Game 95, White Sox at Mariners
King Felix vs. Miguel Gonzalez, 12:40pm
Happy Felix Day! It’s been a while, and it’s been a brutal interregnum for the M’s. On the day Felix last pitched, the M’s were in first place in the division by 1.5 games, and their playoff odds stood at about 74%. Since then, the M’s have gone 19-28 and their playoff odds have dwindled to just under 15%. We’ve missed you, Felix.
Of course, the reasons for the M’s swoon go beyond Felix, and his return won’t automatically make the club a contender again. But it helps, and it’s an important left for a club that sorely needs one. Felix looked great in Tacoma the other day, so he shouldn’t be *too* rusty.
Miguel Gonzalez, the long time Baltimore Oriole who signed with Chicago this year after being released by the O’s in spring training, starts for the White Sox. As you may remember, he’s a righty with underwhelming stuff who’s tended to beat his mediocre FIP through lower BABIPs and a flurry of fly balls and pop-ups. Unsurprisingly, he’s had home run issues in the past, but they weren’t enough to derail him. Moving to a very homer-friendly park seems to have caused a change in his repertoire. He’s using less of his high-rising four-seam fastball and using a cutter much more often. He had the cutter before, but threw only a handful of them with Baltimore. This year, he’s throwing it about 20% of the time. His splitter is a decent swing-and-miss pitch, though it gets less whiffs than the average split. This new pitch mix gives him options to throw lefties and righties alike, and fewer four-seamers has meant fewer fly balls and fewer home runs. Unfortunately, the change in approach may be contributing to the fact that he’s no longer a FIP-beating BABIP wizard. His ERA’s now well above his (better than career average) FIP, and with his walk rate at a career high 8.7%, there are some worrying signs for the 32 year old. Still, Gonzalez has underwhelmed his way to 1.2 fWAR or 0.9 RA9-WAR thus far, and that’s not too bad for a guy whom the O’s found on the scrap heap this April.
1: Aoki, LF
2: Smith, RF
3: Cano, 2B
4: Cruz, DH
5: Seager, 3B
6: Lind, 1B
7: Martin, CF
8: Zunino, C
9: O’Malley, SS
SP: El Cartelua
Lots of changes. In addition to Felix, Norichika Aoki and Mike Zunino are back, with David Rollins, Daniel Robertson and Jesus Sucre optioned to make room.
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9 Responses to “Game 95, White Sox at Mariners”
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Fire sale!!!! Just kidding…what should the M’s do??? Are people being called up for “show” for potential buyers, or are they “auditions”?
Aoki is pretty much a known product.
Aoki, Smith, Lind, Guti, all expendable in my opinion. Re-stock the minors, something….
You are just not going to get a lot for a bunch of 33-34-year-olds.
Looks like the Mariners have acquired another fat first baseman, Dan Vogelbach from the Cubs in exchange for Montgomery.
They try to score Cruz from first base, know your personnel.
They also picked up a relief pitcher in that trade.
At this point I feel like Lind,Sucre,and Aoki, possibly Benoit aswell, will be dealt by August 1st. Probably for a minor league shortstop and another bull pen arm.
So, the Mariners actually won this game, thought someone should point that out.
I think we got Aoki, Lind, and Benoit each one year after their respective expiration dates.
Diaz one inning, three batters,three swinging strikeouts. He has completely taken over the setup role.