Can you believe that our Seattle Mariners are only 7.5 games back in the AL West?  With the way they’ve been playing I keep expecting to see that they’ve fallen to 10 or 15 games back already.  Seattle still has a shot thanks to sub-.500 play from the Angels and A’s.  7.5 games is a reasonable deficit to overcome, so it’s far too early to be throwing in the towel. 

While Kenji Johjima is finally starting to hit, he may continue losing time behind the plate.  While I brought in up in April, it seems that fans and Mariner management alike are finally realizing that Johjima doesn’t bring the best out of the pitching staff.  After a string of outings in which Mariner pitchers seemed horribly out of sync, Jaime Burke got the call behind the plate for Erik Bedard’s Saturday start and caught an absolute gem while Johjima DHed.  Hopefully we’ll see Burke and Jeff Clement catching more often, a move that would boost Seattle’s already stellar starting pitching.  With an offense that is struggling to produce runs, any move to help cut down on the pitching staff’s ERA is a good one.

Speaking of the offense, manager John McLaren ran out an interesting lineup on Saturday:

Ichiro Suzuki
Adrian Beltre
Jose Lopez
Raul Ibanez
Kenji Johjima
Richie Sexson
Wlad Balentien
Jaime Burke
Yuni Betancourt

I’m not sure if Mac will stick with something similar or continue to shuffle the players around.  In a lineup that’s already lacking offensive firepower, I think it’s important for Beltre be in the middle of the order.  I also think Johjima’s contact bat should be slotted between the free swingers Sexson and Balentien.  Or, for something different, I would suggest:

Ichiro
Wlad OR Yuni
Lopez
Ibanez
Beltre
Sexson
Johjima
Clement/Burke
Yuni OR Wlad

I think such a lineup would solve a few problems.  One, it takes pressure off of Clement.  Two, Wlad finds himself in a position at either 2 or 9 where he’ll see fewer breaking balls.  Three, shifting Lopez, Ibanez, and Beltre down a spot lengthens the lineup a bit and puts consistent hitters in the biggest run producing spots.  Just a thought.  How would you order the lineup?

5/16: Miguel Batista vs. Chris Young
5/17: Erik Bedard vs. Randy Wolf
5/18: Felix Hernandez vs. Shawn Estes

If there is anyone who knows how Seattle is feeling this season, it’s the Padres.  Like the Mariners, San Diego was picked by some to win their division, but have been in a dogfight with Seattle for Major League Baseball’s worst record.

Seattle has the clear edge in pitching in game two and three, and unlike Texas, San Diego’s offense shouldn’t put up much against Bedard and Felix.  Here’s to hoping, anyway.

It appears that the Seattle Mariners have no problem taking on Ken Griffey’s salary or next year’s option, meaning Cincinnati wouldn’t be on the hook for any of it. 

To me, this is a good thing.  If Seattle required Cincinnati to eat some of his contract, then high caliber prospects would have to be offered up in order to nab Griffey.  Taking the Reds off the hook should allow Seattle to get Griffey without losing any major prospects.  I think Seattle’s generosity could help them keep their top young catchers Jeff Clement and Adam Moore.

Still no word on whether or not he would accept a trade to Seattle, something that could be determined by Seattle’s performance over the next week or so.

If Seattle can get Griffey cheap (prospect wise), then I think it’s a win-win.  He improves the team and puts butts in the seats.  But if he costs any top talent, Seattle should probably just wait until he’s a free agent.

The Seattle Mariners started digging themselves into a hole within the first couple of games this season and haven’t stopped.  Their best winning streak has been just three games, and that happened once in April.  At eleven games under .500, Seattle is the owner of the worst record in all of baseball. Continue reading »

Why Brandon Morrow can’t get it done consistently.

Monday was an absolute roller coaster of a game in which Seattle loses 13-12.  Brandon Morrow picks up the loss after surrendering a walk-off blast to former Mariner Ramon Vazquez.

I’ve written several times about Morrow and how he doesn’t have what it takes to be a consistently successful reliever in the major leagues.  The main thing was his overall control and pitch selection.  After Monday’s game not much has changed; he’s still wild with his breaking balls with a poor pitch selection, but at least he’s more accurate with his fastballs.

Morrow faced five hitters on Monday night.  He struck out the side in the 9th with nine fastballs and three breaking balls, making Brandon Boggs, Gerald Laird and Chris Shelton look completely overwhelmed.  David Murphy leads off in the tenth and cheats a bit jumping all over a fastball on the inside corner, but pulls it foul.  Murphy ends up striking out. 

Vazquez comes up to the plate.  Morrow learned from Murphy’s at bat and starts him off with a curveball that misses for a ball.  (The strikezone was microscopic tonight, but that’s not the point.)  The next pitch was a fastball thigh-high and middle in that Vazquez blasts over the right field wall for the win.

Murphy cheated on the first pitch because he knew a fastball was coming.  Vazquez, who is not known for his power, was able to cheat on the 1-0 count because he knew Morrow couldn’t throw a breaking ball for a strike, allowing him to sit on and pull a 94 MPH heater down the line and into the seats.

So, for the same reasons I gave earlier in the year, Morrow cannot be successful in the major leagues until he gains control of his secondary pitches.  Until then, manager John McLaren would be smart to pitch Morrow no longer than one inning so that teams do not catch on during the outing.  Unfortunately, that won’t last long because scouting reports going out to every single team will be saying, “Do not swing at the breaking balls, sit on a fastball.”

This is total speculation, but interesting nonetheless.  Cincinnati Reds manager Dusty Baker told the media that super prospect Jay Bruce would be recalled soon.  If Bruce is called up to the big club then someone must be on their way out.  This could mean that Cinci is about to trade one of their outfielders (most likely Griffey or Dunn).  Of course, some struggling player could be optioned or DFA’d.  I’m probably getting way ahead of myself, but it caught my eye.

No more speculation; the Seattle Mariners indeed have their eye on Ken Griffey Jr. 

Seattle is the worst team in the American League right now, so it will be interesting to see this unfold.  I’m not so sure that Griffey would accept a trade to Seattle at this point, but we’ll see.  I wrote about the Griffey-to-Seattle scenario on Saturday.

UPDATE 10:50 am PST: Griffey didn’t dismiss the idea of playing for Seattle again by any means, but he said he’d at least want to sign a one day contract with the Mariners to close out his career. 

5/12 - Erik Bedard vs. Vicente Padilla
5/13 - Felix Hernandez vs. Kason Gabbard
5/14 - Carlos Silva vs. Scott Feldman

Seattle hopes to get a winning streak started as they hit the road to visit their good buddies, the Texas Rangers. 

Richie Sexson’s suspension was cut down by one game, so he’ll miss the next five games starting tonight.  As it turns out, he’ll miss the entire series down in Texas. Source Link.

A look at why it may make sense, despite Seattle’s current position in the AL West, and an indication of how much it would cost.

There has been a lot of talk about Ken Griffey Jr. returning to the Seattle Mariners ever since the Reds rolled into town for interleague play last season.  There hasn’t been much attention paid to such a scenario on this site, mostly because there were better available options for Seattle to pursue.  That is still the case, but it seems that acquiring Griffey could make sense on a few levels. 

First off, adding Junior to the lineup would almost certainly boost Seattle’s overall performance, even if he is struggling this season.  He would give Seattle another lefty power bat to go along with Raul Ibanez and Jeff Clement, allowing manager John McLaren to bat lefties at the 3, 5 and 7 spots in the lineup.  A Griffey acquisition would also improve the team by forcing Richie Sexson into a platoon.  Sexson’s batting average against lefties is 192 points higher than it is against righties.  If Griffey was brought in and inserted into the outfield it would slightly improve the Mariner defense at two positions.  Ibanez is a liability in the outfield, while Sexson has zero range at first base, so pushing Ibanez to first and Sexson to DH with Griffey in the outfield would turn a few base hits into outs.

Since there are other trade targets that would outperform Griffey on bothsides of the ball, he has to bring more to the table to make a trade worthwhile.  With Safeco Field attendance at an all time low, bringing back Seattle’s first superstar would put a few more butts in the seats, at least initially.  Even if Seattle misses the playoffs with Griffey, the revenue from boosted attendance would certainly come in handy later on.

The final reason Griffey would make sense for the Mariners is Continue reading »

Did anyone else have a chuckle when they saw this?  Continue reading »

Friday and Saturday’s games start at 7:10 pm PST, Sunday’s game starts at 1:10 pm PST.

Pitching Probables:

5/09 - Carlos Silva vs. Jose Contreras
5/10 - Jarrod Washburn vs. Javier Vasquez
5/11 - Miguel Batista vs. Gavin Floyd Continue reading »

Richie Sexson received a 6 game suspension today for charging the mound last night (video).  He’ll appeal the suspension, so it will not take effect for a couple days.

Jose Vidro (if healthy) and Miguel Cairo will likely be the ones to fill Sexson’s lineup spot until he returns.  Where’s Greg Norton when you need him?  Maybe Seattle will give Brian LaHair a shot at first while Sexson is out.

In other news, the Toronto Blue Jays just signed Brad Wilkerson.  Seattle was unable to find a trading partner after designating him for assignment, so they were forced to eat all of his contract and release him outright.

Last modified at 4:15 pm PST

In 1965 Bruce Tuckman put together the Forming-Storming-Norming-Performing model of team building and development that is still taught in business classes today. 

If we follow this model, the Seattle Mariners spent all of Spring Training and April in the “forming” stage, which makes perfect sense because the team featured a lot of new faces, the bullpen didn’t have any defined roles and there was never any sense of team identity.

I think it’s safe to say that they have entered the “storming” stage.  Manager John McLaren let the frustration get to him in New York and he aired out his team behind closed doors and tonight Richie Sexson lead the Mariners into a small skirmish after taking a pitch up around his head.  The frustration is finally bubbling over and hopefully Seattle can finally move on to Tuckman’s final stages of team development.

The norming stage would be where the Mariners begin to calm down a bit, accept their roles and begin to develop a group dynamic.  Once that is established Seattle can move into the performing stage.  Tonight’s bench clearing cannot hurt this team and hopefully it will help to put this ugly start behind them.

Triunfel snaps out of slump, Peguero and Halman impressing.

Hello, Mariners Fans. My name is Alex Freedman, and I have the pleasure of broadcasting for the High Desert Mavericks, the Cal League affiliate of the Mariners (A+). When the fellow members of the front office and I caught a glimpse at our opening day roster we were all very excited. So far the season has indeed been filled with excitement, with lots of big comebacks, as well as late-inning implosions.

Now, before I provide any kind of “analysis” I just want to clarify something. I, by no means, have the expertise of a scout or someone who has been around the game a long time. This is my second year broadcasting minor league baseball and before that I was in college. So please, just keep in mind anything I might say is coming from a guy who has the “job” of watching 140 games of baseball every year.

Last year the Mavericks were home to three of the top 10 prospects in Seattle’s system: Mike Saunders, Chris Tillman, and Carlos Triunfel. Even though the team was beyond lousy, those three were special to watch every day, or in Tillman’s case, every fifth day. Despite being only 17 years old at the time, Triunfel tied a franchise record with six hits in a nine-inning game. The 19-year-old Tillman would later tie another franchise record with 13 strikeouts in a game, although it only took him six innings to do it. I think it’s also worth noting one of the other two previous pitchers to accomplish that feat in a Mavericks’ uniform is long-time big leaguer Brad Penny.

It was a little disappointing to see the M’s have to ship Tillman off to Baltimore, but the front office did what I suppose it had to. With Saunders doing well at Double-A West Tenn, I figured the Mariners would keep Triunfel in the High Desert for some more seasoning. Maybe I set the expectations too high, but I thought since the guy hit .288 here last year, he would hit around .300 and would finally produce some power.

Triunfel got off to a bad start, but he has turned it around. After going 0-for-4 on April 10, his average stood at .077. He had missed nine consecutive games within the first couple weeks of the season due to minor back and abdominal problems, and our hitting coach Eddie Menchaca told me once Triunfel got more at bats on a consistent basis, he would start to hit. Ever since hitting rock bottom, Triunfel has hit safely in 14 of 15 games, including a current nine-game hitting streak. He is hitting .365 over that stretch, raising his average up to .255 for the season.

There has been a lot of fanfare over Triunfel’s arm, and it is by far the strongest I have seen from anyone over the past two seasons. However, he still has trouble harnessing it, leading to some throwing errors. His range isn’t that great at shortstop either, but then again, the kid just 18, so there’s plenty of time. I know the Mariners see him as either at second or third down the road, so he has played some second this season and has done an okay job. I just think putting him at second would be a waste of his arm strength.

The two other guys I would like to discuss in this post are Carlos Peguero and Greg Halman. Peguero hits the ball harder than anyone else in the league by far. He, like Halman, is prone to striking out, with 40 K’s in 134 plate appearances (including just three walks). He tends to chase pitches low and in, but I’ve already been able to seem him improve start to lay off them more than he did at the beginning of the year. Once Peguero learns to make consistent contact he could be a big star in the big leagues.

Peguero’s defense is the worst part of his game. The guy looks lost in right field. He has already committed eight errors in 14 games out there. I know he’s only 21, but I really don’t see the defense getting much better. The good news is the Mariners can always use him as a DH, where I really think he has a chance to thrive in a few years.

Even though it’s always an adventure with Peguero in the outfield, Halman might be the best center fielder in the league. A couple of weeks ago I came up with the phrase, “He’s never met a fly ball he couldn’t catch.” Since he is such as long-strider and has excellent speed he can cover an extraordinary amount of turf out in center. And this kid’s arm is unreal. I know I’m biased but there is no way any outfielder in the league has a better arm than him. It’s only a little more than a month into the season and it’s becoming clear opposing teams are starting to hesitate to run against him.

At the plate, Halman’s got a lot of power, currently leading the team in home runs with six. It’s also worth noting he’s a perfect 13/13 stealing bases. Again, the strikeouts are a bit worrisome (42 in 142 PA’s), but with time, I’m sure he’ll cut down. His trouble pitch seems to be any kind of low breaking ball. There’s been a ton of swings and misses by him at curves below his knees.

Now I’ve come to terms with the fact Triunfel is only 18 and Peguero is only 21, but the fact Halman is only 20 still blows my mind. I know there have been some comparisons with him to Andre Dawson, and from what I can tell, they are well merited. He has the same body type as The Hawk did in his big league days. Last week, I was watching This Week In Baseball and some leader of some stupid band was talking about how much he loved Dawson as a kid. When they showed the footage of Dawson, it really hit me that he and Halman are the same person.

Those are my thoughts for now. If you have any questions or comments, please send them to mavsradio@gmail.com. I hope to hear from some of you BBT readers.

I’m not really sure what to write about anymore.  The starting pitching has been great overall.  The bullpen had some tough times, but you can’t pin too many losses on them.  The Seattle Mariners offense simply needs to produce more runs for the starters.

The additions of Jeff Clement and Wlad Balentien helped, but they’re rookies and will continue to struggle from time to time.  One more upgrade is needed before this team freefalls right out of contention.  How long will GM Bill Bavasi wait to make a move? 

Let the betting begin: Within the next 10 games, as soon as it’s too late, or never?

Detroit outfielder Jacque Jones was released today.  He hits left-handed and is a good defensive player, though has misplaced his power since hitting 27 homers in 2006.

Should Jones be on Seattle’s radar?  He may be, as they tried to get him last time he was a free agent, and he almost fits the bill of what they should be looking for.  Even if he’s not a perfect fit, a Jones addition would likely push Jose Vidro permanently to the bench, get Raul Ibanez out of the outfield, and move Richie Sexson into a platoon with Ibanez and/or Jeff Clement, so the offense and defense would both benefit.

 Jones would come cheap.  He was released outright by the Tigers, so he’s still receiving all the guarenteed money from that contract, meaning he shouldn’t be looking to sign for much.  Also, Seattle wouldn’t lose any prospects like they would in a trade.

I’m not endorsing Jones, I’m just throwing it out there.  I haven’t thought about it much and haven’t gone into the stats just yet, so I just wanted to see what everyone thinks about it.  Would you like Seattle to pursue Jones?

Greg Norton, who was DFA’d after the callups of Jeff Clement and Wladimir Balentien, was traded today to the Atlanta Braves for cash considerations and or a PTBNL.

This should be a much better situation for Norton, where he’ll almost certainly receive daily at bats in the National League style of play. 

As far as these player-to-be-named-later things go, I get the impression that the PTBNL is chosen based on the contributions of the traded player.  For example, Seattle acquired Dave Hollins from the Minnesota Twins for a PTBNL back in 1996.  Hollins had been struggling with the Twins, but was a big contributor with the Mariners, so we sent a pretty decent prospect in David Ortiz.  If he continued to struggle that year I’m guessing that Seattle would have sent someone of a lower caliber.  That said, don’t expect much in return for Norton unless he somehow gets regular playing time and produces.

Brad Wilkerson, who was also DFA’d, has yet to be moved.  All indications point toward the Red Sox acquiring him, however.

All games start at 7:10 pm PST, meaning that this thread will be a little more active.  Join in!

5/5 - Jarrod Washburn vs. Kevin Millwood
5/6 - Miguel Batista vs. Sidney Ponson
5/7 - Erik Bedard vs. Vincente Padilla
5/8 - Felix Hernandez vs. Kason Gabbard (?) Continue reading »

Felix Hernandez, pictured above, was overcome with emotion before breaking down in tears behind the mound after a frustrating loss to the Yankees on Saturday. After hearing snickering and “Queen Felix” comments from a group of players in the tunnel, manager John McLaren, a sensitive guy himself, closed the clubhouse doors and defended his young hurler in an angry, expletive laden tirade after the game.

“We couldn’t hear the exact words, and the ones we did hear, couldn’t be used in print,” wrote Ryan Divish of the Tribune.  Geoff Baker of the Times added that the rant “could be heard echoing in the hallways outside.”

“Everything he said, he hit the nail on the head,” said Raul Ibanez, ashamed. “He’s absolutely right.”

(A feeble attempt at injecting some humor into a few frustrating loses)