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1) He should be starting somewhere. He's not a lockdown guy, he's a starter or long-reliever, and he needs to pitch.
2) We detest Iwakuma, very obviously - but not enough to just cut him. Must be some politics involved. Millwood is here for "vet leadership" which would help more if we had our young pitchers of the future actually on the team to learn from him.
3) Everybody makes mistakes, but Saunders is running out of time to cut down on his. I don't think he's gone when Carp gets back, but his playing time will get reduced. He needs to get it in gear.
4) He had to pinch-run with Olivo, or move Jaso out of the DH spot and lose it. If we'd hit into a DP there, then Jaso's spot would have come up with a pitcher/pinch-hitter in it, and if Jaso gets knocked out of the game we'd have no options behind the plate. This was one of those "DH/C" issues. It still seemed stupid to me, but whatever.
5) Jaso needs to play more, even if just to pinch-hit against hard righties. Or even easy righties, since Olivo can't make contact using a boat oar at this point.
6) Brendan Ryan now leads the Ms in OPS+. I'm not kidding. Amazing what 4 walks will do for you. Other than his HR he can't hit anything either, but his magic Walk-Me device bailed him out in this game. It was unbelievable how none of the pitches to him came anywhere near the zone. Weakest hitter on the team and his ability to put wood to bat went almost entirely untested. Free Kawasaki indeed.
7) Yup.
8) Yup. But unlike in previous years I have to wonder if this is on purpose. He has a ton of players coming up and no desire to block them with long-term Olivos, Ryans and Millwoods. So we have those guys short-term. From the start of his tenure Jack has been looking for short-term stopgaps (and failing to find them).
I'm deeply concerned by his inability to find contributing vets. I don't really ever want him to "assist us" at the trade deadline by adding 3 months of a veteran - the guy might spontaneously combust on the field.
But it's still not hurting us long-term, Figgins aside - he's not tying up large dollar figures in his veteran-player mistakes. The team will be made or broken by the kids, not the Carlos Guillens and Aaron Heilmans.
9 & 10)
Mid-season Mariners roster:
Lineup: Kawasaki / Ackley / Ichiro / Smoak / Montero / Seager / Carp / Guti / Jaso
Rotation: Felix / Erasmo / Noesi / Beavan / Paxton
Bullpen: Kelley / Ruffin / Pryor / Furbush / Wilhelmsen / League (I think we might re-sign him)
That looks much more fun. In 2013 when Franklin and Catricala are hopefully pushing for roster spots it'll get even better.
~G