Seattle Mariners

Well, that was a fun one. Sometimes I wonder if I would have ever got into writing had the Mariners not been so bad over the past decade. Often times when the club loses, the words flow easier than crap into the Oakland Coliseum. Tonight, I just don't have it. Losses like this don't come with the deflation, the questions about managerial decisions or any of that. I guess my backflow valve is working. Source: FanGraphs In the game thread intro, I brought up Lolla-Blue-Za. As this game unfolded and I aimed dirty looks my own direction, you'll be happy to know that I punished myself by looking up all the particulars of that series. Boy, Rick White was a great pick up. I was going to mow the lawn tonight, but it was kind of warm and baseball was coming on. Did you stick out the entire game? If not, what else did you do to occupy your evening?

Didn't take long for Aaron Harang to get smacked around in the first inning. Harang yielded two singles and then an RBI double to right by Howie Kendrick that gives the Angels a 1-0 lead. 7:03 p.m.: Aaron Harang got lit up in a 12-0 loss here last month as the Mariners went on to lose eight games in a row. They are still climbing out of that mess, albeit with much better work by Harang and the starting rotation of late. The question now is, can the offense score enough runs? We'll see. The Mariners are facing Jason Vargas. Some of you may have heard of him. In other news, Jason Bay has what manager Eric Wedge described to me as "a knot" in his right hamstring. It began coming on in the latter stages of last night's game and he's not in there tonight, even with a lefty on the mound. Justin Smoak is still on a Class AAA injury rehab assignment, being watched in person by GM Jack Zduriencik. You'd have to think Smoak will be up here any day now, with Kendrys Morales still unable to play first base because of his back. Ditto for Dustin Ackley if Bay's hamstring keeps him out much longer and the Mariners need more outfield help.

Aaron Harang vs. Jason Vargas, 7:10pm The deal made perfect sense when it happened, and with the benefit of a half-season’s hindsight, it looks like one of the fairly rare cases wherein both teams ‘win.’ The Angels rotation had a FIP of 4.33, good for 21st in the league – and that was *despite* getting a full year from ace Jered Weaver. The back of the rotation fell apart as Ervin Santana and Dan Haren gopher-balled their way into terrible seasons, and Garrett Richards continued to confound the Angels (and me) by being crappy. But their offense looked great, and they added Josh Hamilton in the off-season. They used surplus corner IFs to cover their weakness, and it’s worked out great. Jason Vargas has been an excellent starter, having already eclipsed last season’s low fWAR and with an even better RA than last year’s. With the injury to Weaver, the Angels needed Vargas to be consistent, and he’s been exactly that. The Mariners’ offense has been terrible since the dawn of the Bavasi era, and they needed an upgrade. They thought Kendrys Morales could not only replicate his rate stats, but improve upon them (adjusted for park/context, of course) the further from his injury he got. So far, so good. Morales has a slightly better wOBA and wRC+ playing every day than he did last year for LA. The M’s offense isn’t good by any stretch of the imagination, but their team wOBA starts with a ’3′ for the first time in a while, albeit barely (it’s at .300 on the dot). They needed a middle-of-the-order player to help them cash in when Seager and Ackley (ha ha…ha..ha) got on base, and he’s done so. Unfortunately for both teams, there’s quite a gap between a trade working out perfectly and an entire roster working out perfectly. The Angels FIP is just a tiny bit better than last year, and Joe Blanton has inherited Santana’s HR problems. Jered Weaver went down, and Richards once again failed to grab the rotation spot that I thought he’d take back in 2011 or so. The M’s offense is better, but still not good enough, and unfortunately for them, injuries have wiped out much of the pitching depth they had when they agreed to trade Vargas. No one was ‘wrong’ here and both teams would probably make the deal again today. But both teams are waaaay out of the playoff race. Vargas is much the same guy we remember from his days in Seattle with one exception: he’s stopped throwing his slider/cutter to lefties as much and has replaced it with a curveball. 1: Chavez, RF 2: Franklin, 2B 3: Seager, 3B 4: Morales, DH 5: Morse, 1B 6: Ibanez, LF 7: Zunino, C 8: Saunders, CF 9: Triunfel, SS SP: Harang The Jackson Generals lost a 1-0 game today; Anthony Fernandez was the hard-luck loser. Gonzaga alum Tyler Olsen makes his debut for Everett tonight. A number of M’s draft picks signed, but there’s word that the M’s landed their biggest target – 2nd rounder Austin Wilson. His slot value was just over $1m, but as a guy many thought could’ve gone in the 1st round, it’ll be interesting to hear what the M’s had to commit to get his signature. Here’s hoping he suits up for Everett very soon. -- This post came from: U.S.S. Mariner, and is copyright by the authors. This RSS feed is intended for the personal use of readers and not, for instance, spam blogs.Game 71, Mariners at Angels

Seems the Mariners weren't kidding when they said they were going to let Mike Zunino catch a little. Tonight will be Zunino's third start in four games and his fourth start in five contests -- though one of those was broken up by a team day off. Zunino said he's getting used to the whole big league routine and seeks advice about that from Raul Ibanez and Kyle Seager. He's also leaned on new catcher Henry Blanco, more specifically about on-field stuff. "Just what he goes about during the game, what he looks for in hitters,'' Zunino said.      

Over the weekend, Mike Zunino clubbed his first-ever major-league dinger, a fact made only slightly less impressive by the fact that Henry Blanco also clubbed a dinger against the same opponent. Zunino was able to go deep in the major leagues because Zunino is playing in the major leagues. This became our reality last week, when the Mariners aggressively responded to Jesus Sucre’s disabled-list stint. Some fans lamented that Zunino was being rushed, despite there being other alternatives in a lost season. The Mariners themselves admitted that they moved up their Zunino timetable. As we understand the term, Mike Zunino has most definitely been a “rushed” prospect. This is widely thought to be a bad thing, rushing prospects. Bad and irresponsible, and that’s made clear even by the simple word choice, since “rush” comes with negative connotations. To rush a prospect is to promote him quickly, before he seems ready, and consensus is teams shouldn’t do that with kids since those kids are arguably the most valuable assets. It’s generally an argument about long-term thinking: promote a guy too fast and he might be overwhelmed in the bigs. He might not be able to make the necessary adjustments. He might lose all his confidence, and a baseball player without confidence is an athletic baseball fan. Rushing a prospect is the first step toward ruining a prospect, and there aren’t that many steps. We’re going to leave aside, for the sake of this post, talk about team control and Super-2 considerations. That has to do with money, and I just want to talk about the players. I think we all have a pretty good understanding of the importance of team control, so this doesn’t need to be talked about at length. In a way, to ask “what is rushing a prospect?” is to ask “why are there minor leagues?” The minor leagues exist to help players develop on the way to making the majors. I like to go bouldering, which for those of you who don’t know is basically ropeless rock climbing. Different routes have different difficulties, starting with VB for “Beginner” and going from there to V0 and V1 and V5 and V10 and so on. When you just get started, you don’t go straight for V5 or V6. You start easier, and you learn techniques and improve, and you go up a level when you’re ready. This is just the way that it’s done, and if you went right for a V8, you might not ever get yourself off the ground. Or maybe you will. But the conservative approach is the accepted one. We accept that players go through the minors in a certain order, some of them taking longer than others. But there’s a chain of levels, and players are supposed to hit every level. When they succeed at each level, they get promoted to the next. That’s what we take for granted to be the right approach, and so it catches our attention when someone moves quickly. Because it’s unusual, we always get talking about the risk. Who would be so irresponsible, with such an important young asset? Seems to me the most general purpose of the minor leagues is to put a player in position to be able to confront the major-league challenge. Every single player, no matter how much time he spent in the minors, will have to adjust to big-league competition. Ten years in Triple-A won’t get a guy ready for the majors. The minors are supposed to tell you which guys are ready to try it out, and which guys require further development or evaluation. Which guys seem the most likely to succeed, and which guys seem the most likely to be able to handle failure. Player evaluation can’t be done independently of competition level, but you can get close. Some guys can be ready soon, no matter where they’re playing. Not ready to be good right away, but ready to begin the adjustment process. It’s that last adjustment process that’s the most important one, the one when

Date Time Venue Probable Pitchers 6/17 7:05 PM Angel Stadium of Anaheim Aaron Harang vs. Jason Vargas 6/18 7:05 PM Angel Stadium of Anaheim Jeremy Bonderman vs. Joe Blanton 6/19 7:05 PM Angel Stadium of Anaheim Joe Saunders vs. C.J. Wilson 6/20 7:05 PM Angel Stadium of Anaheim Felix Hernandez vs. Tommy Hanson The Angels have a stupid stadium name. Why can't that franchise do anything normal? What's the obsession with connecting everything with "of"? The Mariners head to Anaheim (see, it isn't that difficult) to play the Angels in a 4 game series. While the MLB schedule has been weird this year - next week is a cluster - this is a sense of stability the Mariners will surely embrace. After a short ride down from Oakland, the M's spend each of the next four nights playing games at 7:05, with three of the projected starters being under contract for 2013 only. Is this really where we are? It's the middle of June, and the Mariners are trotting out rentals in every direction. Three of the rotation spots belong to guys who won't be here next year. Jason Bay, Raul Ibanez, Mike Morse, Kendrys Morales, and Brendan Ryan are starting nearly every day. Endy Chavez is right behind them. None of these players are under contract for next season. Sort the Mariners by plate appearances, and 7 of the top 11 hitters are only signed through 2013. Seven! Shoppach is gone but the rest remain. Z has elected to bandage up this team while the young talent 2.0 develops, but the reality of the situation is that we are not watching future Seattle Mariners right now. This isn't where anybody hoped the Mariners would be, filling out the majority of the primary roster with guys who could freely walk in four months. Typically, Mariners games still hold some interest because of the possible development of young players. Not this time. This is Z's fifth year on the job. The first batch of young talent isn't worth giving up on, and I will stop short of saying it has failed, but it simply hasn't worked to date. Everything hinges on the second batch of young players who, like Zunino, may be forced into action too early. There's a clock ticking here, and it's not just Z's job security, it's the lifespan of the band-aids the Mariners slapped on this year's roster. The trade deadline is in six weeks. The Mariners have plenty of players they'd like to deal, but the value isn't high for any of them. As these band-aids disappear, players are going to step in to fill spots, and it might not be pretty. I have a feeling the roster on September 15th could be as surprising as the roster trotted out on June 15th. Jeremy Bonderman takes the mound tomorrow after two good starts, and frustration mounts. Erasmo Ramirez is wasting away in AAA, and he's essentially being blocked by Jeremy Bonderman, as I can't imagine the team is going to give up on Joe Saunders and his durability or Aaron Harang, who's got a proven track record himself. That leaves Bonderman, who's allowed one earned run over his last 14 innings. It's in the best interest of the team for Bonderman to come back to earth, because the quicker this team realizes he isn't going to cut it, the quicker they free Erasmo Ramirez. This is not sustainable, but he's put the Mariners in a difficult position. If he's getting the job done, even against the Astros, he's going to remain in the rotation. He would have to accept an assignment to AAA, but given his recent success, a team that needs help in the back of the rotation might want him. Might, but probably not. Erasmo Ramirez helps this team right now and for the future. As arms have come and gone, he could (and should) be a critical piece of the Mariners rotation for years to come. Jeremy Bonderman needs to get shelled tomorrow. Joe Blanton needs to get shelled worse. I'm not wishing for the Mariners to lose, I'm wishing for the Mariners to win 9-7. It's in the best interest of the team for Bonde

On Sunday, the Mariners lost to the Oakland Athletics by a score of 10-2. They entered the visitor's clubhouse postgame with an overall record of 31-39. The team has been battling injuries and under-performance, top prospects are currently seeking improvement and rehabilitation in AAA. Hisashi Iwakuma, a lonely bright spot on a team bereft of much light, had scuffled through one of his worst starts of the season. And then excrement arose from the shower drains and spilled onto the floor. Unbelievable. Pipes backing up in both clubhouses. Mariners scrambling to get out. Training room and showers flooded and not stopping. — Shannon Drayer (@shannondrayer) June 16, 2013 It's raw sewage coming up from the shower drains by the way. I'm told some hideous details I don't want to share. New building, please. — Susan Slusser (@susanslusser) June 16, 2013 Players, unclothed and be-toweled, ran to safe haven on the second floor of the locker area, where they shared shower facilities with the Athletics in accommodations usually reserved for the Oakland Raiders football team. Baseball players generally labor under the hot summer sun while wearing numerous layers of cotton and polyester. Their pants are long and their hats are made of thick fabric that resembles wool. They run around and slide in the grass and dirt. Many cultivate mustaches and beards and any other number of heat-absorbing facial hair stylings. One would most likely be safe to assume that following a nine inning contest, most baseball player don't smell all that great. This is one way that they could be made to smell worse. Fun Fact Here is a list, in no particular order, of search terms the author employed while attempting to procure a suitably humorous image for the above post: Coliseum, Sewage, Sewer, Toilet, Bathroom, Restroom, Drain, Drainage, Urinal, Potty, Athletics, Oakland stadium, Poop, Toilet paper, Puddle

I'm something of a Garfield fan. By fan, I mean I've read every single one his comics. All the dailies, all the books and even that silly cartoon they had on when I was a pre-teen. If you know anything about Garfield, you've probably already figured out where I'm going. Mondays tend to suck. Luckily, all I've managed to do this morning is split my slacks while climbing into the car and spilling coffee on my white shirt. But, I will press on and bring you these fun numbers! From the brink of the majors all the way down to rookie ball, this update will cover the goings on in the minor league system. This week won’t include Everett since they’ve only played three games to date. I also won’t include the VSL or DSL because, honestly, who can make anything out of those numbers? These numbers are for the past seven days. Triple-A Tacoma RainiersWho’s Hot table.tableizer-table { border: 1px solid #CCC; font-family: <?php echo $tableFont ?>; font-size: 12px; } .tableizer-table td { padding: 4px; margin: 3px; border: 1px solid #ccc; } .tableizer-table th { background-color: #104E8B; color: #FFF; font-weight: bold; } Name PA R H 2B 3B HR RBI BB K DP SB CS BA OBP SLG OPS Dustin Ackley 30 5 10 2 0 0 3 5 5 1 0 0 .417 .533 .500 1.033 Brad Miller 25 5 5 0 0 1 6 7 4 0 0 1 .294 .480 .471 .951 Stefen Romero 20 4 7 2 0 2 6 0 2 0 0 0 .350 .350 .750 1.100 Carlos Peguero 24 4 7 2 0 3 10 3 6 1 0 1 .333 .417 .857 1.274 Dustin Ackley's 16-game hit streak came to a close on Sunday as he went 0-4 in Tacoma's loss down in Vegas. Brad Miller returned from his torn fingernail issue that sidelined him on Saturday and picked up a knock to extend his streak to 16 contests. Not enough gets said about Stefen Romero, in my opinion. I guess he's not a sexy prospect, but he's the reigning player of the year in the system and -- unlike Vinnie Catricala before him -- has continued to hit at a higher level. When talking about the club's outfield options, I've seen people completely brush off anything Tacoma has to offer outside of Ackley now as an option. Sure, I'd like to see him walk more and his BABIP has been a bit high this season at .367, but I really like this kid. He's neither been amazing nor overly lucky. I don't know that he's an every day guy at the next level, but every good team needs solid role players and I think Romero has a shot at being one. table.tableizer-table { border: 1px solid #CCC; font-family: <?php echo $tableFont ?>; font-size: 12px; } .tableizer-table td { padding: 4px; margin: 3px; border: 1px solid #ccc; } .tableizer-table th { background-color: #104E8B; color: #FFF; font-weight: bold; } Name W L Sv IP G ERA H R ER HR BB IBB K HBP Erasmo Ramirez 1 0 0 8.0 1 0.00 5 0 0 0 0 0 7 0 Brandon Maurer 1 0 0 5.0 1 1.80 4 2 1 0 3 0 5 2 Forrest Snow 0 0 0 4.2 2 0.00 6 0 0 0 2 0 6 1 Erasmo Ramirez is ready, plain and simple. There's nothing left for him to prove in Tacoma. He's getting deep into games, being efficient, striking guys out and just all around looking awesome. This won't make him an ace in Seattle, but a Felix-Iwakuma-Ramirez start to the rotation would be pretty nifty. Brandon Maurer may be starting to settle in. We know the narratives on the start of his year, so we'll skip those. His command still isn't all the way sharp as he walked three and hit two in his outing last week, but he's showing some signs of relaxing away from the bright lights of the majors. I'm kind of a Forrest Snow fanboy. Having talked to him last year, this kid wants so desperately to do well for the team he grew up watching. He's putting in the work to get better. He may never be more than a one- or two-batter guy, but I don

MARINERS (31-39) ΔMs ANGELS (30-39) EDGE HITTING (wOBA*) -8.2 (17th) 4.7 32.1 (5th) Angels FIELDING (RBBIP) -10.2 (22nd) -4.9 -21.0 (25th) Mariners ROTATION (xRA) 21.5 (5th) 3.3 -28.4 (28th) Mariners BULLPEN (xRA) 3.3 (11th) -0.8 -6.0 (28th) Mariners OVERALL (RAA) 6.4 (14th) 2.2 -23.3 (19th) MARINERS I’m traveling this week so today’s series preview comes with very abbreviated commentary. Just the facts, ma’am, as some old person might have said on some old TV program. Batter PA P/PA Slash line nBB K (sw) 1B/2B/3B/HR Sw- Ct+ Qual+ K Seager* 57 3.9 .294/.368/.392 6 8 (5) 12 / 2 / 0 / 1 90 107 136 R Ibanez* 55 3.8 .212/.255/.462 3 14 (14) 6 / 1 / 0 / 4 106 99 108 N Franklin^ 51 4.3 .326/.392/.457 5 8 (7) 9 / 6 / 0 / 0 81 110 143 B Ryan 49 3.9 .178/.286/.222 4 14 (11) 6 / 2 / 0 / 0 103 97 86 J Bay 49 3.8 .196/.306/.217 3 15 (11) 8 / 1 / 0 / 0 100 92 142 K Morales^ 45 3.3 .200/.222/.244 0 7 (6) 7 / 2 / 0 / 0 117 96 57 E Chavez* 43 3.6 .333/.349/.381 1 7 (6) 12 / 2 / 0 / 0 98 102 95 M Saunders* 39 4.0 .147/.250/.147 4 11 (9) 5 / 0 / 0 / 0 96 104 98 M Morse 30 3.6 .286/.300/.464 1 7 (5) 3 / 5 / 0 / 0 123 91 110 K Shoppach 25 4.2 .190/.308/.286 3 10 (8) 2 / 2 / 0 / 0 120 74 131 The Mariners offense has essentially been just Kyle Seager and Nick Franklin these past couple weeks. Which is better than just Jason Bay and Raul Ibanez for sure, but still isn’t that fun to watch. Batter PA P/PA Slash line nBB SO (sw) 1B/2B/3B/HR Sw- Ct+ Qual+ M Trout 57 4.2 .354/.439/.583 8 6 (4) 10 / 5 / 0 / 2 96 112 123 A Pujols 54 3.4 .292/.357/.542 4 5 (5) 8 / 3 / 0 / 3 109 109 116 J Hamilton* 49 3.6 .200/.265/.400 3 8 (6) 2 / 6 / 0 / 1 131 92 114 M Trumbo 49 3.7 .238/.347/.405 6 9 (7) 7 / 1 / 0 / 2 96 93 83 H Kendrick 48 3.7 .511/.560/.644 3 7 (6) 19 / 3 / 0 / 1 116 98 137 E Aybar^ 48 3.7 .261/.292/.391 2 4 (4) 9 / 1 / 1 / 1 110 109 98 A Callaspo^ 45 3.5 .171/.244/.293 4 1 (1) 4 / 2 / 0 / 1 83 117 79 C Iannetta 31 4.9 .167/.323/.167 6 10 (6) 4 / 0 / 0 / 0 82 80 67 J Shuck* 23 4.0 .250/.391/.350 3 1 (0) 3 / 2 / 0 / 0 88 126 62 P Bourjos 21 3.8 .333/.333/.333 0 3 (3) 7 / 0 / 0 / 0 112 107 69 MARINERS ΔMs ANGELS EDGE INFIELD -1.4 (14th) 0.2 -17.8 (28th) Mariners OUTFIELD -8.8 (24th) -5.1 -3.2 (19th) Angels RBBIP 0.311 (20th) +.003 0.320 (26th) Mariners OVERALL -10.2 (22nd) -4.9 -21.0 (25th) MARINERS 17 JUN 19:05 – JASON VARGAS* vs AARON HARANG 18 JUN 19:05 – JOE BLANTON vs JEREMY BONDERMAN Jeremy Bonderman finally gets enough sample to warrant a pitching graph below. If you only look at part of it, it’s fine! 19 JUN 19:05 – C.J. WILSON* vs JOE SAUNDERS* 20 JUN 19:05 – TOMMY HANSON vs FELIX HERNANDEZ It’s not just Wilhelmsen, most spectacular culprit though he is, the bullpen as a unit has been scuffling of late with control issues. Reliever BF Str+ nBB Ct- K(sw) GB+ HR Qual- LI T Wilhelmsen 52 91 8 99 8 (8) 81 0 116 2.5 Y Medina 50 85 7 94 10 (6) 154 0 66 1.9 C Furbush* 43 99 6 100 11 (8) 112 1 101 1.1 D Farquhar 40 97 4 91 14 (12) 92 1 95 1.0 O Perez* 32 100 2 95 10 (7) 90 0 108 1.4 C Capps 31 96 2 98 6 (5) 68 2 89 1.6 H Noesi 31 108 1 105 6 (4) 112 1 133 1.4 B Beavan 30 112 0 112 5 (3) 99 2 103 0.3 Reliever BF Str+ nBB Ct- K(sw) GB+ HR Qual- LI G Richards 45 111 0 100 6 (5) 115 0 110 0.8 R Coello 40 95 7 99 9 (6) 47 1 128 1.2 E Frieri 39 110 3 96 14 (12) 51 2 69 2.0 K Jepsen 36 99 2 105 10 (10) 112 0 69 1.1 M Kohn 27 97 3 110 8 (8) 56 0 96 1.2 J Williams 26 106 0 104 4 (4) 82 1 100 0.3 D De La Rosa 23 101 3 103 4 (4) 126 0 43 0.7 -- This post came from: U.S.S. Mariner, and is copyright by the authors. This RSS feed is intended for the personal use of readers and not, for instance, spam blogs.Mariners and Angels Battle for Third

At just 24 years old, Earl Thomas might be the Seahawks best player and someone whos positioned to take over the title of the NFLs preeminent safety.