Mariners: out with the old...

[GrizBiz]

Well, Bavasi was the busiest GM in baseball prior to the trade deadline. Olivo, Winn and Villone are all gone. The Olivo trade wasn't anything special but it's not like they were going to get anything for him anyway. It seems like the organization decided that he wasn't mentally tough enough to handle the everyday pitching duties. Villone and Winn both brought high-ceiling AA & AAA pitchers that we will be seeing over the next few years - two good starting pitchers and two good relievers. All have power arms and need some work on their off speed pitches.

Sherill looked pretty good in his first appearance after being called up.

Monday is an off day. Word is that Sele, Hasegawa and one more player - Spezio??? - will be released, maybe this afternoon. Felix, Campillo and Harris are all expected to get called up. Snelling will replace Strong on the roster as soon as his madatory 10 day stint in Tacoma is up on Thursday. Conflicting reports have Felix making a start this week or being assigned to the bullpen.

For the rest of 2005, the M's will be a lot like the M's of 204's second half: lots of young players being rotated in from Tacoma and given their chance to impress at the major league level. They'll probably lose a lot of games but at least they will be worth watching, just to see the young players if for othing else.



Side note: Boone has been cut by the Twins. Sad end to a great career.

 

[GRIZFAN20]

What a Major League debut for Harris. 5 scoreless innings on a day that he was suppost to sit. Campillo went down with a sore elbow after a scoreless 1st inning.

It is official that Feliz Hernandez will start Thursdays day game vs. Detriot. The only bad thing about it is the game will not be shown on TV as of right now. Maybe FSN can pull some strings and televise the 1st game of this kid's career.

 

[GrizBiz]

What a Major League debut for Harris. 5 scoreless innings on a day that he was suppost to sit. Campillo went down with a sore elbow after a scoreless 1st inning.

It is official that Feliz Hernandez will start Thursdays day game vs. Detriot. The only bad thing about it is the game will not be shown on TV as of right now. Maybe FSN can pull some strings and televise the 1st game of this kid's career.

Harris definately took a little bit of the sting out of seeing Campillo go down after one inning. The M's have had a lot of success finding these independant league guys and I like every one of the pitchers on the 40 man roster that they found there - Bobby M, Atchison and Harris. Sometimes it takes a while for the light to go on for a pitcher and these guys that figure it out at 30 yrs old can have productive careers.

I hope Campillo's injury is just a strain but the M's have a very bad track record of mis-diganosing arm injuries. The poor dude has been pitching more or less for over a year strait. May be time to just shut him down until spring training next year.

 

[BWahlberg]

Saw Villone on Sportscenter 2nite. Blew the game for Josh Beckett, gave up a 3 run homer.

 

[GrizBiz]

Campillo blew a tendon in his elbow and is headed for Tommy John surgery. We won't see him again until 2007, if ever.

Felix evidently looked good today. After a very shaky first inning, he settled down and pitched well through five innings. Lots and lots of groundball outs - someone said that only two balls made it into the oufield. Now keep that arm healthy!

 

[Grizbeer]

Felix evidently looked good today. After a very shaky first inning, he settled down and pitched well through five innings. Lots and lots of groundball outs - someone said that only two balls made it into the oufield. Now keep that arm healthy!

I listened to the game on XM, so it was the Detroit announcers - they said Hernandez "dominated" the Tiger hitters. Unfortunately the 2 runs he gave up were enough for a loss.

 

[GRIZFAN20]

The Mariners couldnt have asked for a better performance from Felix tonight. 5 innings, 3 hits, 1 ER, 1 BB, 4 K's. If he can stay healthy (i dont think in any way he wont), this kid will be the ace of the Mariners staff for a long time. My only worry is that he might pull an A-ROD, become a great player with the M's and then leave for the $$$

 

[GrizBiz]

Regarding Felix - the kid has been impressive from day one. They started calling him King Felix in low A ball for a reason. He's been so dominant at every level that it's scary. Prodigy is not a word that you want thrown around lightly but in this case, I think it's appropriate. The most amazing thing is his maturity - he doesn't act 19. Plus, he's still figuring out how to pitch - once he gains better control over his pitches he'll be a frightening sight.

I was cracking up when the radio guys were trying to describe some of his pitches. He's got two fast balls (2-seam and 4-seam), two different curve balls (traditional 12-6 fishook and a flatter one that breaks more left to right) and a changup. Five different pitches at 19 years old - yikes! They kept calling the second curve a slider but the coaches were very clear in the papers the next day that they will not allow him to throw his slider yet. They are worried about the toll that pitch takes on a pitcher's arm and Felix's arm may be the most valuable asset the team has. The message board guys that saw him throw the slider in spring training say that it's the most filthy and sick pitch they've ever seen. Evidently, it's got a sweeping, frisbee like left to right break with some nasty sink to it as it crosses the plate. I practically drool on my keyboard just reading about it.

Felix, BTW, likes to be called "El Cartuela" which evidently translates to "Bad Ass" or something like that. Let's just hope he doesn't hire Scott Borass as his agent...


Great article in Today's PI on Harris.

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/baseball/235566_miller06.html


And excerpt:

consider Jeff Harris.

This All-American kid out of Alameda, Calif., was born on the Fourth of July. He will make his first major league start tomorrow against the Chicago White Sox.

He's a 31-year-old rookie.

His résumé reads like a road map of nondescript towns: Elizabethton, Fort Wayne, Fort Myers, New Britain, Sun Cities and Chico. Then there's some exotica: Quebec, Taiwan and Mexico. He was the first North American to pitch in a pro league on mainland China.

He's been a Rock Cat, a Solar Sock, a Yaquis, a Railroadman and an Outlaw.

There has been continuity, though. Through it all, he's been a Dreamer.

That's sappy, no doubt. But hopefully it's still possible for baseball to make sentimental goose bumps rise. We haven't completely lost that, have we?

It's soooo easy to root for guys like this. Good luck Sunday, Jeff Harris!

 

[GRIZFAN20]

Snelling is out for the season with a possible knee ligament tear. Too bad, he was just starting to hit for power and this happens. Hopefully he can be healthy for spring training to get his job back.

 

[GrizBiz]

Snelling is out for the season with a possible knee ligament tear. Too bad, he was just starting to hit for power and this happens. Hopefully he can be healthy for spring training to get his job back.

Yeah, GrizBiz sunk into a depression with this news. I like the Aussie - good attitude, left handed and lightning quick wrists. Plus the guy has a Yoda doll that he carries with him and uses as a totem. Gotta like that.

Oh well - Bucky has been promoted to Tacoma and should be up soon. He'll be the new GrizBiz favorite player. Given the savage booing that the fans in Seattle unleashed on Spezio over the weekend, I'm guessing that Bucky will be DH'ing for the big club pretty soon. I've been watching/listening to M's games since '92 and have only heard boos like that back in the Bobby Ayala days. Yikes.

Spezio now has a batting average at something like 0.044. I'm not kidding, either. He went into the weekend hitting 0.055 and actually lowered his average by going 0-7. He has a chance of establishing the lowest batting average in history for a hitter that got at least 100 at bats in a season.


Sigh.