haven’t seen it yet — Austin has a pretty wild pitching motion, and I just happened to catch lightning in a bottle by seeing him in his Tacoma debut last year (on his way to A-ball).
He was pretty effective last year — in more innings and appearances than his fellow 2006 draftee Brandon Morrow…
Lest we all forget, Betancourt was effectively a rookie last year. Let’s see if he can’t improve on his .310 OBP before we knee-jerk every response with a well-worn, irrelevant stat.
Saw Felix pitch today in Peoria, as well as their last three Cactus league games. Few observations:
1) Batista and Ramirez looked terrible, giving up 10+ combined runs in about the same number of innings. Pitches were flat, inconsistent. Fastballs looked like watermelons, offspeed pitches had no bite and were never around the zone. Watching those guys and realizing they’re filling the 3 and 4 slots I’m thinking “This team is gonna lose a lot of games.”
2) Vidro in the #3 slot won’t last long. He looks the part, nice level swing, seems patient, but never seems to perform. He takes good pitches, doesn’t seem to be able to hit the ball the other way well. If you start him off with a breaking pitch for a strike, you’ll retire him out 9 of 10 times.
3) Arthur Rhodes, sadly, looks done. Came in and wasn’t near the zone, then got kicked out while he was being pulled for yellin’ at the ump.
4) Beltre looked outstanding at third — never saw him misplay a ball — and hit a home run today.
5) I want to say Felix looks ready but I’m not totally convinced. Still seems to lose concentration at times, and his command with it. But threw some unhittable change-ups. The team looked good with him on the mound. Now what to about those other 4 games a week 🙂
Go M’s!
OBP is irrelevant?
Yessirree! Baseball is about two things: scoring runs and driving in runs. Runs scored and RBIs are the ONLY statistics that matter.
/sarcasm
I was just about to ask the same thing…
For a leadoff hitter, yet.
I’m willing to listen to an argument that Betancourt will improve on his .310 OBP. But if your argument is that OBP is well-worn and irrelevant to his value as a leadoff hitter, then you’ve lost me.
Trading Ichiro in a package for Manny makes sense if (and only if) (1) the M’s are still in the race in July, (2) they conclude that there is no chance they can sign him after this year, and (3) they have someone else available — through trade or otherwise — to lead off and play CF.
That is an unlikely collection of ifs.
Knowing Hargrove, this means Lopez gets PH for by Broussard in the 8th, and then Ordonez plays 2nd in the 9th. But only when we’re losing and Lopez is 0-fer. And that will be the extent of Broussard’s and Ordonez’s playing time.
Just got home from work. Being a Rainiers fan and secretly or not so secretly still hoping the Ms get punished enough so Hargrove gets canned eventually (and, it’d be even better if the entire front office from Lincoln on down but for Fontaine and Engle got canned)….
well, all I can say is ‘dammit. I don’t want to watch Rene Rivera catch anymore than you guys do’. I want to watch Rob Johnson and Jeff Clement (though I’m pretty sure Clement is headed to AA to regain some of the ground he lost last year in the irrational ‘promote them till they fail’ contest.
Does anybody think Rivera gets claimed on waivers? He is, after all, a Veteran Catcher now.
Okay, just had a quick conversation at work, and we came up with a few ideas that might work.
Manager for a day/GM for a month: Randomly select one ticket holder going through the turnstile as the manager for that game. Hold a lottery drawing of all the winners for a month to pick the GM for the next month. Optional benefit: only pick from those fans who arrive at least 30 minutes prior to gametime to discourage late arrivals. Unsolved problem: what to do for road games. Perhaps letting one of the opponent’s fans manage would still be an improvement?
Prizes in the Bag: Hidden in a bad of peanuts is a golden ticket that makes you manager for the next game. This should boost concession sales.
Give that fan a gold glove and a manager’s cap!: Whenever a fan catches a foul ball, instead of playing a jingle, send ’em down to the dugout. They manage until the next foul ball is caught. Bonus points if they take a line drive off the noggin. A fan with a concussion would be an improvement.
ATT Wireless Text Messaging promotion: “Text your vote for the starting lineup/pinch hitter/relief pitcher to *21.” A running talley can show up on the scoreboard. With the kickback from ATT, the team can up the payroll for ’08.
I think Sanjaya should manage.
The text messaging promotion is genius! The consensus of fans would come up with a better line up than Hargrove. They/we would handle the BP better for sure.
The Red Sox had that same dilemma in the 2003 post-season. They’d just subbed in Damian Jackson as a defensive replacement, and then Jackson and Johnny Damon collided in the outfield and were both rendered unconsious. We’re talking a Grade II+/III concussion for both guys.
But since Jackson was just a bench player, and they’d already used their extra middle-infielder in that game (Jackson), the Red Sox LEFT JACKSON IN THE GAME, even though even a slight jostling of his skull could have killed him.
Without Ordonez (or Reed, and Reed would be the better choice) on the roster, the M’s would be setting themselves up for that sort of grossly irresponsible behaviour on a regular basis.
We need a lefty masher on the bench.
The White Sox just made Gustavo Molina their backup catcher. I think anyone’s fair game at this point.
Oh thank god, Churchill’s saying Rivera’s going to West Tenn. Man, that was close.
ordonez is listed on the rainers roster already…along with rivera…meaningful?
Who’s Gustavo Molina? Benji/Jose/Yadier’s dad?
There’s another Molina?
Man, one year your on the ML roster. The next your back in the bus leagues, all the way to AA.
Sucks to be Rene. Hopefully it will work in improving areas he really needs to improve on, which would be his entire game.
#127– not only was it the Post, but it was Joel Sherman’s ‘Kreskin’ column
The Red Sox had that same dilemma in the 2003 post-season. They’d just subbed in Damian Jackson as a defensive replacement, …
And the real extra-secret dilemna was only thing that qualified Jackson as a “defensive replacement” was that he was a crappy hitter.
Anybody know if there’s a way to ascertain whether Hargrove is the worst manager with, say, more than six or seven years of experience?
Maury Wills was worse but he didn’t last long enough.
Burke is 35 years old. He’s been in the minor leagues his whole career. Rivera needs to play everyday because he’s only like 22 or 23 and Kenji will get the lion’s share at Catcher. Rivera is the Catcher of the future.
Who’s future? West Tennessee’s?
Pardon me if I’m incorrect here, but isn’t Clement the Catcher of the future? I believe Rene is the Catcher of Never.
Clement cant’ get out of his own way.
Evan, you got a link for where you found out how badly Jackson was hurt on that collision? I don’t recall that Jackson lost consciousness, and all the news stories I’ve read concentrate on Damon. Sounds like an interesting story that went underreported. FWIW, after taking Jackson out, I’d have put Mientkiewicz at 2B, or put Minky at 1B, then shifted Mueller to 2B and Millar to 3B, where he’d played a couple times as late as 2002. Either configuration’s gotta be better than putting Ortiz in the field, not to mention losing the DH in the process.
If Ichiro and Lopez both have to come out at the same time, Broussard goes to RF/LF with Ibanez in the other corner OF, Bloomquist to 2B, and Guillen shifted to CF, assuming, of course, those guys are all available. Also, he may be poor there, too, but Sexson has experience in LF and might not embarrass himself. I’d go with the first option. Odds of Hargrove putting Bloomquist in CF and losing the DH by putting Vidro at 2B?
“Yeah, I was in the show. I was in the show for 21 days once – the 21 greatest days of my life. You know, you never handle your luggage in the show, somebody else carries your bags. It was great. You hit white balls for batting practice, the ballparks are like cathedrals, the hotels all have room service, and the women all have long legs and brains.”
FWIW, after taking Jackson out, I’d have put Mientkiewicz at 2B,
Mientkiewicz played for the Twins in 2003, so that’s a pretty unlikely substitution.
Evan, you got a link for where you found out how badly Jackson was hurt on that collision?
I have that game on tape and just reviewed the play. No, Jackson never passed out.
Rey Ordonez has a career OPS under .600 and hasn’t played in 2 years. You have got to be kidding me. They are going to move someone off the 40 man roster for him?
Ahhhhh, crap… I mixed up 04 with 03 again. Anyway. Shift Mueller to 2B and Millar to 3B and somebody’s gotta be able to play 1B without giving up the DH, right? Kapler in RF and Nixon at 1B?
Millar played a total of 28 games at 3B over a total of five years with the Florida Fish. There’s a reason no one’s played him at 3B since. (Hell, he’s not exactly graceful at 1B.)
Nixon’s never played 1B in MLB. Game 5 of the ALDS is probably not where you want to introduce him to the position, even if you’ve got a brain the size of Grady Little’s.
Rivera is the Catcher of the future.
Rene Rivera has no aptitude for any facet of the game. He’s not a prospect, and giving him playing time at the expense of other more interesting catchers is a huge waste. Just kick him to the curb and be done with it.
186: If there’s no one else (it looks like Merloni could’ve gone in), and Jackson had to leave the game because “even a slight jostling of his skull could have killed him”, I’m pretty sure Millar could’ve handled 3B for two or three innings while McCarty took first. The mere fact that he did play the position beyond a fluke once or twice says something, too, though, ultimately, he might not have had any business playing there with any regularity. Even after he stopped playing third, he fielded grounders regularly, at least. Or would you rather have Kapler try second or third? Or Mirabelli? Talk about a disaster waiting to happen.
All this reminds me that Ichiro figures prominently in a fun and slightly relevant post from BaseballToaster.
Ah, Lou Merloni. Framingham’s own Lou Merloni. The Red Sox’ own Willie Bloomquist, except that they never threw a million dollars and a multiyear deal in his direction.
I don’t accept the proposition that even a slight jostling of his skull could have killed Jackson. I reviewed the tape last night, and the juy was back up on his knees in seconds, even though Damon was out cold, flat on his back.
As long as the tape was out, it was a nice to see Terrance Long watch strike 3 go by him with the bases loaded and two out in the 9th inning.