Tag Archives: Erasmo Ramirez

Three Weeks Down, Mariners’ Progress Report 04/19/14

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The Seattle Mariners are nearly three weeks into the 2014 season, and what began as a promising 6-3 start that found the Mariners sitting at the top of American League West standings roughly one week ago, has quickly dissolved into a 7-9 record, fourth place in the American League West, and four games back of the division leading Oakland Athletics. The season is only 16 games young, so it’s far too early to be conclusive about anything. As we all know, the MLB regular season is a marathon, not a sprint. But 16 games are enough to get a feeling for what’s working, and what is not.   Below is a quick look at what’s been good, what’s been bad, and what’s been downright ugly for the Mariners thus far in 2014.

The Good:

Dustin Ackley. Ackley is off to his best start since his initial call to the big leagues in 2011. Through 16 games this season, Ackley is leading the team in batting average (.291) and on-base percentage (.328), is tied for 1st in runs batted in (9), and is 3rd in hits (16), slugging percentage (.455) and on-base plus slugging (.782). In addition to his hitting, Ackley has played a steady left field, reassuring management’s decision to move him from second base to the outfield.

Mike Zunino. After just 52 games in Class AAA Tacoma last season where he posted a paltry .227/.297/.478, Zunino was (surprisingly) called up by the Mariners to take over the team’s starting catching duties. While his defense and handling of the staff was solid, Zunino showed that he wasn’t ready to hit major league pitching. Over the next 52 games and 193 plate appearances, Zunino slashed a .214/.290/.329. Such a season had many thinking (including Mission Mariner) that Zunino needed more time to hone his hitting at Tacoma, and acquiring a starting catcher for 2014 should be on the to-do list. However, Zunino is proving otherwise.   Although he has drawn only one walk in 51 plate appearances, Zunino has emerged as one of the team leaders in hitting through the early season, ranking 1st for the Mariners in slugging percentage (.540), tied for 1st in runs batted in (9), and 2nd in batting average (.280) and on-base plus slugging (.834).

Roenis Elias. With Hisashi Iwakuma and Taijuan Walker saddled on the disabled list to begin the season, the rotation was a major concern for the Mariners. Let’s not be fooled, it still is, especially with James Paxton having now joined Iwakuma and Walker on the DL. But from the patchwork of arms assembled by GM Jack Zduriencik, Cuban rookie southpaw Elias has taken advantage of the window of opportunity granted to him by the rash of injuries and has helped keep a depleted rotation somewhat afloat. In his three starts thus far, Elias has pitched 16.2 innings with a 2.16 ERA, and a 1.020 WHIP. He’s held opposing hitters to a .196/.286/.304 and hasn’t allowed more than two earned runs or five hits in any start. Elias most likely won’t be able to keep up this kind of pace, and will certainly regress closer to the mean. But he may have shown enough to keep him in the rotation once Iwakuma, Walker, and Paxton all return from injury.

Felix Hernandez. Felix is good. Really good. It’s pretty much a lifetime given, so it may be redundant and unnecessary to mention him here. But the thing is, Hernandez if off to the best early season start of his career. Through four starts, he is 3-0 with a 1.91 ERA while leading the league in WHIP (0.741), strikeouts (39) and strikeouts per 9 innings (12.4). Hernandez is also holding opposing hitters to a .171/.209/.305 and has walked a mere three batters. As great as we all know Hernandez to be, such a start to 2014 is worth tipping our cap to.

The Bad:

The Top of the Batting Order. Finding a centerfield and a leadoff hitter were two areas of need for the Mariners entering the offseason. Somewhere along the way, Mariner management decided that rookie Abraham Almonte was the answer to fulfilling both of these wants. When that occurred exactly is difficult to pin-point. Spring training would be the logical guess, but Almonte’s play didn’t really support such a decision. Manager Lloyd McClendon praised Almonte’s speed and ability to put solid wood on the ball, but speed and making contact doesn’t account for much if the result is a failure to get on base. And all the spin in the world can’t cover the fact that Almonte failed to get on base, scuffling to a .178/.256/.301 in 23 Cactus League games. And with the start of the regular season, he hasn’t done much better, slashing a .246/.297/.377 while putting up a walk rate of 6.8% and a strikeout rate of 33.8%. Not exactly what you want in a leadoff hitter, let alone in the starting lineup. Following Almonte in the batting order is last season’s leadoff hitter, Brad Miller. Although Miller did an admirable job leading off in 2013 after being called up mid-season – slashing a .265/.318/.418 – this year has been a different story. Miller has struggled right out of the gate, putting up a .203/.247/.377 to go along with a 2.7% walk rate and a 26.0% strikeout rate.

Stefen Romero: Romero probably should be in the “ugly” category, but I just can’t get myself to place him there seeing how Romero is only on the 25-man roster due to the fact that Zduriencik rolled the dice on Franklin Gutierrez staying healthy, and neglected to acquire any other viable right-handed hitting outfielders. But Zduriencik did, and Gutierrez couldn’t, and Romero – who should be marinating down at Tacoma for another season – found himself as the starting right fielder against left handed pitching. The result: a .158/.200/.211, with one extra base hit, no walks, and a 30.0% strikeout rate.  

Erasmo Ramirez: Ramirez began the season looking like he was a legitimate #2 pitcher rather than a temporary fill-in for the injured Iwakuma. In his first start, Ramirez bested the Angels by going seven innings and allowing only six hits, two earned runs, with six strikeouts and no walks. Since then, however, Ramirez lost all three of his ensuing starts. Reverting back to his old habit of not being able to locate his pitches consistently, Ramirez was abused by opposing hitters to the tune of a .383 batting average and a 1.124 OPS. Unable to go deep into games, Ramirez totaled just a mere 11 innings pitched, while allowing 18 hits, 8 walks and posting a 10.64 ERA.

The Ugly:

Logan Morrison.   Zduriencik’s acquisition of the recovering-from-knee-surgery 1B/DH Morrison was odd considering the fact that just hours before, the Mariners had just signed another recovering-from-knee-surgery(s) 1B/DH in Corey Hart. The plan seemingly was for Morrison to provide a left handed power bat off the bench to compliment the right handed power hitting Hart at DH, and the right handed power hitting outfielder that was sure to be acquired. That power hitting outfielder, as we know, was never acquired. And despite his defensive liabilities, Morrison somehow garnered the majority of innings in right field, posting a lowly .150/.227/.150, with no extra base hits, before landing back on the disabled list, this time with a right hamstring injury.

Kyle Seager. Over the last two years, Seager has been the one constant in the Mariners lineup, providing a solid bat in addition to passable defense at third base. Among the handful of young Mariner prospects rushed up to the major leagues since 2010, Seager has been the only one to make the necessary adjustments and provide consistent production at the major league level. However, so far in 2014, that has not been the case. Through the early going, Seager is slashing a .170/.302/.245, with no homeruns and just two runs batted in. However, Seager’s walk rate is up to a career high 14.3%, and his BABIP is at a career low .225, indicating that perhaps Seager’s slow start may be the result of bad luck rather than bad hitting.

Lloyd McClendon. As former Seattle Seahawks head coach Chuck Knox used to say, you have to play the cards you’re dealt. And that’s exactly what McClendon has been doing. Except, he has been playing the wrong cards. For whatever inexplicable reason, McClendon relegated Michael Saunders to the bench as the fourth outfielder, and gave Morrison the starting right fielder’s job. With Saunders arguably the better hitter, defender, and base runner, the decision to take at-bats away from Saunders in favor of the slow footed and defensively challenged Morrison is, for lack of a better word, incomprehensible. As if that wasn’t enough, McClendon’s continuous use of the struggling Almonte and Miller at the top of the batting order has been just as puzzling. As noted above, Almonte and Miller are producing respective on-base percentages of .297 and .247. And after three weeks of play, their continued inability to get on base leaves little reasonable argument as to why one, or both, shouldn’t be dropped lower in the batting order. Meanwhile, Ackley has been one of the Mariners’ top hitters, yet continues to find himself buried at the bottom of the order.  If that isn’t enough, we could address a handful of questionable non-pitching moves made by McClendon as well. But, as they say, enough is enough, and we think enough has already been said.

 

Injuries May Have Seattle Mariners Rethinking Nelson Cruz, Ervin Santana

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With pitchers and catchers reporting to Peoria, the Nelson Cruz “will he or won’t he be a Mariner” saga still has yet to reach a conclusion.  Rumors continue to swirl around the blogosphere that it’s only a matter of time before Cruz will be donning Mariner blue.  Recent reports indicate that a deal between the Mariners and Cruz is close, with only a difference in contract years standing in the way of a completed deal.  The Mariners seemingly do not want to go more than two guaranteed years, with a third vesting year being a possibility.  Cruz – initially looking for a five year deal at the beginning of the offseason – purportedly is looking for three or more guaranteed years.

The discourse over a possible Cruz acquisition continues to be one of heavy debate.  And the debate is noteworthy.  On one hand, Cruz represents that right-handed power hitting outfield bat the Mariners covet (career .823 OPS, 32 hr/season average). Not only would he help balance out a predominantly left-handed hitting lineup but would slot in nicely behind Robinson Cano and Corey Hart providing the Mariners with a potentially lethal middle of the order batting lineup.  On the other hand, Cruz brings with him some fairly heavy concerns, namely his questionable hitting outside of hitter friendly Rangers Ballpark, (a career road OPS of .734, compared to a career .912 OPS at home), his 50 game suspension in connection to the Biogenesis scandal, and his defensive regression in the outfield (-14.1 UZR in 3055.3 innings the past three seasons).

Both sides of the Cruz examination bring merit to the sign/don’t sign Cruz dialogue.  There’s no arguing that Cruz would be a risky signing for all the reasons mentioned above.  But at the same time, concerns over his career OPS away from Rangers Ballpark may be overblown, as his road OPS+ indicates above average production in three of the past five seasons.  Still, it’s a gamble that GM Jack Zduriencik has to make, and one he appears willing to roll the dice on if the number of years falls to his favor, thereby minimizing the long-term risk while maximizing the possible short-term benefits.

However, by waiting so long to address their outfield needs, the Mariners now find themselves – barring a trade – with really one of two options; sign Cruz, or go with what’s in-house.  And outside of prospect Abraham Almonte, there isn’t a ton of viable outfield options that are mlb ready within the Mariners organization.

So now, at this juncture, it’s Cruz or nothing.  It’s shopping for a tree on Christmas Eve, with Cruz akin to the best of the remaining mangled up and dried out Douglas Firs that no one really wants. Despite seriously questioning whether the tree would last through the New Year, you need something.  And you know coming home empty handed would most likely end up being more problematic than coming home with something.

Complicating the decision, however, is the recent rash of injuries to players expected to play a prominent role for the Mariners during the upcoming season.

Yesterday, Mariners officials announced that starting pitcher Hisashi Iwakuma will miss 4-6 weeks with a strained tendon in his middle finger of his pitching hand.  Having your No. 2 pitcher sidelined with injury is never welcomed news.  But for a pitching staff trying to find viable arms to compete for the last three pitching spots in the rotation, losing Iwakuma couldn’t have come at a worse time. This setback may now force Zduriencik to reassess how he wants to allocate the team’s remaining offseason funds, opting to abandon his pursuit of Cruz in favor of acquiring one of the remaining top free agent pitchers in Ervin Santana or Ubaldo Jimenez.

The Mariners also announced today that outfielder Franklin Gutierrez will miss the 2014 season due to a relapse of the gastrointestinal issues that sidelined him for most of last season.  Although Gutierrez was looked upon as only a reserve outfielder, he was one of the few right handed hitters the team had, and was a potential platoon partner for the left-handed hitting Michael Saunders, Logan Morrison, and/or Dustin Ackley, all of whom figure to be in the mix for at least two of the starting outfield jobs.  Gutierrez’s absence ostensibly increases the need to add another right handed hitting outfielder.  Cruz would fill that need, and the Mariners may now feel the need to compromise their previous position and give Cruz the three plus guaranteed years he’s looking for.

The Mariners now find themselves in a pickle of a situation.  And it’s one that the Mariners could have avoided had they been more proactive in free agency when affordable free agents outfielders such as Nate McLouth, Rajai Davis, David Murphy and Chris Young, as well as starting pitchers Bartolo Colon, Phil Hughes, Josh Johnson and Scott Kazmir were all readily available for the signing.

Where the Mariners go from here is anyone’s guess.  But one thing is for sure; the Mariners will have to do something.  Heading into the season with a starting outfield of Morrison, Ackley and Saunders, with rookie Almonte serving as the fourth outfielder, and a starting rotation of Felix Hernandez followed by four from a selection of Scott Baker, Randy Wolf, James Paxton, Brandon Maurer, Taijuan Walker, Hector Noesi, Erasmo Ramirez, Blake Beavan, and Zach Minor is simply – to put it kindly – underperformance waiting to happen.