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ENOUGH! COMEDY! JOKES!, Dept.
Larry Stone did an outstanding job (1) capturing and (2) explaining the "game situation" that the Mariners crawled into, in Tuesday's sixth inning.
M's were down 6-0. It was getting late early.
Wedge did NOT pinch hit for Brendan Ryan. In this game, at this moment, this is EXACTLY as if you did not pinch-hit for the PITCHER.
Ryan has 10 singles all year. Since April 7, he is 5-for-61 with an .094 SLG. Think about that.
Ryan hit a perfect fungo ground ball. Three slow hops, takes the SS to the bag. He steps on the bag and tosses over leisurely to first base. Game over.
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WHAT ARE MY OPTIONS, SARGE
Wedge later explained, via Stone, that he wanted to save his one pinch-hitter (Rauuul) for a closer game. (Grrrooooooan...)
...........
“With the game where it was, you’re hoping you have a better situation later and it’s a closer ballgame,’’ Wedge said of his decision to let Ryan hit in the sixth. “If you go there in the sixth inning, it’s a two-player move (requiring Robert Andino to replace Ryan at shortstop), and it’s going to be a left on left situation. Even best case scenario, you’re still going to be down by a couple runs, and then you’re tied up (as far as options) late.
“You’re hoping you get a little closer in the next couple of innings and you can use him in a situation where it’s more meaningful. But either way, Raul is going to face a left-hander.”
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First of all: you use the pinch-hitter in the highest-leverage situation, not when the game is closest. But, whatevs.
Your bench has 4 guys:
He didn't want to use Jesus Montero there, and leave himself "unprotected" at catcher. He didn't want to use Andino, because Andino can't hit. He didn't want to use Endy Chavez, because he can't hit either. Therefore, your ONLY pinch-hitter is a lefty, 41 years old.
That won't do.
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Dr's Diagnosis: Inoperable Throat Cancer
If that's the situation you're in, Brendan Ryan slugging .091 and you can't possibly pinch-hit for him, then --- > it affects the entire inning leading up to him. Have you ever watched an NL game, with pitchers in the lineup?
Bah humbug.
That situation, Tuesday night, was simply below standard. The way the Mariners painted themselves into that NL-pitcher inning, that's something you're supposed to be smart enough to avoid.
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Dr's R/X
You could teach Jesus Montero ENOUGH first base that he can play there two innings. Once in a while.
No, wait. That is true of every player on a major league roster, already. Anybody can play 1B for a few innings, right? Scratch that concern.
See, if Montero can play 1B for nine blinkin' outs, you can pinch-hit him for Ryan there. You "double-switch": you sub in Robert Andino for Justin Smoak, and then if Shoppach gets hurt, you can move Montero to C.
Not that you should be in such dire peril about a Shoppach injury anyway; Ibanez ought to be able to catch a few innings in a 7-2 game. Shoppach gets hurt, you lose, but you were down 7-2 anyway.
.................
Or: you could have a pinch-hitter on the bench who is not a gruesomely flawed as Raul Ibanez, who isn't nuked by any LH-on-LH matchup.
Any right-hand batter would be fine. But a switch-hitter would be ideal.
Do you know any switch-hitters who could help the Mariners?
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Bringing us to option 3. Why was a bench slot wasted by Robert Andino in the first place? Nick Franklin could have been on the bench for either Raul Ibanez or Robert Andino.
Enough comedy jokes.
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Raul is probably worse against LH pitching than Ryan is against RH pitching at this point and Showalter has 4 lefties in his pen. There wasn't going to be a good PH opportunity for Ibanez in this entire series. The team is wasting a roster spot on Raul at this point. He's this year's Figgins.
Neither Raul nor Figgens could hit. Figgens could run and play multiple defensive positions. Raul can't run & can't play defense. Ergo, Raul
Are you suggesting that Franklin might be a good fit for the M's right now?
That he might have been the guy at the plate then? Holy cow, Franklin with the M's. You surely know that would never work! :)
....I"ll bet that Wedge has thought about this and decided that Ryan and Andino are about to break out of 3 year slumps and go all Jeter on the AL. With their grizzled veteranness surely Sarge knows they will overcome their lack of batting talent with guile and soon be smoking blooper singles at a .220 rate.
Franklin. Pshaaaah!
Roster flexability? Why?
A ripping bat? Clearly not nearly as valuable as veteran presence.
C'mon! Next you'll be advocating that Raul be dumped, too.
Then where would we be? Man, we would be stuck with Thames. Or Romero.
Pshaaaaah.
moe
Carp would have looked pretty good at the plate as a PH in the 6th inning. BTW, Carp's salary is a fraction of Rauuuuul's. So nobody please accuse the M's of saving money on roster construction.
1. The team agrees with you. I think the team (Z) sees Raul as a mistake. Steven Romero started out playing Third Base after the team said they'd give him a permanent position, but after Kyle Seated decided to be awesome and the Outfield started falling apart, Romero started playing Left. As a right handed hitter, he's not a great replacement for a leftie, but there have been a lot of reports about the speed of his bat, and his rock hard work ethic, so I think he could make it work, and unlike Raul, he could cover at First, Second, or Third reasonably well.
2. The Mariners flat don't believe in Eric Thames ability to learn and adjust. Carlos Peguero got the call, and when he did, Eric Wedge talked about him as not just the more powerful hitter, but also the better fielder. Anybody that's considered a worse fielder when the club is running out Raul Ibanez and Carlos Peguero is a DH/PH. I imagine Thames as a filler piece in a future trade, especially considering again that Romero is getting his turn, in the Mariner Minor Leaguer hazing tradition, learning to play the outfield late in his career.
3. Nick Franklin is on his way up any day. His .410/.538/.623 line where he has twice as many walks as strike outs is impossible to ignore. The fact that his last 10 games split shows him improving to a .500/.643/.853 line that includes 13 walks to only 4 strikeouts is beyond impossible to ignore. It's inconceivable. Regardless of what happens with Ibanez, Franklin has to be up to replace Andino this week. The starting job at SS is wide open, and while I'm sure the club is probably tentative to reward Franklin so soon after his unadvised weight gain, they aren't going to leave him in a 3 way competition to play short stop in AAA when they could very much use him in the MLB.
Bring up Miller. He impressed both his fellow players and Wedge during spring. Remember hearing an interview with Condor during which he singled out Miller as the most impressive/surprising player in spring.
It might give the team a lift.
It's not Miller Time yet. Give the guy a chance to get some at-bats under his belt. Nick Franklin is destroying the world, which means he's seeing the ball really well, and it would seem to me to be a better idea to promote the guy seeing the ball great who also has more experience (Franklin is 18 months younger but has far more pro experience). Especially since Miller isn't demonstrably better at fielding the position than Franklin. He might GET better, but they're the same sort of player right now.
It was time to promote Franklin last week, and that time has not changed. He's the Anti-Ryan with everything that entails. Drop Catricala from the 40-man, install Nick the Stick, and let's stop having these woe-is-us moments every time our SS steps to the plate.
~G