Seattle Mariners

Date Time Pitching Probables 5/24 7:10 pm PDT Joe Saunders vs. Justin Grimm 5/25 7:10 pm PDT Felix Hernandez vs. Derek Holland 5/26 7:10 pm PDT Hisashi Iwakuma vs. Nick Tepesch The Seattle Mariners have lost six in a row and are in danger of falling behind the Los Angeles Angels and into fourth place in the A.L. West. They'll attempt to rebound against the Texas Rangers, co-owners of baseball's best record. Adam J. Morris of Lone Star Ball once again guides us behind enemy lines. Jon: In our first Q&A this season you listed first base and Mitch Moreland as one of the lineup's potential Achilles heels. Now he's hitting .289/.339/.566 as arguably the lineup's top contributor. What changes have you seen in Moreland's game this season? How much of it is sustainable? Adam: Moreland's K rate, walk rate, and BABIP are all right in line with what he did last year, and with his historic levels. The difference for him has been his HR/FB rate going up, as well as his rate of doubles going up, resulting in an ISO that is 85 points higher than last season. Moreland is someone who doesn't pick up cheap home runs -- he hits 400+ foot blasts when he goes deep, historically -- so the higher HR rate may be sustainable. I don't know that he should be expected to maintain a 900+ OPS, and at age 27, you don't expect him to have a ton of growth potential, but the Rangers think he has the ability to be a solid everyday 1B, so a .280/.330/.530 line is something that wouldn't be completely unrealistic or unexpected from him this year. That's probably on the top end of reasonable expectations, though. Jon: After following up a promising 2011 with a mediocre 2012, Derek Holland appears to be off to a fantastic start in 2013 by adding strikeouts while subtracting walks, among other things. Where do you see the 26-year-old's ceiling at this point? What improvements do you think are within his reach? Adam: Derek Holland is someone who has the stuff of a #2 starter, but whose command issues have held him back. I've compared him to A.J. Burnett, in that he's someone who is probably best slotted in as a #3 or #4 starter on a championship contender, but who will have games, and even stretches, where he looks like he can be much more than that when his command is there. He's featured his changeup, which he largely abandoned last year, more often this season, and that's been credited with helping him improve in 2013. He also got a lot of ink this spring for saying he was going to stop being so much the "wacky" Holland, though I don't know if that really makes much of a difference one way or the other. At the end of the day, I think his level of success will be dictated by how good his command is, and I think he will be, like Burnett, a guy who ends up being viewed by some as a disappointment because he doesn't quite reach the heights that his stuff suggests he could reach. However, like Burnett, he'll also be someone who can provide a lot of value in the middle of a rotation for a championship team. Jon: An injury to Ian Kinsler has opened the door for super-prospect Jurickson Profar. What is the most exciting part of his game? If he performs, what do you expect the Rangers to do upon Kinsler's return? Adam: The most exciting part of Profar's game is probably that there is no one really exciting part of his game...he's a guy who is solid average or above-average across the board, and whose baseball instincts and intelligence allow those tools to play up. He's just a really good ballplayer across the board, with no real weaknesses. Regardless of what he does while Kinsler is gone -- and Kinsler is expected to be activated a week from Sunday, after the minimum 15 days on the d.l. -- Profar will likely be optioned back to AAA once Kinsler returns. However, there's some thought Profar could be back in the majors before roster expansion in September...Kinsler and Elvis aren't sitting much right n

Absolutely, Jesus Montero has been disappointing. He’s had his flashes, but he hasn’t developed, and he isn’t making visible progress. He hasn’t been much to speak of — at least fondly — behind the plate, and it makes sense that Montero’s defensive efforts might’ve been hampering the offense. I’m on board with sending Montero to Tacoma, to work on things against inferior competition. I’m on board with knocking Montero away from catching, to free up additional concentration and practice time. I would’ve preferred that things never get here, but Montero wouldn’t be the first guy to start hitting after abandoning the backstop position. He’s 23, and 14 months ago he was one of the most highly thought of young hitters on the planet. It’s just: Minor league infield instructor Chris Woodward was going to leave Tacoma today, but was asked to stay with the team and teach Montero 1B. — Mike Curto (@CurtoWorld) May 24, 2013 Montero has never played first base in the majors or in the minors. Not in a game, anyway, so it’s basically entirely unfamiliar. Montero has some concept of what first base is — he’s reached it sometimes — but, defensively, it’ll be a new thing. And though first base is the easiest defensive position on the field, that doesn’t mean it’s easy. That means it’s being compared to shortstop and center and catcher. Everything’s relative, and learning first base takes work if you want to not suck at it. So. If the reason behind sending Montero to Tacoma is to work on his bat while stripping away the defensive stuff, what’s the sense in introducing new defensive stuff? If the belief is that Montero has struggled to develop offensively because he’s been putting a lot of effort into his defense, why have him learn new defense? Why right away? Maybe Montero won’t actually work that much on defense. Maybe it’ll be an occasional thing, and we’ll have to let this part play out. There’s no need to overreact before we know the facts, and maybe the team just wants for Montero to not completely forget what it’s like to play the field. After all, it’d be good if Montero became a decent first baseman down the line. But it seems to me the priority should be getting the bat going, if that’s still possible. Get the bat going, and then, after the instruction takes, ease Montero gently back into defense. Montero’s supposed to be a bat-first player. The bat has gone missing. Focus on the bat. I don’t want to criticize the Mariners for something they might not do, and presumably they’ve thought this through and they have a plan. I’m sure they want for Montero’s bat to develop even more than I do, because I don’t have anything personally invested in this. I won’t lose my job if the Mariners suck. It’s just going to be interesting to see how this plays out. I should hope that Montero doesn’t spend too much time learning a new defensive position right away. I should hope that stuff doesn’t impair his ability to get better at the plate. Nobody ever looked at Jesus Montero and pictured a future Gold Glover. They pictured a middle-of-the-order slugger, and if it’s the team’s belief he hasn’t made progress in part because of defensive concerns, I don’t really get introducing new defensive concerns. Let him hit first. At least let him try. -- 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.The One Part I Don’t Understand

Jeremy Bonderman vs. Zack Kroenke, 7:40pm The Rainiers have been worth watching all year, with Hultzen and Paxton in the rotation, Mike Zunino catching and the inevitable Franklin Gutierrez rehab appearances. Now, they’ll get extra scrutiny as we all see if Jesus Montero can revive his career and possibly learn a new position while remembering how to hit. Now, full disclosure here, Montero hasn’t reported yet/isn’t in the line-up tonight. Mike Curto reports that M’s minor league IF coordinator Chris Woodward will stick around in Tacoma to help Montero learn 1B, but presumably that’ll start tomorrow. For tonight, the M’s front office’s collective eyes will be on Jeremy Bonderman as he tries to make the case that he’s a better bet going forward than Aaron Harang. He’ll have to make that case in wet, cold, dreary conditions. It’s presumably for said dreariness that Franklin Gutierrez will DH tonight with Abe Almonte in CF. The M’s are off, but Zunino and Franklin are playing. If you count Guti, Stefen Romero and possibly Bonderman, a good portion of this team could be suiting up for Seattle in September, if not before. Bonderman’s opt-out is in about a week, so this is a critical game for him. If they don’t call him up soon, they’d presumably lose him to free agency. The R’s brought up Brandon Bantz, another D-first catcher who played a bit for the R’s in 2012, to replace Jesus Sucre. They also sent 1B Rich Poythress back to Jackson to make room for 1B Jesus Montero. Line-up: 1: Gutierrez, DH 2: Franklin, 2B 3: Liddi, 3B 4: Peguero, RF 5: Romero, LF 6: Zunino, C 7: Tenbrink, 1B 8: Triunfel, SS 9: Almonte, CF SP: Bonderman -- 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.Rainiers vs. Nashville Sounds Game Thread

Debby Wong-USA TODAY Sports Among all the closers this fantasy baseball season, Seattle Mariners RP Tom Wilhelmsen has been perhaps the most consistent hurler in the ninth inning. The position has seen several different players lose their jobs in recent weeks, so it is surprising to see some positional consistently coming out of Seattle of all places. However, Wilhelmsen hasn’t allowed an earned run since April 5th and has cemented himself as the team’s closer. TW has proven to be an amazing fantasy value throughout the first part of the season and has outproduced some of the bigger names at the position. He is currently sporting a near perfect 0.45 ERA and 0.70 WHIP. Wilhelmsen also has 11 saves on the season and is ranked fifth in the American League. The 29-year-old has simply been blowing hitters away with his fastball this year. According to FranGraphs, he is throwing the pitch 69.6% of the time and it is averaging 96.3 MPH on the radar gun. Not many hitters want to see a heater between 96-98 MPH in the final inning and Wilhelmsen has had no problems dialing it up in the ninth. Willy has blown just one save all year, and it was ironically during an appearance earlier this week. He only allowed two hits, and didn’t give up an earned run, but the game-tying run still crossed the plate against the uber-hot Cleveland Indians. Regardless of his most recent hiccup, Wilhelmsen is still a quality fantasy closer. He will get plenty of chances to save games with Felix Hernandez and Hisashi Iwakuma pitching in front of him, so he shouldn’t have a problem finishing with over 30 saves this season. Wilhelmsen will continue to be an underrated second closer for the remainder of the fantasy season. Adam McGill is the Senior Fantasy Sports Writer at Rant Sports. Follow him on Twitter @adammcgill83, like him on Facebook, or add him to you networks on Google here or here.

The Seattle Mariners are hoping a demotion to Triple-A Tacoma can straighten out struggling catcher Jesus Montero. Read more Jesus Montero news

Just got back in Seattle off my flight and the Mariners today wasted little time making their first roster move after the 2-7 road trip, demoting catcher Jesus Montero to Class AAA. While the corresponding roster move has yet to be announced, Jesus Sucre will be added to the club tomorrow to serve as the backup to Kelly Shoppach. The 40-man roster spot will be created for Sucre ahead of tomorrow night's game, but won't involve a player currently on the major league squad. There are a number of minor league guys who could be taken off the roster, one of them being center fielder Francisco Martinez. So, we'll see on that. The Mariners also won't be making any more moves involving the major league club for at least a few more days. There has been speculation about the futures of both Aaron Harang and Brandon Maurer, but the team doesn't have to deal with their spots until it's time for them to start once again. As for Montero, his days as a catcher are effectively over. The Mariners will still use him as a catcher sporadically in AAA. But he is being sent there to focus on his hitting and will do that mostly as a designated hitter and first baseman. This decision has been in the works for some time. There is a feeling amost Mariners officials that all the extra work Montero has put into his catching has had a terrible impact on his hitting. Not that his catching was making any great strides. Montero had thrown out just one runner in 24 would-be steal attempts this season and the decision by the Mariners to go with Kelly Shoppach as the catcher against the Angels -- namely because the Mariners feared that team's running game would go wild on Montero -- told you all you need to know aout why this move was made. Looking at the organization's catching depth, with minor leaguers Mike Zunino and John Hicks emerging as future mainstays at the position, the Mariners felt it was time to pull the plug on the whole Montero-as-a-backstop experiment. Things reached a head in Cleveland this past weekend when Montero took his foot off the plate while taking a throw from Brendan Ryan on a play that ended Saturday's game in the bottom of the ninth inning. The Mariners were impressed by Montero's willingness to learn the catching position and his dedication to improving at it. They are also willing to forgive many of his on-field mistakes and occasional mental lapses as being the product of a 23-year-old dealing with MLB rigors for the first time. But production matters in the big leagues and Montero's offensive numbers -- a .208 batting average and .590 OPS for a supposed power hitter -- were just too poor to be allowed to continue much longer. The team has told Montero that no time limit has been placed on his return and that getting back to the big leagues will require better at prowess and continued daily improvement as a player. What this also means, for now, is that the Mariners are not planning any additional moves based on position players already on the team. So, Dustin Ackley, Robert Andino, Brendan Ryan and others who have been rumored about are safe for now.  

UPDATE: The Mariners have made it official, announcing that Jesus Montero has been optioned to Tacoma. However, the corresponding move won't be announced until tomorrow.  We know Jesus Sucre is coming up, but the unanswered question is how the Mariners will clear space on the 40-man roster for Sucre. There's definitely the possibility that other transactions will be announced tomorrow that will play into this.  The press release also notes that Montero has 72 hours to report to Tacoma. The Rainiers have a home game tonight before heading out on the road to Reno, where they play tomorrow night. It was inevitable, and now it's happening: As reported by Ryan Divish of the Tacoma News-Tribune, Jesus Montero is headed to Tacoma, and Jesus Sucre is coming up. It was a move the Mariners had to make, as I wrote about two nights ago. Sucre had three hits last night in Tacoma's win (as you'll see in today's Mariners' minor-league report) to raise his average to .302 (16-for-53). But this isn't about Jesus Sucre, who was Mike Zunino's backup in Tacoma and will be Kelly Shoppach's backup in Seattle -- and a much better defensive option than Montero was. It's about figuring out what Montero's future is with the Mariners, and whether any of it will take place with a mask and shin guards on. If the answer is no -- and a lot of baseball people have, and continue to, say that should be the conclusion -- a lot of time and energy has been expended in a fruitless pursuit. When we asked Eric Wedge in Pittsburgh why the  Mariners were being so persistent in working with Montero on his defensive skills when everyone knew Zunino was the catcher of the future, with the very talented John Hicks lined up behind him in Double-A (though currently on the DL with a groin injury), here's what the manager said: “Because I believe in the test of time. I believe you give it every opportunity. Like I’ve always said, you’d rather be a day late than a day early. Because you can’t change the day early. You can’t replay that. That’s just the lesson in discipline. That’s where the press, or the fans, 0r sometimes people even internally, have to understand. Because that’s my job as a manager, to play that out. That’s the discipline and the strength I have to have. So when we make a decision…I’m a big believer in conviction. When you do it, you’d better be damn sure you’re doing it for the right reasons, and you’re doing it at the right time.” We'll find out soon enough what the Mariners' new plan is for Montero, and whether the conviction to make Montero a catcher has died out. But regardless, the biggest thing they need for him is to get his offense squared away. That was always going to be Montero's meal ticket, and the reason the Mariners gave up an All-Star pitcher to get him. I've read several tweets today to the effect that this move today proves the trade was a bust for both teams, the Yankees and Mariners. It's way too soon to come to that conclusion. For one thing, Michael Pineda may come back from his shoulder surgery and be a frontline pitcher again -- not a guarantee, obviously, but not completely out of the realm of possibility, given the reports of his velocity in rehab. And Montero still has a chance to develop into the power hitter the Mariners expected. If he can hit 30 homers a year as a DH/part-time first baseman with the ability to be an emergency catcher, that would still make him a pretty valuable commodity. Maybe removing the catching responsibilities from him will free him up to regain his stroke. That process should correctly begin in Tacoma, where Zunino needs to get the bulk of the time behind the plate. Divish says Brandon Bantz is coming up from Jackson to back up Zunino, an indication that Montero won't be doing much catching. The fact is, both Shopp

Brock Huard discusses the area in which he has noticed growth from Seahawks quarterback Russell Wilson, whos entering his second season in the NFL.

Things are just not looking good. I was planning on settling down and writing some game recap posts during our two-game implosion in Los Angeles, but…it was a two-game implosion, what else is there really to say? I suffered through both of them, even though I really didn’t want to, especially as both games had the Angels up by like five runs within the first two innings. I couldn’t feel any worse for Aaron Harang or Brandon Maurer if I tried; they got pelted fair and square, and helped seal our fate at 6.5 games out of first place. I haven’t found a whole lot of love for Harange just yet, but I had hoped for big things from Maurer since he made the team out of spring. His 2-6 record makes me cry giant mental tears. Seems like all I have left to do here is deal with June and see if he turns around after the All-Star Break, because as we all “know”, that is something that is supposed to happen. I’m still pulling for both of them, though, because that is what I do. It looks like Jesus Montero may very well  be sent down to Tacoma in exchange for another guy named Jesus. This is one of those can’t-really-lose moves that could pan out well or could totally tank. It seems like there was a point in time where I had more faith in the Triple A guys, but I think my inability to absorb the same amount of news and information I had time for when I wasn’t working is hampering my ability to really know for sure what this move might mean for the Mariners. Obviously, Mike Zunino isn’t ready, but hopefully he’ll make an appearance up here in September. Jesus Sucre’s .253 average and 42.4% throwing out of basestealers is a positive sign. Maybe not so much the BA, but I’m willing to give a catcher a chance. Kelly Shoppach and his .229 average (pulls hair out) can’t handle this all by himself. It doesn’t seem to me, however, like Montero should be the sole flower picked out of the garden for the team’s recent failures. Now that AL pitchers can see that pitching inside to Mike Morse is a great idea, Morse’s number might be up for the rest of the year. His strikeout rate already sits at 24.6%, and his OPS so far this year is already below where it was for all of 2012 with the Nationals. He still gets on base a fair amount of the time at .310, but (and this is without having looked at it for a while), I am fairly sure his hitting  and walk rates have gone down at least a little bit. In general, without being able to compare numbers from April to now as I write this, it seems his overall performance has declined a smidge since the year started, just watching. I’m not giving up hope, I just wish he’d stop swinging and stuff that is low and inside. Ground outs are no fun, especially for a guy we all know can smack the cover off the ball when given the chance. I’m not saying to bench him or anything;  more just thinking “aloud” about what I’ve noticed lately. So with a 6-game losing streak and heading into a three-game series against the frightening Texas Rangers, what else should we do? Dave has some suggestions here, and there really isn’t much we can do. Tacoma hitters aren’t ready, and technically speaking, he’s right about Harang; we simply don’t have the personnel to really do much that would improve the situation greatly at the moment. I would rather chew my own arm off than watch Hector Noesi, but I may not have a choice, so I guess I’ll make myself comfortable and get started. It’ll be a lot more difficult to take pictures and type, but it’ll be the right thing to do. Going to enjoy another night off before Joe Saunders goes up (again? It feels like we just saw this guy) against Justin Grimm who, for Mariners purposes, has a name that makes great headlines and Twitter jokes. I have seen at least one person refer to Saunders as “Safeco Joe”, but he’s

I dislike putting questions in the headline. So I put the question and the answer. But this is a post that will aim at slightly filling myself in on what Jesus Sucre is likely to bring to the Mariners while he occupies a very unimportant role, as far as roles go on a 25-man Major League roster. Jesus Sucre is a mediocre hitter. It’s already been mentioned but this post wouldn’t be complete with rehashing it. Sucre has almost no power to speak of. Over about three full Major League seasons worth of Minor League at bats, Sucre has clubbed 17 home runs. Those numbers aren’t being hindered by the parks he’s called home either. Sucre’s career ISO (slugging percentage – batting average) is .083, which is bad. I have my own metric, called Pwr+ on StatCorner, that looks at how often a hitter manages a home run on each type (e.g. grounder, liner) and direction (e.g. pulled, opposite way) of batted ball compared to other hitters in his league. Sucre rates about 5-10% below average. That may not seem like much, but it’s a lot especially for a guy who’s mostly been in Double-A. Sucre isn’t going to come up to the Majors, join a vastly stronger group of peers and look better. Sucre isn’t much for walking either, with a career isolated discipline (on base percentage – batting average) of .037. The guy Sucre’s replacing, Montero, he has an isolated discipline of .041 as a Mariner. So, yeah, walks less often than Montero. That’s not stellar. That’s not even terrestrial. That’s like, subterranean. But, Jesus Sucre might be a good defensive catcher. Who knows? It’s difficult to tell with Major League catchers where we all sorts of data. Minor League catchers, and ones who’ve mostly spent time at Double-A and below aren’t coming with lots of data attached. We do have some numbers on stolen base attempts and successes for Sucre, provided by Baseball-Reference. They look quite good at a career mark of 42% caught stealing. Context is paramount though and BRef doesn’t have the league caught stealing rate to compare against. I sort of do. My data isn’t nearly as robust, having to rely somewhat on less than ideal data input when it comes to runner movement from MLB gameday, but it’s close to complete and should be a solid enough estimator of percentages. What it shows is that while Sucre has moved through the minors and compiled that 42% kill rate on would-be baseswipers, the other catchers in the leagues he’s been in have hovered around 30%. That would mark Sucre as quantitatively a good to great catcher at controlling the Minor League running game. That’s not a sure thing and that’s only one part of a catcher’s defensive responsibilities, but it is a clear contrast with Montero and would be a refreshing site to watch, should Sucre even play all that often. The other important bits of defense, the framing, the blocking pitches, the pitch calling and so on will have to wait and see. I haven’t heard anything negative from what few scouting reports I’ve seen on Sucre, but then again, Sucre isn’t a player I’ve gone out of my way to keep tabs on. However, as Jeff mentioned previously, there was rumored interest in Sucre being asked about over the winter and no 25-year-old catcher with Sucre’s batting line who’d advanced only to Double-A would be garnering interest unless a team really thought highly of his other attributes. I mean, I assume. Maybe it was a false rumor. Maybe the other team(s) were just crazy pants. Never rule out insanity in explaining life’s quirks. It’s all around you. -- 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.Who is Jesus Sucre? The New Mariners Backup Catcher