A Few Observations On The M's Getting Throttled Again

by Jeff Sullivan on Mar 18, 2010 5:42 PM PDT in Game Recaps Comment 19 comments

Are you serious? You really want observations from this? I guess you never asked for them. I'm just writing under the assumption that people will care. But, are you serious? You care about this? This was a game full of bench guys and backups, and we watched three innings of David Pauley. That's desperate. You guys are desperate.

Ryan Rowland-Smith isn't going to be thrilled with his performance today. He got into three-ball counts against six of the 14 batters he faced, and though I could go on to give you further details, the running theme would be that his control wasn't there. And while it's still spring training and this was only his third appearance, it's to the point where you'd like to see guys getting into form. RRS threw 66 pitches. That should've been plenty to get him through at least four innings. Instead it got him through 2.2. That's not good enough.

On the plus side, he had the full pitch mix working - 12 sliders, two curves, 11 changeups, and 41 fastballs. Don't know how many cutters, since I'm bad at isolating those. This is what it looks like when a guy is beyond getting loose and starts actually preparing for the season, which means we're finally just about through with the most meaningless part of ST. ST numbers don't matter, but ST numbers already put up don't matter to a greater degree than ST numbers yet to be put up.

Three innings for David Pauley, who was included by name with Yusmeiro Petit and Kanekoa Texeira as a guy Wak wanted to see stretched out in relief. Pauley, of course, doesn't have a place on this team out of camp, but it was still interesting to see what new replacement-level talent looks like. It looks better than Garrett Olson. Pauley's a righty who works in the 86-89mph range with a sinking fastball, but it's not a sinking fastball like Kanekoa's sinking fastball, which means it's less effective. What makes Pauley a little more interesting than your standard future journeyman is that, instead of the usual fastball/slider combo, he has a big curveball and the hint of a decent change, giving him a complete repertoire on his better days. Pauley could pitch in a big league bullpen right now. He wouldn't help a whole lot, but there are worse long relievers out there.

Steve Bray, Sean White, and Marwin Vega pitched, and they were okay.

Mark Lowe pitched, and he looked like a bad version of Mark Lowe. Whatever. I'm running out of steam over here.

uhhh Mike Sweeney hit a triple, getting a low fastball and slicing it the other way. Yeah, I don't even know. Outfielders have been running funny routes. I haven't watched a whole lot of spring training baseball, because it isn't entertaining, but from what I have watched, even good defensive outfielders have looked uncomfortable out there. Maybe it's wind, maybe it's unfamiliar ballparks, maybe it's rust, maybe it's all of them or none of them. I don't know the answer. But there's been a lot of backpedaling and turning the wrong way. It's hard to watch, and it screws up the box scores. Josh Wilson, for example, hit a triple today, too, but his was a fly ball that hung up forever that Ryan Spilborghs couldn't track. That triple in no way reflects ability on Wilson's part.

The Rockies have a first baseman with the name Mike Paulk, which is a stupid name.

No TV tomorrow, which is a relief.

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I liked the headline "Sweeney gets first triple of spring"

as if it had been an unsually long drought or that he was expected to hit many more

by Matthew on Mar 18, 2010 5:48 PM PDT reply actions

Thanks Jeff.

I have to believe this is the worst time of the year to be a baseball blogger. I appreciate that you’re still going out of your way to make spring training interesting.

by katal on Mar 18, 2010 5:56 PM PDT reply actions

Mariners.com reports that RRS is not concerned about his performance today.

by katal on Mar 18, 2010 5:59 PM PDT reply actions

But not thrilled!

by Jeff Sullivan on Mar 18, 2010 6:15 PM PDT up reply actions

There's a big market for "desperate"

Ask any girl in any bar in Belltown at 1:45am

by wandergeist on Mar 18, 2010 6:09 PM PDT reply actions

Yeah I'm sure it's girls that have a tough time getting laid in bars

by Aaron Campeau on Mar 18, 2010 10:32 PM PDT up reply actions

No, that's the point

The girls are the ones to ask, because they’re the ones getting swarmed by the desperate.

by wandergeist on Mar 18, 2010 11:37 PM PDT up reply actions

It's baseball

It’s Mariners baseball.
It sucks, but it’s Mariners baseball.
I’ll take it over whatever MLBN was playing this afternoon, which was probably the 11th showing of 30 Clubs 30 Days: Houston Astros…

~I once gave Jose Canseco $15. ~

by section331 on Mar 18, 2010 6:09 PM PDT reply actions