Series Preview: Seattle Mariners @ Anaheim Angels

If Kyle Seager and Josh Bard start on Friday, the Mariners' entire infield defense could realistically be Blake, Josh, Justin, Dustin, Kyle and Brendan. Jack Zduriencik might have confused building a baseball team with assembling his America's Cup crew. Also, he apparently believes that he's either Swedish or working in San Francisco.

The Mariners are a Carlos Peguero for Mike Carp roster swap away from at least having an intriguing offense again. Not intriguing in the sense that it would be good, but in the sense that I would become more interested in watching them hit than I am in confirming the number of individual post-it notes in a 100 note pack. I have an interest in how well Justin Smoak, Dustin Ackley, Kyle Seager and Mike Carp hit. I have no interest in Carlos Peguero or Adam Kennedy or Chone Figgins.

Completely unrelated to any of this, I just realized that Josh Lueke (DOB: 5 Dec '84) and Cesar Jimenez (DOB: 12 Nov '84) are nearly the same age. I though Jimenez was like 30. Jimenez, incidentally, is having a good season in Tacoma's bullpen. I wonder what Rainier relievers hope for. Do they aspire to get called up to the Mariners to then not play? Or, based on the number that have fled the team, are their dreams occupied with fleeting desires to escape to another, more Baltimore-y, organization?

Mike Carp, meanwhile, was born on June 30. Baseball age is cut off on the midnight of June 30/July 1 barrier. So in baseball terms, this is Mike Carp's age-25 season. In real terms, he just turned 25 a week ago. In hypothetical terms, if Carp had been born a few hours later, this would be his age-24 season. Would you feel more interest in Mike Carp's potential Mariner future if he was only 24 instead of 25? I wouldn't because I have already reached my highest level of possible interest in Mike Carp, but ahhhhhh, just let him play! He can maybe hit! Find out if he can hit in Major League games! Real games, not flipping batting practice you weird men.

Thu 07 Jul 19:05
DOUG FISTER	JERED WEAVER

Good news for Doug Fister and his run support complex! 

Fri 08 Jul 19:05
BLAKE BEAVAN	ERVIN SANTANA

Blake Beavan's grades are based off his one start so I wouldn't go assigning any meaning to it. I present it only as a means as an overview of what he throws. Then again, if you want to assume a static and never-changing reality, go wild. Blake Beavan is the weirdest pitcher ever!

In a way, Ervin Santana is a lot like Michael Pineda, just with worse command. In that way, it's pretty encouraging how successful Ervin Santana has been with that skill set. Sure, outside of one season he hasn't been the sort of ace we dream Pineda will be, but average shouldn't be sold short though Santana's inconsistency is a sign of what kind of trouble Pineda could run into without a third offering. In another way, an injury-based way, no no no no no.

Sat 09 Jul 18:05
MICHAEL PINEDA	JOEL PINEIRO

A battle of the Pines! By virtue of height alone, Michael Pineda is much more the Pine than Joel Pineiro could ever dream of in his numerous arboreal dreams.

Year two of Joel Pineiro in Anaheim is going less well than year one. I liked Pineiro's deal for Anaheim when he signed --even sort of wishing the Mariners had signed him instead-- and he's delivered almost exactly what I expected him to. The walks have slowly gone up while the ground balls have slowly come down. The hiccup for him this season has been a drop off in strikeouts, but that's entirely in called strikeouts as his swinging strike and strikeout rates are the same. Called strikeouts are fickle creatures and I'd expect Pineiro to get a few more than the current three he has had this season.

Sun 10 Jul 12:35
FELIX HERNANDEZ	DAN HAREN

Of course we couldn't play the Angels and avoid seeing both Weaver and Dan Haren. At the conclusion of this series, the Mariners and Angels will have played nine times and six of those will have been started by either Weaver or Haren.