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Maurer is the first Mariner starter to skip AA, into the Opening Day rotation, in 20 years. Back in the day this didn't used to be such a big hairy deal; Mark Langston and Alvin Davis did it at the same time. And tore up the American League. For the Mariners.
AA and AAA are the upper minors -- the pitcher-batter matchups include breaking balls in any count and located pitches throughout the game. Somebody would have to help me out here, as to whether this "must pitch AAA" is a Seattle Mariner thing, or a MLB(TM) thing.
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The M's game notes claim that the Mariners had the 2nd-highest spring HR total of any MLB team of the last 20 years.
First? The 1999 Cubs, who went on to hit 189 in the regular season, led by Sammy Sosa's 63. They lost 95 games because their ERA+ was 86, and they ranked near the bottom in every offensive category other than HR's.
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The M's game notes also point out that the Mariners have not committed a defensive error yet this season.
Might the M's have an unusually reliable defense? Well, last year they committed only 72 errors as a team, compared to an AL average of 96. Here's the table.
Despite having a young team, the Mariners probably do have an unusually precise team. Kyle Seager is soaked in professionalism. So is Dustin Ackley. You know about Brendan Ryan. The M's begin to take on Zduriencik's personality, and next is Brad Miller.
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We talked in the comments threads about Michael Morse's "closing speed" on the ball he ran down in the gap. Can one play turn around a player evaluation? Well, if the evaluation of Jesus Montero is that he's the game's slowest player, and then he swipes second base standing up, then yes, it can.
If Morse is more toward "mediocre" defensively than "horrific" -- that's judging him by a standard set by Jose Bautista, Shin-Soo Choo, and Brennan Boesch, not by a standard set by Coco Crisp -- that's a nice bump in his value.
Dr. D will be running POTD's throughout the year, comparing Michael Morse's value to those of the game's highest-paid MOTO hitters. Do you think that Morse will outperform Shin-Soo Choo?
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Righty A.J. Griffin came up and had a terrific second half in 2012, despite having Joe Blanton-ish stuff. Griffin throws a true 4-pitch mix, complete with 68-mph bloop curve and all the trimmings. He was a rookie who pitched like a 37-year-old, which pretty much describes all of the A's starters other than Brett Anderson.
Billy Beane has fallen madly in love with junkballers. He's got half of the league's 4-pitch starters in one rotation, and they're all under age 21.
No wonder he bids on all the NPB pitchers.
Morse, Ibanez, and Bay each have terrific work ethics, as well as the guys you mentioned, plus Saunders and Smoak who spent their offseasons trying to get better. I think Z is trying to eventually field a team full of David Eckstein types at higher talent levels.
I've been complaining fort months about the sabr crowd burying him for his defense. You need 3 seasons for the defensive stats to mean anything? Morse has LESS THAN 1 FULL SEASON in Left Field, and less time in Right, and those are innings compiled over 7 seasons. But we're supposed to believe Morse tops out as a 2 WAR player that should be a DH because he has extreme negative defensive value. Sure, why not. If UZR and DRS are unreliable in less than 3 year samples, then they shouldn't be used in single season samples to calculate WAR.
Ever since Sparky Neanderthal sent out into RF the bashing Bam Bam Rubble, managers have valued mash/bash in some positions more than leather.
As well they should. Homeruns and runs knocked in and total bases are tangible things, you can touch them. Runs saved are nebulous stuff. They are there...or they are not, and they depend on a bit of magical incantation to identfy.
Morse is no more inadequate than Willie Stargell as a COF. Danny Murtaugh (and the Pirate managers before him) wasn't ever going to sit him because he wasn't Endy Chavez with the glove.
Morse hits 'em a mile. He doesn't embarrass himself with the glove.
Give him 3 more years.
moe
Now that Maurer has his debut behind him, he can get back to business in his next start with hopefully lessons learned. Just think, we could have had Garland get bombed instead, and have little upside going forward. Maurer will improve. And Morse would be worth how much WAR if he quit now after only four games?
You're hitting the nail on the head there. I think when somebody SURPRISES us, like Guti with a bad number, we've got a tendency to remember that UZR is unreliable. Where it doesn't surprise us, we often swallow the short numbers hook, line, and sinker.
Morse's SX numbers are in the 80's, nothing tragic, and it could be that his glove holds up okay, relative to other big cleanup hitters who play OF.