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Andrew Moore gets the start for the AAA Rainiers on Tuesday night.
Jeff: "The Mariners promoted their best pitching prospect to Tacoma. Maybe we should head out tomorrow night."
Cindy: "They moved him up because they're getting ready to put him on the Mariners or because he was good in AA?"
Jeff: "I think I'll put that on my blog. Thanks hon."
G-Money: "You do realize I adopted Moore circa 2013, right. I just don't remind people of my groks every other post."
In spring training we boggled about his Ultra King Felix (TM) pitch sequences, which apparently have not abated SO far. (See also the directly previous March post for Moore's arsenal.) Less importantly, Jamie Moyer (TM) boggled about Andrew Moore's scale weight or pitching future, one of the two, hard to tell which.
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Another PCL day, another shutout for Ryan Weber. He has always had an "outlier" sink to his fastball and an "outlier" ground ball rate. But this year in Tacoma he was getting 70.1% grounders ... before his 14:1 ratio Monday.
He doesn't strike guys out, at all, but in 2017 he seems to have stopped making mistakes and suddenly cured his gopheritis. That, or he's just gotten lucky. But an 0.75 WHIP in Tacoma, six starts, argue the former. Eyes slideways because things like that DO happen to pitchers, which is why they keep getting 3-Card Monte'd around baseball on the waiver wire.
On the off chance that these last 6 starts be a plateau leap for him ... Weber threatens to become the next Jake Westbrook - in the sense that any 87 MPH lefty with command (say, Halama or French) threatens to become the next Jamie Moyer. We're just fans, not paying the $50,000 waiver fees (?), so there's no cost associated with our dreaming about it.
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Tuffy Gosewisch isn't likely to hold any community college classes in hitting, but he certainly could hold them in game-calling. This interview makes him sound like Socrates behind the plate. He's slated to catch 55%, 60% of the games until Zunino returns; until then hope for lots and lots of sac bunts from our catchers. At least we're not compounding the problem with a second hole in the lineup. Tacoma's center fielder has a 3:11 EYE in the PCL, since you bring it up.
:- /
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In a My Northwest article, Jerry Dipoto accused Guillermo Heredia of being "one of the best defenders in the game" and having THE best break on the ball that Dipoto has seen in YEARS. That's "THE #1 BEST" jump on a batted ball that currently exists or has recently existed in the majors. I remember when the aged Pokey Reese was supposed to be the very best infielder in the majors and that justified a roster slot no matter what he hit.
If that's true that Heredia has MLB's best jump on a fly ball -- and Dipoto wouldn't say it if it weren't true -- what's the holdup on 550 AB's for this man? Compared to other glove specialists, e.g. Leonys Martin let us just suppose, Guillermo Heredia hits a mortal ton.
Wait, so does our shortstop hit a ton for a SS. Wait, so does our second baseman for a 2B. Wait, so does Nelson Cruz for a major leaguer. Wait, this offense is really lurking.
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Yovani Gallardo is doing good. So is Ariel Miranda. Our pal Mal has kept a steady stream of pro-Gallardo facts incoming, among which we noticed that these two yo-yo's are #22 and #23 in the American League for expected fielding-neutral ERA. That means technically, they're#2 starters. Wow, just wait until the big kids get out of school. The big kids being K-Pax and The King, never mind July 31 trade target Drew Smyly.
Jerry Dipoto thinks Gallardo is better even than Mal thinks he is. Gallardo has gone from zero to hero in three Mariners starts? What is this, this 1970's Orioles? But yeah, we'll unpack Dipoto's statements on Gallardo next up. Maybe Jerry Dipoto, not Yovani Gallardo, is the guy who pulls silk kerchiefs out of his top hat. If Gallardo is actually a solid #3 starter this year, that will be (1) my own most pleasant Mariners surprise since approximately Dave Fleming and (2) one whale of a big boost in the Mariners' playoff chances.
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Philly and Toronto comin' up,
Dr D