Peabody: Life, Friends Baseball

Both the beat guy and the columnist have pounded the drum for a trade or trades. This morning Larry Stone invoked the magic of 95, rubbing the belly of Seattle’s baseball hoi toi. He talked of the Andy Benes trade which cost the Ms two number one picks for ten games and threw in a couple of other terrible trades. He should have talked about Heathcliff Slocumb in 97, where the Ms traded Jason Veritek and Derek Lowe, the latter who is still rubbing the Ms nose in it…being part of the Brave’s sweep.

How close are the M’s? Could they win it? Since Larry Stone brought up the 95 team, let’s look at the two lineups and see how the team’s contrast:

Catcher Dan Wilson vs Miguel Olivo edge to 95. 1b Tino Martinez vs Justin Smoak edge to 95. 2b Joey Cora vs Dustin Ackley edge to 95 barely. 3b Mike Blowers vs Figgins/Kennedy edge to 95. ss Luis Sojo vs Brendan Ryan edge to 11. lf Vince Coleman vs Various edge to 95. cf Ken Griffey, Jr. vs Franklin Gutierrez edge to 95. rf Jay Buhner vs Ichiro edge to 95. dh Edgar Martinez versus Various edge to 95. sp Randy Johnson vs Felix Hernandez edge to 95. sp Tim Belcher vs Michael Pineda edge to 11. sp Andy Benes versus Eric Bedard edge to 95. sp Chris Bosio versus Doug Fister edge to 11. sp Various versus Jason Vargas edge to 11. Setup Bill Risley versus Chris Ray edge to 95. Closer Norm Charlton versus Brandon League edge to 11.

This is meant to give perspective. The 95 team was the coming out for a team that should have won a World Series sometime between 95 and 99, but for the cheapness of the owners and a lack of pitching to augment Randy Johnson. Alex Rodriguez sat the bench at the end of 95, they played Felix Fermin and then Sojo at ss, because they traded away Omar Vizquel a hall of fame ss because they wanted Arod to play short stop.

The talent on the 95 team was enormous. Nobody except Lou Piniella and Woody Woodward knew it in April of 1995.

This 2011 team is all about pitching and defense. In 2013 players that should be playing and playing better include Justin Smoak, Dustin Ackley and Brendan Ryan. Juries still out on Carlos Peguero and Greg Halman. Olivo will 34 and probably done. They need players to develop to the point that they can hit 3,4 and 5 in the lineup. It is just not there now.

If you trade away people from the last two drafts you gut this team top to bottom and it is where it was when they fired Bavasi. They are not going to get someone that is a credible three, four or five hitter and they are going to arrest the development they have going on now.

This ownership ties salary to ticket sales and marketing bs, not baseball performance. They are paying a guy the better part of $20 million to play rf and he is and has been the worst offensive right fielder in the division for several years. They think he sells tickets. They don’t want to rely on a good team to sell tickets, they want to rely on bobbleheads and posters and other promotional stuff.

$90 million payroll is not bad. It is tied up in Ichiro, Milton Bradley, Jack Wilson and Chone Figgins which accounts for $45 million, give or take a million here or there. Felix is another $11 million, so $33 million to spread around twenty guys puts the team at maybe the cheapest payroll in baseball through twenty guys, not counting the first five, of whom Felix is holding up his end of the deal.

Net net, the underlying question posed by Baker-Stone is will some trades, that gut the Mariners system get this team to the World Series? The answer is no, they are not remotely close.

I will keep an eye on the Mariners as they seek to plug the hole in the good ship Mariner by taking three from the Padres.

Mostly I will be watching some great summer baseball in a tournament up in Port Angeles, Washington.

Players from all over the state, will convene to compete. Lots of families camp out up there, still others gather at the camp sites for some great times and great food.

Here is something that can travel with you and be a great pleaser for hungry ballplayers:

Baked Black Pot Jambalaya

2 c Uncooked long grain rice
1/2 c Margarine — melted
1/2 c Vegetable cooking oil
2 c Onions — chopped
1 Bell pepper — chopped
4 Cloves garlic — minced
6 c Meat: either chicken or
Shrimp or
Oysters or crawfish or salt
Meat Or sausage
1/2 c Whole tomato — squeezed
3 c Chicken broth
1 tb Worcestershire sauce
4 tb Louisiana hot sauce
1 tb Kitchen Bouquet
3 ts Salt
1 ts Cayenne pepper
1/4 Stick sweet cream butter –
Melted
1/2 c Green onions — sliced
4 tb Parsley — minced

In a 5 quart cast iron Dutch oven, mix rice and melted margarine
together thorougly, making sure all rice is coated. In a 12 inch
heavy aluminum skillet, heat the cooking oil over high heat and Saute
the onions, bell pepper and garlic until they start to brown. Drop in
meats and fry them along with the seasonings. Mix the meats and
Sauteed vegetables into the raw rice, and toss in the remaining
ingredients, except the green onions and parsley. Pour in the butter
and mix everything together until well blended. Cover the Dutch oven
tightly and bake at 375 for 45 minutes. Toss in green onions and
parsley, stir the jambalaya to mix all the ingredients, cover the pot
and continue to bake for another 15 minutes or until the rice is
tender and flaky.

Serve with lots of hot sauce.

Recipe source: Louisiana Oyster Festival; July 14-16, 1995.

Enjoy!

For June the Mariners started well. As each week passed they have got worse and worse.

In week one they scored twenty nine runs in seven games or slightly more than four runs per game. That was the best week. It is deceptive though, because they scored eight runs, then seven runs and nine runs in games on June 2, 2011 and seven the next day and nine runs on June 5, 2011. The other four days they scored one run in three games and two runs in one game. Those games are not usually ones a team wins.

They played seven games in week two and scored twenty runs or an average of three point one runs per game. Again there three one run games and a three runner.

In week three they scored fifteen runs in five games or three per game. Ms were shut out in one game scored one in another and scored three twice and four once.

In the fourth week they scored fifteen runs again, but spread it out over seven games for an average of just over two runs per game. One shut out, two one runners, two two runners and a four spot in the last game of the week.

On the 29th day of the month they have struggled to get one run through seven innings. It is just a process that the players have to go through, the younger ones that is to get better.

The process is painful. You can’t win games when you score two or less runs per game as a general statement. The Ms so far this month have fourteen of those and are about to add to that total today.

What do we do with Bedard, are we facing a dilemma, oh my God what do we do? Well, Steve Kelley of Seattle Times says if we are in it keep him, if not trade him for some suspects.

However improbably, the Mariners are hanging around this thing three games out of first. There are a number of things to consider and we will look at most of the ones I can remember. But first lets look at this offense, halfway through the season:

The Mariners are last in the league in runs scored. Same as last year, 513 in 10 and projecting 555, an increase of 42 runs a game. Unchanged as to roster the projection I think is a little over stated. The runs totals for the Ms are higher due to some high scoring games in the first five weeks or so. There has not been one of those in a long time. Save to say, the number will be closer to 513. All other things equal.

What to make of that? Lots of young players this year versus retreads last year. Doing good in some cases, not so good in others. In order for all of them to succeed they need a couple of full years of at bats. 900 or more.

Well let us talk about this? We know the Mariners will not drop a penny into the mix now. So they will not try to win it by adding proven players, much as it has been under Lincoln. He wants his bonus.

The alternative is to keep flogging the existing roster to compete and why not?

Nobody is going to trade much of a prospect for Eric Bedard, God love him. For the first time he’s healthy and can pitch and has great stuff. He and the rest of the starters and most of the relievers are why the team is in competition along with a reasonably good defense up the middle. We would get some suspects in return for him.

A bunch of these kids by June or July a year from now will start to really pound the ball.

Zduriencik has to maneuver between the sacred cow of a declining Ichiro, a long contract to Figgins and keep Felix here. When this team can score 650 runs, it will be very competitive with this pitching staff. Trade one when you have another starter to replace him. That is not the case right now.

Long term they need way more punch out of the outfield, collectively there is nothing happening there at all. Hallman has performed far better than all the local sabre gurus thought he would but does not play much and Peguero can’t hit a fastball due to his swing mechanics…which can be fixed. There are more coming hopefully.

Don’t panic and throw the process away as has happened here for ten years. Yes I know he’s on the DL, but don’t trade him…

Geoff Baker is channeling Shannon Drayer who reported earlier that the Mariners will not add to payroll for acquiring somebody who might hit.

Early on this spring I posted several times regarding how uncommitted this ownership group is to winning baseball. The barrel that they put Jack Zduriencik is that they tie up twenty percent of their budget in a player that does not contribute much to the baseball success, but who Chuck Gump and Lizard Lincoln love because they think he’s a draw for seat sales.

They are drawing fans now but its because despite the worst offense in baseball they are competing. Chuck and Lizard don’t get it.

So the GM is forced to risk what he has going in the way of momentum throughout the organization by trading some of it away…He’s a year away from having surplus in the system and maybe two years.

The absolutely corrupt face that this ownership puts forward in those two guys hampers the value inherent to this franchise. I was going to call them leeches but I thought was too strong and folks might think bad of me, so I refrained.

From downtown Moses Lake in the no tell motel watching the Ms come back and surge ahead on some super small ball and Franklin Gutierrez two out rbi single.

Moses Lake and Ephrata to watch some summer baseball, best of the 18 year olds in the county playing for Post 245…Great game in the morning and we won going away and were close until the bottom of sixth in the night cap. Back at it tomorrow.

Seventy five degrees, slight breeze, really a great high school field, with home made ice tea and lemonade. Some really good players and pitchers on the competition…college coaches watching kids…

I love the Ms but you ought to get out and see some games this summer. great stuff.

In today’s Times, Geoff Baker urges, even scolds the Mariners resident sphinx and GM Jack Zduriencik to make a move….So the Ms can win this year.

To this point Zduriencik has been Mandrake the Magician. Moving talent up in the organization, giving them a shot. This franchise has been in the toilet for eight years, largely due to the business side of the organization dominating decisions about building the team resources, i.e. players from the Major League team to Everett. Its very, very short sided and foolish to divert from what he is doing.

Who do they trade? One of the starting pitchers? One of the better minor league guys? How about Ichiro? It is nothing but fool’s gold.

Stay the course.

RK PLAYER TEAM OPS
1 Alex Avila DET 0.905
2 Mike Napoli TEX 0.836
3 Jose Molina TOR 0.831
4 Carlos Santana CLE 0.773
5 Russell Martin NYY 0.75
6 J Saltalamacchia BOS 0.741
7 J.P. Arencibia TOR 0.728
8 A.J. Pierzynski CHW 0.704
9 Matt Wieters BAL 0.704
10 Brayan Pena KC 0.702
11 Jason Varitek BOS 0.692
12 Miguel Olivo SEA 0.691
13 Ramon Castro CHW 0.678
14 Hank Conger LAA 0.664
15 Matt Treanor KC 0.656
16 Yorvit Torrealba TEX 0.655
17 Kurt Suzuki OAK 0.638
18 John Jaso TB 0.633
19 Kelly Shoppach TB 0.624
20 Landon Powell OAK 0.602
21 Lou Marson CLE 0.597
22 Rene Rivera MIN 0.532
23 Jeff Mathis LAA 0.507
24 F Cervelli NYY 0.501
25 Joe Mauer MIN 0.495
26 Drew Butera MIN 0.469

So this is the whole league, not just the AL West. AL West players have bolded teams. Olivo is second in the division, 13th in the league. Keep your eyes on Hank Conger, he will be great.

I talked to a former National League team pitching coach about closers recently…some of his remarks are very much unquant kind of stuff, mentality and emotion and so let me just kind of send this out.

1. Brittle and fragile are two of the adjectives most frequently used.
2. Don’t use closers in non-closing situations. They can’t go into a situation un-amped, if they do and the thing catches on fire, they can’t summon the emotions mid-appearance.
3. Outside of injury in the immediate don’t put setup guys into closing situation.
4. What to do if closer goes down to arm injury or head injury. Lie to the rest of the staff and say its by committee. Then hope one emerges from the group.
5. Where to go if replacement closer does not show up. Look in minor system for gas throwing starter who has no command of a second or third pitcher and put him to work or hims to work.

Outside of that number two is very critical.

Four out of the top five hitters are rookies or second year in the case of Smoakie. Two released guys and a pitcher are in front of Ichiro, but he’s climbing. Don’t go to the bottom of the chart if you don’t want to see how bad Figgins and Gutierrez are doing. Hint Figgins is not the worst hitter.

Name OPS

Ackley 1.000
Halman .985
Smoak .846
Kennedy .737
Peguero .692
Olivo .686
Cust .677
Bradley .669
Bedard .667
Langerhans .664
Ichiro .660
Ryan .622
Carp .618
Rodriguez .562
Gimenez .540
Wilson .531
Moore .500
Figgins .500
Gutierrez .474

Baseball must be alive and well in the People’s Republic.

Got an email from the following email:

u.frosleafren@gmail.be 4.71.200.57

The good folks at google helped me find the email as one from China!

No state secrets here.