...........
OK, got 12 mins this time :- ) ... don't check the photo against the date.
.................
KYLE SEAGER's home run wind-aided? I suppose Blowers meant, the wind took it to the 18th row, rather than to the 8th. The wind was 5-10 mph, straight across L to R, gusting to 15-20. He got it wayyyyy up high, to right-center, and if Ken Griffey Jr. had been the one swinging the bat, Blowers woulda just been ooooh'ing and aaaah'ing. People just don't think of Seager or Ackley as being able to drive the ball. Yet.
By the way, you'll remember that I ripped Seager's glove at 3B last year. This time there is no doubt. He is comfortable, he is leaning into the plays, taking charge of the sliding pit over there. He looks VERY comfortable.
..................
CHONE FIGGINS made possibly the most amateurish play I've seen in big league baseball, including Manny, including Jose Canseco, including everybody. ... I'm all for playing Chone around the diamond and am still hopeful that his precious leadoff spot will get a result.
But we were moving around the park and had a puurrrrr-fect view from the LF bleachers. Batter at the plate swung and THHWWWOOOCK! pile-drove one deep to left center. Figgins began running ... wait for it ... IN on the ball (and across the field, of course). We could hear Saunders bellowing from where we were BACK!! BACK!! BACK!! Figgins did a banana route and, with excellent footspeed, almost ran it down. Not quite.
I mean, I'm trying to come up with a rational explanation for coming in on that ball. It's like there was a bunt and the 3B retreated on the play. No joke. WHAAAaaaaaa?
We don't say that Figgy shouldn't play around the diamond. But when he's in the OF, you'd better have a GB pitcher on the mound, if you want the percentages in your fava, flav.
........................
Millwood and Iwakuma are pitching in front of Wedge. G-Money's boy Erasmo in in the B game, I guess, which probably means that they've seen enough. In a good sense... scratch that, in a VERY good sense. When you can throw 12 innings, as a rookie, and they know you got the goods, you bad. No brag, just fact.
Dr. D has seen plenty nuff from Erasmo, too. Right now he is the M's second-best pitcher, that's bullpen and rotation. Maybe League's better. My shtick the next three days is hoping against hope that, whatever the rotation permutations, Erasmo is in there.
.............................
Shawn Camp came in yesterday to stop the Vargas carnage. He showed a fastball and then pummelled them about the head and shoulders with sliders and changes. Wow! Great arm action. Guy looked great live.
The M's bullpen has a lot of volatility. Dr. D has panned the low-K Camp in the past, but GM's have to deal with the STOPLOSS concept. Right now Zduriencik has nineteen guys who could be worth 80 cents or 8 cents. What if the 8-centers pile up? There's something to be said for having a sure 50 cents - that's true on paper and it's much, much more true on the green grass down there.
The M's bullpen could easily implode - that's a very real possibility - and Shawn Camp is there as flame retardant. If Zduriencik cuts Shawn Camp, he is telling the entire org "Don't worry about it. Wilhelmsen and Furbush and Delabar and Sherrill are going to be fine." I dunno. That's a big part of what a GM does: prevent the invisible catastrophes...
As if to underline this, Steve Delabar came in and bounced the ball in the dirt several times, was high, wild, looked like a high school pitcher trying out for the bigs... I'm Delabar's biggest fan. But Zduriencik has to stop the bad stuff from happening before we even realize that it could have.
Rock on,
Dr D
Camp i9s the new Sean Green...those are valuable sometimes...especially when you have a pen ful of young hard throwing sometimes-wild guys to fit around there. Camp is fine...for now. And E-Ram is in my rotation and Iwakuma is DFA'd if I'm making the calls.
Word has it he's being featured on Bryant Gumbel's HBO show tonight.
I'll answer my own question with my uneducated perspective. Maybe it's easier for y'all to shoot my error-filled thoughts down than to rebuild from scratch. =)
If everybody - all four 3Bs, Franklin, Saunders, and Carp - pans out, I'm thinking Seager has more value as a trade chip than replacing Franklin at SS. Same with Ackley at 2B and Saunders at CF, so Seager's my first man out. I'd rather sell him as a bat-first glove-worthy 2B than put him at 3B as adequate with the bat, but perhaps not as special.
You've sold me on the Cat, so I want him - and Carp I like as well. I don't care where they all play in the 3B/LF/DH rotation (not Carp at 3B considering the options), but I think I currently like Martinez at 3rd over Liddi at 3B/DH. May as well bump the Cat to DH at that point, if Martinez is his superior with the glove.
So I guess that leaves me proposing a M's team of DH(3B,LF)-Catricala, C(DH,1B)-Montero, 1B-Smoak, 2B-Ackley, SS-Franklin, 3B(LF,DH) Martinez, LF(DH,1B) Carp, CF Saunders. What kind of RF do you think you could trade for with chips like SP Vargas, CI Liddi, 2B Seager, and one of Erasmo/Noesi (assuming a rotation of the other one, Felix, and our upcoming Big Three)?
...what's your best guess as to the future of all the M's hot young IF talent? It's been awesome to watch Liddi, Catricala, and Seager all start looking pretty special... but if we keep all these 3Bs in-house, there are only so many holes to plug them into!
You could move Seager to SS or 2B, but only if you're counting Nick Franklin out or moving Ackley to CF. Franklin seems solid and Saunders may be our CF solution - at least I'd rather give him this current shot before making Ackley move again - so I can't favor that option.
Even if you move Seager off third in one of those moves... you can only give one of Liddi/Martinez/Catricala the DH/LF spot in tandem with Carp. Who do you favor in what roles going forward, if everyone more or less 'is what they're supposed to be?' As of right now, which one (or two, if necessary) 3B candidates do you eventually send off via trade?