Monday, April 11, 2005
This Week: Kansas City
Today, 1:05 PM: Ryan Franklin (0-0, 2.25) vs. Runelvys Hernandez (1-0, 1.29)
Tuesday: Off. Whah???
Wednesday, 11:10 AM: Aaron Sele (0-0, 6.35) vs. Zach Greinke (0-0, 0.00)
Thursday, 11:10 AM: Jamie Moyer (1-0, 2.45) vs. Denny Bautista (1-0, 1.13)
Thanks to the scheduling geniuses at work for Major League Baseball this season, instead of a typical Monday off day to travel halfway across the continent, the Mariners instead are off on Tuesday. For the players on the team that are fans of the delicious Kansas City barbecues, this is fantastic news, as Tuesday certainly provides ample opportunity to glutton it up. Granted, it's the best barbecue in the world (apologies to Texas and North Carolina, but that's just the way it is), but that's quite a tradeoff for starting a roadtrip with a 1:05 PM start time. Scheduling also has resulted in a three game series of radio-only broadcasts, which is unfortunate because I really wanted to see it with my own eyes when Calvin Pickering hits the first 600-foot home run in baseball history.
For the Texas series, I predicted all three games incorrectly, but I'm not going to let a minor setback like that get me down. Stay the course:
Today: Ryan Franklin is pitching. I think we all know where this will lead. Pete made an interesting point in Friday's comments, which I'll reprint here:
"What do you do in this situation? Root for Franklin to do well, thus lengthening his time as a starter, or root for him to bust quickly and spectacularly?"
To be honest, I don't know how I feel about today's game. I like Ryan Franklin. By all accounts, he's a great human being, and everyone on the team seems to like him. He's just not that great of a pitcher. I suppose the best thing that could happen would be that Franklin makes about ten starts with an ERA of about 3.75 or so, thus giving him some trade value. He goes to a contender, we get a decent prospect or a good reliever in return, and Franklin receives a warm reception every time he returns to Safeco Field.
Unfortunately, I just don't see all that unfolding.
Wednesday: Their Pitcher of the Future, Zach Greinke against Aaron Sele. As far as Pitchers of the Future go, you could do a lot worse than Greinke, but King Felix he is not. Sele will once again Coug it, but much like in his last start, the M's will prevail in the end.
Thursday: I'm sensing big things out of Denny Bautista this year, in my Insane Hunch of the Week. I have no data to back this up. PECOTA isn't being too kind, predicting a 50th-percentile ERA of 4.80. He's got all the tools though... to lose to Moyer 6-2.
So, look for the M's to take two of three from arguably the worst franchise in the game.
ROYALS LINKS:
Rob and Rany. This is Rob Neyer's Royals blog. Neyer, as far as humans go, is pretty smart. Start here.
Royals Court. Good site, updated often, but there's some design quirk where the right part of the text is covered by the links. They could have written the defining baseball article of the decade, and I wouldn't know because it was covered by a "Search Our Archives" box. Too bad.
Tuesday: Off. Whah???
Wednesday, 11:10 AM: Aaron Sele (0-0, 6.35) vs. Zach Greinke (0-0, 0.00)
Thursday, 11:10 AM: Jamie Moyer (1-0, 2.45) vs. Denny Bautista (1-0, 1.13)
Thanks to the scheduling geniuses at work for Major League Baseball this season, instead of a typical Monday off day to travel halfway across the continent, the Mariners instead are off on Tuesday. For the players on the team that are fans of the delicious Kansas City barbecues, this is fantastic news, as Tuesday certainly provides ample opportunity to glutton it up. Granted, it's the best barbecue in the world (apologies to Texas and North Carolina, but that's just the way it is), but that's quite a tradeoff for starting a roadtrip with a 1:05 PM start time. Scheduling also has resulted in a three game series of radio-only broadcasts, which is unfortunate because I really wanted to see it with my own eyes when Calvin Pickering hits the first 600-foot home run in baseball history.
For the Texas series, I predicted all three games incorrectly, but I'm not going to let a minor setback like that get me down. Stay the course:
Today: Ryan Franklin is pitching. I think we all know where this will lead. Pete made an interesting point in Friday's comments, which I'll reprint here:
"What do you do in this situation? Root for Franklin to do well, thus lengthening his time as a starter, or root for him to bust quickly and spectacularly?"
To be honest, I don't know how I feel about today's game. I like Ryan Franklin. By all accounts, he's a great human being, and everyone on the team seems to like him. He's just not that great of a pitcher. I suppose the best thing that could happen would be that Franklin makes about ten starts with an ERA of about 3.75 or so, thus giving him some trade value. He goes to a contender, we get a decent prospect or a good reliever in return, and Franklin receives a warm reception every time he returns to Safeco Field.
Unfortunately, I just don't see all that unfolding.
Wednesday: Their Pitcher of the Future, Zach Greinke against Aaron Sele. As far as Pitchers of the Future go, you could do a lot worse than Greinke, but King Felix he is not. Sele will once again Coug it, but much like in his last start, the M's will prevail in the end.
Thursday: I'm sensing big things out of Denny Bautista this year, in my Insane Hunch of the Week. I have no data to back this up. PECOTA isn't being too kind, predicting a 50th-percentile ERA of 4.80. He's got all the tools though... to lose to Moyer 6-2.
So, look for the M's to take two of three from arguably the worst franchise in the game.
ROYALS LINKS:
Rob and Rany. This is Rob Neyer's Royals blog. Neyer, as far as humans go, is pretty smart. Start here.
Royals Court. Good site, updated often, but there's some design quirk where the right part of the text is covered by the links. They could have written the defining baseball article of the decade, and I wouldn't know because it was covered by a "Search Our Archives" box. Too bad.
Comments:
Yeah, you don't write anything for two months and some jerk takes your link away!
And I was in no way poo-pooing Zach Greinke. He's just no King is all.
And I was in no way poo-pooing Zach Greinke. He's just no King is all.
Put is this way, when you say the names out loud, which one sounds like the better baseball player:
Zak' Gren'kee
Fee'liks Her-nan'dez
Zak' Gren'kee
Fee'liks Her-nan'dez
What would Brian Boitano do? He'd look at 50th percentile 2005 PECOTA projections:
Greinke: 146 innings, 4.20 EqERA
Hernandez: 78 innings, 4.34 EqERA
And then Brian Boitano, finding that the PECOTA data does not reinforce his position, would say that Felix Hernandez is two years younger and posted better strikeout numbers in the minors and that Pete can take his Zach Greinke and stick it somewhere smelly!
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Greinke: 146 innings, 4.20 EqERA
Hernandez: 78 innings, 4.34 EqERA
And then Brian Boitano, finding that the PECOTA data does not reinforce his position, would say that Felix Hernandez is two years younger and posted better strikeout numbers in the minors and that Pete can take his Zach Greinke and stick it somewhere smelly!