Seattle Sports Insider

Rock Him-Sock Him Rodney!

And who should get the bus ticket up I-5 from Tacoma

Posted by

8/6/15

Man, could that image get any better, in relation to Rodney anyway? The guy in teal getting his block knocked off!!

Some numbers you probably know:

1. Since the end of April, Rodney has inherited 14 save situations; he has given up 0 runs only 4 times. He pitched exactly 1 inning in the 1st 13 appearances and then just 1/3 last night. So he's pitched 13 1/3 innings in save situations, beginning on May 1st.

2. Uh....he's been terrible. in 13.1 innings, he's given up 16 earned runs, 20 hits and 9 BB's. That's an ERA of 10.3 and a WHIP of 2.16. The horror! The horror!

3. He's had 37 appearance over that time, in only 7 of them has he not allowed a basernner, pitching clean. 1 of those was 1/3 of an inning and 1 was 2/3.

4. Season long, he's had only 6 Blown Saves (to go with his 16 Saves, the last on July 5th). He got the win in 1 of those games, the loss in another. The M's went 1-3 in the other 4.

5. However, he was 7-8 in Save Opps. in April, so he's only been 9-14 since May 1. Eeeeek!

6. You could say that Rodney has 4 losses and blew 3 other games we subsequently lost. You could say he's cost the M's 7 games. You could say that...but it isn't quite correct, in that any closer pitches in high leverage situations where a bad inning means a likley loss. Mariano Rivera would have a BS or two, and a loss or two. So, despite his terrible performance, he's probably cost the M's 2-3 games, total....above and beyond a front line closer. But give us 3 more wins and 3 fewer losses and we're sniffing at the WC race.

7. Rodney has been terrible. But he has not single handedly doomed this team, although it frequently feels like it.

That's that. Stick him at the enp of the pen, Lloyd....he's not coming back so let's see what the younger guys have.

Speaking of younger guys, who should get the call (soon) from Tacoma:

1. Ramon Flores? Calling up Flores now depends on whether you see him as your likely CF next year or not, chich may depend on how you see Marte. In Marte I'm seeing a pesky slapper and that is about it. Bill James wrote, years ago, that 2B's power in young guys often turns into some HR power later. I'm not seeeing that kind of swing. You? Oh, he will get some down-the-line 2B's and some gapper speed-based 2B's, but I'm not seeing a great indication that he's going to hit the ball over the fence more than a couple of times a year. In 791 AA/AAA AB's, he hit 7 HR's, with 53 2B/3B's). To hie credit, he did hit over .300 at both levels. He walked about 40 pts. He better bring a Motor Mouth Blair glove to CF, if he's your man. Is he better than Jones? Is he a better utility option than a guy like O'Malley? Right now, I'm saying No and No to those propositions. But I started this one about Flores: It is unlikley that Marte is a better bat than Flores: Flores only averaged about .268 at AA/AAA, but he did hit 21 HR's in 1069 AB's, w/69 2B/3B's. And he walked 94-95 pts. He'll be more likley to hurt you with the bat. Both are CF glove works in progress, but right now gimme Flores. Granted he isn't as flexible because he doesn't play 2B/SS, but in Taylor we have one of those guys. Our CF question (if we don't sign one) may come down to Flores vs. Jones. Jones has has 324 MLB AB's and has yet to hit the ball over the fence. He's also walked 14 times to 73 K's. Gimme Flores on this one, too. Of course, that is if he has the glvoe for it. A ark horse here is Kivlehan in CF. He has pop, does he have the glove? Anyway, I'm calling up Flores pretty soon....assuming Marte is only a pesky slapper with a so-so CF glove.

2. Logan Morrison is mostly of little value for the rest of the year. We're going to invest (or we better) in a whole bunch of Montero AB's and that leaves Morrison out. If I'm sending Marte back down (with the Flores promotion), then I'm calling O'Malley up (we would need to clear 40-man space for him). He switch hits, plays everywhere and rips lefties. He is the kind of guy that can really help a roster. Let's see him for a while. Morrison? If we don't know what we have there then we haven't been paying attention. Does he have options left? If not, figure out a DL method.

3. Stefen Romero? Romero has done everything you would want a slugger type to do at AAA: He's hit .300+. slugged more than .500 and, per 600 AB's, hit 42 2B's, 7 3B's and 24 HR's. His AAA numbers are as good as Montero's, minus his Eye and K rate (which are important numbers). Montero has a 1/2 Eye and Romero 1/3. Montero K's in about 10% of his AAA AB's, Romero in 20%. But finding a place for Romero is hard right now. He's a bit of the left out guy. If Guti gets tweaked, I'm giving Romero his AB's.

4. Guape is terrible. Let's look at Forrest Snow. Or J.C. Ramirez. Or look at them both and release Rodney.

5. Finally, release Baker, demote Sucre (who appears to be a terrific bench guy...but a terrible bat) and give Hicks a start or two. Why the heck not.

6. If you assume that 88 wins gets you a WC spot (and it might not), then we need to go 38-15 the rest of the way. It isn't happening. Let's see what the young guys have.

Go team,

Moe

Comments

It's the long ball that says he's done

Until 2015, Rodney walked people, and gave up ground ball hits and such. But his ability to avoid the long ball made him an acceptable risk. Funny how that "RODNEY!!!" advertisement became a joke on us: we're the ones screaming "RODNEY!!!" looking up in anguish with our hands into the air.

Anyway, when Rodney began giving up and blowing saves with homers and doubles, THAT should have been the telling sign. But with veterans, you ignore signs like that longer than you probably should. And with our sick and anemic offense we found ourselves trading away surplus arms again to find position players. But, that's OK. We can fix a bullpen. Easiest job for a GM, unless it doesn't work. If it doesn't work it will vex him like nothing else (apart maybe from top ten can't miss prospects failing with regularity perhaps), and cause him to trade away future Jeff Bagwells

Of course, Danny F. was always our fallback guy. And he picked a fine time to be terrible.

Matt is convincing me on Romero

Romero has not walked enough to be seriously considered as an MLB regular. The guy can hit, for sure. But he's AAAA until he learns to walk at least as much as Montero has. Montero earned his callup. Romero hasn't. .343 OBP in AAA will convert into something ugly in the majors. He's got pop, and if he could play CF that would be a place to put him. Or maybe second base. But that job is taken.

Supersub? Maybe. But I think Chris Taylor is better suited for the Willie Bloomquist role. I want a tough at bat from my role players: hit the mistake pitch if it comes, but work the walk if it don't. I'll take Taylor's AAA .377 OBP over Romero's .343 and 28/40 BB/K ratio.

I just don't see a place for Romero on this team. He's a rich man's Alex Liddi. If we're looking for a 5th outfielder, Ruggiano is a better choice.

Romero

Understood, Rick. As I said, he's in a tough place. I would call him up if Guti broke himself again and give him a shot at that vL OF bat. I would have liked to seen him get some AAA CF time, too....but we have other guys to see there. But I'm not willing to say Romero has no chance: Witness a guy like Trevor Plouffe, who is a major contributor on a decent team. his AAA #'s are an uninspiring .261-.316-.449 with BB's in 6.8% of PA's, K's in 19.2% of AB's and a 1-2.5 BB/K. Over the lst 3 seasons he's been a 3B/1B. Romero's 6.0%, 20.4% and 1-3 are just marginally behind Plouffes, and his AAA thump is miles better. He wasn't good in his shot last year.......but given the right opportunity (thus the Guti injury mention), I'm giving him another look-see. Chris Colabello was in Indy ball until he was 27. He wasn't good in his 1st MLB go-around. He's pretty good this year. Stuff happens like that.

Plouffe gives me hope

BUT, at age 25 he went to AAA and worked on his horrible OBP and BB/K ratio and we saw dramatic improvement. That is what Romero needs to be working on. We know he can sting the ball. But it won't be enough.

When Romero does in AAA what Plouffe did, 21/39 in 220 PAs in 2011, then I will be the first to say call him up! Until he does - AAAA hitter we don't need.

September Call-Up

There's no hurry with Romero. September is about 3 weeks away. Romero will (probably) get a call up and have a chance to work with Edgar. Then in spring training, he'll get a chance to compete. It's unlikely he'll make the MLB roster at that point, but he'll be on the bubble and if (when) someone gets injured, he'll get the call up and have a chance to show what he can do.

Scored on 10 of 14 times?

That's 72%. You're asking the enemy lineup to hit a free throw. Niiiice.

.....

Agree on Flores: he doesn't look like a lot of HR potential to me - at least not until he's 30 or whatever. With his HIT ability I'll take any component he wants to add -- GG defense, blazing speed, gap power, BB's, whatever -- but that's a lot easier said than done.

Yes indeed, would be fun to get a look at him to start the guessing game as to which it would be :- )

Good stuff Moe!

BB's

He'll bring the BB's Doc. It looks like he'll bring a bunch of doubles, too. At 10 HR's, he would be pretty useful. I would like to see him rather than Marte.

Flores

But can Flores play CF full time? No scouting report that I've seen indicate that. The Yankees played him there some but the large majority of his time was spent in the corners, where his bat just doesn't profile well.

$64,000 question

Don't know, Griz!

But the same is true with Marte, Jones, Kivlehan, et al. I'm willing to see if Flores has the CF stuff. What concerns me about Marte is that he doesn't walk and he doesn't pop. In 1900 MiLB PA's, he's walked just 40 pts. Starting at A- Ball, those numbers have been 34, 28, 33, 28, 47. He has 10 HR's in 1700 MiLB PA's. He's ISO'ed .080 in his MiLB AB's. Again, from A- those numbers have been .032, .067, .081, .103, .105...there is a clear progression there.....but it still tops out at a pretty low number. If you give him a MLB 40 pt eye and .090 pts of ISO, then he has to hit .300 to be a 100 OPS guy. And he has to have a CF glove. There are a lot of ifs in that scenario.

I have been impressed with Marte sop far!

His bat has more whip and quick in it than I expected, and he is patiently taking his walks.

His defense has also seemed more up to snuff (even in CF) than he was credited with before his call up.

It's pretty amazing how easy he makes 2nd look, even compared to a superstar 2b (Cano)