Welcome to the club, Clement and Balentien!

After the M’s 4-2 loss to the A’s on Sunday, manager John McLaren hinted at possible changes to the Mariners line-up.  Regarding his team’s early-season struggle to score runs, McLaren stated: “There are some positives, but we are still not running on all cylinders.  Too many guys (are) not swinging the bat well, not driving in runs when they are out there.”

Well, a month into the season and the M’s limping along to an underwhelming 13-14 record- propelled by a 1-7 record in one-run games, resulting in strong pitching performances being wasted by a combination of inept offensive contributions with runners on base (.254 AVG and .405 SLG) and late-inning bullpen meltdowns- those changes are being realized, with the M’s announcing the promotion of hot-hitting Wladimir Balentien and Jeff Clement to the big league roster.  To make room for Balentien and Clement, the M’s dropped Greg Norton and Brad Wilkerson, designating both for assignment, meaning that the club has ten days to trade either players, release them, or assign them to the minors.

The promotion of these two young future stars wasn’t entirely unexpected.  Instead, what is surprising is that the moves occurred a day after the M’s offense broke through for five runs in the ninth inning of a 7-2 victory over the Cleveland Indians, just the third time since April 17 that the team has scored more than seven runs.

Its not much of a surprise that Wilkerson was dropped.  His signing was a mistake but forced, as the M’s were aware that the Adam Jones-Erik Bedard deal was all but completed, and with Luis Gonzalez signing a contract with the Florida Marlins, the pool of available outfielders to step into the void being vacated by Jones’ absence was diminishing.  With Wilkerson, the Mariners were hoping to strike gold again with another one-year contract, as they had with Jose Guillen, who provided 23 home runs and 99 RBIs in a similar signing last year.  Guillen’s free agent defection to Kansas City, plus the trade of Jones to Baltimore, necessitated the signing of Wilkerson, but the M’s were unable to have lightning strike twice, as Wilkerson struggled in his short stint with the Mariners.  In only 19 games, Wilkerson hit .232 with no home runs and five RBIs, and had been waylaid recently with a sore knee.  If Wilkerson signs on with another team, the Mariners will be on the hook for his contract, minus a pro-rated share of a minimum salary that WIlkerson would be paid by the team he signed with.

The dropping of Norton was another manner.  Switch-hitters batting .438 in limited playing time are a rarity in baseball, and Norton could’ve easily split time at DH, considering that Jose Vidro, the other switch-hitter available to the M’s, is batting nearly 230 points lower in about five times the number of plate appearances.  Instead, five days after knocking in three runs in a 5-3 victory over Oakland, Norton was unceremoniously dumped by the club.  I guess when considering which switch-hitting DH to keep, the one who is struggling to keep above the Menodza line is the preferred option, especially when the sub-Menodza option is on the books for roughly ten times as much in salary.

So, instead of Norton, Jeff Clement will be challenging Vidro for at-bats as DH.  Clement has been on a tear in the early going for Triple-A Tacoma, compiling a 1.227 OPS in 78 at-bats, with a ludicrous 22-to-12 walk-to-strikeout ratio that makes you feel sorry for the future.  Drafted as a catcher, and all but ensured of being the M’s catcher of the future until they signed Johjima to an extension last week, Clement will probably get a few spot starts behind the plate, as well as perhaps spell Sexson at first whenever Richie needs a mental day-off.  Like after being booed repeatedly at Safeco.

With his six home runs and .619 slugging average (despite a .254 batting average), Balentien provides a bat with thump in right field, and displaces WIllie Bloomquist to his most natural position- the bench.  Just 24, Balentien has exhibited power and speed at all levels of the minor leagues he’s played, never hitting fewer than 16 home runs at any stop, and not tallying less than nine stolen bases in any full minor league season.

The promotion of these two players make me feel like the front office is recognizing that not only do they recognize that the team as was constructed would fail to be an October team, but were also willing to take the steps necessary to ensure that the team would become as close to an October team as possible.  The youth injection Balentien and Clement provide to the team’s moribund offense will be greatly appreciated, and I cannot wait to see the results.  AS the shrunken head in the Harry Potter films said: “Hang on to your hats, it’s going to be a bumpy ride.”

A’s series re-cap

Let’s see. In three games against the Athletics, the Mariners allowed 16 hits, 11 runs, three extra base hits (all doubles), and lost two out of three games against Oakland. That’s because the Mariners extended the A’s a helping hand, walking them 21 times over the weekend. You have to tip your hat to the Mariners, being so willing to help other teams beat them in such a manner.

Sigh.

On the plus side, Erik Bedard was absolutely dominating on Saturday, allowing just two hits in 6.2 scoreless innings while striking out four (and walking four). So I’m beginning to warm up to the off-season trade that landed the Canadian left hander in blue-and-teal.

So, the Mariners spend today on the road, hoping to put the disastrous 2-4 home stand behind them as they face… the Indians and the Yankees? Urgh. It just doesn’t get any easier!

All though both teams made the playoffs last year, with the Indians’ poor start (12-13) is making me look foolish for picking Cleveland to go all the way. The M’s might be lucky to face Cleveland when they are scuffling a bit. However, facing co-ace Fausto Carmona is no easy task, even though the Mariners have had Fausto’s number in the two outings he’s faced Seattle. In eight innings, Fausto has allowed seven runs- all earned- but has still managed to split two decisions against Seattle, including seven-innings of three-hit ball tossed against the M’s in a 12-4 Cleveland win last September.

For the M’s to be able to have a chance tomorrow, Carlos Silva will have to continue his hot start to the season, as he’ll look to pick up his fifth consecutive victory. He’ll have his work cut out for him, however, as he has struggled in his career against the Indians, dropping six of ten decisions, while tallying up a 5.30 ERA and 118 hits allowed in 90 innings. Carlos may be coming off six innings of two-run ball in a no-decision against the Orioles, but was hit hard by the Indians the last time he faced Cleveland, allowing seven runs- six earned- in 3.2 innings of 8-3 Indians victory over the Twins last August.

Victor Martinez went deep off Silva in that start, the fourth time he’s gone yard against Carlos, as with a .452 average and 1.532 OPS (six doubles, four home runs) in 31 career at-bats against Carlos, it might just make the most sense for Carlos to put Victor on intentionally in each plate appearance. Other members of the Indians line-up must be salivating at the prospect of facing against Silva’s off-speed offerings: Travis Hafner enjoys a ,455 average and 1.154 OPS (four doubles, one home run) in 33 at-bats, while Grady Sizemore never seems to get out against Silva, enjoying a .475 average and 1.343 OPS (three doubles, two triples, two home runs) in 40 at-bats.

Given the Indians’ past success against Silva, its easy to go with them for the victory tomorrow. Final score: 6-3, Cleveland.

Game 26: Athletics at Mariners

With a win, the M’s are back to .500.

Through three innings, Felix has struck out five.  Ah, Felix.  How you make me look forward to every fifth day!

Game #25: Athletics at Mariners

Will Erik Bedard give me another reason to look forward to every fifth day?

M’s ink Johjima to three-year deal

If Jeff Clement has a future with the Mariners, it won’t be behind the plate. Breaking news from Geoff Baker’s blog at the Seattle Times is that the team has extended Johjima’s contract through the 2011 season. (Per club policy, terms of the contract have not been released.)

I am not going to disparage Johjima’s contribution to the team in recent years. He’s been a steady presence behind the plate, attested to by the 24.0 and 22.2 VORP he’s posted in 2006 and 2007. However, it does seem rather odd timing to sign Joh to an extension right when he’s struggling to hit .200, and currently having an on-base percentage (.268 ) twenty-two points higher than his slugging average.

Another thing that makes it especially interesting timing was that after his three-year contract expired at the end of the year, a roster spot would’ve been opened for Jeff Clement to fill. You know, the same Jeff Clement who the M’s spent (wasted?) their third-overall pick on in the 2005 draft, and is currently slugging .688 down in Triple-A. Considering that Clement has three fewer extra base hits so far in 19 games with the Tigers (10) than Johjima has basehits, the news of the signing has to be especially discouraging for Clement. Johjima playing on creaky, gimpy knees when he’s 35 is much less enticing than Clement wielding a .500-slugging bat at backstop in three years.

Maybe they’ll move Clement over to first to be Richie Sexson’s heir apparent. Which, of course, would create an obstacle for up-and-comer Bryan LaHair. Either way, expect to see one of these young promising hitters to be traded.

Perhaps Johjima’s contract was an attempt to compensate for being unable to ink Thomas yesterday? Ah, the reliable Mariners’ brain trust. Your incompetence never ceases to amaze me.

M’s just cannot top the O’s

After watching the M’s cough up a five-run to lose 8-7, their six loss in seven games against the Orioles, I must admit I am glad that it will be four months until the Mariners face the orange-and-black again.

Enjoy your team’s hot start, Birds fans.  Just keep in mind you’re not going to have Seattle around to beat up for some time.  For a little perspective as to just how the two teams’ dynamic has impacted their sesason so far, consider the following:

M’s record against the Orioles: 1-6.  Against everybody else: 10-6.  (7-3 against teams that aren’t the Angels or Orioles.)

Orioles record against everyone else: 7-8.

Obviously both team’s won-loss records have been inflated due to this discrepancy.

To sum up yesterday’s game:  Adam Loewen did not toss a quality start against the M’s, the first opposing starter to fail in six consecutive attempts.  (Of course, who’s to say he wouldn’t have if he wasn’t suffering from acute soreness in his pitching arm. ) The M’s sent eight batters to the plate in the third inning and tallied four runs against Loewen, effectively knocking him out after just 2.2 innings.  The five runs compiled through the first three innings was the most the M’s had scored in a week, and things were looking good for the M’s to win their fifth series of the season.

Despite home plate umpire Casey Moser’s constricted strike zone (according to Joe’s Tracer, that is) causing Washburn to miss his sports, and allowing more walks (three) in five innings last night than he had (two) in the preceding 24 innings, Washburn left the game with the team up by a 5-2 score and in good position to pick up his second win of the season.  Sadly, the M’s bullpen coughed up five runs over the last four innings as a see-saw battle ended decisively with Brian Roberts slugging the game-winning home run off Sean Green, the second consecutive one-run game won by the Orioles with an eighth-inning solo shot.

As for further evidence that the off-season Bedard move was a poor decision, consider the contribution for the O’s win last night by Adam Jones (3-for-4, two doubles, three RBI- imagine that offensive contribution over the waste of roster space known as Brad Wilkerson), and George Sherrill (a scoreless ninth inning for his eighth save, and fifth against the team as he pounds another nail into the hearts of Mariner fans).  Erik Bedard is scheduled to come off the DL and make a start on Saturday.  He better no-hit the A’s.  I’m just sayin’.

The Mariners get an opportunity to start a new winning streak tonight when the A’s, and their new addition Frank Thomas, come to town for a three-game series over the weekend.  Miguel Batista, fresh from tossing nearly eight scoreless innings against the Angels in his last start.  Miguel has split eight career decision against the A’s, with a 5.23 ERA while allowing 81 hits and 38 walks in 75.2 innings.  However, in his last start against the A’s last September, Batista pitched into the seventh inning of an eventual 4-0 shutout victory, allowing five hits and four walks.  Today he’ll be facing an Athletics line-up that doesn’t include Nick Swisher or Shannon Stewart, but the Athletics are on a mini two-game winning streak including an 11-2 pasting of Francisco Liriano and the Twins yesterday.  And Frank Thomas, by the way, his hit Batista extremely well, with a .333 average and two home runs for a 1.042 OPS in 21 at-bats.

The M’s will be getting their first look at Dana Eveland, a 25-year old from Olympia (holla!) who has seemingly been a prospect forever.  Originally drafted by the Brewers, the A’s got Dana in the Dan Haren trade, and Eveland has pitched pretty well so far this season.  In 23.2 innings over four starts, Eveland has limited opposing hitters to a  .202 opponent’s average and a microscopic 1.90 ERA and 1.18 WHIP.  Sure, Eveland’s a lefty with a plus fastball, and the M’s have been hitting left handers pretty well so far this year.  But pitchers making their debut against the M’s always seem to come out on top.  I’m picking the A’s to come out on top, by a 4-3 score.

Nick Markakis single-handedly defeats M’s, 3-2

Obviously, Nick Markakis’s big swing off Ryan Rowland-Smith in the eighth inning was the decisive hit of the game.  But was it the turning point, or just the final one?

According to yesterday’s Fan Graph, the win probability began dipping towards the Orioles’ in the seventh inning.  That coincided with Sean Green relieving Carlos Silva, who had been cruising along before being forced out with tightness in his right thigh.   Or perhaps the key turning point was in the fourth inning, when the M’s had runners on the corners with one out and a run in, but were unable to push any more runners across the plate.  As the WP graph showed, that was an early peak for the M’s that was matched an inning later when the Orioles blew a two-on, no-out situation, but the game was decidedly in the hands of the Orioles from that point on.

Markakis jacked the first pitch he saw from Rowland-Smith in the eighth inning and that shot coupled with a dominating eight innings tossed by Orioles starter Daniel Cabrera was all the Orioles needed to preserve a 3-2 victory.  Cabrera greatly benefited from an expanded strike zone by home plate ump Brian Runge, as he tossed his first start without a walk since last May and the fifth straight quality start by an opposing starter against the M’s.  George Sherrill picked up the save, his seventh on the season and fourth against his former team.  Like it or not, the Orioles have had the M’s number so far in 2008.

The M’s get their chance to beat up on Adam Loewen in tonight’s game, who after allowing 12 walks and 16 hits in 15 innings, had his start on Tuesday pushed back to be given some time to work on his command.  Given Loewen’s career numbers against Seattle- 0-1 record with a 7.36 ERA, 12 hits and five walks in 11 innings, including four earned runs (and home runs by Joses Vidro and Lopez) in 4.2 innings against the M’s on April 5th- more time for Loewen to rest could benefit his performance tonight.

Jarrod Washburn and his pitiful 3.25 average in run support from the M’s offense is taking the hill for Seattle.  Despite winning six of ten career decisions against the Orioles, Washburn has had trouble getting the M’s bats to rally to his side.  Washburn has allowed just 30 base runners in 24 innings, and has allowed more than three runs just once in his four starts, but has just a 1-3 record to show for his efforts.  Against the Orioles on April 4, Washburn allowed three runs, including a home run to Kevin Millar, in five innings as the M’s lost by an eventual 7-4 score.

Don’t expect anything different in tonight’s ballgame.  Adam Loewen is a highly suspect candidate to toss a quality start against the M’s, but that seems to be the rage these days.  Look for the M’s bats to put up a feeble attempt to score some runs, bu the Orioles will come out on top.  I’m calling the final score to be 5-4, Orioles.

A’s sign Frank Thomas, Jose Vidro to continue providing “productive outs” as M’s DH

Urgh.

The last time the Big Hurt was wearing the green-and-gold, Oakland took 17 of 19 games from the Mariners. I’m just sayin’.

Last year in 619 plate appearances, Thomas posted a .480 slugging percentage. The M’s haven’t received production like that from their designated hitter since the waning days of Edgar Martinez. Obviously the M’s prefer wasting a line-up spot on a hitter unable to top the .400 SLG mark, resulting in the complete waste of the sole line-up spot completely devoted to generating offense. The replacement-level players the M’s have slotted into the spot of the past few years (Vidro, Everett, etc.) might be designated, but ‘hitter’ is a debatable term.

Luckily- for the Athletics- they were able to ink Thomas prior to this weekend’s series at Safeco. Yeah. Lucky them.

California League action: High Desert Mavericks drop 4-0 lead, lose 5-4

In single-A action yesterday, the High Desert Mavericks, the M’s affiliate in the Class A California League, stormed out to a quick 4-0 lead against the Padres’ affiliate Lake Elsinore storm.  The first five batters reached in the Storm’s bottom half of the fifth inning, however, against Mavericks starter Keith Renaud.

Renaud has yet to go further than five innings or given up less than three earned runs in a start so far this season, and is now sporting a 7.58 in 19 innings over four starts.  Despite limiting opposing batters to a .232 with just 16 hits allowed, a lack of control has done Renaud in, evidenced by a 17:12 walk-to-strikeout ratio.  To little surprise, a lead-off walk got things rolling for the Storm in their big five-run fifth innings yesterday.

Three players picked up two hits for the Mavericks:  Carlos Triunfel went 2-for3 to raise his average up to .119; Carlos Peguero also went 2-for-3 with a couple RBI and is now batting .316 with an .843 OPS on the young season; and Greg Halman also went 2-for-3.  All base hits went for singles, however, as the four Lake Elsinore limited the Mavericks to just eight scattered singles for the game.

Although the loss was the Mavericks’ fourth in a row, it brought them into a first place tie in the Cal League Southern Division.  Hopefully the Mavericks can right their ship in the second game of the three-game series at Lake Elsinore.

Welcome Back, J.J.!

Ah, such a sight it is to see the goatee’d Big Plug come out from the bullpen to preserve a 4-2 lead.  Just imagine what J.J.’s impact would’ve been on that series at Camden in a couple of weeks back, and where the M’s would be in the standings right now.

So with the return of J.J. Putz from the disabled list, that means no more “closer by committee.”  No more ice-water vein stare downs, with M’s fans chewing their nails down to nubs.  No more fill-in closers walking the bases loaded before hitting the showers.  No more Eric O’Flaherty.  No more (hopefully) sure wins slip from the M’s grasp.  Nope, with the return of J.J.- as well as Brandon Morrow, and Erik Bedard’s expected weekend return- the Mariners’ biggest strength, its pitching staff, will be at full strength very shortly.

Of course, that strength has little say over the influence of the team’s offense, as Felix knows all too well.  Although he didn’t pitch a dominating ballgame in a losing effort last night, for the third time in five starts, Felix pitched well enough to win but walked away with a no decision.  In those three no-decisions, Felix struck out 16 batters in 22 innings while allowing three runs- two earned- for a 0.82 ERA.  But the M’s managed to score all of 10 runs in those three games, dropping two of them.

The M’s bats struggled against Baltimore starter Jeremy Guthrie in last night’s game, managing only five hits.  But they made those hits count, as Jose Vidro actually managed to deliver a clutch two-out bases-loaded single to drive in the go-ahead two runs in the eighth inning.  Now Guthrie and Oriole fans know what it feels like to pitch a dominating effort in a losing cause.

With the win- and a loss by both Oakland and Los Angeles last night- the M’s inch up a game in the standings.  The M’s will try to make it three in a row tonight, as they send Carlos Silva to the mound against Daniel Cabrera.  Silva is looking to remain undefeated in four decisions, as he is fresh from a dominating seven-inning, one-run outing in a 8-1 victory over the A’s.  In his only start against the Orioles this year, Silva allowed four runs in seven innings, including a two-run home run to Melvin Mora, and while he avoided picking up the loss, the bullpen coughed up the game as Baltimore won by a 5-4 score.

Silva was matched up against Cabrera in that start, and despite the Oriole right hander allowing four walks and home runs to Ichiro and Raul Ibanez, Cabrera managed to escape further damage as he limited the M’s to just four runs in six innings, giving the Orioles a chance to come back and win the game.  Over his last two starts- against the mighty Yankees and the perplexing Rays- Cabrera has allowed three runs in nearly 13 innings, allowing just five walks compared to nine allowed in his first two starts of the season.  Cabrera has also found Safeco to his liking, as he is undefeated in three decisions while allowing just 30 base runners in 27 innings.

This will be a close one, but I’m skeptical of the M’s winning streak to continue.  I’m calling for the Orioles to come out on top, by a 6-5 score.