Game 43, Mariners at Reds
Wade Miley vs. Alfredo Simon, 10:10am
The M’s go for a sweep today in Cincinnati, and they’ve drawn the Reds worst starter, righty Alfredo Simon. Simon was a reliever for the Reds for a few years before moving to their rotation in 2014. A decent strand rate and low HR totals propelled him to the All-Star game that year, and then they traded him to Detroit, where he was a bit less successful last season. This year, the wheels have come off. With 9 HRs allowed AND a .398 BABIP, Simon has given up 38 runs in 31+ innings.
The Big Pasta throws a sinker, a four seam FB (both around 93), a cutter, and his best pitch, a splitter at 85mph. That split was important for him, as it gave him something to throw to lefties, who’ve hit his fastball hard. At the moment, though, he can’t really get to it, as lefties just tee off on his fastball. We’ll see if he throws more cutters or makes more use of his curve, the way John Lamb did yesterday.
1: Martin, CF
2: Aoki, LF
3: Cano, 2B
4: Cruz, RF
5: Seager, 3B
6: Lind, 1B
7: Clevenger, C
8: O’Malley, SS
9: Wade Miley
Shawn O’Malley starts today at SS, as Ketel Marte’s thumb injury will require a stint on the disabled list. According to Ryan Divish, the M’s placed Marte on the 15-day DL and recalled Chris Taylor, who joined the team this morning.
So with Marte on the DL is Sardinas staying in the minors? Will Taylor play quite a bit? What do you guys think the plan is?
Sardinas and O’Malley are backup/utility players; they need an everyday shortstop for the next few weeks. Taylor’s still a real prospect, and is playing well in Tacoma. It makes more sense to bring him up–I do think his true talent level is closer to his 2014 performance than his 2015.
^Actually, I would argue Sardinas is more of an everyday shortstop as well, but I agree that it makes sense to bring Taylor up. He’s played consistently, and he’s played well.
Miley refusing to take it like a man and stop that ball from reaching the outfield was disappointing.
Martin’s been great at the plate over the last 3 weeks. But like everyone else, I still can’t believe Dipoto sacrificed a prized 1B/OF prospect in Patrick Kivlehan.
Oh how I cried and pounded my couch cushions, with my head down and shaking furiously in frustration upon receiving the news of the deal.
Nothing Martin does can provide comfort for such a loss, but I hope he continues to perform well.
Weird to see political propaganda behind the plate for everyone to see. You’d think they’d know better than to potentially alienate fans.
Watching Seager dive head-first on that blown relay was unpleasant.
Watching Seager slide feet-first into Cabrera was unpleasant.
Didn’t look like he rounded third very well. Oh well, at least they took the lead.
Is there an echo in here? Anybody listening?
Kivlehan really shouldn’t be considered a prospect at this point. 26, failing at AAA, strikeouts going up.
Nice to see O’Malley diving head-first into second. What could possibly go wrong?
Huh, I wonder why my comments aren’t showing up.
Well, that one did – so let me try again…
That long camera shot of the Big Red Machine photo from the Reds’ Hall of Fame reminded me.
1) Just what a great team that was; and
2) How much I hated them (because I was a Dodgers fan at the time, and the Reds kept beating them).
With Bench and Morgan, they had a couple guys on the short list of “greatest player at their position for all time”; plus Rose, Foster, and Perez – not to mention Griffey Sr., Concepcion, and Perez.
I wonder why we haven’t head from Westy?
Must’ve been the term “o” “f” “f” “-” “t” “o” “p” “i” “c”. The fact that the commenting system is filtering on that word is kind of ridiculous.
Perez – the player so nice I named him twice.
😛 Steve.
If this was IRC I’d slap you with a fish – probably a Trout.
I suppose this isn’t one of the more ridiculous bunt situations, but still – Martin is already on second, and Aoki has a good OBP, so why bunt?
You bunt because that’s what McClendon would have done.
WWLD?
Sweep!
Seriously, Aoki hasn’t been good facing lefties this season, but with the speedy Martin already in scoring position, the double play is likely off the table, so why not play for the base hit? Then there’s the risk of the bunt failing as well.
Of course, Cano wasn’t supposed to strike out.
The Mariners are coming home with the best road record in the majors. It’d be nice if they’d start having a little of that level of success at home as well.
I have to admit that I used to dislike Mariners’ home stands, just as I hated mid-week Seahawks games and Sounders games – because I’m a grumpy old guy with a job, and it played havoc with my commute. But now that they’ve finally got light rail running to UW, all that happens is the train gets more crowded…
(I do realize if that’s the worst thing I ever had to complain about, I’m a lucky individual. But I’m a GRUMPY lucky individual)
Wow, Steve, I hadn’t realized just how bad Nori had been this season against lefties. But still – his career numbers don’t exhibit that problem (not that you were arguing that at all).
All in all, I have to say so far I’m enjoying the Dipoto-Servais version of the Mariners far more than any of the past several seasons’ teams. But, as fans, we do have a moral obligation to still find something to complain about at least occasionally… right? 😉
I’m still salty about letting that Saunders guy go. Does that count?
Im still holding out hope for Ichiro over aoki. 8-11 two walks over his last six. That kid can be had cheap!! 727/769/818 in that span!
382/452/436 for 888 OPS 145 ops+ for the season. 2-2 on SB’s and 5% k rate and 11% walk rate… Small samples and age be damned this kid is hot!
We need a leadoff hitter right?????
I don’t think Toronto is going to give him up, Woodcutta – but yeah, I’ve been watching Condor’s numbers this year and quietly weeping.
Smoak hasn’t been too bad, either.
I’m incredibly curious to see what happens at the deadline. I don’t think it’s a stretch to think there’s eyes on other left fielders.
Of course, to be fair – neither Saunders nor (especially!) Smoak is going to keep BABIP-ing at the .400 mark. And when Smoak starts to regress, we’ve seen just how painful that can be to watch…
Yeah, things like Aoki not exactly lighting the world on fire, and the Mariners’ continuing mysterious inability to win at home are things to worry about. But what a change from past seasons, where the pressing question was are the Mariners out of the race already.
It is still way too early to be sure of anything, but I can’t help but do a little scoreboard watching, or advanced standings watching, where BP now says the Ms have over an 80% chance of making the playoffs.
I’ve kept a close look at those playoff probabilities for years, and BP (and to a lesser extent Fangraphs) has a faulty estimation procedure which does not do nearly enough regression to the mean. It’s way too early to say that the Ms have an 80% probability, or that the Cubs have a 98% probability, of making the playoffs. Too many unpredictable things can and will happen this season.
So that 80% probability is badly over-estimated.
But I can’t help but look at it, and the almost-as-high Fangraphs numbers, and think well this sure is a lot more fun than other recent seasons were.
Spot on, MKT!