Seattle Sports Insider

Location. Location. Location.

Speed kills, but so does precision

Posted by

6/10/17

OK, I Shouted this, but maybe it's better as a Post, for all to comment on, scoff at, or ignore.

Matty beat me by miles to the whole Haniger thing, but I beat him by a bit to the Andrew Moore bandwagon. G's in, too. Doc, ditto. Heck, almost all of us.

Moore was great again for Tacoma last night. Matty said, "Give him the cal!"

I followed with the stuff below: Chew away.

With you Matt. I've been all in on Moore since last season. Heck, I didn't think there was really anything for him to learn at AAA that he didn't already know or have. I'm also pointing out that we've got someting pretty nice in Gaviglio. His career AAA line of 1.24 WHIP, 8.8 H/9, 2.4 BB/6.6 K/9 has translated to 1.21, 8.4, 2.5 and 5.9. He's not smoke & mirroring it, either. He stays in control, pounds the edges, and doesn't buckle. He's giving up 1.9 HR/9, but he's been a rock in 4 of his 5 starts. In those 4 starts, he's thrown 22 innings, allowing 19 hits and just 3 ER's. I've said that Gallardo was going to get lapped by Moore this season and now he's been lapped by Gaviglio, too. Bergman's better right now, too. He was creamed in one start, but has been nails recently, otherwise: 25 innings, 17 hits, 3 ER's. Gallardo is scheduled up on the 12th and Bergman the 13th, but Moore wouldn't throw until the 14th, which is Gaviglio's start. You could move Bergman and Gaviglio up a day each...or you look to the 17th in Texas to let Moore bump Gallardo (or the 22nd at home vs. Detroit).

Hey, I'm kind of to the point where I'm not concerned with Kuma getting back. Smyly? Completely off my radar right now ((If he's after the All-Star break, then he's 40+ games away) Felix? Hey, I know it is sacrilegious to say so, but he got beat up in 5 of his last seven starts last season and 3 of five this. He's the King, but he comes back as a #3 and some precocious young guys, out of the Kuma-at-his-best template, nipping at his heels. And then there is Neidert, arriving at a theater near you sometime next summer. If I am Dipoto, I'm shopping Gallardo right now. Somebody is frantic for pitching. He was innings insurance and it looks like we've found all those innings elsewhere. And better ones, too. Well maybe I stick him as a long man until I see if Felix can still eephus-dry spitter guys out.

But promising arms? We've got 'em.

Comments

I'm with you here. Replace

I'm with you here. Replace Gallardo with Moore and I'm happy with our rotation as is.

Felix, and Iwakuma especially, are in stiff decline. I'm not neccesarrily expecting them to be significant upgrades at this point in their careers. Would just convert Iwakuma to relief immediately during his rehab stint to see how he responds. And Felix needs to be on point with his command before we call him up, because its clear stuff isn't coming back anymore.

Smyly can replace whoever the weak link is at that point if he ever comes back.

Thanks for the excellent post

Anytime a Denizen thinks that an idea is important, it's great to see it as a front-page post. Would reply in this thread but have got a quota to maintain, so will double-promote your observation ... :- )

From MLB TR

The Mariners will have to address long-term needs in their rotation either at the deadline or during the offseason, notes Rosenthal. Hisashi Iwakuma, Yovani Gallardo and Drew Smyly are only under control for another two years at the most (the first two have club options for 2018), leaving Seattle with James Paxton, Felix Hernandez and Ariel Miranda as its only current prominent starters under contract through 2019.

Do you agree with that?

Or is it more like a national writer scanning down the cities and finding stuff to say? (1) Um, Gallardo and Iwakuma not here in 3 years ... okay ... (2) If we do have three good starters figured out, how do we stand with Gaviglio, Andrew Moore, the spaghetti factory and so forth?

Just wondering to what extent that's the way *you* would feel about it.

Not me

Sorry,

Was just pointing out that the national scribes are not seeing the nice young arms we have around. If just two of the Moore-Gaviglio-Bergman guys stay as serviceable starters, then we've little worries about the staff. The bigger issue isn't whether we resign Gallardo or Kuma (not likely) but whether Felix finds his game again. I now find myself rooting that he had surgery a year ago.