15-14, What You Need To Know

by Jeff Sullivan on May 7, 2009 5:40 PM PDT in Seattle Mariners Game Recaps

Brian Bannister came in having missed ten bats over 290 pitches. Today he missed 14 over 105. One of the league's top contact offenses found a way to swing and miss 14 times against Brian flipping Bannister. Considering we missed but once against Sidney Ponson yesterday afternoon, this was a whole new way to not score. Zduriencik and the rest of the management aren't stupid. They have to know we need a left-handed bat. With luck, Rob Johnson will be Yelping about Tacoma-area restaurants in no time.

Jarrod Washburn, meanwhile, did it again, walking none and fanning five over seven strong innings. He even kept 13 of 21 balls in play on the ground for good measure. His 17.5% strikeout rate is the highest it's ever been. The man is pitching his ass off. Arguably the biggest key to his success to far has been his performance against lefties; they've hit just .146 against him in 41 at bats, with a 14/0 K/BB. Righties have posed a bit of a problem, but when you're dominating same-handed hitters like that, you usually don't find yourself in too many jams. Regardless of whether or not any element of his performance is sustainable, we couldn't have asked any more of Washburn over his first six starts, and his pitching like this improves our odds of either staying competitive or getting something shiny in return for him this summer.

Ronny Cedeno's day on the field: 0-3, three swinging strikeouts, a crippling error, and a sitting in favor of Yuniesky Betancourt in a big spot in the ninth. It's never a good sign when the guy you're replacing because he's been an off-the-charts nightmare replaces you with the game on the line. The team's smart enough not to judge Cedeno by his first appearance in two weeks, but this was a terrible way for him to try and earn a bigger share of the playing time. He didn't look the least bit ready.

By the way, Yuni didn't just draw a walk - he walked on six pitches after falling behind 0-2 on a pair of fouls against one of the best relievers in baseball. At this point you could tell me you watched a glowing bald eagle poop a treasure chest onto the hood of your car and I'd just ask "where does it lead?"

Rob Johnson is now OPS'ing .524 after 54 at bats. The difference between his slump and Adrian Beltre's is that I actually have confidence that Beltre will work his way out of it. Call up Jeff Clement. Call him up! Right now! Even if he only repeats what he did last year, over 300 PAs that's still a 14-run improvement at the plate over what Johnson's doing. Rob Johnson sucks, and just because most of the rest of the lineup is sucking as well doesn't mean he deserves the same chance to break out of it. Because guess what? He won't.

Wladimir Balentien on the season (estimated): 70% ZSwing%, 24% OSwing%, 77% contact. Wladimir Balentien a year ago: 65% ZSwing%, 31% OSwing, 70% contact. He's not going to keep up his current .371 BABIP, and as such he's not as good as his batting line would suggest, but based on the numbers so far it would appear that his plate discipline has taken a real substantial step forward. And as you can imagine, that's potentially excellent news for a team that could use a little more offense. I wouldn't mind if Endy barely saw any lefties for the rest of the season. In the right role, Wlad can be useful, and the right role is there for the taking.

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I still have a logical problem with the Clement issue.

The only reason he can possibly be in the minors is his lack of defensive ability.

Don Wakamatsu appears to understand the value of defense.

Rob Johnson is not a good defender. Maybe he has a little more value then Clement defensively, but c’mon.

Rob Johnson has been an abject disaster offensively, to the tune of roughly a .234 wOBA.

Clement would have to be mildly quadriplegic to sniff offensive production that bad.

Therefore, the organization has to be zero attention to the Sabermetricians in the org, or worse, highly value Rob’s supposed intangibles. I don’t like those ideas.

by abender20 on May 7, 2009 5:55 PM PDT reply actions

Dang.

Knew this would happen after I wrote my piece in the chart thread.

But yea, on Rob Johnson. Not sure how much more I can take. How much farther does “he calls a good game” take him? If they have to have him up here he can’t be hogging up half the playing time. His offense contributes nothing and it’s not likely to get better. At this rate, I don’t see how Clement is unsuitable for the job. He’s shown he can hit and is a lefty bat that we can use right about now.

Either way, Johnson’s playing time should either be heavily scaled back or eliminated completely.

by ThundaPC on May 7, 2009 5:59 PM PDT reply actions

Yes.

Here’s the thing about Clement. Grant him that he sucks at catcher and is unlikely to stick there longterm. He can still actually play it right now. Not well, but he is certainly miles better offense+defense than Rob Johnson. And beyond that, he offers the left-handed bonus.

by Matthew on May 7, 2009 6:00 PM PDT reply actions

Forgive me if this has been asked and answered but what's ZSwing%?

by Mariner John on May 7, 2009 6:03 PM PDT reply actions

How often a batter swings at pitches in the strike zone.

Z = in zone
O = out of zone

by Matthew on May 7, 2009 6:06 PM PDT up reply actions

I guess I could've figured that out.

by Mariner John on May 7, 2009 6:12 PM PDT up reply actions

Is a higher ZSwing necessarily a good thing?

someone like Yuni could do to swing at less in general, including strikes he’s just going to pop out on

by seattlebruin on May 7, 2009 7:48 PM PDT up reply actions

It's hard to fault Yuni for swinging at pitches down the middle.

It’s easy to fault Yuni for popping up pitches down the middle. I try to separate the two, because his lack of ability to discern what is good to swing at and his lack of ability to do anything with hittable pitches are two completely different gripes. It’s one thing to pick on Griffey for not getting around on fastballs, but at least he has a discerning eye. Yuni is just an inexcusable mess. If he had Vlad-like ability to square up everything, his swingyness would be less disgusting. He sucks to the power of two (offensively, anyway).

by abender20 on May 7, 2009 8:18 PM PDT up reply actions

The rate at which a player wife-swaps with Jack Zduriencik.

by Vatinius on May 7, 2009 6:06 PM PDT up reply actions 11 recs

Why so rec'-able?

You got slurved bitch.

by Slurvey on May 7, 2009 6:10 PM PDT up reply actions

Seriously. Is this guy even human?

by .Taylor on May 7, 2009 6:25 PM PDT up reply actions

What, no Photoshop?

You’re slacking dude. Rec’d for awesomeness nonetheless.

"I do not buy numbers defensively. At all," Amaro said. "I look at fielding percentage. But that other business? I don’t buy it a lick."

by Big Jared on May 8, 2009 2:52 AM PDT up reply actions

I love Shannon Drayer

“Two On, Now what?”

by ThundaPC on May 7, 2009 6:18 PM PDT reply actions

This is the only Drayer post in which I've noticed any glaring errors in grammar and style - and there's many of them. I think she was drinking while she wrote it.

Of course, she truly loves this team, so I can hardly blame her.

by Decatur on May 7, 2009 6:30 PM PDT up reply actions

I've noticed others.

Multiple times I’ve noticed the wrong form of to/too/two or their/there/they’re. I don’t really mind though, she gets paid to be on the radio, her blog is just bonus content.

I'm more like I am now than I've ever been.

by ralphie81 on May 7, 2009 11:18 PM PDT up reply actions

I two (sic) have noticed.

Your (sic) right. Her blog is bonus content.

Waiting to spit out the "Doublemint Twins".

by Sinking Away on May 7, 2009 11:35 PM PDT up reply actions

Oh I don't mind either. Her blog's terrific at all times.

Just an observation.

by Decatur on May 7, 2009 11:36 PM PDT up reply actions

I think Shannon would be the first to note that she is not a writer by profession--

and I get the impression (from her blog and others) that there isn’t a lot of autocorrection involved.

by msb on May 8, 2009 6:44 AM PDT up reply actions

What can they do to help this offense?

Guys like Moore, Saunders, and Raben won’t be ready until next year most likely. Hopefully Wlad continues to improve and Beltre pulls his head out of his ass.

"If your good at something never do it for free." - The Joker

by houseofprime on May 7, 2009 6:45 PM PDT reply actions

And ideally one of them will turn out to be a lefty.

Fingers crossed.

by DAMellen on May 7, 2009 6:46 PM PDT up reply actions

Sign Moyer.

Walk number 5. Only 1 PA today.

...and now I'm here

by CapSea on May 7, 2009 6:52 PM PDT reply actions

I have to give credit where credit is due.

As much as this may hurt down the road when he rips my heart out, Jarrod Washburn has been doing a great job.

Man, that hurt more than I thought it would.

Free Jeffie!
Preserved In All His Greatness - R.I.P. The Reignman 1989 to 1997

by JLProck on May 7, 2009 8:34 PM PDT reply actions

Give credit where it's due.

Washburn has been pitching like we all want him to. Whether we want him to pitch well enough to be trade bait in July, or whether we want him to pitch well enough that we are looking at adding someone else’s power LHB in July. Either way, his wins count the same as Felix or Erik’s.

Waiting to spit out the "Doublemint Twins".

by Sinking Away on May 7, 2009 10:18 PM PDT up reply actions