Reed out two months
Dave · March 24, 2006 at 12:06 pm · Filed Under Mariners
Jeremy Reed has a broken bone in his wrist and will be out for 6-8 weeks.
The likely scenario is that Willie Bloomquist becomes the regular center fielder. There’s a real possibility, however, that the M’s decide to take the opportunity to try Ichiro in center. With the current composition of the roster, moving Ichiro to center is the logical option; Ibanez slides in as the right fielder, with Lawton/Morse/Borchard holding down left field for a few months.
Should be interesting to see just how the team, and Ichiro, handles the situation.
The other issue her is that we don’t really know for sure how much time he’ll be out, until after he sees the specialist (Keck) here in Seattle.
From SI.com: “After repeatedly emphasizing the team will have a better assessment of Reed’s prognosis after Keck sees the player, Bavasi said Reed probably will miss about six weeks.”
That should be: The other issue HERE. Oops!
Re: #50
QMcC was in Reds camp this spring.
Great, just when it looks like we have reasons to be optimistic this season (see Peter Gammons prediction about the M’s), this happens.
This sucks.
Well, time to count down to Seahawks training camp.
Two months I can handle, but what I want to know is how will this affect Reed’s already borderline power? Is this an injury that will sap his offense throughout 2006?
If he has a slow start returning from injury, Bavasi might trade him for a bag of chips and the bloated remains of Jose Mesa. Oi.
The fact that we’re talking about Borchard vs. Bloomquist at the M’s two stopgap options is sad, sad, sad, and reflective of how horrible the M’s depth is. Neither one should be allowed to make a single start.
Borchard may be better than Bloomquist, but he’s been consistently sub-replacement level his own career, and PECOTA doesn’t think that’ll change in 2006, assigning him yet another negative VORP number.
Jamal Strong, currently unsigned, would be a far better option than either.
This Willie predicament reminds me of a classic demotivational poster.
Borchard’s better than you think, Jim.
Calm down people. Geez, it’s not like Reed was going to hit like Barry Bonds or anything… It hurts, but it’s not the end of the world.
And Bavasi was on with Rizzs during the game, implied that WFB and Borchard were the internal options, with Borchard getting an opportunity to carpe CF, but he’ll be scouring external options too.
Since he kept playing after the injury, and said that he only noticed some “discomfort”, I am hoping that that indicates it’s not too serious of an injury, just something that takes some time to heal.
If I remember correctly, Griffey had a far worse wrist injury, and returned with his power stroke intact (NOT to compare Griffey and Reed in ANY way, just to show an example of player returning from wrist problems).
I agree with Ice’s comment: Borchard is a busto. No use wasting time on him.
I’d move Ichiro to CF, Ibanez to RF, stick Everett in LF and pray he doesn’t hit his auto-option, and DH Petagine.
This would be the most effective course of action. It would not just get Petagine on the roster, but get him into the lineup. It would keep Willie on the bench, where he’s best suited, and would eliminate the need to bring in another utility infielder. And yes, Borchard has proven in four years in the International League and with the White Sox, that for all his pop, he isn’t a reliable hitter.
It hinges, as stated, on whether or not Ichiro is willing to make the shift. Of course, the suggested lineup would be a bit outside of the box for Hargrove, so I worry about that.
#60: If he can be taight how to hit, which, at 27, seems like a highly dubious proposition. There’s nothing in his record that says he’s a credible major-league ballplayer. He hits for a low average, has a low on-base percentage, has power but a low slugging percentage … all of his stats, peripheral and otherwise, scream “Brad Komminsk is my upside.”
He is a fair defensive outfielder, which has some value.
Just remember, having Ichiro play CF isn’t like when Edgar tried to play 3rd late in his career (and was injured doing so). There are a lot of teams that move their outfielders around for one reason or another.
There’s a difference between skills and results. Borchard has the former, not the latter. In most cases, results can be an effective judge of a player’s skills. But not in every case.
Borchard’s an odd case. But it’s incorrect to claim that he lacks certain skills simply because you can’t see them in his recent performances.
#68, do you know what kind of sample size we’re talking about in the Majors for Borchard? It looks to me like he has never been given an extended chance to play every day at the Major League level. It seems like mostly he has bounced around from AAA to the bench, then spot starts, and back to AAA.
ESPN.com is reporting that the Mariners have released Dave Burba and Fernando Vina.
Yea, the major league sample sizes are small, but they are small for a reason – Borchard was abysmal with Chicago. You can’t argue that you weren’t given a chance when you hit .191 with 148 strikeouts in 491 at-bats. No manager is going to play a guy with those kind of numbers.
Borchard sucked in Chicago. The White Sox aren’t to blame for his struggles.
Ouch! Not nice numbers for Borchard at all! He almost sounds like the perfect example of a AAAA player. Great in AAA, but can’t put it together in the big leagues. It wouldn’t be as horrible if he had som power numbers in there somewhere, but he doesn’t.
On the other hand, we’ve all seen the opposit for small samples, as in WFB’s first call up. Didn’t he hit .370 or something like that?
Apparently I can’t spell any word ending in the letter “e” today, my apologies.
FWIW, neither Bavasi or Hargrove immediately announced that Willie was going to be popped into center. Heck, even the broadcast team was forecasting Lawton & Borchard & Willie on occasion
#40– according to Bavasi, according to Reed, it hurt when he did it but eased up and didn’t really begin to give him pain until overnight
#57– Bavasi said that he was not going to rush Reed back or expect miracles because there was nothing worse for a hand or wrist injury than trying to come back too soon
>
Testify, brother. I have two scaphoid fracture cases in the file cabinets one of which put the guy out of work for six months and another which required surgery and has proved permanently disabling for a drywaller — no hammering, no heavy lifting, etc. I guess I will be absolutely flabbergasted if Reed is back in 6-8 weeks although I’d dearly love to be flabbergasted.
77 failed in an attempt to quote 75: “nothing worse for a hand or wrist injury than trying to come back too soon”.
#77 I trying to pretend I didn’t hear that! I don’t want to even think about this being a long term or disabling injury. If that happened, the next thing you would hear is talk about rushing Adam Jones to the show..
argh, are you a docror or something?
Dave, I’m led to wonder what about Borchard makes him ‘odd’ to you, to the point where you believe he can turn it around and produce for the Mariners, despite AAA and MLB numbers over years of time, along with observations of his struggles with the breaking ball, that clearly indicate otherwise.
I’m not so much challenging you as I’m seriously asking, as it seems clear that you strongly feel he can turn it around, I’m not seeing what you’re seeing and you’ve got a much more informed POV than I have.
Let me put Joe Borchard in his correct context: he’s arguably the converse of Scott Podsednik, who, during HIS first full season in MLB, hit .314/.379/.443, which was a severe disparity from his minor league numbers.
Let’s recap:
Borchard’s career minor league numbers: .266/.337/.464
Podsednik’s: .265/.344/.365
WFB’s: .281/.338 /.375
So please to be explaining to me why I’m going to discard their collective minor league performances to assume Podsednik and WFB are BETTER than Borchard (since the assumption is that they are both adequate bench/role players if not adequate starters), based on a fairly small MLB sample size for Borchard in comparison to much larger minor league sample sizes for all 3 of them.
I simply don’t believe there’s a cliff between the minors and the majors- it’s a continuum of talent. It’s also not THAT unusual for someone to not hit their first couple hundred major league AB’s, any more than it is for someone to totally overperform. Sometimes the roulette wheel comes up lucky for you; sometimes it comes up bad.
The good thing I can say about Borchard, is that he is the reason we don’t have to watch Matt Thornton pitch anymore, and that’s a good thing!
You know, last year someone asked me why I wanted Willie off the team altogether. They said he was a valuable utility guy and it was foolish to want him gone.
I said then, and I’ll say again… I do not want Willie on the team because the organization somehow, some way, will play him more than his abilities merit. They always do.
If he ends up playing centerfield for more than a few games, someone needs a pink slip.
John, if Willie ends up starting 30 games in CF, someone probably WILL get a pink slip by midseason.
FWIW, Ms passed on claiming Hee-Seop Choi.
I’m excited about this team and think they have a GOOD shot of winning the wild card with some decent decision making. If Bloomquist is in the Day 1 starting lineup, I’m giving up right then.
I guess Id give Borchard left at least until Lawton can play (because of his defense; this means Ichiro! to center and Raul to right) and then make Borchard hit his way out of the line up.
Any chance Texas will DFA Wilkerson? 😛
The likely scenario is that Willie Bloomquist becomes the regular center fielder.
You had to know that one way or another Willie would find his way into the Mariner starting lineup. You cannot get rid of Willie. He is like an inevitable force of nature.
Too bad Willie’s true ambition isn’t to replace the Moose.
Frustration Factor: The past several year’s love affair the M’s have with trying to squeeze blood from turnips, a.k.a. a seemingly endless run of toolsy position players who can barely slap hit their way to first, let alone produce RBI’s or (heaven forbid) any home runs.
I do indeed hope they are looking beyond these above mentioned, duct-taped solutions. But I’ve said that to myself, concerning so many situations, that it’s become nearly meaningless.
What scares me is that the Mariners fanbase that votes on these things thinks that Willie playing CF full time is the second most desirable option to Ichiro moving to play CF.
Source: Poll on seattlemariners.com
I heard the Matt Lawton in CF option. That is so funny. Has anybody seen what this guy does when he has a glove on his hand? Very scary. He is a pitiful outfielder.
I am really interested to see what the M’s solution to this problem is going to be.
I find Reed’s injury awfully discouraging for a number of reasons…
I agree with all who say it’s very sad that it could come down to a choice between Bloomquist or Borchard in CF for the first ten games of the season, and then a choice between Bloomquist, Borchard, Lawton and who knows who else for the 5-6 weeks after that. And then when Reed comes back, I’m not really convinced that CF will be all that much better, at least from an offensive standpoint. I think Reed has an excellent glove, but I think the Mariners could do better for hitting from the CF position.
I also agree that the team should keep Ichiro as happy as possible. So what to do? Reality and the Mariners roster dictate that Bloomquist is probably the first option the team has. I would not argue he is the best option, but who knows what that would be.
Did someone mention that we ought to expect some kind of waiver acquisition or trade? What other center fielders are there that might be available? I shudder to think… Bubba Crosby? David Newhan? Nook Logan? Quinton McCracken? Jason Romano? Ick. There just don’t seem to be that many that other teams would want to part with…