By Anthony
Sorry guys, due to the whole four-day weekend for me and the College Nationals for Ultimate Frisbee being this weekend, I was a little inattentive to when the amigos were supposed to pitch and didn’t really pay attention to the M’s in general. Meaning I watched more College Ultimate than baseball games. Sorry. I did check the box scores and when people scored. Turns out I chose a solid weekend to be a very detached fan. The M’s got swept in a four game series. Albert Pujols remembered that he was Albert Pujols, was anyone surprised that it had to happen against the M’s? In this super duper mega version of the Amigos, Hector Noesi and Kevin Millwood got to pitch twice before I was able to grade them. Not so fast for you Ham Sandwich. You’re not falling through the cracks so easily.
Hector Noesi
In his two games, Hector did not get a win. He got two losses and the M’s lost both games. If I was stupid I would then say that Hector sucks. But in the two games he combined for 16 innings, 6 runs, 4 walks and 7 K’s. I will remind you he faced off against the Angels and Rangers. That line is awesome. I have a theory that the Mariners have a hazing ritual for new rookie pitchers where they just decide that they can’t win more than 5 games all year so forget how to hit whenever they pitch. It sort of got out of hand for Ryan Franklin but Wedge was able to rein it in and now it is a little more subtle. Until some genius blogger, me, uncovered the corruption. Hey Hector, you’re welcome, I’ll take diamond club seats as my reward. Going into depth with what Hector has to do to succeed, throw strikes with his changeup, get whiffs with his breaking pitches and stop giving up line drives, he was not bad. He has started throwing his slider a lot, and got 10 whiffs on it. He only threw his changeup for a strike about 57% of the time but with it being used less that is less of a problem. As for avoiding line drives, he didn’t do too bad a job, yielding 11 total. Hector I will give you an A- since you have finally started getting consistent but need to maintain your focus for the entire game. That homerun to Mark Trumbo was brutal, (I actually saw that one happen).
Blake (Costs 5 dollars at Subway) Beavan
Yawn Yawn Yawn. The Ham Sandwich was doing his sandwichy thing. 7 innings, 3 earned runs, 1 strikeout and 2 walks. Then Brandom League forgot that Beavan has actually been playing for two years with the M’s and is not subject to the only 5 wins rule. Silly Brandon League, he’s so cute when he tries to throw strikes and utterly fails. Anyway, time for the Ham Sandwich tangent. Patrick touched on this issue already but Brandon League is out as closer and right now Tom WIlhelmsen is in line for the throne. However, in a plot twist worthy of Game of Thrones, I wouldn’t be surprised to see Stephen Pryor get a few turns in the ninth inning. He has pitched 11 innings in Tacoma as their semi-closer. He has 14 K’s and two saves while not giving up a run. I’m not saying he needs to be getting the ball in the ninth against the Cardinals in game seven of the World Series, (We are currently in Anthony fantasy land) but he needs to be given a chance in the ninth. His stuff is awesome. Blake you get an A but the curve drops you down to a B+. And by curve I mean Brandon League.
Kevin Millwood
For those of you who know how I feel about Kevin Millwood, you may be surprised to hear how disconsolate I was when Steve Delabar gave up a bomb to Mike Napoli. Jesus Montero had just missed the inning before and Kevin Millwood was out of the game. Therefore I was really heart broken. I just wish Milwood could have done that himself instead of throwing 97 pitches in five innings. Which brings me to my latest gripe about Kevin Millwood. Throw some strikes! I am a pretty dedicated fan and a pretty educated fan but I was getting pissed off at how often he was falling behind the Rangers. Yes, those guys can hit. But Kevin, you know what else? It is a lot easier to hit when a pitcher has to throw a strike. A great way to pitch is to get ahead, which means you start throwing strikes early in the count, not at 2-0 or 3-1. So yeah, congrats on your 5 innings with 1 run, 2 walks and 5 K’s. I hope you realize you kind of set yourself up for the bullpen to do their thing. That is blow leads. Anyway, in his other start, he threw some more shut out innings. 6 to be specific with 1 walk and 2 K’s and 97 pitches. That is two starts where Millwood has thrown 97 pitches against the Rangers. He has lasted 11 innings in total. Millwood you get a B but your participation and attendance in class sucks, like 35%. Man I wish participation was worth more than 10% of the grade.
The Word
Unfortunate-This is a feeling that is quite often used and experienced by Mariners fans. It was really unfortunate Albert Pujols caught fire against us. He was pretty much a terrible hitter before he ran into us. Then remembered he is awesome. So that sucked. Also, Alberto Callaspo, someone whose name is impossible to say in a non-announcer voice, and who hits like he should play for the M’s all of a sudden took a King Felix pitch out to dinner and didn’t call it again since it got lost in the stands. That just goes to show how random baseball is. Say Callaspo swings a tenth of a second later or Felix throws that pitch a little more inside, then the M’s are still in that game. But unfortunately it did not and Callaspo got to be a hero.
Wag of My Finger
Brandon League-Just as I typed that, League gave up a lead off single to the Rangers. Must be a sign. League came into this year as one of the more dependable players on the roster. We knew what he could do and he was supposed to bring some consistency to a bullpen that was full of question marks. That blew up in our faces. He has suced and gone from being a valuable trade chip at the deadline to being a person who I want to get lost on the way from the bullpen to the field. He has shown no command, his fastball is not finding the zone and his splitter never really could. THROW STRIKES! Somebody please! I Feel Like I Am Taking Crazy Pills!!!!
Tip of My Cap
Justin Smoak-The Smoakamotive seems to have been able to turn things around recently. And by recently I mean he was our offense against the Angels. He went 5-12 in three games with an OPS of 1.333 and a stolen base. I find that last part hilarious because he is tied atop the list of Mariners who I want to watch try and steal a base since they are so slow. But in all seriousness, Justin needs to start hitting and hopefully he can continue this pace and not force the M’s to replace the Smoakative with the Taijuan-Walker-is-only-a year-or two-away-amotive. Which would be an awesome train car, but seriously, go Smoakie. And Go M’s, and #FreeBrendanRyan’sBat
No comments:
Post a Comment