Things I like about the Chicago White Sox:

Alexei Ramirez’s defense – Ramirez has the 4th best UZR in baseball this season– the best among infielders– and Mariner fans have seen why in the last two series against the ChiSox.  Ramirez is showing off some ridiculous range this season.  But while I’m a sucker for pretty much any defensive stud, Ramirez is odd, because 1.) I never really considered him much of a defender, and 2.) even when he’s making fantastic plays up the middle or in the hole, he still doesn’t move like a great fielding shortstop in my mind.  He doesn’t glide– not in my opinion, anyway– which makes him intriguing.  I love great defenders like Jack Wilson, but Ramirez is a different kind of animal in my mind, and because of that I want to watch him field the baseball. 

Alexei Ramirez’s frame – One of the things that people love about baseball is that people of any size can play the game at the highest level.  We have the dwarfish Dustin Pedroia, the tubby Jack Cust, and everything in between.  Ramirez’s twig frame is as distinguishing as any body type in baseball, and that he can use his skinny length to drive the baseball better than most shortstops is quite fun to watch.  I wonder if he wears the smallest jersey in baseball.

Andruw Jones being somewhat useful again – Andruw with a “u” was one of the best and most exciting players in baseball for quite a while.  Hall of Fame consideration is warranted once he retires.  The 1996 World Series isn’t the first that I can remember, but it is the first in which I remember vividly, and “19″ year old Andruw’s breakout performance is one of the leading reasons why.  Jones isn’t having a great year, but I’m happy to see him rebounding from the LA Dodgers a couple years ago and, even if he’s not close to what he once was out there, gliding around the outfield without giggling.

Omar Vizquel’s soft hands – I wasn’t yet a Mariners fan when Little O was keeping the Kingdome infield squeaky clean, but I’ve enjoyed tracking his career just the same.  As mentioned here and many times previously, I’ve always been a sucker for slick fielders, especially shortstops, and Omar is right up there among the best.  That he is still smooth as ever in his age 43 season is just awesome, and he could be starting at shortstop for some teams still.  Don’t retire, Omar!

Mark Buehrle’s pace – A lot of die hard baseball fans can admit that baseball is a boring game.  Some times more than others, of course.  When Diasuke Matsuzaka or Miguel Batista are on the hill I might even question my love for the game.  But pitchers that work fast like Buehrle allow me to be swept into the game even if there isn’t much action, and so I’m thankful for that.

Things I don’t like about the Chicago White Sox:

Alexei Ramirez’s fist pumping after making awesome defensive plays – I have no problem with players showing excitement on the field.  They’re playing a game and it should be fun, after all.  But emphatic fist pumps have a way of pissing me off.  I can’t recall if it was Joba Chamerberlain that ruined first pumps for me or if I disliked them before that.  Anyways, Alexei, do what you gotta do– yell, scream, smile, laugh– but save the fist pumping for the World Series victories.

Bobby Jenks’ facial hair – I think he bleaches it.

Juan Pierre wearing a hat under his helmet – We used to wear hats under our helmets in Little League when we couldn’t find a helmet that fit right.  Juan Pierre has made over $40M in his career as a baseball player.  Even if the team doesn’t want to provide him with a helmet that fits his tiny head, you’d think he could custom order one or something.

A.J. Pierzynski – I’m not sure what it is about him, but I don’t like him, and I’m not alone.  What is it that is so darn hateable?

U.S. Cellular Field – We’ve had Safeco Field for well over a decade now so I suppose that is the reason I now hate all hitter’s parks.  Get a big boy stadium.

The chances that RRS has a back injury that deserves a DL stint are slim to none.  Given that RRS doesn’t have any minor league options remaining and the team still likes him enough that they don’t wish to give him away on waivers, we assume that this is just one of the many phantom injuries teams dish out when they need some flexibility.  To be fair, that’s not a given.

Following the 11-0 blowout pitching coach Rick Adair and catcher Josh Bard talked a lot about RRS’ bullpen work and how he has worked hard and shown great improvement out there while failing to carry it over to the games.  If there is something to that (rather than the team reaching for something nice to say about a stand up guy), then I can see how this DL situation is ideal for the Mariners.  Adair can continue working on RRS ‘ mechanics in the ‘pen for an extended period without having the added pressure of game situations.

As for French, he has kept pitching fairly well for Tacoma around his short big league stint this year, but I still dread watching him pitch at the big league level.  Jarrod Washburn I enjoyed watching at times.  I love watching Jason Vargas throw.  But French, for whatever reason, bores me to tears.  Here’s hoping French heads to the bullpen and Chris Seddon gets a shot, just so we get a slightly different look more than anything.  We’re just trying to enjoy the games as much as possible at this point.

Of course, Michael Pineda would have been a fun callup.

I understand that there is little reason to rush Pineda up to the big leagues, but count me among the fans that would be rejuvenated by getting to see him toe the rubber every fifth day for a while.  His innings count is getting up there, so who knows how long until they shut him down or move him to the bullpen to close out the year?

The 2010 season has seen a lot go wrong for the Mariners, making it easy to lose sight of what has gone right.  Ichiro, predictably, is one of the pieces that did everything the Mariners needed him to do.

Ichiro has quietly hit .336/.388/.438 while playing great defense, something we’ve come to expect from the former MVP.  But 2010 marks another year in which Ichiro, now 36 years old, refuses to decline.  If you’re ranking Ichiro’s seasons, 2010 figures to land somewhere right in the middle with a good chance at being one of his five best.

It’s amazing how much can change in just over a month.  Since that post Ichiro has hit just .244/.306/.260.  Even worse, his July line reads .222/.274/.232, dropping his season line to .307/.361/.382 coming into play on July 28th.  Suddenly, this season doesn’t look like another Ichiro special.  He’s posting career worst stats across the board and he’s falling behind the 200 hit pace.

I’m not concerned, of course.  Ichiro was absolutely rolling coming into July.  I just find it amazing that one of the greatest hitters in the history of the sport can fall into such a miserable slump.  That’s baseball, I guess.  And if Ichiro still didn’t have the wheels at age 36 it would look a lot worse.  He’s been able to keep the average above the Mendoza line by squeaking out a few infield hits.  The complete power outage is what the slump is really about.  His batting average has dropped 29 points but the slugging percentage has plummeted 56 points.

The Mariner offense wasn’t supposed to be great.  It wasn’t even supposed to be good.  It was just supposed to score enough to win most of Felix Hernandez and Cliff Lee’s starts while keeping the team afloat when the other starters toed the rubber.  But even that was too much.  The team has gone just 19-16 in games started by Felix or Lee despite the chance that those two go 1-2 in Cy Young balloting this fall.  The Mariners are dead last in most offensive categories this season.  So what went wrong?

Chone Figgins signed with the Mariners following a season in which he hit .298 and walked over 100 times.  The walks are still there for the most part– he figures to tally his second highest walk total this season– but the rest of his offensive game has been out of whack.  His contact is down a bit, strikeouts are up, and when he’s made contact he hasn’t hit with much authority.  His season line sits at just .230/.331/.271.  That’s not going to cut it for a guy expected to replace Adrian Beltre’s offensive production.  Scott opened this “What Went Wrong” series with a post on Figgins here.

I’m not sure what was expected from Milton Bradley when he was acquired from the Cubs.  After a year in which he saw his power dry up with the Cubs, might he return to his career norms?  Looking back, that .257/.378/.397 Cubs line looks pretty darn good right now.  Bradley has been out of sync for much of the year and is currently hitting just .205/.292/.348.  He’s expanding the zone more than ever this season which has helped fuel a career high strikeout percentage.

Casey Kotchman, a slick fielder, replaced Russell Branyan, a big bopper, at first base.  Kotchman wasn’t expected to match that production, but there was some hope that Kotchman could revert to the hitter he was prior to some injuries and other issues that were blamed for keeping him from reaching his potential.  Kotchman showed some flashes of it, but in the end was no different than the hitter we’ve seen for the past couple years.

Jose Lopez went from hitting for enough power to be useful with the bat despite his hacktastic ways last season to being one of the worst offensive players in the game this year.  Lopez wasn’t great last season, meaning he didn’t have much room to fall and still be a good hitter.  But some combination of the possible discomfort of playing a new position, bad luck, pitchers continually adjusting by throwing him more pitches out of the zone, and perhaps a knee injury have caused him to plummet from a guy whose 2011 option looked like a good value not that long ago into a guy that will quite possibly be non tendered after the season.  Read my Lopez-themed “What Went Wrong” post here.

Franklin Gutierrez was off to a hot start this season but his offensive production has completely evaporated over the past couple months.  Following a great month of May Gutierrez was hitting .294/.388/.439 and wasn’t far from a 100 walk pace.  Since May he’s hitting just .197/.247/.309.

Ken Griffey Jr. wasn’t expected to do a whole lot, but following all the fluff stories about his knee finally being healthy and him coming to camp in better shape, we hoped he could at least duplicate what he did last season (in a smaller role, preferably).  Of course, he didn’t.  He was awful as Seattle’s primary DH and didn’t hit a single home run before his benching and subsequent retirement.  Conor wrote about Griffey’s struggles in a May “What Went Wrong” post.

Meanwhile, the Mariners have gotten less offense than they anticipated at other positions as well, even if the weight of those struggles haven’t compared to those above .  Jack Wilson’s offense didn’t rebound and his injury replacement Josh Wilson didn’t do much either.  Rob Johnson was so bad last season that offensive improvement was thought to be a given, but he hasn’t done anything with the bat, while Adam Moore struggled early and then was injured, keeping him from bringing that much needed offensive boost.  The only offensive surprise on the club has been Michael Saunders, but even he was scuffling a bit up until about a month ago (he’s raking this month if you haven’t noticed).

Felix Hernandez and Cliff Lee did their part while Jason Vargas and Doug Fister have done more than expected.  The offense didn’t have to do a lot, but they needed to do more.  Figgins didn’t have to hit like last year, Bradley didn’t have to duplicate his .999 OPS performance with Texas a couple years ago, Lopez didn’t have to continue to improve and a “rejuvenated” Griffey didn’t have to revert to his Cincinnati level of production.  They just needed to not be terrible, and that’s exactly what they all were.

So what can we expect going forward?  Figgins has had an inconsistent career with the bat, so it’s reasonable to think that he can rebound next season, especially after settling in to his new surroundings and hopefully moving back to his best defensive position.  Bradley may very well be finished, but he’s still young enough and still sometimes looks like his vintage self that it’s too early to make that call.  The DH position will hopefully be upgraded next season, with a potential time share of Branyan and Bradley looking like a semi-appealing option.  Kotchman’s offense at first base has been replaced with Justin Smoak’s.  Smoak has struggled so far but hopefully he can get through the growing pains this year and become a productive hitter next season.  Gutierrez figures to find a happy median between this year and last year, but I think he is capable of lifting his offensive game a bit more.  Hopefully Moore can make it back to the big leagues this year and, like Smoak, take his lumps now so that he can contribute next season.  Saunders is going to make it tough for the team to seek an offensive upgrade in left given what he’s shown this season and especially this month.

Still, especially if the Mariners are unable to acquire another Cliff Lee (I would guess not), the Mariners might need some more offense to compete next season and beyond, and given the current setup of the team it may not be possible to add much next season.

See other entries in the “What Went Wrong” series here.

Whether or not Figgins could have actually made a play on the throw didn’t matter.  Manager Don Wakamatsu took exception with the complete lack of visible effort and pulled him from the game.  The two reportedly got into a very heated discussion in the dugout before players and coaches started to get between them, at which point things got a little messy.  Jose Lopez, who initially stepped in as a peacemaker, found himself in the middle of the fracas, with Russell Branyan charging in as an aggressor as well. 

When this was going down I wasn’t watching the game, but found myself pretty excited as the reports of an incident in the Mariners dugout started coming down the line via Twitter.  After tracking down a little bit of video and reading the early accounts I thought I’d let it digest a while as I went about my business.  I was disconnected from Mariner baseball for the entire weekend.  The weather has been great here in the northwest and the Oregon Brewers Festival was in town.

Tonight I watched the game and read through everything the beat had to say and some fan reaction as well, and after going through all that and letting it sit the last couple days I still can’t say I have much of an opinion.  Given the tight lipped nature of the organization we don’t know a whole lot beyond what I wrote above.  Figgins and Wakamatsu got into an argument and that’s about it.

My initial reaction was one of surprise that Figgins was made an example of after we’ve seen so many idiotic blunders from this team in the last week or two, but after reading Wak’s comments and thinking about it a bit I think I can see the difference between, say, all the baserunning mistakes where players may have been overly aggressive (and eventually over cautious after a few errors were made) and Figgins’ non-play, where he just stood near the bag with his hands at his side looking indifferent.

The bigger story seems to be Wak’s hold on his players.  Some players were reportedly upset with Wak for forcing Ken Griffey Jr. into retirement, and this isn’t the first time Figgins has been publicly at odds with his new manager. And then there’s the idea that Russell Branyan’s curious acquisition was made in large part to inject a powerful pro-Wak presence into the clubhouse, which is interesting.  I don’t think any of this means anything right now, but it’s something to monitor a little more closely going forward.  Wak, along with Griffey and Mike Sweeney, was often cited as one of the major reasons Seattle’s clubhouse culture transformed for the better last season, but you would never guess that right now.  Even with Griffey and Sweeney away from the team right now, I think it’s safe to use this opportunity to again point out that winning keeps players happy and together more than anything else.

I realize that this is already old news and the Mariners have looked good since, but I’d like to read what you guys have to say about this now that the initial excitement has died down.

A couple other notes:

• Shawn Kelley is reportedly throwing again and is on his way back to the Mariner bullpen.  I was beginning to worry considering he’s been out for a month and has a history of serious elbow issues.  Good news.
• Michael Pineda continues to destroy minor league hitters, striking out 11 in 5 innings in his latest outing (the night of the dugout scuffle).  We called for Pineda to be bumped up to AAA after his domination of AA hitters in hopes that better hitters would force him to even out his game, but it doesn’t look like AAA hitters are up to the challenge.  Pineda may have learned everything he can from the minor leagues at this point.
• The Angels acquired Dan Haren from the Diamondbacks in exchange for a surprisingly skimpy haul.  The Angels control Haren through 2012 with an option for 2013.  The AL West just got a little tougher for the next couple years.

(Please link to better video of this angle if you have it)

Alternative angle:

…David Aardsma is a goner

The Mariners bullpen has been awful this season and losing Aardsma would make the late innings of non-Felix starts all the more unbearable, but I still think he’s on his way out.  As mentioned before, Aardsma is about to get expensive and he’s not the reliable reliever you want to give closer bucks to.  Meanwhile, most contenders are looking for relief help and Seattle should be able to sit back and field offers, picking the best one.

There’s no telling what Seattle can get for Aardsma, but every once in a while teams strike gold when shipping out their relievers.  Relievers get overvalued this time of year.

…Brandon League and Jack Wilson aren’t going anywhere

If Aardsma is on his way out, I don’t think League will be dealt unless the Mariners are absolutely blown away by an offer.  The Mariners need some talent in the bullpen just to get through the season, and they obviously need some quality arms that they can bring into 2011.  If Aardsma is dealt and no established relievers are brought in, League figures to replace Aardsma as Seattle’s closer while costing a million or two less next season.

Everyone seems to be gung ho about the idea of dumping Jack Wilson, but I can’t really see it coming unless, as usual, the Mariners get an offer they simply can’t refuse.  As I’ve said before, Wilson is still the guy GM Jack Zduriencik traded for and then signed to that 2 year, $10M deal: Great defender, injury prone, lousy hitter.  Have things gone worse than expected?  Sure.  Wilson has made more errors than normal, been on the shelf more than expected and has looked very overmatched since coming to the American League.  But I can’t see the Mariners abandoning ship at this point.  Not without a clear alternative.

News flash: Josh Wilson still isn’t very good.  He’s better than he was last year, but that just means he’s gone from the 26th man to the 25th man.  And how much of that new “success” will carry over to next year and beyond?  I can guarantee you that the Mariners feel a lot better with Jack as their starting shortstop next season than they would be with Josh.

The only reason to trade Wilson is to try and save money.  Josh (or whoever) plus a few extra million for improvements elsewhere is probably better than Jack plus no extra money for improvements.  But it’s not always as cut and dry as that.

…Jose Lopez will be shopped aggressively

You don’t have to be Miss Cleo to make this prediction.

There is little reason for the Mariners to keep Lopez beyond the trade deadline.  Saying he’s been bad at the plate wouldn’t come close to doing his performance justice, and pair that with Chone Figgins needing to be moved back to third base and Dustin Ackley primed to take the second base job for years to come and you’ve got a guy that is on his way out after the season regardless.

Lopez won’t be the easiest player to move given his offensive struggles, but he shouldn’t be too difficult to move either given his low salary and previous performances.  The Phillies reportedly employ enough former Mariner scouts and advisers that still like Lopez that they are at least somewhat interested, and they have a short term need at third or second base with Chase Utley out, making them a logical fit.  The Tigers are another club that could use some help after losing Brandon Inge to injury.

Also:

• Probably not going anywhere: Russell Branyan.
• Almost certainly being traded: Casey Kotchman.
• Could the Mariners actually make a buy?  Chris Iannetta is one player that comes to mind as someone who could be available and who would help the Mariners next year and beyond.

After John Lackey cruised through the Mariners lineup a couple times I struggled to figure out how I felt about the very real possibility of a Lackey no hitter.  The Mariners’ season isn’t going anywhere, so maybe it would be cool to see a no hitter.  I don’t believe I’ve ever seen a no hitter from start to finish.

But then the counter arguments started piling up.  First of all, I don’t want to see my team get no hit by this freaking guy:

I don’t feel like Lackey was dominating, or that his performance was otherwise memorable.  And I don’t want to see my Mariners go down on the wrong side of history at the expense of this freaking guy:

And the Mariners had scored early.  A non-shutout no hitter is rare, which would make it kind of cool to see, but it also makes it really lame for some reason.

Luckily, Josh Bard (Josh Bard!) dunked one into right-center after 7 2/3 and I didn’t have to worry about it.  At that point it’s just another Mariner loss (or so I thought).

Ichiro’s catch

Ichiro has made some amazing catches while with the Mariners, and the one he made on a David Ortiz line drive early in the game is right up there.  You can see the video here.

This wasn’t one of those towering fly balls out towards the wall that allows the fielder to saunter over, get set,  and leap to rob the home run.  The ball was smoked.  Ichiro sprinted to the wall and leaped in stride to take away a possible home run before crashing into the wall and tumbling to the ground.  Ichiro getting to that spot in time was amazing enough.  I’m not sure there’s another right fielder in baseball who could get into position in time.  But on top of all that, Ichiro elevated and had to adjust in mid air as the ball was slightly behind him.  He started spinning in the air, extended his mitt, then without looking at the ball made the catch.

Phenomenal.  Ichiro, never leave us.

Lopez makes another oops

At some point in the ball game (I don’t remember which inning and it doesn’t matter enough to look it up), the Red Sox had mean on first and second with two outs.  Adrian Beltre was the man on second.  The hitter bounced an easy grounder to Lopez at third, inning over.  Right?  RIGHT?

Instead of making the easy throw across the diamond or to second base Lopez attempts to tag out the runner heading to third.  Again, that runner is Beltre.  I think that’s important, because if it wasn’t Beltre I don’t think Lopez tries to tag him.  But Lopez does try to tag his old pal and Beltre eludes the tag, forcing Lopez to panic and throw wildly to second base, pulling Casey Kotchman off the bag, leaving the Red Sox with the bases loaded.

This was just another thoughtless play by Lopez (and not the only one of the game), one game after catching a ton of static for getting doubled off first base in the 9th last night.  There were some downright nasty rants posted last night that I won’t even link to because I think they’re the type of posts that give bloggers a bad name.  But he didn’t help clear himself today, which is too bad.

Lopez hasn’t gotten me angry because I don’t tend to get angry over unimportant things, but I have definitely done my share of head shaking following his plays the past couple days.

The comeback

Down 6-1 in the 9th, there wasn’t much hope for another Mariners walkoff.  But…

• Manny Delcarmen replaces John Lackey
• Chone Figgins hits a line drive for a single
• Franklin Gutierrez hammers a fastball over the hand operated scoreboard
• Jose Lopez miraculously walks on four pitches
• Milton Bradley squibs one up the middle that Marco Scutaro boots
• Jonathan Papelbon replaces Manny Delcarmen
• Justin Smoak strikes out on a couple nasty splitters
• Casey Kotchman drives one in with a groundball double past Kevin Youkilis
• Josh Bard draws a walk
• Josh Wilson grounds to shortstop, Scutaro tosses to Bill Hall at second for a force out but Hall can’t make the turn and throws the ball away, allowing two to score

Five runs in the 9th!  We’re going to extras!

The end game

I wasn’t watching live, and my recording ended after 11 innings.  At that point, I legitimately hoped Seattle had lost, because it would have been disappointed if I missed back to back walkoffs.  Selfish, I know.

So we go to Gameday…

Garrett Olson’s first inning didn’t suck.  Whoa!

Looks like the Mariners had a chance in the bottom of the 12th.  Bases loaded with one out!  Lopez pops up.  Big surprise!  Milton Bradley pops up.  Big surprise!

Olson’s second inning didn’t go as well, and Eric freaking Patterson beat the Mariners.  You can blame David Aardsma if you want, because the Mariners sent Fabian Williamson to the Red Sox for Aardsma and the Red Sox sent Williamson to the A’s for Patterson.

Please feel free to fill in any details of the last couple innings.

Anagrams!

LACKEY

ACKLEY

Hannahan, as you may or may not know, is one of my favorite players in all of baseball.  I liked him for no apparent reason while he was with Oakland and loved him once he was acquired as Adrian Beltre’s caddy early last season.  While he was with Seattle I figured out why I liked him so much.  One, the defense.  He’s one of the best defensive third basemen in baseball, and is pretty darn good across the rest of the infield as well.  Two, the patience.  After watching the Mariners load up with free swingers through the Bill Bavasi years, having GM Jack Zduriencik bring in a guy who can work the counts was a breath of fresh air.  Three, the swing.  Did it produce anything?  Mostly whiffs, but it was awfully pretty if you ask me.  Four, he just looks like a ballplayer.  If I were to draw up a baseball player from scratch, there’s a pretty good chance that rendering looks a lot like Jack Hannahan.

It’s easy to tell that Hannahan is a good and undervalued player based on the teams that have acquired him.  Billy Beane traded for him.  Jack Zduriencik traded for him.  And now Theo Epstein has traded for him.  Obviously, he’s not great considering no one has held on to him, but he’s a nice guy to have in a pinch that not every GM would think to acquire.

While I will miss Hannahan, I’m happy to see him land in a better situation.  He had no where to play in Tacoma following the Dustin Ackley promotion, and Josh Wilson’s “emergence” combined with Hannahan’s struggles at the plate this season kept him out of the big club’s plans.

The Red Sox now have three players that are among my favorite Mariners of all time.  Hannahan, Beltre, Mike Cameron.  If they keep this up I may become a closet SAWKS fan.  I just threw up a little bit in my mouth.

Good luck, Jack.

We knew this was a nice pitching matchup coming in.  Felix Hernandez is a Cy Young candidate, Gavin Floyd is really good, and neither disappointed.  Felix went 8 innings, gave up just two hits, no walks and no runs while striking out 8.  Floyd went 7 scoreless, giving up 5 hits and a walk while striking out 6 and keeping the Mariners from reaching second base.

Felix was amazing tonight.  Not the same kind of amazing that he was at the end of June in the Bronx.  I didn’t find his stuff to be eye popping.  But el Rey was on cruise control tonight; there’s really no better way to put it.  His location was stellar, and when he is hitting his spots like he was tonight he doesn’t have to dial his stuff up to Yankee to blow hitters away.

It was a little surprising to see Felix lifted after 8 when his pitch count stood at just 93.  Maybe it shouldn’t have been, considering Don Wakamatsu has been talking lately about how it’s necessary to reign Felix in a bit but how difficult it is.  Felix apparently wasn’t happy about getting pulled, which is understandable.  Wak has left him out there for 120+ pitches in the same lost season, so why pull the plug on one of his best outings ever after a paltry 93 pitches? 

I understand the Mariners need to protect him, but I wouldn’t have hesitated sending him out for at least one more inning.  In the end, it didn’t matter because David Aardsma was able to keep the game tied (without help from second base umpire Jeff Nelson, who called Juan Pierre safe on a stolen base attempt where the ball beat him by a mile and replays showed Chone Figgins laying down the tag, which led to Wak’s second ejection).

Speaking of umpires, I really enjoyed having Alan Porter behind the plate tonight.  I don’t know if he’s a fill in umpire or just a newbie in his first year, but I hope we see him again.  You know it’s been going poorly for umpires when a guy goes so unnoticed (like he’s supposed to) that he’s noticed.  I think he had one of the best strike zones we’ve seen this year, and if he isn’t a regular umpire he definitely deserves to be.  I think it was Rob Neyer who wrote early in the year that the league needs to make more of an effort to rotate in more good umpires, because the best AAA umpires are certainly better than the worst MLB umpires, and there is no reason for Major League Baseball to have anything but the best.  Of course, it’s just one game, and just like we wouldn’t judge a player based on one game’s performance, there’s no telling if Porter is actually great.  I’m just saying I was impressed and hope to see him again soon.

If you’ve been watching the ballgames lately, you know that the Mariners have been running themselves into a ton of outs.  Today saw at least two more glaring baserunning errors, with Ryan Langerhans getting hung out between first and second on a single that bounced off of Gordon Beckham’s mitt.  Jose Lopez did his best to make sure Langerhans’ hiccup was forgotten by making a much more glaring mistake by getting doubled up on a popup in the 9th inning.

Ryan Divish with a nice account and analysis (linked above):

It’s a 0-0 game in the bottom of the ninth. Chone Figgins had reached on an infield single and Franklin Gutierrez had sac bunted him to second. With a runner on second and one out, White Sox manager Ozzie Guillen decided to have Sergio Santos intentionally walk Lopez to get to the lefty Casey Kotchman. Guillen then brought in lefty Erick Threets. The Mariners countered by having switch hitter Milton Bradley pinch hit.

Threets then sawed off Bradley on a 1-2 pitch. Bradley hit a bat-exploding blooper into right. Andruw Jones came on and made a diving catch. Lopez inexplicably had broken for second on the play. And was easily doubled off.

The entire press box exploded in disbelief.

[snip]

But that was inexcusable. And the idea of Lopez not reading the ball is hollow.

Why?

BECAUSE HIS RUN MEANT NOTHING!!!!

What does a second run mean in a 0-0 game in the last inning? Figgins was the game-winning run. Could Lopez have been thrown out at second if Jones drops it? Perhaps. But Figgins would have been able to advance to third and the Mariners would have had runners on first and third with two outs. If Lopez even takes say seven to eight steps off the bag, he still has a plausible chance at making it to second on a drop, and getting back to first on a catch. This is basic baseball stuff here.

Instead, he takes off for second, Jones makes the catch, and he’s doubled off to end the inning.

I thought the ball was going to drop, for what it’s worth, but a heads up ballplayer would have known the situation a little better.  It didn’t matter much in the end because the Mariners won it in the 11th.

Omar Vizquel had given the White Sox a lead in the top of the 11th, leaving it up to Jack Wilson, Ichiro and Figgins to tie it up and keep the game going.

Wilson started the inning off with a push bunt.  It had to be the most predictable push bunt of all time.  Wilson has been swinging horribly, and whenever he’s pressing (which is often) he goes for that bunt.  It seems like he’s out by a mile most of the time, so as he was squaring up I wanted to throw something at the TV.  But once the ball hit the ground I was reminded that Bobby Jenks was on the hill and wasn’t nearly athletic enough to make a play, and Wilson ended up on first without a throw.  OK then!

Ichiro followed with a sac bunt.  This annoyed me, because Ichiro is really good and I have grown to hate sac bunts in just about all situations.  At least the Mariners had a runner in scoring position, but then again they had a runner in scoring position for Figgins.

To my surprise, Figgins comes through with a line drive single.  Wilson has to hold up to make sure it drops, advancing only to third base.  A few pitches later, Figgins steals second base on a ball in the dirt.  Franklin Gutierrez drives a single over the shortstop.  Wilson scores.  Figgins, undoubtedly hesitant given all of Seattle’s baserunning errors, turns back to second, then turns back towards third, slips, and makes the turn.  A good throw may have gotten him, but Alex Rios unleashed a pretty terrible throw and Figgins score.  Mariners win!  Wilson embraces Figgins with one of those awkward but hilarious hugs where both players are jumping up and down, while the mob chased down Guti (who had made a couple really slick running catches early in the game, by the way– we can’t take those for granted either).

I really got a kick out of Justin Smoak, the new guy, reaching Gutierrez first with the excitement of someone who has experienced this frustrating season from the get go.  I’m a sucker for clubhouse dynamics and all that garbage so this was nice to see him feel comfortable enough to give one of the team’s best players a knuckle sandwhich.  The rest of the guys quickly followed and gave Guti the customary beat down while I jumped up and down pumping my fists as quietly as possible at 1:45 AM.

All in all, this was a good one.  Not quite as great as this Felix Day, but right up there as one of my favorite games this season.  You should probably do your best not to miss Felix Day for the rest of the season.

Only one way to find out.

Angels
SP Joel Pineiro
RP Brian Fuentes

Blue Jays
SP Brandon Morrow

Braves
SP Derek Lowe
RP Eric O’Flaherty (DL)

Cardinals
OF Randy Winn
RP Ryan Franklin

Cubs
SP Carlos Silva

Dodgers
RP George Sherrill
RP Jeff Weaver

Indians
OF Shin Soo Choo

Mets
SP R.A. Dickey
RP Sean Green (DL)

Nationals
UT Mike Morse
RP Miguel Batista

Orioles
OF Adam Jones

Padres
C Yorvit Torrealba

Phillies
OF Raul Ibanez
UT Greg Dobbs
INF Wilson Valdez
SP Jamie Moyer (DL)

Pirates
SS Ronny Cedeño
RP Chris Jakubauskas (DL)

Rangers
SP Cliff Lee
RP Mark Lowe (DL)

Rays
RP Rafael Soriano

Red Sox
OF Mike Cameron
3B Adrian Beltre
UT Bill Hall
RP Scott Atchison

Reds
UT Miguel Cairo
RP Arthur Rhodes

Rockies
C Miguel Olivo

Royals
OF Scott Podsednik
UT Willie Bloomquist
DH Jose Guillen
SS Yuniesky Betancourt
SP Gil Meche (DL)
MR Kanekoa Texeira

Tigers
INF/OF Carlos Guillen
UT Ramon Santiago

White Sox
INF Omar Vizquel
SU Matt Thornton
SU J.J. Putz
SP Freddy Garcia

Yankees
3B Alex Rodriguez
RP Damaso Marte (DL)

No former Mariners: Astros, Athletics, Brewers, Diamondbacks, Giants, Marlins, Twins

Of course, there are many others that have been connected with the Mariners in some way  that we could include if we were wanted to get a little more creative– including Aaron Heilman, Asdrubal Cabrera, Luis Valbuena, Tyler Walker, Corky Miller, David Ortiz, Jeff Clement, Jason Varitek, Juan Pierre and many others– but I don’t want to open up that can of worms considering the simplicity of this exercise.

The answer to question one is yes, indeed.  The Royals still have the lead in ex-Mariners by a margin of two players over those White Sox as well as the Red Sox and Phillies.

But who has the best collection of former Mariners?

That’s a more difficult question to answer than I anticipated, as you can’t really call one or two players a “collection.”  There are only four clubs with more than two former Mariners (by the guidelines I’m using).  The Rangers (Lee), Yankees (A-Rod) and Indians (Choo) could be front runners if they had anything else worthwhile to go along with the former (or, in Choo’s case, could’ve been) Mariner stars, but they don’t.

So I guess it comes down to this: Of the Royals, White Sox, Red Sox and Phillies, who wound up with the better ex-Mariners?

We can probably rule the Royals and Phillies out.  For the Royals, Guillen has had a nice year while Podsednik and Texeira have been useful, but Yuni and Bloomquist completely suck at this point while Meche hasn’t been great the past couple years between injuries.  For the Phillies, Moyer has remained useful but may just be done after his elbow injury tonight, Ibañez appears to be finished, and Valdez and Dobbs are fringe big leaguers at best.

The White Sox have a pretty nice collection.  Putz and Thornton are both shut down relievers this year who could be closers for many clubs.  Vizquel is still a useful role player.  Garcia has done well reinventing himself as an extreme junk baller and is throwing like a #4.

But I feel like the nod should go to the Red Sox, because they have two players in prominent roles, plus two other useful ones.  Beltre has been great this season as their starting third baseman, while Cameron has struggled with injury but is still getting it done in the twilight of his career.  Hall and Atchison have each been very solid in their respective roles as well.

(I guess this is the type of post you get in such a miserable season.)

In fact, right after the game, as Bedard was about to hurriedly exit the clubhouse, I asked him whether there was any good news from the exam.

“No, not really,” he said.

When I asked him what the exam found, he said “You’ll have to ask the doctor.”

As he was walking out the door, I asked whether it looks like he’s going to pitch at all this season. He replied “Probably not.”

That’s when he left.

While the team fed us optimistic time tables for Erik Bedard’s return from day one, it was always a major possibility that something would go wrong and he wouldn’t see the mound in 2010.  That’s how these things go all too often– setback after setback until they shut it down look to the next season– which is why I’m far from upset right now.

Bedard is one of my favorite Mariners and I wish him all the luck in the world in his return, but while I was excited by the idea of having three aces down the stretch like everyone else, this was an all too realistic outcome.  Look back in the archives.  Just about any positive post about Bedard came with a disclaimer.

I can see Bedard returning next season on a deal similar to the one he signed this year, and I would certainly love to have him back, but there’s a good chance he doesn’t reach any of the incentives just like he probably won’t this season.  How many times did people get excited about Mark Prior making a return before the response fell to a murmur?  Hopefully things go better for Bedard, but there is no guarantee.

But while first base was left to the veterans, the Mariners did have some highly touted players coming up the ranks during that span.  Using Baseball America’s rankings as a reference point, let’s see how Seattle has fared when dealt an elite MLB prospect going back to Tino’s final season with the Mariners (1995).

Cream of the crop (ranked 1-15):

Alex Rodriguez, #1 coming into the 1995 season in front of Ruben Rivera and Chipper Jones.  Other appearances: 1994 (#6).  You know this story well enough.  A-Rod was the #1 overall pick in 1993 and starting in 1996 established himself as one of the premier players in the game while with the Mariners.  Towards the end of his stay with Seattle and throughout the rest of his prime years he was arguably the best player in the game, at least until Barry Bonds went absolutely bonkers and Albert Pujols established himself.  Seattle got five spectacular seasons out of Alex as well as two draft picks that were not spent wisely (Michael Garciaparra and Rene Rivera).

Jose Cruz Jr., #12 coming into the 1997 season between Paul Konerko and Scott Rolen.  Other appearances: 1996 (#23).  Cruz had been the #3 overall pick in the 1995 draft.  He got off to a fine start with Seattle in 1997 before being traded at the deadline to Toronto for bullpen help in the form of Mike Timlin and Paul Spoljaric.  Spoljaric was solid in 1997 and borderline useful in 1998 before being traded for no real return.  (His is one of the few athlete autographs I’ve ever gotten.  Jorge Sosa was another.)  Timlin was solid in 1997 and good in 1998 before becoming a free agent, leaving a draft pick that was spent on Jeff Heaverlo, a decent pitching prospect derailed by injuries and off the field issues.  Cruz finished second in Rookie of the Year balloting that year behind Nomar Garciaparra and went on to have a fine career, topping out as a minor star for a few years.  Cruz could have brought Seattle some stability to a left field position that was unsettled for years and years had he been retained, but instead was one of the several top prospects used to help patch up a shaky bullpen that year.

Ryan Anderson, #22 coming into the 2002 season between Nick Johnson and Angel Berroa.  Anderson had been hovering around the top of BA’s rankings for a few years at this point, topping out at #7 in 1999.  Anderson drew obvious comparisons to Randy Johnson because of his height (6’10), handedness (southpaw), upper 90s fastball and, towards the end, a slider that showed as a plus pitch.  The comparisons earned him the embarrassing “Little Unit” nickname.  Anderson was also often compared to CC Sabathia, against whom he was measured and raced up the ranks.  Anderson struggled with his maturity and control, but was ultimately knocked out of baseball due to various arm injuries.  Anderson topped out at AAA, but appeared to be an ace in waiting until the final injuries turned him into a professional chef.

Felix Hernandez, #2 prospect coming into the 2005 season between Joe Mauer and Delmon Young.  Other appearances: #40 in 2004.  A bonus baby and quick riser through the system, King Felix dazzled us in his debut and a few years later has established himself as a true ace and one of the best starting pitchers in baseball.  Felix has given Seattle about five seasons worth of good to awesome production so far and is locked up long term.

Dustin Ackley, #11 prospect coming into the 2010 season between Carlos Santana and Alcides Escobar.  The #2 pick in the 2009 draft, Ackley is progressing just fine at the plate and at second base.  He is already up with AAA Tacoma and should make his MLB debut later this season.  So far, so good.

Ichiro, the #9 prospect coming into the 2001 season between Ryan Anderson and Nick Johnson, would also be considered an elite prospect, but the lines are blurred given his age, his success and star status in Japan, the money Seattle dished out for negotiating rights, and so on.

Justin Smoak, the #13 prospect coming into the 2010 season between Alcides Escobar and Madison Bumgarner, fits right in this group as well.

Second tier (16-50):

Marc Newfield, #29 coming into the 1995 season between Ray Durham and Latroy Hawkins.  Other appearances: 1994 (#35), 1993 (#43), 1992 (#17), 1991 (#31).  Newfield, a 22 year old outfielder at this point, was not new to the prospect scene, having been ranked in BA’s top 50 every year going back to 1991 after being picked 6th overall in 1990.  In the season preceding this ranking, Newfield hit .349/.413/.593 in 492 plate appearances with AAA Calgary.  Newfield only made it into 199 (unsuccessful) plate appearances with Seattle before being dealt at the 1995 trade deadline as part of a package that brought the Mariners rotation help in the form of Andy Benes.  Newfield flashed some ability in stints with the Padres and Brewers in the following years, but saw his last MLB action in 1998 at age 25.  According to a write-up John Sickels did a while back, “bad defense, poorly timed injuries, lack of opportunity, and doubts about his work ethic” are what did him in.  Seattle did manage to get a very good player for their stretch run with Newfield as the centerpiece going to San Diego, however.

Carlos Guillen, #27 coming into the 1997 season between Aramis Ramirez and Chris Carpenter.  Other appearances: 1996 (#74), 1999 (#89), 2000 (#73).  Guillen was acquired from the Astros in 1998 as part of the Randy Johnson trade and he made his Mariner debut that same year.  As you can see, Guillen’s stock dropped in 1997 after a dismal performance in AA.  He rebounded the following year before being traded to the Mariners, but all momentum was halted when he tore a ligament in his knee in April 1999, ending what would have been his rookie season.  Guillen went on to be Seattle’s only viable shortstop since the departure of Rodriguez, but was still frustrating in the field and his bat wasn’t developing as planned to that point.  Bill Bavasi dealt him to the Tigers for next to nothing where his power jumped immensely and he became an All-Star.  A little more patience and Guillen could have been really good for Seattle, but was instead discarded prematurely just as he was entering his physical prime.

Rafael Soriano, #27 coming into the 2003 season between Scott Hairson and Joe Borchard.  Other appearances: 2002 (#30).  The converted outfield quickly became one of the best live arms in the system and eventually all of baseball once he was placed on the mound in 1999.  Soriano featured surprisingly consistent mechanics for someone of his experience, a blistering fastball, sharp slider and a promising changeup.  Soriano was plucked from Tacoma’s rotation in 2003 to help in Seattle’s bullpen, pitching brilliantly: 53 big league innings with 1.53 ERA, 11.5 K/9 and 2.0 BB/9.  Approaching the big leagues, shoulder injuries fueled questions about Soriano’s durability, but it was his elbow that really set him back as he required two Tommy John surgeries approximately a year apart in 2005 and 2006, which obviously kept him off the field for the most part those seasons.  2006 saw his arm stay healthy, though he did miss time after a scary moment that saw a Vladimir Guerrero line drive strike him in the head.  After all the injuries it was clear that Soriano was a reliever only, so Bill Bavasi shipped him off for rotation help before the 2007 season.  Unfortunately, that rotation “help” was Horacio Ramirez, a non-tender candidate at the time of the trade who didn’t get any better with Seattle.  Soriano has continued to battle injuries, but the last couple of seasons have seen him establish himself as a solid big league closer.

Jose Lopez, #38 coming into the 2003 season between Michael Restovich and Chris Snelling.  Other appearances: #70 in 2004.  Believe it or not, Lopez was lauded by BA as a stud defender and a threat on the basepaths as recently as their pre-2004 prospect rankings.  That, when paired with his excellent contact abilities, made him quite a prospect.  His discovery of Fanta and Funions altered his stock quite a bit, but he has proved this season that while his range is zapped there is little wrong with his glove.  Lopez hasn’t hit for quite enough average for his hack-tastic ways to be ignored and he never quite developed the power to go with his new body type.  Lopez has been a fine player for Seattle, but his inability to stick at shortstop or even second base have kept him from reaching the ceiling set for him years ago.  Lopez has struggled enough this season that Seattle may not be able to get much for him in the trade market as his tenure with Seattle undoubtedly comes to a close within the next year or so.

Chris Snelling, #39 coming into the 2003 season between Jose Lopez and Andy Marte.  Other appearances: #46 in 2002, #98 in 2001.  Most should be familiar with Snelling’s story.  The Aussie was a great all around hitter with the ability to hit for average, walk and hit for some power.  Unfortunately, Snelling was both fragile and reckless, and could never stay healthy.  No body part was safe, and Snelling seemingly spent more time on the DL than on the field.  Snelling reportedly almost made the Mariners out of Spring Training as a 19 year old in 2001, made his debut in 2003, and could be seen in stints with the Mariners up through 2006.  He was traded before the 2007 season with Emiliano Fruto to the Nationals for weak hitting DH Jose Vidro.

Jeremy Reed, #33 coming into the 2005 season between Darric Barton and Zach Duke.  Other appearances: #25 in 2004.  Reed was the minor league center piece of the haul Seattle obtained for Freddy Garcia.  Reed was expected to hit for a high average and walk a lot, making him ideal for the top third of the batting order.  He was also expected to supply at least adequate defense in center field (although poor routes followed by highlight reel catches tricked fans into thinking he was a great defender).  Reed’s debut with Seattle couldn’t have gone any better, but the offense quickly dried up.  He couldn’t hit for average and his walk rate slipped below average, leaving him with a career .253/.311/.356 batting line over 1369 big league plate appearances.  Reed was sent to the Mets in the Putz/Gutierrez trade as New York’s replacement for Endy Chavez and has struggled to stick in the big leagues ever since.  Reed won a PCL batting title as recently as 2008, showing that he may be another AAAA burnout.

Clint Nageotte, #45 coming into the 2004 season between Jeff Allison and Ryan Wagner.  Other appearances: #72 in 2002, #76 in 2003, #73 in 2005.  The thing I remember most about Nageotte was that he was super sweaty.  I doubt that has anything to do with his rise and fall as a prospect.  Nageotte had a power fastball and an absolutely devastating slider.  The slider is actually attributed to his downfall.  He threw it a lot (A LOT) and it produced a ton of whiffs and strikeouts for him, but also shredded his arm.  Nageotte, now 29, hasn’t appeared in the big leagues since 2006 and hasn’t been seen outside of the indy leagues since 2007.

Adam Jones, #28 coming into the 2007 season between Jose Tabata and Colby Rasmus.  Other appearances: #64 in 2006.  Jones, a former supplemental first round pick, got a couple brief and unsuccessful looks with Seattle in 2006 and 2007 before heading to Baltimore the next offseason as then-GM Bill Bavasi made a desperate trade to try and save his job.  Erik Bedard pitched well enough when healthy, but broke down with hip and shoulder injuries.  The injuries weren’t all that unpredictable given Bedard’s track record of fragility.  Jones’ lack of plate discipline has kept him from breaking out thus far (410 MLB games), but he’s still just 24 and has time.

Jeff Clement, #42 prospect coming into the 2008 season between Austin Jackson and Josh Vitters.  Other appearances: #33 in 2006, #62 in 2007.  Clement’s failure will always be magnified by the draft class he came out of.  The #3 pick in a first round that could go down as the best ever (if it hasn’t already), Clement was probably picked based on team need (catching, lefty power) over best available player, and the best available players on the draft board at that time are now many of the very best players in the league.  Clement showed some flashes of hitting ability, but never showed much competence on the defensive side and was ultimately forced off the position by reoccurring knee problems.  The organization gave up on Clement and dealt him to Pittsburgh as part of the haul that brought in Jack Wilson and Ian Snell, and was given the first base job coming out of Spring Training this year.  He failed to hit enough to hang on to it, however, and is back in AAA.

Third tier (51-100):

Ron Villone, Russ Davis, Jason Varitek, Freddy Garcia, Desi Relaford, Gil Meche, Joel Pineiro, Derek Lowe, Chris Snelling, Shin Soo Choo, Travis Blackley, Kenji Johjima, Brandon Morrow, Dan Cortes, Carlos Triunfel, Chris Tillman, Phillippe Aumont, Greg Halman, Michael Saunders, Ryan Christianson

Other:

Ben Davis (as high as #10), Joe Borchard (as high as #12), Franklin Gutierrez (as high as #31) and Brad Nelson (as high as #23) were all picked up by Seattle as post-hype prospects, but still early in their careers.  Davis, Borchard and Nelson in particular were already seeing their rising star diminish, so it’s hard to count them in this exercise.  Gutierrez still held some promise, but had seen his stock fall due to neglect more than anything.  I feel like there really should be a mention of Salomon Torres here somewhere, but he last appeared on BA’s list just before our cutoff in 1994 (#22).  Torres was acquired from the Giants in 1995 with only 137 MLB innings under his belt.    Antonio Perez (as high as #16) wasn’t included because he was the only player of the top two tiers that didn’t play for Seattle’s AAA affiliate or with the big club.

So what does this all mean?

As far as Seattle’s elite prospects go, the success rate has been, unsurprisingly, very high.  The only outright bust they’ve had in that department since 1995 was Anderson, whose performance wasn’t the problem.  Two of those players (A-Rod and Ichiro) are future Hall of Famers while another (Felix) is on that track as well.

Moving down a tier to where Smoak was ranked coming into last season (#23), the failure rate increases but there are still plenty of successes; a trade off you might expect.  The busts include Newfield, Snelling, Reed, Nageotte and, so far, Clement.  Injuries played a role with all of these players.  Snelling and Nageotte were ruined by their injuries, Clement’s value took a major hit when he had to move off catcher because of his knees, while Newfield and Reed were slowed down by various injuries, perhaps keeping them from getting into a rhythm.  Newfield and Reed just couldn’t cut it in the big leagues, injuries or not.  That happens.

Meanwhile, Guillen tapped into his full potential, while Soriano, Lopez and Jones have become solid players.  Soriano might have been a top of the rotation starter had he been able to stay healthy, but that his fallback is the closer’s role is huge.  Lopez and especially (more realistically) Jones have time to develop a little more, but even if they don’t most teams are going to be happy developing that level of talent.

So now that you’ve gotten a review of some of the most talented prospects to come through Seattle over the past 15 years, how do you feel about Smoak’s chances?  I feel like he has a very clear path to above average-ness and perhaps stardom as long as he can avoid the injury bug.  Big league ready position players near the top of these lists don’t bust very often, but we’ll leave that study for another day.

That the Mariners have Smoak and Ackley in the elite prospect club with Michael Pineda knocking on that door as well (BA recently ranked him 11th among prospects still in the minors at midseason) should have you feeling optimistic.  Smoak and Ackley could be one helluva dynamic duo going forward.  Pineda has more obstacles to cross, as the list of talented pitching prospects brought down by injuries is never ending: Anderson, Nageotte, Jeff Heaverlo, Bobby Madritsch, Roger Salkeld and on and on and on.  But that is one fearsome trio.

Have the Mariners ever had so many truly elite prospects all knocking on the door at the same time? Not in a while.  There were decent groups of players coming up at the same time in the early 2000s and mid 1990s, but weren’t as highly rated as what we’re seeing now.  However, there are a couple groups of prospects that hit the big leagues at the same time that precede BA’s rankings.

In the early-mid 1980s the Mariners had several promising rookies emerge led by Alvin Davis and Mark Langston, but an even more impressive crop popped up a few years later in the late 1980s.  Edgar Martinez, Randy Johnson, Jay Buhner, Omar Vizquel, Ken Griffey Jr. and Erik Hanson all debuted in the late ’80s and were producing regulars by 1990, while Tino Martinez made his debut in 1990 and became a regular by 1992.  BA’s top 100 lists only go back to 1990, with Tino being the only one of these guys that qualified for that list.  He ranked #40, but was up to #18 before the 1991 season.  Griffey would have helped cap a 1989 list and you’ve got to think that at least one of those other guys were in that upper tier back then.  I would think that one or both of Johnson and Hanson would be there.  Anyone remember how these guys were viewed back then?  Hindsight clouds things.

Point being, the Mariners haven’t been in this situation for a long time.  Here’s hoping they can build around these guys.

Garcia, a 6’5 righty from the Dominican Republic, was described by VP of International Ops Bob Engle as “a tall young man who has strong arm and all the makings to become a true power pitcher. He already shows solid average fastball now with ability to throw well above average down the road. Garcia could be the sleeper of the group. He is very similar to Michael Pineda when he first joined our organization.”  No team can have enough arms like this, though I’m not holding out for another Pineda.

Straight to the release for the other two:

Gomez, 17 (1/16/93), is a 6-foot-1, 165-pound left-handed pitcher from Venezuela. “He is a poised young projection pitcher with good pitching mechanics and good feel for pitching,” Engle said.

Pina, 16 (12/6/93), is a 6-foot-2, 178-pound left-handed pitcher from Venezuela. Engle says “He is accomplished, poised and already has good feel for pitching. He will have to make some adjustments in his delivery as many young pitchers do, but physically has ability to be solid in all areas.” Pina will receive an invitation to the 2010 Instructional League in Arizona.

Once you get past the top names (Castillo, Calderon, Torres) there is little reason (or means) to go in depth.  Most of these guys will never be heard from again outside of the bottom of some minor league recap, but fear not because sites like this one will be all over them if they ever do something to make it onto the prospect radar.

.245/.320/.369

DH was even worse in 2008, with Jose Vidro filling the position for most of the year in what would also be his last year of MLB action while Jeff Clement picked up the second most playing time.  The position was ultimately used to rest regulars.

.219/.271/.334

This season, gloveman Casey Kotchman has gotten the bulk of the time at first base, with Matt Tuiasosopo and Mike Carp stealing a few starts before the recent acquisitions of Russell Branyan and Justin Smoak.

.222/.303/.374

The DH at bats this year have been dished out between Ken Griffey, Milton Bradley and Mike Sweeney for the most part until Branyan came along.

.189/.250/.302

2008 was bad, but I don’t think any of us thought we were doomed to repeat it.  2010′s poor performance is slightly more tolerable given a couple circumstances, however, and things may be looking up as we move forward.

Richie Sexson’s mega-deal he signed prior to 2005 ended as poorly as feared as age decline hit him hard shortly after a stellar debut season.  Sexson was great during the 2005 season and played well in the second half of 2006, but after that was completely useless and for $14M per.  Sexson was a really nice fit for Seattle, but that deal was a risky one at best and it came back to bite Bill Bavasi and the Mariners in the ass.  The signing was ill advised.

While Chris Snelling and Emiliano Fruto haven’t done anything since being sent away in exchange for Vidro, it can still be viewed as a poor trade.  What they’ve done since then is irrelevant.  They were expected to be worth a little more (although Snelling’s injuries could have been foretasted easily enough given his history).  But Vidro had already seen his power dry up in the two seasons leading up to the trade, and he was making way too much money to be a powerless DH.  On top of that, Bavasi gave Vidro a vesting option for 2009 in exchange for waiving his no trade clause, something that thankfully did not come into play (but easily could’ve).  Vidro shouldn’t have been on the Mariners, let alone their DH.

Now, Kotchman and Griffey aren’t easily defensible either, but at least they brought something to the table.  Kotchman’s glove was outstanding.  Griffey was good for the clubhouse (at least early on) and probably helped move tickets and merch.  And with Griffey, we thought that he would be in (and okay with) a diminished role, neither of which turned out to be the case.  The organization also thought they could help Kotchman reach his hitting potential, and he certainly showed flashes of brilliance for a couple stretches.  But in the end, the biggest difference may be the price, as both were significantly cheaper than their 2008 counterparts and needed to be as the team continued to cull down their budget.

Going forward, there are some obvious reasons to be feeling optimistic.  Smoak should be entrenched at first base for the next few seasons, and he has started to show what he’s capable of the last couple games.  If he can stay away from Bustville then Seattle shouldn’t have to worry about their first base production.  DH is less mapped out as per the norm with that position, and unfortunately has a shot at being an offensive black hole once again.  Bradley is doing nothing to show that he’s not finished being a productive player, while Branyan will be 35 next season and may not return given his mutual option.  That said, Branyan hasn’t shown any signs of slowing down outside of the intermittent back injury, and Bradley could feasibly bounce back at age 32 and be productive through the end of his contract.  Hopefully, we 2011 will see the Mariners getting some power production out of the two positions most associated with power.

After feeling pain in his surgically repaired left shoulder while playing catch Thursday, Bedard was examined by Dr. Lewis Yocum, the orthopedic surgeon who operated on him last August.

Yocum recommended Bedard see Mariners team Dr. E. Khalayan about having both an MRI and a CAT-scan done on his left shoulder.

Bedard will not claim the 5th spot in the rotation heading out of the All-Star break, obviously enough.  This shouldn’t surprise anyone.  All year we’ve been eagerly awaiting the return of Bedard, but with the understanding that there was a good chance setbacks pushed him back farther and farther.  Here’s hoping Bedard can at least get a few innings in this season.

Three aces!

That of course leaves the fifth spot to someone else.  The most likely candidates are recently recalled lefty Chris Seddon and righty David Pauley.  We should know who gets the gig based on how they’re used out of the bullpen this weekend, although pitching Friday wouldn’t necessarily knock either guy out of the running.  Neither guy is anything special but either guy is capable of holding down the five spot in the big leagues, at least as a stopgap to something better.  Unfortunately, the rotation already features three other back of the rotation guys.

My gut says it’ll be Pauley. (Update: It will indeed be Pauley.)

In other injury news, Russell Branyan had a run in with a hotel room table and will miss a couple days.  Apparently the sun woke him up at around 5 AM and as he struggled to close the curtains he knocked the table onto one of his feet, suffering a cut and deep bruise.  If Branyan weren’t Seattle’s second best offensive player this would be pretty funny.

Speaking of which, Jose Lopez apparently got braces.  It’s not necessarily funny because he got braces (at least not to me), but because he’s exactly the Mariner you would expect to show up with braces, as Jeff at Lookout Landing has already mentioned.  We’ve talked about Lopez’s kiddish charm before, and this just adds to it.

Lopez makes $2.3M this year.  He couldn’t spring for Invisalign?

Moving back to the bullpen, yesterday I joked that Jamey Wright is just another version of Sean White, so we could probably expect him to become Don Wakamatsu’s go-to guy sooner than later.  Sadly, I’m not sure I was too far from the truth.  From Geoff Baker:

The Mariners’ other new pitcher, Jamey Wright, will work out of the bullpen.

“I was around him in Texas for a couple of years, and know his makeup and character,” Wakamatsu said. “Even in Kansas City, he was kind of a workhorse. We’re definitely looking to protect Brandon League. He’s had to take the brunt of the bullpen work. To have a veteran guy who can fill different roles is a necessity. He’s a guy that can pitch just about anywhere and give us innings, which is what we’re looking for.”

I won’t be surprised if we start seeing Wright in high leverage situations going forward.  Granted, when the bullpen features David Aardmsa, Brandon League, Brian Sweeney, Garrett Olson, Wright and Pauley/Seddon, it’s almost pick your poison time, especially if League is getting his innings cut going forward.  Mercy!

Shawn Kelley had a throwing session on Thursday (says Shannon Drayer), which means little to us except that he’s no longer shut down.  Hopefully he can bump one of these schmucks off the roster before long.

Meanwhile, down on the farm, Dustin Ackley made his AAA debut, hitting sixth in the Rainiers lineup.  Ackley went 1-for-5 with a home run off his first swing at the level, just his third homer of the season.

Ackley’s former teammates, Alex Liddi and Carlos Peguero, participated at the Futures Game this week.  Nothing I saw changed my opinion of either player (and I don’t like either one), but I will give Peguero credit for being much more athletic than I had previously seen/thought.

I relayed in early June that the Mariners were expected to sign Castillo for about $2M.  Castillo was projected as the 6th highest paid IFA in a weak class this year by BA.  They describe the 16 year old as a wirey corner outfielder with good hitting ability and above average raw power.

Torres, 16, was ranked 12th and designated as “Colombia’s top pitching prospect and arguably the country’s top prospect overall this year.”  Torres is currently listed at 6’3 and has had his fastball top out at about 90 MPH already.  He is also said to have the makings of a decent curveball.  As he matures physically he is expected to have a plus fastball.

Calderon (whose first name is sometimes listed as “Jordi”), is described as having average or better tools across the board with his raw power standing out.  BA ranked him 18th.

A nice showcase video of Castillo after the jump. —–

GM Jack Zduriencik has taken White away from Wak for the second and hopefully the last time this season, replacing him with lefty Chris Seddon.  Seddon is nothing special but is having a half-decent season at age 26 for AAA Tacoma.  He hasn’t appeared in the big leagues since 2007 with the Marlins.  Marc at USS Mariner wrote more about him here if you’re interested.

Update: Chad Cordero refused a AAA assignment and is now a free agent.  Taking his place is veteran Jamey Wright.  Wright profiles similarly to White (some grounders, can’t miss bats, wild) so I guess he’ll be Wak’s clutch stopper sooner than later.

Improvement?  Not really!  Change?  Yes!

After a slow start in April, Ackley has turned things around quite well the last few months, and currently has a .263/.389/.384 line for the DiamondJaxx, good for a wOBA of .372.  For reference, that would be leading all Mariners with at least 200 PAs this season.  The batting average is weighed down mostly by his horrid April, and while it would be nice to see more power from the former #2 pick in the draft, Ackley has already smacked 21 doubles on the year.  As he develops, more power should come, but even if it does not, his high contact skills and patience at the plate (55 walks to 41 strikeouts on the year, fantastic for a first year pro) will keep Ackley’s value plenty high, especially at second base. 

According to Ryan Divish, Ackley will only be playing at second in Tacoma.  This is good news to hear, as he’s still transitioning there after making the move in Spring Training.  Reviews on his performance at the keystone have been rather mixed so far, and on a whole it sounds like he might currently be slightly below average defensively.  However, considering how long Ackley has been playing the position, as well as where he was there in Spring Training (I heard the word “butcher” used several times), I’m OK with that for the time being.  As long as he keeps working at it, his athleticism will keep him competitive there.

I’m not sure when exactly it will be, but I’ll be heading down to Tacoma at some point in the near future to see him for myself.  When I do, rest assured that I’ll do a writeup on him for you. UPDATE– Just got my ticket.  July 31st against Reno.  Can’t wait!

Also promoted to Tacoma were LHP Edward Paredes and RHP Anthony Varvaro.  Both relievers, Paredes and Varvaro had been very effective for West Tennessee this season, each posting a FIP below 3.3 so far this season.  They had both been lucky with their HR/FB rates, but thatis partly due to their home park, and is somewhat mitigated by the fact that both men allowed less than 40% fly balls so far on the year.

Paredes was originally a starter, and was fairly middling one, but has been very effective since his move to the bullpen.  Over his career as a reliever, he’s struck out batters at a 8.66 per nine innings, and walks about 3.57 per nine.  He’s probably not a future closer, but he could definitely be somewhat more that a lefty only guy as he’s actually fared slightly better against righties over his career (though that’s somewhat driven by on oddly high BABIP against lefties).  Jon wrote him up more fully in his 40-man roster series,

Jon also has a good writeup on Varvaro from during Spring Training here, but I will add that he has greatly improved his one major issue, walks.  Giving batters free passes at a shockingly high rate of 7.17 per nine innings in 2009, Varvaro has worked almost three points off that number, bringing it down to 4.65 per nine so far this season.  That’s still not a great number, but it’s much more bearable, especially when paired with his sparkling 10.18 K/9 rate.

The 2010 All-Star game was an enjoyable ballgame in itself, but showed exactly why there is no excuse for having the game hold such importance.  Once the National League took the lead, the American Leagues lineup got worse and worse, with John Buck (instead of Joe Mauer) and Ian Kinsler (instead of Robinson Cano) have two big at bats each late in the game, as well as other important at bats given to Nick Swisher (Evan Longoria), Vernon Wells (Carl Crawford), Torii Hunter (Ichiro), Elvis Andrus (Derek Jeter), Paul Konerko (Miguel Cabrera) and Jose Bautista (Josh Hamilton).  Replacing your best players with worse players isn’t the best way to come back from a lead late.

When it was an exhibition– a true exhibition– it didn’t really matter all that much, and sometimes lead to a memorable moment, like first year player Hank Blalock going deep off of unbeatable closer Eric Gagne in 2003 (Edit: Brain fart.  See comments).  But when the game really matters, a manager shouldn’t have to rely on those moments.

Beyond that, there were other things that would never happen in a game that mattered.  Like Andre Either, a terrible defensive right fielder who had never played center as a pro, starting in center field for the National League, or Alex Rodriguez sitting on the bench the entire game when he could have come in handy as a pinch runner or pinch hitter in the ninth inning, or anything else you want to pick out.

Then there’s the matter of players that won’t be in the playoffs playing for something that doesn’t matter to them.  Sure, a lot of players play to win because you play to win the game, but it’s unfair to the players in the hunt to have to yield to and rely on the players that won’t even get a sniff of October baseball.

It’s all wrong, and that’s before talking about other decisions that were made only because the game mattered that took away from the game (in my opinion), like Omar Infante being there primarily because of his defensive versatility, for one.

Once the All-Star game is no longer connected to the World Series, then we can tackle other issues we have.  Hopefully that comes sooner than later.  I would rather go back to alternating years than this.  I might prefer a coin flip to this.  It’s ridiculous.