Jeff Clement Back To Tacoma

by Jeff Sullivan on May 18, 2008 4:10 PM PDT in Seattle Mariners News, Good

No word yet on who's coming up. The best-case scenario is Jeremy Reed at LF and Raul Ibanez at DH, while the worst case scenario is Bryan Lahair at anything.

Bavasi had his reasons for promoting Clement when he did, but he was striking out entirely too often and just didn't look very comfortable, so he's heading down to AAA for more seasoning. Which will give us that additional year of team control we feared we had lost a few weeks ago. And I think that has to be considered good news.

See you soon, Jeff.

Update: sounds like Reed, although we don't know what his role would be. Presumably something stupid.

Update #2: Something stupid indeed.

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Reed deserves a shot

He’s still at best a 4th outfielder in the league, but it’s not like the Mariners need another 1B/DH. Plus if this gets the Mariners to actually DH Raul that’s even better.

by nfreakct on May 18, 2008 4:17 PM PDT reply actions

Yeah...

We DH’d Raul today, and look what happened.

We won. Granted, WFB was in his spot…
but it’s the idea.

Maybe someone is taking notes.

by lyleleander on May 18, 2008 4:28 PM PDT up reply actions

LaHair was in the lineup. Reed was not.

I had been wondering why it looked like they had shuffled the catchers around for the D-Jaxx game today. Now we know.

"Ever tried? Ever failed? No matter. Try again. Fail again. Fail better." - Samuel Beckett http://mvn.com/milb-mariners/

by JY on May 18, 2008 4:19 PM PDT reply actions

Reed was in Seattle today.

by Matthew on May 18, 2008 4:19 PM PDT up reply actions

Not just in Seattle...

... in the Mariners clubhouse

"Ever tried? Ever failed? No matter. Try again. Fail again. Fail better." - Samuel Beckett http://mvn.com/milb-mariners/

by JY on May 18, 2008 4:20 PM PDT up reply actions

Woot

by Fin on May 18, 2008 4:25 PM PDT up reply actions

This is a fantastic move

I’m sure it will be counter-balanced by stupidity tomorrow when we find out who gets called up and where that person is going to play.

Keep an eye on: Feierabend with Batista or Wash to the D/L.

by Matthew on May 18, 2008 4:19 PM PDT reply actions

soon I mean, that's unrelated to the Clement demotion.

by Matthew on May 18, 2008 4:20 PM PDT up reply actions

I'm trying to figure out why they took him out after 3IP in his last start

to save him for the big club, or just a precaution…

by marc w on May 19, 2008 10:09 AM PDT up reply actions

Was he looking bad?

He gave up some offense in those 3 innings.

by Gomez on May 19, 2008 10:44 AM PDT up reply actions

No, what happened was

he got hit with a line drive through the box.
It didn’t hit HIM, per se – it actually hit his glove. I think that had more to do with it than his poor showing; he wasn’t THAT bad. Still, it sounded like the ‘injury’ wasn’t serious at all. At the time, I thought it didn’t really make sense to take him out, but if they want him ready to come up, well, that would supply some context for that decision that I didn’t have at the time.

by marc w on May 19, 2008 3:37 PM PDT up reply actions

Dude, that's the 2nd time this season someone's taken a line drive in Tacoma

by Gomez on May 20, 2008 2:31 PM PDT up reply actions

Vidro back to DH

From the tacoma tribune blog: “Manager John McLaren said Jose Vidro will return to the starting DH role. Vidro delivered a key pinch single in the eighth in Sunday’s game that helped fuel the Mariners’ game-winning rally.”

meh. so much for a ‘dream’ combo of ibanez DH/reed LF

by AtomicGarden on May 18, 2008 4:27 PM PDT reply actions

Well there's the something stupid

by Jeff Sullivan on May 18, 2008 4:31 PM PDT up reply actions

With Reed up though, maybe it'll take a week of Vidro sucking until they take him out of the line up

or am I being too optimistic?

by Fin on May 18, 2008 4:34 PM PDT up reply actions

Maybe not

The Mariners have actually shown this season, if something isn’t working, they’re going to fuck around with it. A lot of the decisions they made have been somewhat… iffy, but at least they have consistently tried to shake it up. I guess that’s a good thing.

by AtomicGarden on May 18, 2008 4:37 PM PDT up reply actions

When Clement came up they believed Vidro was benchable

since that day, Vidro has hit .200.

Now he’s starting again.

by Jeff Sullivan on May 18, 2008 4:42 PM PDT up reply actions

It's that damn vesting option

If they don’t give him a shot at it he’ll probably go to the Union and/or the media and raise holy hell, and it’d probably rip up the clubhouse.

by Gomez on May 18, 2008 6:03 PM PDT up reply actions

It would be so horrible to do that to our amazing team chemistry

...and now I'm here

by CapSea on May 18, 2008 6:31 PM PDT up reply actions

Not a good argument

Vidro was already technically benched.

by Jeff Sullivan on May 18, 2008 6:32 PM PDT up reply actions

I'm not saying it's a good argument, because it's a stupid argument

by Gomez on May 18, 2008 7:24 PM PDT up reply actions

How could he do that?

If you build an option into the contract based on plate appearances, it kind of indirectly states that the player has to play well enough to earn the plate appearances. If he doesn’t perform, he doesn’t play, his option doesn’t vest. Plate appearances can be a performance-based incentive.

Yesterday's Pants
A blog-thingy about the Mariners and stuff.

by BrettJMiller on May 18, 2008 6:48 PM PDT up reply actions

He would have a pretty crappy case for raising a stink

Because his performance has been god awful

by OlSalty on May 18, 2008 7:22 PM PDT up reply actions

Could that mean a Wlad/Reed platoon in right?

"Ever tried? Ever failed? No matter. Try again. Fail again. Fail better." - Samuel Beckett http://mvn.com/milb-mariners/

by JY on May 18, 2008 4:38 PM PDT up reply actions

As long as Raul is here

I don’t forsee a situation where they take Raul off the field because of the whole “Raul prefers playing on the field” thing.

With that said, I think we will see more similar things like today. Instead of Willie = LF and Raul = DH, we’ll see Reed out there.

I’m not bothered by Vidro getting the start again cause I know it will only last as long as he’s hitting. Thanks to lineup construction, they don’t exactly have a lineup that keeps Vidro on the bench. They need to take what they can get at this point.

by ThundaPC on May 18, 2008 4:49 PM PDT up reply actions

I thought Raul was open to DHing.

I think the problem is that the Mariners either simply don’t think he’s that bad, or that LF defense barely matters.

by JI on May 18, 2008 4:50 PM PDT up reply actions

I am hoping they become somewhat competitive again

and they see more of an need for outfield defense.

by Fin on May 18, 2008 4:52 PM PDT up reply actions

I hope Raul strians a hamstring.

by JI on May 18, 2008 4:53 PM PDT up reply actions

Raul was the starting DH in 2005.

Raul told Geoff Baker that he thought he was going to be the DH this year last offseason.

Yesterday's Pants
A blog-thingy about the Mariners and stuff.

by BrettJMiller on May 18, 2008 4:55 PM PDT up reply actions

Argh...

"Manager John McLaren said Jose Vidro will return to the starting DH role. Vidro delivered a key pinch single in the eighth in Sunday’s game that helped fuel the Mariners’ game-winning rally."

Fans are typically idiots.

by The Typical Idiot Fan on May 19, 2008 1:25 AM PDT up reply actions

I imagine Reed with be the new Jimerson

he might get a little more playing time, but who knows.

One thing that makes me optimistic is that Mac did give Reed some decent playing time last September.

FREE JEREMY REED!!

by MFAN on May 18, 2008 4:28 PM PDT reply actions

Stoopid.

Favor the Bold

by IcebreakerX on May 18, 2008 4:38 PM PDT reply actions

They're going to let Vidro's option vest, aren't they?

He’s going to get the 400 or 450 At Bats he needs for that 8 million dollar pay day next year. Crapsticks and weaksauce.

Coldly devouring reason as if it were a delectable snack

by Frosty Raptor on May 18, 2008 4:41 PM PDT reply actions

I'm going with....

Not a chance.

by PLU Tim on May 18, 2008 4:43 PM PDT up reply actions

This is good....

It was a nice experiment to see if the team could make up some games, but it’s pretty clear that unless a miracle happens, this team is toast. May as well get back that year of service time.

Predicting anything with this team is folly though. I’d bet my house that WFB or Cairo will be the starting LF while Reed becomes the 4th outfielder. They never seem to do what makes sense.

by PLU Tim on May 18, 2008 4:43 PM PDT reply actions