• Hi Guest, want to participate in the discussions, keep track of read/unread posts access private forums and more? Create your free account and increase the benefits of your eGriz.com experience today!

MY lineup for the Ms

BWahlberg

BWahlberg

Well-known member
DONOR
Yeah they won last night, but the hitting on this team stinks. The other thing I don't get is why Hargrove is sticking with leaving Beltre, Sexson & Everett in the middle of the order, these guys are stinking up the joint. (of the "regular" players these guys are on the bottom of the list in regards to BA.)

I don't care if they've got more power right now, if there's a guy on 2nd or 3rd in many cases a single will score a run, so to possibly improve scoring, here's how I would jumble the order;

1. Bloomquist - Many of the guys call him the best base runner in the leauge. And he's batting a .278 4th best on the team.

2. Ichiro - In many cases will be able to advance Willie around.

3. Ibanez - Just about the only right roster spot the Ms have right now, solid BA, not as much power numbers but gets the RBI's.

4. Jose Lopez - A future star, a decent BA, and is tied for the MOST homers on the team with a whopping 4.

5. Carl Everett - the other home run "leader" with 4. I would frequently sub in Matt Lawton as well, who has a much better BA, .328 vs Everett @ .221.

6. Kenji Jojima - Currently batting a .271, a lot better than the usual suspects that sit in the heart of the order.

7. Richie Sexson - Leads the team in Ks @ 35, was the power guy last year but had a poor BA as well, sink him near the bottom, you cannot rely on him consistently.

8 . YuBet - Could also drop him in leadoff on nights when Willie isn't playing, a solid hitter, a future star of this team.

9. Adrian Beltre - yeah, he's getting better, but a .221 avg, 1 HR and 9 RBIs doesn't speak volumes to me after a month of baseball.
 
Yeah, you've got to try and group all of the guys that are hitting together and hope that they can get some runs in. You've going to have some ugly, ugly innings with that lineup though. Of course, we've got some ugly, ugly innings now too. At least by grouping the hitters together you might get a good inning or two per night.

Bloomquist will revert to his .290 on base percentage soon enough. The guy has dropped what - 40 points in a little less than a week? He's never had problems when he is on base - his problem has always been actually getting there in the first place. It's a sad state of affairs when you want Bloomquist getting more at bats. I would not bat him first. Hell, I'd bat Crazy Carl first before I'd bat Willy there - at least Carl takes a walk once in a while.

I'd be tempted to stick Beltre in the #2 slot behind Ichiro. Lopez really got rolling in the #2 slot because he was seeing so many fastballs. Put Beltre and his new speed (seven stolen bases???) in the two hole, sandwiched between the two lefties - Ichiro and Ibanez and maybe he'd stop seeing so many low and away sliders. Then the lineup would look somethign like this:


Against Lefties:

Ichiro (L)
Beltre (R)
Ibanez (L)
Lopez (R)
Johjima (R)
Sexson (R)
Crazy Carl (L/R)
YuBet (R)
Bloomquist (R)

Against Righties:

Ichiro (L)
Beltre (R)
Ibanez (L)
Lopez (R)
Lawton (L)
Johjima (R)
Sexson (R)
Reed (L)
YuBet (R)


Still not inspiring, but I just want to see Hargrove do something.

On a positive note, Snelling will be coming off the DL and playing in Tacoma soon. He'll get his annual two week stint in the majors after that. We will all be able to marvel at his freakish bat speed and batting eye for a couple of weeks before Mr Glass breaks something else.
 
It's frustrating to watch the Ms again this year. Yesterday they get nine hits, give up only 4 and lose 2-0.

They are not taking enough base on balls, and they are certainly not bunching any hits. Beltre, Sexon and Everett have been a disaster in the middle of the order. The base running has not been good (although I do like the agression, there has been too many bad mistakes, like Lopez getting thrown out after rounding first too far yesterday). But the most frustrating thing is that they are not driving in runners from third with less than 2 outs.

On a good note, there are very good seats available at Safeco on a walk-up basis!
 
The problem with the M's offense is the utter lack of power. Nine or ten hits are great unless they are all singles. It's very, very tough to put crooked numbers up on the board by only hitting singles.

I agree on the lack of walks. The M's just don't seem to get it - a team loaded with free swinging, low on base percentage guys just doesn't get it done in the majors. The only guy that takes walks with any regularity is Everett and that's just because he doesn't have the bat speed to swing all that much.
 
GrizBiz, looking ahead and assuming that the Ms don't improve much, who do you see getting traded?

I'd like to see them dump one of their "big" signing guys, Sexson or Beltre. Where are they deeper in Tacoma at 3rd or 1st?

Also wonder if he wins another game or two how long Pinero will be a Mariner, I see a lot of teams might want him as a #2 or #3 starter (teams that stand a better chance to make it to the post-season).
 
We've got no one in Tacoma that you would want to see manning the infield corners. Dobbs is splitting time with a career minor leaguer named hunter Brown 3B and 1B is a mish-mash of guys, including Morse and Todd Sears. Morse may be proving the steroid rule - he's hitting below the Mendoza line with no power this year. Sears is another career minor leaguer. Ugh.

The best option we have is to probably move Lopez to 3B and promote a guy by the name of Asdrubal Cabrera. He's got Lopez's bat and his D is only a smidge worse than YuBet's. He jumped AA strait to AAA this year and hasn't missed a beat. Look at this line, as a 21 year old SS in AAA:

BA: .327; OBP: .450(!); SLG: .490 (!); OPS: .940 (!).

That's with missing a couple of weeks with an injury, too.

Of course, that means finding a trading partner for Beltre and let's be honest - if you were another team, would you want Adrian? The M's could probably swap bad contracts with someone but that doesn't get the team anywhere. Sexson might have some value but then the team would have to find a new 1B.

Other than Asdrubal, we've got a couple of outfielders that are close and a monster prospect that is the wild card. TJ Bohn is a big guy that plays all of the outfield positions, has a cannon for an arm, hits for a decent average, takes walks but has no real power. Shin Soo Choo is rebounding nicely this year, hitting .304 and slugging .473. He's a corner outfielder, though, so I'm not sure where you put the guy right now.

The wildcard is Adam Jones. The M's converted him from SS to CF in the off season, and like Asdrubal he skipped AA and went right to Tacoma. He's a little overmatched but is still hitting .263 and slugging .505 (!). He's striking out a lot and not walking much, which is actually uncharacteristic for him. Most people think that he'll adjust quite nicely and if he gets the hang of AAA this year, we might see him in Safeco by the end of the year.

Another wildcard is my boy, Chris Snelling. The guy seems to be made of glass but he's still the best hitter that the M's have in the system. Watch him come off the DL and hit .380 with power for Tacoma. Pray that he doesn't get hurt - his lefty swing is perfect for Safeco and if the M's can DH him to keep him healthy he could be a lefty Edgar. Yeah - he's that damn good. Seriously.


If no one saw, last year's first round pick Jeff Clement just went under the knife for surgeries on his knee and elbow. The knee is the more serious one - if the meniscus can't be fixed, his knee will be bone-on-bone and that means no catching career for him. The elbow is just bone chips and not thought to be serious.

Lower down in the minors, we've got some interesting hitters and some very, very exciting pitchers but they are all more than a year out. The exception might be the guy with my favorite name in the system now, Steven Kahn. Every time I hear his name I think of that Star Trek movie with Ricardo Montalbon as the villian Kahn. Kaaaaahhn! Anyway, the M's took a flyer on him in last year's draft - third or fourth round. He was a great college starter until his senior year, when he kind of fell on his ass. The M's converted him to a reliever and at high-A ball Inland Empire, he's put up this line:

12 appearances, 18.2 innings, 27 strikeouts (!), 7 walks, 8 hits and a 1.45 era.

The guy is suposedly nasty and should be promoted soon. He's pretty polished from his time in college, so he could advance quickly.


As far as who realistically goes from the current team? Ugh. I could see Everett, Petagine and Lawton getting dumped. Moyer could go somewhere if he wants - it's his call. I think that Piniero might stick around but Meche is done with the Mariners. Personally, I would trade Joel if the right offer came along. Teams like the Mets and Reds that are in it but not great teams might get desparate.
 
Snelling's first game back, in AAA Tacoma. They put him third in the linup. He goes 2/4 with a walk and knocks in the winning run in the 10th.

He always does this - it's like his swing never gets rusty.
 
Yeah - he can replace Petagine as designated bench warmer in Hargrove's house of horrors.

I swear that if the M's had a young player hitting .550 with 60 HR's in AAA and Bavasi promoted him to Seattle, the kid would sit behind a veteran hitting .218 with no power. If you can't tell, this coddling of veterans by Hargrove pisses me off.
 
I believe there was a recent article that even ran in the Missoulian titled: "Hargrove is coaching to lose his job" or something like that.

If you're trying to rebuild and establish your team on fresh faces and young talent why not get a coach that's like that. When was the last time Hargrove had a winning season, did he have one in Baltimore?

Dump him, build this team with a coach that isn't stuck in his was like Hargrove.
 
Dan Rohn is the man. He knows all of the young talent, has the fiery personality that a Seattle baseball team needs and the guy flat out knows how to win ballgames. The only downside is that he and Chaves have a reputation as being fairly brutal on pitchers. They seem to be a "they will make you or they will break you" duo - pitchers have either flamed out spectacularly or had major success with Rohn and Chaves calling the shots. I actually don't mind that - I'd rather have a pither flame out than see them coddled in the rotation for five years. Yeah, I'm talkin about you Mr Meche!
 
Damn... another frustrating game and a 1-0 loss... How do they do it?? On an off topic... Willie Bloomquists brother lives just north of Helena and guides on the Missouri... pretty nice guy...
 
Snelling's second game back, the opposing team didn't want any of him. He finished one for one with two walks and one hit-by-a-pitch. How can his bat speed, his batting eye and his strike zone judgement not suffer from time off due to injury? The kid is a freak.

In the post game interview, he complained about being rusty, said that is swing is "not right" and that he needs to start using his legs to drive the ball. Yo Chris, your OBP is almost .900 and two of your three hits have been doubles. Can't wait to see him once he knocks the rust off his swing.
 
Hmmm..... so what is Bobby Livingston doing on the roster, and WTF is he doing coming in at the time of a 1 run game. AND WHAT is Hargrove doing keeping him in that long?!?!?

I swear Hargrove is begging to be fired...
 
I went nuts when the M's hired Hargrove.....sure, he won an AL pennant in Cleveland, but managed to botch the series against Florida; Cleveland was stacked and he still couldn't get it done. When I first started going to M's games, I was typically among 7 or 8 thousand fans in the vacuous Kingdome; look at all the empty seats in Safeco. Seattle baseball fans are fickle....unlike dedicated fans in Wrigley and other places that fill the joint regardless of the team's performance.

About the only good thing this season so far is being able to take my son to a game pretty much whenever I want without having to get tickets in advance, fight for parking and then plod through a huge traffic jam to get home. Frankly, I'd rather have to scrap for tickets and fight the crowds.
 
Beltre...the heralded free agent signing....his 48 homers in LA will go down in history with lots of other 1-hit wonders.
 
Sad, sad days in Seattle but it is summer, there is baseball and life could be a lot worse. Heck, we could be KC fans!

My second favorite Aussie in the Mariner minor leagues, Travis Blackley, is rehabbing after shoulder surgery. This is a guy that dominated AAA at 19/20 and hit the bigs at 20 years old. The problem was, his shoulder was already messed up by the time he was promoted (2004) and he stank in a Mariner uni. He back now and pitching very well in AA. By all accounts, he is ahead of schedule and will be forcing the M's to promote him to AAA a good four or five months earlier than the anticipated.

I caught this little tidbit on Blackley on the great propect insider blog that Churchill recently started.




One opposing hitter now in the Pacific Coast League offered this assessment, under complete anonymity:
"I don't want to be here when Blackley comes up. I just hate facing him. I rarely strike out against him but that [bleeper] seems to know exactly what I'm expecting and not only throw the opposite speed but to the opposite location. And it's always too close to take. I hate him. I hate Travis Blackley. Unless I'm on his team some day, I'll just go on hating him.

"He stares at you like he's John Wayne and the hitter is the drunken loser who just robbed an old lady of her last nickel. You just want to throw your bat at him or something. Or maybe I'll get traded to Seattle 'cause I'm taking the day off if I come back to Tacoma and he's on the mound. He ruins my whole approach and it effects my thought process for days. I know of a couple of our guys that feel the same way, though they may not admit it.

"I'm not afraid to admit it; he's got my number… and my address and social security number, too. But I'm not alone."
Click to expand...




What the Mariners need most, aside from a Hargrove firing and Rohn promotion, is some damn attitude. Too many of the guys on this current Mariner's squad look like they just don't give a damn. What the Mariners need is some Aussie attitude. Here's hoping that Blackley and Snelling are the guys to give it to them.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Latest posts

Back
Top