The Three Amigos: A Not as Super or Mega as Last Time Edition

By Anthony

So yeah, not much has happened in Mariner land since the last time the Amigos went to work. Felix may not make his next start due to a back issue. Personally, I would prefer to see Felix get healthy than try to pitch through an injury and be ineffective. Oh yeah, and the Mariners offense has been on fire. Whenever you put up 21 runs in a game and then over ten in two more, its been a pretty alright couple games. Oh right, and Kevin Millwood sucked. Don’t believe me? Read on.

Hector Noesi

I don’t know what it is about the White Sox, but there always seems to be many home runs hit whenever we play them. Hector Noesi continued this trend, going 4.1 innings, giving up 6 runs, 3 home runs. He also didn’t walk any one and had 5 K’s. That last part is really nice. The first part is really bad. Since I am in line to be the next Mariners pitching coach, I can tell you that Noesi needs to focus on being more consistent. Not just start to start, but from pitch to pitch. In the MLB every pitch needs to be executed perfectly. There is very little leeway for a pitcher and against a lineup like the White Sox, there is less. Those guys will make you pay if you leave a pitch up and Noesi was paying dearly. In the stuff Noesi has to be good at, locating his changeup, getting whiffs and limiting line drives, he did a pretty good job. Once again, Noesi is throwing more sliders than changeups, but he still got 3 whiffs on 21 breaking pitches and was 6/6 in thowing his changeup for strikes. The line drives aren’t great and the homeruns are worse. So Noesi, work on your focus from pitch to pitch and make sure each one is executed. Mistakes get hit a long way. Limit your mistakes and you can limit the number of balls hit a long way. He gets a C-.

Blake Beavan

So looking at Blake Beavan’s line, one would think he sucked. 6 innings, 5 runs, 2 K’s. But we scored 21 runs this game. 21. So really, Beavan was untouchable for 5 innings and was able to pitch like he wants. He threw a bunch of strikes and let the Rangers get themselves out. Then in the 6^th, the Rangers realized that he was throwing a bunch of strikes and started hitting them like the Rangers do. I for one was a little nervous. The game against the Indians a few years ago was popping up in my head. But we held them. We won 21-8. That’s pretty awesome. Tangent time! Guess who has the same ERA as Aroldis Chapman, who by the way, has an ERA of 0.00. If you guessed a player who was in AA last year and was a Rule 5 draft pick, you may be right. If you guessed his first and last name started with the same letter, you could be right. It is LUCAS LUETGE. Yeah, he still hasn’t given up a run yet. Mind you, its not like he has been the number one guy out of the bullpen, but still. That is pretty awesome. Especially for a guy not expected to be on the team this year. So good for you Lucas. Beavan gets a B. 

Kevin Millwood

I woke up Sunday morning, bright and early (meaning at about noon), and looked at my phone. What I saw has to be one of my favorite things to wake up to. A text from Patrick saying he knows why I hate Kevin Millwood. That’s not as good as him admitting I was right, but I feel like it was implied. So my day was pretty great. Then I saw Kevin Millwood’s line. 4 innings. 5 walks, 4 runs 4 K’s. That is not a great line. You know what makes it worse? We used almost our entire bullpen the game before this. Hisashi Iwakuma had to pitch. That is how desperate we were. So of course, you know what we needed from Millwood. A LONG start. One where he goes 7 or 8 innings and give the bullpen a break. He went 4 innings. FOUR! Kevin Millwood I do not like you as a pitcher. You forced Wedge to use Lucas Luetge for a multiple innings appearance. Luetge rarely goes more than one or two batters. So thanks Kevin. Also, maybe look across the field and see a kid, Chris Sale, doing exactly what you were supposed to do. Once again, you get an incomplete because you completely failed in what you were supposed to do. GGGGGAAAAARRRRRRRRRRGGGGHHHHHH!!!!!!!!

The Word

Flametastic- It took about three hours for Stephen Pryor to already get a cute reference from the Mariners twitter account, “Pryor Fire.” I find those kind of stupid but this one is fairly accurate. He hit 100 twice. I talked about this before, and totally called hi being called up once Delabar was sent down, but that’s awesome. He looks like a big dude, throws like a big dude and does not have very good off speed stuff. Whatever, as long as you can throw 100, secondary stuff is not as important. Also, Carter Capps in AA Jackson can also hit 100. So those two could form some kind of awesome bullpen. Pretty sweet future for pitching in Safeco, both starting and relieving.

Wag of My Finger

Dustin Ackley- I did not think I would be writing his name in this section. Yet, he has not lived up to the hype and standards he set up for himself after a very successful rookie year. I am hoping this is just a case of the sophomore slump, but it is still something to watch for. He is hitting .248 and has an OPS below .700. That is pretty bad for Dustin and I hope he is able to turn it around. Fear the wrath of my figurative finger wagging Dustin. But keep your beard, I swear it’s the most beautiful thing about the Mariners.

Tip of My Cap

Tom Wilhelmsen- This tip of my cap is based purely off his performance against the White Sox in the game that went 12 innings. He was masterful and showed the quality of his stuff. He is probably the closer next year and threw one of the best curves I have seen in awhile. He absolutely is one of my favorites on this M’s team and his three innings were huge. They stopped any momentum the White Sox had after Pryor gave up that home run. Bartender, I tip my metaphorical cap to you. Go M’s.