Pitching Developments Around The AL West
by Jeff Sullivan on Mar 22, 2010 3:25 PM PDT
in Seattle Mariners Stats
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PrintI could do this for hitters, too, but hitters are boring.
This is (probably) not a complete list, so please fill me in if I'm missing something.
SEATTLE
- Ryan Rowland-Smith is working on a cutter
- Shawn Kelley is bringing back his changeup
- Kanekoa Texeira apparently throws a cutter (don't know if this counts)
- Luke French is trying hard to improve his change, and throw it more
LANAHEIM
- Jered Weaver is experimenting with a cutter/slider hybrid, recommended by Joel Pineiro
- Jered Weaver is also working on improving his two-seam fastball, which he had but didn't use a whole lot in 2009
- Brian Fuentes hasn't recovered his lost velocity yet
- Ervin Santana hasn't either
- Scott Kazmir is throwing his slider with a new grip, using his middle finger instead of his index. Based on the description is sounds like it's similar to Weaver's new slider
TEXAS
- Neftali Feliz appears to be headed back to the bullpen
- Derek Holland appears to be headed back to AAA
- Matt Harrison claims to have improved velocity after surgery to relieve thoracic outlet syndrome, but a few days ago he averaged 91.3mph over a four-inning appearance, matching up with last year's 91.1
- In case you were wondering about round-trip traveler Colby Lewis, he's got a low-90s fastball, a cutter, a curve, a slider, and a change. Don't know anything about quality
- Brandon McCarthy has played with a cutter this spring, and from the sounds of things, so have a lot of his teammates
- McCarthy has also revamped his mechanics to, I believe, reduce the stress on his shoulder
OAKLAND
- Gio Gonzalez has adjusted his changeup grip
- It seems Brett Anderson wants to use his changeup more
- Don't know if this means anything, but Ben Sheets says he made a little arm angle adjustment after that one ten run/no out start of his
- Trevor Cahill has a new curve that he'd like to use as a strikeout pitch
In injury news, rotation favorite Tommy Hunter strained his oblique, and like the entire A's bullpen is hurt.
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For now
And Derek Holland is really really good, so he should return before too long.
by Jeff Sullivan on Mar 22, 2010 3:39 PM PDT up reply actions
So, I'm a natural Cardinals fan who just got an internship with the Mariners for the summer
I know the big things: Franklin is Death to Flying Things, Felix is King, etc.
Teach me your intricate memes so that I may understand your team
Of all sad words of tongue or pen; the saddest are these: 'It might have been!'
by mysterui on Mar 22, 2010 3:39 PM PDT reply actions 2 recs
Thanks.
Lucked into it; one day last semester, I just decided to email my resume out to a bunch of teams’ HR departments
4 months later, I get this call from Seattle to work in their Procurement Department doing statistical reports and such. It’s not the front office, and it’s unpaid, but it’s a HUGE foot in the door.
Furthermore, I’ll be spending my 21-year old summer in Seattle for the summer. Being originally from rural Missouri, this excites me. I assume Seattle is way cooler than LA, too, where I go to school. Therefore, I’m also taking bar recommendations
Of all sad words of tongue or pen; the saddest are these: 'It might have been!'
Congo rats!
Speaking as someone who has lived in SoCal and Seattle, SoCal really only beats Seattle in one area – sushi. Unless you go for the traditional style that is.
Side note – your new bosses read things posted here, so don’t say something that will get you tossed from what sounds like an awesome internship!
by ExiledToSoCal on Mar 22, 2010 3:51 PM PDT up reply actions
Sorry if I'm making this post digress to much
But yeah, the sushi here is amazing. There’s a restaurant here, Fat Fish, that has a rotating sushi bar with each plate costing only $2 after 8:00 pm on weekdays.
Regarding the boss thing: yeah, I understand that. Thanks for the tip
Of all sad words of tongue or pen; the saddest are these: 'It might have been!'
San Diego also beats Seattle in winter weather, beer, proximity to the beach
size and convenience of traveling east-west, access to defense jobs, having Toronado, freeway traffic, quality of the local NFL team, local golf, and not being near Tacoma
by seattlebruin on Mar 22, 2010 4:17 PM PDT up reply actions
You're a fucking dead man.
(San Diego is near Temecula)
How do I make a tilda so it doesn't just look like I'm misspelling "touch?"
by seattlebruin on Mar 22, 2010 4:58 PM PDT up reply actions
on a PC
you hold down ALT then press 130 on the number pad.
If you’re on a Mac, hold option, press ‘e’ once, then let go of option and press ‘e’ again.
Or just google the accented word, then copy and paste it.
That's not a tilda, it's an accent aigu.
Moron.
by Graham MacAree on Mar 22, 2010 5:27 PM PDT up reply actions
Tilde.
Morons. :)
De Gutibus non disputandum est
by Bearskin Rugburn on Mar 22, 2010 5:30 PM PDT up reply actions
You'll note that it's also not a tilda
by Graham MacAree on Mar 22, 2010 5:31 PM PDT up reply actions
Or a Tilda for that matter
De Gutibus non disputandum est
by Bearskin Rugburn on Mar 22, 2010 5:41 PM PDT up reply actions
The reaction most of you have to the crab and the spiders?
That is me looking at this.
"Ever tried? Ever failed? No matter. Try again. Fail again. Fail better." - Samuel Beckett http://www.marinersminors.com/
by JY on Mar 22, 2010 6:37 PM PDT up reply actions
As much as I hate living in San Diego
This is one of the three spots I would live in the US. Seattle and Portland being the other two.
I’ll agree with the access to defense jobs (trying to bust into that myself right now) and freeway traffic (god… the Seattle Tacoma drive…) but I don’t care about the NFL or golf. Having a functional transit system in Seattle was great – I had a bus that picked me up a block from my house and could take me directly to work, Safeco, or the Hurricane (back when it was freaking awesome) without having to transfer once. And I grew up in Montana – Seattle has a nice mild winter if you ask me…
by ExiledToSoCal on Mar 23, 2010 8:22 AM PDT up reply actions
What field are you specifically looking for?
If you’re interested, I can pass along your resume to folks around here (e-mail in my profile)
by seattlebruin on Mar 23, 2010 8:43 AM PDT up reply actions
I will say this, in the past year three sushi bars have opened in a two mile radius in the suburb of Seattle I live in.
Three!
Hard work never killed nobody, but I won't take my chances.
Like I said before, 99% of it was luck!
I go to a good school (USC) in a relevant major (Economics), but that’s about it.
See, with an Economics major, people generally get into finance or law, and for me, if I don’t make it in baseball, that’s the type of career I was looking at. While I don’t HATE doing those things, I really LOVE baseball, so I thought I’d take a hail mary shot and try, somehow, to get an internship for the summer.
Each team has a “Who works for us!” page like this. I looked at who I needed to talk to (Usually an “HR Manager” or something similar), googled their names to try to find out their email, and then sent an email directly to them, asking if I could submit a resumé and cover letter. They all said yes, I sent over the files, and just waited, man.
If you want to do it, then go ahead and try. There are 32 teams, and I was told Seattle had about 30 interns, and if you’re willing to move for an unpaid internship, that’s almost 1000 jobs in the US. Not THAT bad of a percentage, if you’re persistent. Jobs like the Red Sox and Yankees that I applied to, I was almost instantly denied; there’s just too much competition for those, but there are still lots of possibilities.
Just do it. Why the hell not, right?
Of all sad words of tongue or pen; the saddest are these: 'It might have been!'
Uh, I'm going to call bullshit on that first sentence of the body of the comment
by seattlebruin on Mar 22, 2010 8:11 PM PDT up reply actions
Judging by the moniker, I take it you're a UCLA guy? :)
Of all sad words of tongue or pen; the saddest are these: 'It might have been!'
Wellllllllll I think we're done here
Can’t be fraternizing with no UCLA folk
Honestly though, I’ve only met really cool people from UCLA. It’s just the concept of that particular school, I’m supposed to detest
Of all sad words of tongue or pen; the saddest are these: 'It might have been!'
He's a USC student -- there's no requirement he be able to count
Seattlebruin will agree, I’m sure.
by wandergeist on Mar 23, 2010 11:12 AM PDT up reply actions
Ahhhh sorry. I'm used to typing 32 NFL teams
I know baseball! I promise!
Of all sad words of tongue or pen; the saddest are these: 'It might have been!'
I intend to try once I finish school
It’s probably just a pipe dream….but I’m pretty sure I would be okay with nothing good ever happening to me again in my life if I could work in baseball. Congrats on getting your foot in the door.
I appreciate the congratulations
From you and everybody else.
It’s exciting. Now I have a new backup team to follow in case Matt Holliday’s ribs explode and Albert’s elbow disintegrates and Carpenter’s shoulder disappears.
Colby > Franklin, though, and there’s nothing you can do to convince me otherwise
Of all sad words of tongue or pen; the saddest are these: 'It might have been!'
Hmmm... I disagree
These should all be prerequisites for you having the job.
Racer X. You have to love those amarillo hops.
p.s. fuck you angels
You would get a ton of responses if you made a FP
people eat this kind of shit up
De Gutibus non disputandum est
by Bearskin Rugburn on Mar 22, 2010 3:41 PM PDT up reply actions
Meh
I don’t feel the need to announce, “Hey, look at me!” in a fanpost. I don’t want to seem like I’m bragging or anything like that
Of all sad words of tongue or pen; the saddest are these: 'It might have been!'
On the other hand, we try to stay on topic in the front page posts.
And I think most people would be genuinely happy for you. But anyway, most homers hit at the Safe get a big flashing ‘Funk Blast’ sign with leads to a lot of ejaculation jokes. Last year, Russel Branyan was nicknamed Sex Cannon which made the jokes that much more clever. Most memes tend to get built over the season though so check back in.
De Gutibus non disputandum est
by Bearskin Rugburn on Mar 22, 2010 3:51 PM PDT up reply actions
Fair enough, good point
Over at vivaelbirdos, especially during the offseason, the front page posts tend to, uh, wander, to say the least. We hit 800+ most days, but maybe only 2/3 are baseball related
Of all sad words of tongue or pen; the saddest are these: 'It might have been!'
We used to do that on LL until it got so bad we had to make dedicated off topic posts midway through 2008
that’s where you’ll find many of our memes – our OT posts usually go 1,000+ comments as well, and on a few rare occasions have hit 2,000.
by seattlebruin on Mar 22, 2010 4:18 PM PDT up reply actions
Good stuff.
Hard to cover everything but I think just by looking around you’ll be up-to-speed with the basics in no time!
these posts
are bringing back some fond memories. especially the pre 08 ones
by marinerschas2 on Mar 22, 2010 5:12 PM PDT up reply actions
Pretty happy about Feliz/Holland news,
as well as Santana’s velocity not being there and Oakland’s pen being hurt. You don’t mention Sheets, but I remember reading an Olney blog post about one of his starts which claimed his velo was low and he couldn’t get anything past he hitters.
De Gutibus non disputandum est
by Bearskin Rugburn on Mar 22, 2010 3:40 PM PDT reply actions
Sheets is supposedly hitting the low 90s, which is where he used to sit
Don’t know much about the quality of his stuff, though. One would expect his return to full strength to take a little while, though.
by Jeff Sullivan on Mar 22, 2010 3:44 PM PDT up reply actions
AND...
…Justin Duchscherer looks like he’ll be able to start the season in the A’s rotation. The A’s are stacked in the pitching department and it looks like they are just as much a threat to win the division as the other three teams.
Yes.
The injury sentence is separate from the Oakland bullet points
De Gutibus non disputandum est
by Bearskin Rugburn on Mar 22, 2010 3:53 PM PDT up reply actions
Also, this is the awesome spring training news stories compelation parallel universe counterpart to the list people in the best shape of their lives.
This is one hell of a good idea for a post, Jeff. I’d never come close to knowing this stuff without it.
What would you put the probability of the M's resigning Cliff Lee at?
Or would they be happy with taking the 2 draft picks?
Of all sad words of tongue or pen; the saddest are these: 'It might have been!'
We're perfectly happy to get the draft picks back
and generally, giving a pitcher of Lee’s stature the contract that he wants would be a questionable way to spend that money, given that he’s already 31 and pitchers aren’t really great bets to stay healthy anyway
by seattlebruin on Mar 22, 2010 5:00 PM PDT up reply actions
C.J. Wilson will be named
as the 5th in a couple of dyas.
"I was going to say, 'You’re gay for Elvis.' But then I realized that I, too, am gay for Elvis." ~Adam J. Morris.
or even in a couple of days
"I was going to say, 'You’re gay for Elvis.' But then I realized that I, too, am gay for Elvis." ~Adam J. Morris.
by Kinslerhomer on Mar 22, 2010 5:37 PM PDT up reply actions
I can't believe they're doing that but ok.
by Graham MacAree on Mar 22, 2010 5:40 PM PDT up reply actions
This plus Feliz to the pen is mind boggling.
De Gutibus non disputandum est
by Bearskin Rugburn on Mar 22, 2010 5:42 PM PDT up reply actions
May as well have Andrus and Kinsler trade positions
De Gutibus non disputandum est
by Bearskin Rugburn on Mar 22, 2010 5:42 PM PDT up reply actions
Re. Weaver's new pitch
Can we refer to it as a slider/cutter instead? “Slutter” just has a nice ring to it.
wrt Kazmir
I was under the impression it is the same as before, just that he is adding the middle finger rather than abandoning the index finger. Kazmir’s slider is a swing and miss pitch and the extra finger will make it more easily repeatable.
Weaver slutter, on the other hand, is a contact pitch allowing him to get groundballs, because he is such an extreme FB pitcher.
by shields2seamer2lefthanders on Mar 25, 2010 8:47 PM PDT reply actions
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