On Monday I wrote about Seattle's bench competition, guessing that Mike Morse's strong play would land him a spot beside Willie Bloomquist, Jaime Burke and Miguel Cairo. Morse continues to play well, but he's not the only one impressing.
Morse went 1-for-4 with a double in today's game against Milwaukee. In his 6 games (15 at bats) he is hitting .533 with one home run, six RBI and a pair of doubles.
Veteran Greg Norton certainly helped his chances today, going 1-for-3 with a home run, sacrifice fly and four RBI. He's hitting just .250 and will have to continue to impress to get consideration.
John Hickey reported yesterday that Cha Seung Baek will not be pitching in Tacoma this season. If he doesn't make the team and slips through waivers he'll opt for free agency rather than reporting to AAA. "I don't know if they want me to stay or go," he said. "Maybe I will go to another team. There's no way I want to go back to Tacoma."
Baek is my pick to win the long relief job, and these comments just give him more leverage, in my opinion. Seattle has invested eight seasons in Baek, and would probably rather get some use out of him than watch him walk. So far this spring Baek has given up one run in four innings with no walks and one strikeout.
Today Hickey reported that Adrian Beltre further injured his already hurting thumb in today's ballgame. He will not play on Friday, and the team will take it day-to-day after that. Hopefully this won't be one of those nagging injuries, as Beltre is poised for a big year.
Thursday, March 6, 2008
Thursday Notes: Bench, Baek, Beltre Hurt
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8 comments:
If I were manager, very few people would make the team out of spring training. The sample size is never big enough to be meaningful.
I hope they keep Baek, if only because my son is adopted from Korea and it's fun for them to have Koreans on the team. But he's a better bet than Ramirez anyway.
I think Ramirez is a better option. He might not have had the year we would have liked him to last season, but he is a proven big league pitcher as he has shown while pitching for the Braves. Baek has not shown that he can consistently pitch at the big league level. I think now that Ramirez has a season in the American League (the far better league)under his belt, he will show better numbers this season.
From what I understand, HoRam still has minor leauge options. So if you put Baek on the big leauge team, then you send HoRam to AAA and the only one you're losing is Dickey. Then, if Baek can't handle the job you grant him his release and use HoRam. But if you make HoRam the big league long man then you lose both Baek and Dickey right off the bat.
I think, however, that HoRam has enough service time to refuse the assignment to the minors. I think he'd have to give up his pay though which could work to our advantage.
I'd just cut him and pay the prorated amount of his contract.
I wouldn't worry too much about losing Baek either. Several have passed him on the depth charts and he still has durability issues.
What did the rangers give up for Josh Hamilton? I think he is a graet pickup for them and I'd like to know what a guy like him would have cost.
The Rangers got Hamilton for a couple of pitching prospects, neither of whom are all that great. Great pickup by the Rangers.
The rangers gave up Edinson Volquez who was in their rotation for some time and is a decent prospect but it was still a good trade for the rangers.
Volquez's projected ceiling is a #3starter.
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