Some Quick Hits

by ~ September 23rd, 2009 at 8:48 pm

*Don’t look now, but Ichiro is having one of his best offensive seasons at age 35. Highest career SLG, 2nd highest BA, wOBA, OPS and OPS+.

*Since joining the Mariners, Bill Hall has struck out swinging 28.2% and looking 9.7% of the time, both career highs.

*It would appear that Michael Saunders has returned from his lineup hiatus with a slightly more open stance.  Okay then.

*Brandon Morrow‘s offspeed stuff appears genuinely better since returning. He was sent to Tacoma to work on his secondary pitches, not necessarily to improve his command. Obviously it is something he still needs to work on, but don’t let it take away from the major improvements he’s made to his soft stuff.

*I’ve seen in a couple different places recently the idea that Josh Wilson should be retained as the starting shortstop while Jack Wilson should be dumped after the season.  I suppose the reasoning is to save money, but it should made clear that Josh isn’t even close to the player Jack is.  Josh, while he had a nice offensive stretch, isn’t a big league caliber bench player, much less a starter.  Meanwhile, Jack is a league average shortstop with the potential to be a bit more.  Saving $5-8M isn’t worth playing a bad player.

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    • http://www.sodomojo.com gregrabble

      I wonder how many different blogs are going to have to explain the Josh/Jack thing before more people start to believe it.

      • http://proballnw.com Jon Shields

        No disrespect to MarinerMan6, who was the first one to bring it up on PBNW, but I have a real hard time figuring out why Josh has so much pull with some people. Is it simply the short offensive burst by Josh that is sticking in people’s heads? Is there some hatred for Jack? What’s the reasoning?

        You said you were talking about it with some people on LL. I don’t follow the conversation over there.. what were their arguments?

        • http://www.sodomojo.com gregrabble

          It was a pretty short argument – one guy was talking about what he thought the ideal situation would be in the infield next year, and for shortstop he said Josh Wilson. I told him that was an awful idea, and he basically countered by saying Jack Wilson was going to cost $8 million more than Josh, but not be valuable enough to make up for it. Then someone pointed out that Josh is no more than a replacement level player, while Jack is a 2-4 win player, so he’s going to be worth at least $8 million more than Josh, and in that situation you want to go with the choice that wins you more games anyway.

          Hope that makes sense. I have trouble with recapping conversations.

          • http://www.sodomojo.com gregrabble

            Also, the guy who originally advocated Josh was saying they were equal offensively, which isn’t close to being true.

    • MarinerMan6

      I figure I got to chime in on this one as I’m being called out. First of all, I’m not the only one as Churchill over at PI prefers Josh over Jack. I never said Josh is a better player, just that the difference doesn’t justify retaining Jack for 8x the salary. No way I am picking up an $8.4 million option. I love Jack’s defense but he is getting up there in years and he has ZERO offensive value. He couldn’t hit in the inferior NL and now in the AL he is one of the worst hitters in the league–no patience (32.4% o-zone swing %), no power, and no plan at the plate. The M’s have basically maxed their value out with their defense and since the general split of importance is 50/30/20 in offense/pitching/defense–I vote lets improve the offense.
      The M’s have finite resources and I think saving the 5-8 million to put towards a masher for DH/1B–an easy place to get better offensively on the cheap would be better. Finally, Josh Wilson is a league average defensive SS and offensively both guys are a wash (although Josh has a wOBA of .300 while Jack is at .260 for roughly the same number of PAs) but I think Josh has more development left in his bat while Jack is what he is–a designated fielder that bats 4 times a game.

      The M’s have enough guys to hide in this lineup and at least with Josh Wilson they will pay him pennies. In an ideal world the M’s pick up Brignac or Hardy but that is probably not going to happen. Anyways, that is where I stand on the issue.

    • MarinerMan6

      The only way I would consider Jack Wilson for next year would be a 2 year extension at $10 million max, anything more is a bad idea as he is on the wrong side of 30. It is fun to watch him in the field but I can’t think of one thing he does well at the dish….feel free to enlighten me.

      • http://proballnw.com Jon Shields

        We agree on a lot then. I also think that the option shouldn’t be exercised and I don’t believe the team will. The comments made by management have hinted at a short, more affordable extension, and 2 years/$10M is also my limit.

        I guess my major disagreement is the idea that Josh Wilson is a suitable replacement. If the team ditches Jack Wilson for financial reasons, I would hope that a 1-2 WAR SS could be brought in for cheaper (trade or $$) than it would be to retain Jack.

        I’ve just seen more than enough of Josh Wilson, and would be very happy to have him no where near the Mariners 25 man roster. He’s a versatile insurance policy to tuck away in the PCL, but he’s not a big leaguer in my opinion and there isn’t much room for growth at age 28.

    • MarinerMan6

      My bigger question other than the Wilson controversy is how come no one brings up Beltre. My question is, why is he playing at all?? Every start should go to Tuiasosopo or Hall or Hannahan. Beltre has zero chance of returning so why waste valuable evaluation time of players that will be on the 2010 roster?
      To be honest Jack Z has a tough job this summer because every position outside of CF, RF, and to a lesser extent 2B and 1B (assuming Branyan is healthy) need to be addressed this offseason. Not to mention the toxic contract of Johjima (who will be holding back Adam Moore in AAA) and Silva (2010 version of Miguel Batista–why again has he not been released??)

    • mw3

      Saunders swing is still not quite right. His problem before was that he went from open to, after diving in, closed during the swing. Very few players get away with a swing like that.

      Now, after his stride, he is a little open during the swing. On the triple he hit, had he been squared up, that ball probably leaves the yard. I’m glad he has made progress, but when Cockrell and Wak are completely done “coachin’ him up” the M’s just might have something.

      • Slurve

        His swing is fine it’s compact and short. His stance can be reworked a little but nobody expects light tower power from Saunders anyways his swing will produce many doubles and he’ll run into a couple of HR’s along the way.

        • http://proballnw.com Jon Shields

          I disagree that it’s “compact and short.” Certainly shorter than it was last season, but it still could use some tightening up.

    • http://www.section331.com section331

      I don’t believe that Tuiasosopo is being looked at as Beltre’s replacement. I believe he’s being looked at as Lopez’s. Granted, I have nothing to base that on outside of the way he’s been used in both triple A and in the call-up month, and the fact that he’s been far superior at second than at third in a 2008-2009 sample size, but that is my feeling.

    • Luisam911

      Move lopez to third, tui at second, 1b russel da muscle. ss some guy? Is orlando cabera available in the FA market this year? or maybe jack the second Hanahana(however you spell it) at ss, dunno if he can play there.