Riddle Me This

by ~ September 17th, 2009 at 2:34 pm

Manager Don Wakamatsu on Matt Tuiasosopo, regarding Tui’s spot on next year’s roster:

“We have to see him play a little bit,” Wakamatsu said. “He’s going to have to prove to us he can hit at this level. That’s going to be first and foremost. I know he’s athletic enough to make adjustments at different positions. But he’s going to have to hit up here.”

[link]

Does this mean that Wak has decided Michael Saunders can’t hit at that level and doesn’t like him as a potential starter next season?

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  • SABR Matt

    I think Saunders hit his way out of being given a spot without stiff competition, yes. The Mariners can add offense in only a few areas…LF, 3B, DH…that’s pretty much it. If the best players available at a reasonable cost are outfielders, Z is not going to wait for Saunders to figure out how2 to use that piece of wood in his hands…he’s going to sign someone else.

    • http://proballnw.com Dustin Shires

      Also got to remember that JZ has shown that he may set offense aside if the defense is good; Saunders certainly fits that model, thus far in his career. Do we know if he’s a good defender in the long run? Nope, but he has been thus far, and that may be enough for JZ to say, “Hey, let’s give him another year.”

  • http://www.section331.com section331

    I think they might be looking at Tui as an affordable option at 2B. I’m not much of an analyst, but seeing him fail at 3B last year and seeing how successful he’s been at 2B this year makes me wonder if Lopez is about to be put on the trading block.
    As for Saunders, I don’t know; but I miss him. :(

    • http://proballnw.com Jon Shields

      Tuiasosopo as a 3B is a fringy prospect. Tuiasosopo as a 2B is a stud prospect.

      IMO

  • Luisam911

    He already has made a case with that 10th inning web gem.

  • harrison

    I’m all kinds of disappointed of the comments about shutting down Michael Saunders for the season. In my opnion this is John Smoltz in boston type of situation, to little data to really compute a real sumation. They need to have patience.. they allowed three months of Yuni at the dish in play-off race, is Saunders so much worse when we have little else to play for?

  • http://www.marinercentral.com Lonnie

    harrison sez:
    “they allowed three months of Yuni at the dish in play-off race, is Saunders so much worse when we have little else to play for?”

    Um, yes. It sucks to no end, but Saunders is just way over-matched at the MLB level.

    Lonnie

  • http://proballnw.com Dustin Shires

    They’ve definitely given up on Saunders if Bill Hall (as Dave Sims tells me) has a messed up quad, and he’s still prancing around left field.

  • http://www.section331.com section331

    Oh, good point, Dustin. Wow, that’s sort of depressing. :/

  • SABR Matt

    They haven’t “given up on” Saunders…they’ve concluded that he’s not ready YET…and if you’ve watched him hit this year…you should realize that he is indeed NOT READY. He’s got options…they can send him back to AAA next year to work on pitch recognition.