Seattle Sports Insider

Echo Box, 3.17.16

hellooooooooooo in there ..... [the 'pen of course]

Posted by

3/17/16

OBF sez,

Of course the Bullpen cough up 2 in the bottom o the ninth and the game ends with a tie :( :( :( :( OK, Moe, I am on board now.... Seth Smith for a reliever ANY reliever!!!!

Mo' Dawg's track record is getting pretty scary, we gotta say. He's like 7-for-his-last-7, as is Seth Smith ... wait.

/reset

Cool Papa Bell's opinions are lamentably rare on SSI. On this one, his is that --- > he is sick and tired of 513 runs per season. "Give 'em a chance," growled Lou Piniella after one of his bullpens blew its third save of Week One. Cool Papa Bell would also like to see this bullpen "get a chance." Commendable on a moral basis, if not on a historical-precedent basis. Don't know how many recent teams won the pennant going into the season with a bullpen held together by duct tape and baling wire.

It's a good debate. It really is.

Dr. D would slide OPS into a "bullpen stud" checker square but some people wouldn't. Among them, Jerry DiPoto and CPB. Not among them, Mo' Dawg and Dr. D.

Moe sez,

O'Malley 2-2 with a 2B, off the bench in CF. Wooooo-eeeeeee, how do you not keep him up?

See above. Moe can't seem to get one wrong lately. If I were him I'd go out looking on the sidewalk for wallets.

Keith-O demonstrated to everybody's satisfaction that if Willie Bloomquist can back up shortstop defensively, then Shawn O'Malley can too. ... O'Malley has a life minors slash line of .260/.350/.350, compared to Willie's minors slash of .280/.340/.380 ... oh, Dr. D knows what yer thinkin'. ML pitching won't walk O'Malley, being as they're relatively unafraid that he'll take them Yard.

Actually that may be true, but ... we do have a vermouth splash of data on the subject. O'Malley has 58 at-bats with a [NICE!! didn't know that] 12 big league walks in that time. I got yer C the Z right here, pal.

So Shawn O'Malley has a .366 OBP thus far in the MAJOR leagues. No he won't be buried with "RIP. .366 OBP CHEW ON THAT SUCKA" on his tombstone. But. Yeah.

Willie Mic Drop dept.

You put O'Malley on the 25-man, Opening Day, and you're not married to him. You can go get Sardinas (or indeed Taylor) on 24 hours' notice. Dr. Detecto is warming to the idea, mabye is 'cause it is St. Patrick's day and his wife is pureblood Irish. But Mo' Dawg thought of it furst.

Start yer own blog Moe. I'll subscribe.

Brownz sez

Mariners commercials beginning... The Cano "mirror" commercial was good. Anyone see it?

It is a golden era for M's commercials. Savor. No need to be abashed. Just enjoy. I've only seen the K-SWAG bit so far and it was quite a hoot. Funny those guys who make the commercials are really in on their own joke.

Somebody sez

A Bad Day at Black Rock for Paxton

:: shrug :: Yep. 4 walks, 7 earnies, and a gopher. Paxton is who he is. Know what I'm saying? Fly by yer instruments.

Far more important than K-Pax getting splattered in a mid-March game --- >was Steve Cishek getting back out there. With a clean inning and 1 K. Glad that Jerry DiPoto buys into him, 'cause I know one blogger who don't. But anybody can pitch [a clean 9th inning up by 3 runs] if they keep their head about them, and it's nice to see that Cishek's little tweak was only that.

BABVA,

Dr D

Blog:

Dr's R/X

Tags:

Steve Cishek

Comments

Kudo's (of a sort) to Paxton

I liked his response after the game: (Basically) "..I got a bit to focused on the curve ball when ahead in the inning. I didn't take my time, step off the mound, and adjust"

Hey, I like learning. Paxton has been a bit shark bit over his "career" and I wonder if he's still really figuring out just how good his stuff is?

He'll be fine.

Bad Day at Black Rock is, btw, a terrific movie, in case you have never seen it. From back in the day where movies had dialogue and nuance. It had shadow, if you know what I mean. From back in the day when you had to pay attention. Not one car wreck, alien attack on NYC, superhero, or chainsaw massacre in that flick. Sigh.....

Some more of that would be cool by me.

Well, I suppose that Tracy was kind of a minor superhero in BDaBR.

We don't know that we have an awful bullpen yet.

No-name relievers often come out of no where to have big seasons, and this has happened frequently with the M's in recent years. On the otherhand, for more than a decade M's hitters have badly underperformed expectations, both experienced veterans and talented prospects. There have been far more hitters who have totally cratered than hitters who have exceeded expectations. Richie Sexson, Jose Lopez, Kenji Johjima, Jeremy Reed, Jeff Clement, Justin Smoak, Chone Figgins, Dustin Ackley, Jesus Montero, and on and on. I won't believe that any hitter who has proven himself in Seattle is expendable until this offense actually proves that it can perform.

I'll admit it is still early, but...

Yes relief pitchers do just come out of the woodwork some years... looking at where Beimel, Lowe and Zych and several others came from.

On top of that, the Mac & Jack draft team really seems to try to fill out drafts by taking guys with one plus pitch and some quirks - and these guys have panned out over the past few years. Unfortunately, when you trade away Smith, Wilhelmsen, Farquhar, Medina, Cochran-Gill, Leone, Maurer, Capps, Pryor, Rasmussen, Ramirez, Olson, Olmos, Huijer, and etc...., in just 18 months, you actually might run out at some point. More young pitchers are on their way through the farm system, but they obviously are not here now.

Want a bad bullpen?

Come to Colorado! Thankfully hte M's are not at that point yet. Good point Papa Bell. The no names can step up. But time to do it as the season gets closer. Maybe put Seth Smith in the pen...remember his days with the Vols as a QB to a decent player?

LOL...that is why I told my boys when they were about 6 that pitching ultimately wins games and every team at all times is looking for pitchers. Well....I know...they are looking for hitters too!

Paxton angst

Looking at other box scores today:

Danny Salazar: 5ER in 4IP

Jose Fernandez: 6ER in 3.2

They're supposed to be pretty good too.

It's one day in spring training. I say take it in stride and move on.

I'm with CPB

We have exactly four proven lefthanded bats. Why trade one of them when you would actually want more not fewer?

Who hit Paxton?

Just curious because I was looking at his splits and realized for the first time that he's one of those reverse platoon guys. Lefties hit him hard last year and back in 2013 as well. He did pretty well in 2014 though.

I did not see the game but...

From my recollection, Paxton's history and comfort zone is pounding the knees with fastballs... and most left handed hitters love low fastballs.

On top of that, Paxton is still having release point issues with his breaking balls, which I believe he tries to use more against lefties... but can get him behind in counts more often to lefties if / when he misses... which then makes the low fastball more predictable as well.

Hopefully Servais and crew can get Paxton throwing the high fastball more often, especially to lefties... and I'll bet that split goes away in a hurry.