Sorry for the lack of content this week, we have been on
vacation, had social lives and been lazy. In the mean time, the Mariners did
nothing impressive on the field and made some crazy moves off the field. And by
crazy I mean completely logical things that were long awaited by many fans. A
brief rundown of what happened, Hisashi Iwakuma got his first start of the
year, Kevin Millwood was skipped once in the rotation due to his groin injury,
Erasmo Ramirez suffered an arm injury and was put on the 15 day DL, Hector
Noesi was sent down to AAA after struggling once again. So this version of the
Amigos will be longish since there are now 4 amigos. To the grades!
Hector Noesi
I will be frank; Hector has not pitched well enough to keep
his spot in the rotation. He has shown flashes of talent that make some fans
excited for the future, but he spreads these flashes around elongated periods
of inadequacy. This last start was one of the inadequate efforts from Hector.
He went 5 innings, gave up four runs and struck out 4 Orioles. He got the loss,
which gave him 11 on the year. I don’t care who you are, 11 losses before the
All-Star break is not acceptable. He was sent down to Tacoma to work on his
stuff and maybe figure out what a good 0-2 pitch looks like. In my assessment
of Hector after watching him in the first half is that he is young. He has the
stuff to be an effective starter in the Majors; he just has to work on his
mental focus. Baseball and pitching especially demands complete focus on the
task at hand. Hector needs to work on keeping focused even when he is ahead 0-2
on batters. He needs to develop a killer instinct to put the batter away when
he gets ahead, that is something that can be seen in Felix. He gets an F and is
held back this year.
Erasmo Ramirez
Not much can be said about Erasmo after his last start, he
only lasted 2.2 innings against the Red Sox. Seeing a young pitcher go down
with an elbow injury is never a good thing, especially one that has shown as
much promise as Erasmo. According to Wedge and others the injury is not serious
and Erasmo should be back after the All-Star break. That is excellent news; he
did have a no hitter going against the Sox and had 4 K’s at that point. Here’s
to a better second half from Erasmo. He gets an incomplete.
Hisashi Iwakuma
Well this is something new, the Shaman was called on early
to summon the spirit of Hisashi at the start of the game and he did not do a
bad job. He at least was about equivalent with Hector Noesi. Iwakuma went 5
innings, gave up three runs on one bad pitch and struck out 4 guys. He also
walked three guys. This is somewhat promising since it is Hisashi’s first start
of the year and he can get more comfortable in his new role. At worst, Iwakuma
is another Hector Noesi but at best, he returns to the form that earned him the
Japanese Cy Young award a few years ago. Also, he can start to earn his paycheck,
which was monstrous for a long reliever but is now ok for a starter. He gets a
B-.
Kevin Millwood
Well well, we meet again Mr. Millwood. Seems like your groin
has finally healed. Hopefully it does not act up again because you are becoming
somewhat attractive as a trade piece. Millwood did a nice job against the
Oakland A’s blah blah blah. Who cares, it’s the Oakland A’s who are somehow a
.500 team. Yet still have a pretty bad offense. Anyway, I am hoping other teams
start noticing Millwood who is dirt-cheap and can hopefully start to show some
durability. For those who don’t realize, Tom Wilhelmsen is our best trade piece
right now and I really don’t want to see him moved. So hopefully Vargas can
show some more consistency and Millwood some durability so they can turn into
prospects. Yay prospects! Millwood gets an A. I am feeling nice this morning.
Tip of the Cap
Casper Wells
Besides breaking up a perfect game, no hitter and shutout at
the same time against Wei-Yin Chen, Casper has been doing an awesome job. Both
he and Saunders have made huge steps this year, making their cases for regular
starting jobs. Unfortunately once Franklin comes back, they will be forced to
platoon since Ichiro is not moving from right field. Some people have been
calling for Ichiro to be traded or benched before and I have disagreed since
the alternative was not much better. Now I would not be opposed to Ichiro
seeing more of the pine since Casper and Saunders are two of our better hitters
right now. Well done Casper, I tip my cap to you.
Menacing Glare
The Young Phenoms
For those who may not know who I am referring to, it is
Dustin Ackley, Justin Smoak and Jesus Montero. These three are supposed to be
the building blocks of the Mariners offense in the coming years. They are
looking terrible. Ackley is looking completely over matched at the plate and is
hitting .238 with an OPS of .653. That is bad, especially from the lead off
hitter of the future. Smoak has been talked about many times and his struggles
have been chronicled. Anytime a player is flirting with the Mendoza line, it is
not good. He also has a slugging percentage of .333, not ideal from a first
baseman. Maybe Tacoma can fix his woes once Carp returns from injury. Jesus
Montero has one RBI since June 1st. That is horrible for a clean up
hitter and future savior of the offense. I don’t want to even give you his
stats because they will further depress me. Just know they are not good. All
three of these guys need to step up their play if the Mariners want to contend.
The Word:
Ridiculous and Stupid
This is more than one word, I know, but the
issue I am addressing requires more than just one word. I am talking about
bringing in the fences at Safeco. That idea is ridiculous and stupid. Just
because our offense sucks does not mean we should adjust the park to them. The
Mariners have been playing in Safeco for over a decade and never have the
fences been an issue. Remember when we won 116 games in 2001? Were the fences
too far back then? What about when we lost over 100 games in 2008? Did we
debate the fences as being too far back? Nope, we just accepted that our team
was bad. Guess what Mariner fans, in no way was this team supposed to be good
this year. Everyone including Jack Z knew it. We have a young talented club. The
growing pains will be rough and we are going through them now. But we cannot
make excuses for this club; it is stupid and ridiculous to try to do so. So
suck it up and be patient. Success will come, trust Jack Z and know that he has a plan. I will now leave you with a picture I came across the other day. All that must be known is that Hisashi Iwakuma looks like a boss. Go M's
No comments:
Post a Comment