1
Andale indeed!
This for That
Time's a wastin'
OK, we're well into July and the All-Star break is soon upon us. In case you haen't checked, we are 5 games out of the WC with 9 (count them!) teams ahead of us in that race. Well, 10 eams if you count the Yankees, who are only 1 game up on divisional three teams. Some of the teams ahead of us will get hot, some will go pffffft. But 86 wins still seems like a reasonable target for us to seek. Quickly doing the mah....Hmmm, lessee.....carry the one, square root of pi, log4...... shows that we have to go 48-32 the rest of the way to get to 86 wins.
We have to play some ball, guys.
.600 ball, in case you wondered. Basically, we need to be one of the 2 or 3 best teams in baseball over the next 80 games, if we are gong to get in the post-season lottery. We have a nice pitching staff that plays well in that lottery, in case you've forgotten. If we can get there, mind you.
We can't "wait" any longer.
Time to make the right roster moves. Time for some of the old this for that.
Accordingly:
#1. LoMo needs 1B help. He's hitting .439 vs. lefties. Uh.....that's his OPS, not his BA. He has 2 XB hits in 79 AB's vL. Man, lets get a vL bashing bat in here to help him. As it turns out, we have two in Tacoma. Montero is hitting .357-.414-.643 vs. lefties this year. He's ALWAYS hit lefties. He would probably OPS .800 vs. Carlton, for goodness sake. What the heck are we wasting him in Tacoma for??? James Jones might be able to be his caddy when it comes to helping a MLB team win.....but that is about it. Dump Jones right now. Get Montero here to whallop southpaws. Morrison needs the help. You don't like Montero becasue he isn't very flexible??? Then bring up Romero. He's hitting .320-.349-.544 vs. lefties this year. Over the past month his hit .340-.359-.526 vs. everybody. But Jesus Montero is an established vL MLB weapon: .318-.369-.459 over his career. BUt, oh goody, we get to have James Jones? Oh my goodness!!! Morrison is a career .249-.321-.369 vL guy. Montero is a HUGE upgrade in that regard. When we have Ackley/Guti/Miller/Smith/Cruz/Jackson in the OF....and a gaping hole vL at 1B, do you think Billy Beane would bring up his mashing farmhand? Of course,he would.......'Nuff said.
#2. Jones is redundant because Guti can glove it and because Ackley has shown a bit of a resurgence since Edgar came aboard. In 3 starts he's gone 5-10 with a double and triple. OK, 3 hits and the XB's were against a guy who gets creamed by LHB's, but Ackley has shown a bit of life lately. He's not starting vR much anyway, but he's way better than Jones. Stolen bases for Jones? Man, give me the bat!
#3. Sucre is currently the worst hitter in the bigs. He's 1-25 this year, has 2 BB's in 119 career PA's, and has a career OPS+ of 8. We need somebody else there. I would bring Steve Baron up right now, I don't care that he doesn't have a ton of AAA experience. If he can glove it a bit, he can help us right now. Or, better yet, I would trade for another AAA guy who can pick it. Go get Hector Sanchez from the Giants. He's stuck in AAA and going nowhere with Posey and Susac ahead of him. Sucre isn't getting it done.
#4. If Trumbo doesn't show life, then DL him for a bit and get Romero here. Trumbo might just benefit from a break. And I'm still in on NOT giving him BP on game days for a bit. Let him return to his natural ability.
#5. Jackson is OPS'ing .603 vs RHP this year. Let Ackley get the occassional vR start, including one in the Detroit series, in CF. Let's see if Edgar really is helping.
We can't wait. Time is urgent. If we go 5-5 for the next 10 games, then we have to go 43-27 for the rest of the way. That's .614 ball. Go 10-10, then you have win .63%of the remaining games.
We will face a lefty tomorrow and get two lefties vs. LAA, who we must catch.
Get Montero here pronto. Send Jones away.
And then trade for Sanchez at the break.
Some this for that is called for.
As Speedy Gonzales used to say, "Ariba, ariba! Andale, andala!
Go team.
Moe
Comments
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I would look for a trade for a backup catcher rather than bringing up Steve Baron. Baron has never hit until this year, so his numbers right now are suspect. Rather than trading Castillo, they should have brought up Montero to platoon with Lomo at 1B and occasionally DH. Then we would still have Castillo on the roster. No question though that Sucre is completely helpless at the plate and that's simply not a hole in the lineup that you can live with.
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Whatever happened to Miller in the OF? Can we go back to that as a platoon please!!
1. Lomo needs to be platooned with Trumbo for starters. Lomo can not continue to hit against lefties. If Trumbo is as lost as we all think he is, then the M's MUST bring up either Montero or Romero so there can be a platoon option. Is it too late to package Happ and Trumbo or Lomo for Baez or something else shiny and new from the Cubs???
2. Jones is a great bonus piece that the M's do not have room for now. Back to Tacoma.
3. Zunino needs help. especially if we are going to have another week of 90+ temps, Zunino needs someone to give him a break. That is obviously not Sucre, but if Jack needs proof... play Sucre four times before All-star break. That will get someone here in a hurry. I'd be OK with Baron, but Hicks is the one on the 40 man... and they just got Kratz from the Royals so I's bet on one of those.
4. While I would like to DL Trumbo and / or Ackley and / or etc... do not forget that Ruggiano is still in Tacoma. He was pretty OK as a platoon only guy. I too would rather see Romero, Montero and when healthy O'Malley, but I'll take what I can get.
5. CF... this could be where I think we need help. Landry maybe? I do not know here.
Just my two cents...
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I missed that signing, somehow. He would be fine...but you would have to make a 40-Man decision with him, too. And, you're right, Hicks is on the 40-Man. He has that advantage over Baron. That would be better, too.
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's a good 'put TR. Right now they (obviously) feel like any game without Zunino is a loss, so .... it gets urgent. John Buck available? :- )
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Juicy idea. +1.
.....
I should say that 2 weeks ago, SSI reported on an alarming physical defensive slump by Miller. Oddly, it looks now like it's completely gone. He's gluing his CG to the incoming energy, throwing with nose-to-leather, and looks like he wants the ball hit to him.
7
I am one of only a few that believe Miller is here to stay, and Miller should be a solid contributor for years and years to come. However, I do realize that Brad is a head case that can be derailed at any time. That said, this Mariner team needs to continue to play at the somewhat consistent level has has been doing for the last month plus... and someone needs to explain to him that this Mariners team needs him performing offensively where ever they play him.
For those of you who have not looked... over the past 30 games, Brad has the HIGHEST batting average of the regulars, the third highest OBP, and the 3rd best OPS. That would be outstanding and worthy of writing home about until you see the actual numbers are 262/326/417/743. Now out of a SS, I am not complaining, but I believe Miller can be better than this. However, similar to Seager, it will take some time and some growing on his part.
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I usually am not the guy who gets deep into these numbers, especially offensive numbers... so I need help.
Against left handed pitchers, the Mariners who are performing so far this year are...
Guti 956 OPS, Cruz 1321 OPS, Seth 1071 OPS, Taylor 896 OPS, Seager 812 OPS, Jackson 805 OPS, and even Ruggiano 812 OPS.... I think with these numbers we should be able to score some runs.
Against right handed pitchers, the Mariners who are performing so far this year are...
Cruz 830 OPS, Miller 821 OPS, Morrison 788 OPS, Seth 767 OPS, Seager 719 OPS and Cano 700 OPS... again while not as good of numbers, these are more than acceptable and should NOT be the one of the 3 worst offenses in MLB.
Is this gap between good numbers and lack of runs because of Lloyd, other coaching, pre game scouting reports, Jack or we fans who just don't know any better?
I just do not understand. Can someone please help me understand.
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Guti has 9 AB's vL, Smith 14, Taylor 13, Rugi 38..and he's in Tacoma. Guti and Taylor should hit lefties. Smith has a .620 career # vL. And they don't solve the LoMo vL issue.
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Moe, I'll give you small sample size for Guti, Smith, Taylor and even Rugi... but I'd expect all those guys to continue to perform against lefties with the possible exception of Seth. Thus, I feel pretty good against lefties right now... we will see how well we do against the 3 lefties coming this week. By the way, I am confident that if Rugi was brought back, he would still hit lefties.
Further, I completely agree that LoMo should not play against lefties for a while... meaning months.
The sad part is how poorly Cano, Seager, and Ackley are hitting versus righties. If these guys started to hit, we might actually not be out of it yet. I just am not hopefulthat these guys will turn it around.