The report card on the mid-term McMariners
Too soon to fairly grade the new skipper, but the players have half the season behind them.
By Mike Henderson
July 05, 2007.
Two days into his tenure as Seattle Mariners skipper, John McLaren was making it awfully easy (with "awful" the key) for the region's abundant baseball perfessers to assess mid-term grades. The McM's had lost 3-2 Monday, July 2, to the Kansas City Royals and, the next night, 17-3, possibly to the Kansas City Chiefs.
McLaren, of course, had inherited what fantasy-addled 14-year-olds and their equivalents everywhere believe to be the best job imaginable. This all happened when Mike Hargrove fired a stun gun at Mariner Nation by resigning on the first of July. Mild Mike said he simply didn't much want to work anymore. Many refused to believe this (our guess is that Dick Cheney ordered it) so they'll presumably be surprised soon when they learn that Softgrove has gone on to be a senior mattress-tester for Sleep Country: his dream job, so to speak.
McLaren, 0-2 going into the team's 81st game on Wednesday, July 4, had earned a midseason grade of F-. Having lost two games by a combined score of 20-5, JohnnyMac would have needed a Fourth of July victory by that margin just to get back up to a C grade. The M's merely prevailed 4-0 on Independence Day, but we're giving McLaren a pass. Since many of the pupils he inherited performed well enough during the first half of what could be a playoff season, we'll postpone ultimate McJudgment and say the team at large deserves a solid B. At this juncture, Seattle is 46-35 (.568) and in second place in the American League West, 3.5 games behind the California Angels of Los Angeles in Anaheim.
The Mariners from top to bottom:
- Ichiro Suzuki, A+. As of July 4, he led the bigs in hits (duh) and was near the top in batting average and stolen bases. No ball that Mike Cameron, Ken Griffey Jr., or Dave Henderson would have reached and caught has eluded Ich in center field (or even parts of right and left). Injury-free, No. 51 seemingly hasn't been sick since the third grade. Errors through July 3? How 'bout none? In short: He's so good that it seems predestined the Mariners (they of the slip-away superstars) will lose him during the off-season.
- J.J. Putz, A. The franchise has been blessed with excellent closers, but this guy might someday be remembered as the best. McLaren has vowed to limit Putz's exposure to ninth-inning save situations instead of working him during eighth frames. Let's hope.
- Relief pitching, B+. With George Sherrill at left-handed set-up and several other over-achieving role-players from the bullpen, no wonder Putz finds himself in so many save situations. Last year's wunderkind could soon be back, though Mark Lowe m ight not be in high form.
- Jose Vidro, B. They hired him to hit. He hits, with 82 through July 3. Fun with numbers: If Vidro had as many official at-bats as Ichiro, he'd be close to 100 hits at midseason. Gee, a slow DH with 200 hits for the year? Who's that remind us of?
- Jose Lopez, B. Even if he never hits better than his current .270-something, it figures HoLo's power numbers will improve. He's on a course for 90 RBI this season, and the defense at second base has been excellent.
- Bench, B. Here we mean the "B-Team": Willie Bloomquist, who suddenly has hitting to match his defensive versatility; Jamie Burke, perhaps the oldest best back-up catcher since Pat Borders; and Ben Broussard, who ought to be playing every day (see Richie Sexson, below).
- Kenji Johjima, B. He's not the greatest defensive catcher, but he's said to call a good game and he's hit at .300 or better (occasionally for power) most of the season.
- Starting pitching, B-. In an era when a 4-something earned-run average is nearly something Cooperstown-worthy, most M's starters have pitched well enough to keep the team in games until the later innings, especially when the offense gives them run support. Felix Hernandez has gone from looking like Cy Young to Old King Cole since coming back from injury. The once and perhaps future King Felix might be the key to whether the M's make it to the post-season.
- Adrian Beltre, B-. Fans need to deal with the idea that they won't be hearing much "swung-on-and-Beltre-ed" out of Dave Niehaus, as the former power hitter completes another season of sub-par offense. He shows, however, some of the best defense at third base ever exhibited by a Mariner (eg., nearly three bare-handed toss-outs in one inning the other night).
- Raul Ibanez, Jose Guillen, C+. They're both solid, unspectacular journeyman outfielders who look better standing next to Ichiro.
- Yuniesky Betancourt, C-. Reports when he was playing in Tacoma indicated an ongoing magic act at shortstop. Somehow the sleight of hand is playing more like "slight" when it comes to fielding and throwing. His 19 errors lead the league. He's redeemed somewhat by the .280-range batting average but, despite the way M's-paid announcers bray his praises, Yuni is less Omar Vizquel than Joey Cora, whom he occasionally seems to channel when trying to throw to first.
- Richie Sexson, D+. The "D" at first base is fine; one hit every five at-bats is scarcely a plus and wouldn't be tolerated were it not for the $15.5 million salary. Are there any team execs out there looking for the reincarnation of Dave Kingman? Because the new McManager sure could do worse than having Ben Broussard in the line-up at first most nights.
Comments:
Posted Tue, Jul 10, 10:58 a.m. Inappropriate
After 40 games they were 19-21 and playing at a .475 winning percentage. The last 45 games, they were 30-15 at a .667 winning percentage. The last 20 games they've been 14-6, which is .700 baseball. To me, that's an A+ as a team, showing enormous improvement and consistent baseball over a long period of time. And don't forget, because of all all the rain-outs, they had one of the worst travel schedules in the history of baseball, so an utter collapse was to be expected at some point, and we got a little of that with a couple of losing streaks. But we've had even longer winning streaks.
# Ichiro Suzuki, A. He's great and my favorite player. But he's gotta hit .400 and have a 57-game hitting streak to get an A+. He's gotta set records to get an A+.
# J.J. Putz, A+. All-Star. Exceeds expectations. Enough said.
# Relief pitching, A+ Way above expectations.
# Sherrill gets an A. So does the 3-0
# O'Flaherty, A, for going 3-0 so far and
# Sean Green, A, for a nice low ERA.
# Morrow, B, though a power pitcher his control sometimes leaves him and he then becomes predictable and easy to hit.
# Grover/McLaren, A+. Remember the 6-game losing streak at the beginning of the season and them being given up for dead? These guys don't whine, they just get better and better thanks to these two classy managers. When they win the World Series, remember I called it. Grover will show up to watch with a big relaxed smile on his face.
#Starting pitching, B-. With Weaver's horrible start and Felix's injury, they've not done as well as I'd have liked. But everyone seems to be getting better or healthier. I expect an A overall in the second half.
# Batista, A, this is a journeyman guy who's playing his best baseball late in his career.
# Fierabend, C, I love this guy as a pitcher. When he's good he's very, very good. When he's bad, he's Weaverishly horrid. Great against the Red Sox. But he's been involved in the 16 and 17 run losses.
# Washburn, a solid A.
# Weaver, C+, He was the worst pitcher ever seen in a Mariner's uniform at the beginning of the season. Lately, for the last 5 or 6 games he's been the best.
# Felix, B-, He's starting to warm-up and pitch like we know he can. I expect a lot out of him.
# Jose Vidro, B. Doing good.
# Jose Lopez, B+. Doing good too. Great double-play combo with Yuni.
# Bench, I give the "B-Team" an A. I count on them now. In the beginning of the season they seemed to have no effect on a game.
# Kenji Johjima, A. Good power. A gamer. An inspiration to his pitchers.
# Adrian Beltre, B. Great fielder, and a streaky-great power hitter. He likes warm weather so I expect great things in the second half, and double the homers of the first half.
# Raul Ibanez, Jose Guillen, B. They've been batting well lately, with timely hits. Can't go lower than a B-. Raul hasn't hit enough homers, so that's why the B-. Guillen is doing about what I expected.
# Yuniesky Betancourt, B+. He makes plays that other guys can't, maybe one of those every other game. So that's about 42 put-outs to go against the 19 errors. And half of those errors are from trying to make plays that are otherwise impossible to mere mortals. So that puts him at +23. The infield in general should get an A for helping out the pitching staff so much. Cut out the errors and Yuni's a superstar A+
# Richie Sexson, B-. Okay he makes too much. But he's doing what I expect, hitting for a low average but hitting a lot of home-runs. Slow start, but he's part of the success.
# Ben Broussard, A-, yep, he's done well when he's been in the line-up.