Maurer a Mariner

This month promised to have lots of commitments outside of blogging, and it did not disappoint. Part of me hoped that the Mariners would make me feel better about this by silently waltzing through spring training in a bland, unassuming manner.

Early on the M's hitters were dinger-happy, and they are yet to stop. No Mariners team has hit more dingers in spring training than this one, for what it is worth.

Today the Mariners announced the juiciest news yet: Brandon Maurer made the starting rotation.

I haven't heard any of Maurer's starts on radio, or seen him pitch on TV (much less in person). I, like every blogger and most reporters, have no knowledge of all the work Maurer does behind the scenes too. I have no real good angle to provide insight on this decision - but I do have a blog about the Mariners, so there shall be an opinion.

The Somewhat Shocking Pineda Trade

Maybe this is finally the deal that convinces the national media that the Mariners will not trade Felix Hernandez.

Michael Pineda and Jose Campos are both gone, to the Yankees for Jesus Montero and Hector Noesi. The deal involves lots of young, talented blood, which makes it the kind of deal that stings for both teams.

The upside for the Yankees is clear. They already had offense, but coupled that with a shaky rotation. If Pineda has any sort of legitimate encore to his rookie campaign, the Yankees are in good shape to contend for a world championship. I wrote a post on Pineda back in May, when he was emerging as a force. I stand by my words I wrote back then.

Campos is a loss that could make the Mariners look bad. He's still young, and a young pitcher to boot, but he looks like he is going to be quite good. The Yankees might have just acquired a decade worth of talent in the front end of their rotation.

The Mariners definitely got some talent in return though.

Michael Pineda's Dominance

that's a seriously long stride

I haven't written much on Michael Pineda, but it's not because I haven't noticed him. For the most part, there is enough out there on him already. It is time for a few words though.

First of all, I did not think that Pineda should have started the season in the majors, and what a travesty that would have been if I had been running the team. Clearly, Michael was ready for the majors and then some. I stand corrected, but this is one of those instances where it feels really good to be wrong.

Opening Day 2011

Don't expect recaps of every game on this blog, or many games at all for that matter. I recommend recaps on Lookout Landing if you want that sort of coverage.

This is opening day though, and what a delightful opener it was. It deserves a few thoughts:

• Something feels very "2011 Mariners" about having the first run of the season scored on a bases loaded walk. I can't explain why it felt that way, but it did. Anyone else get that same feeling? I think it helped that Jack Cust seemed genuinely pumped up about drawing the walk, with his little bat flip and fist pump. Really, after last season, I am okay with this team celebrating every run it scores.
• King Felix didn't dominate, but I would argue that we saw as complete of a performance as we will ever see out of him. I know I sound like some announcer desperately trying to be profound, but stick with me. When Felix dominates, he is untouchable. However, tonight we saw him have a rough first inning, then rebound, then battle, then seem to conserve pitches by inducing weak contact, and then blow away the A's with his nasty stuff in the ninth inning. I do not think it is a coincidence that two of his five strikeouts were the final two hitters he faced. Felix showed perseverance, craftiness, and then his pure talent. Frankly, he doesn't need all that when he's at his best. That's why I'd argue this is as complete of a look at Felix as we'll get.
• Honestly, I thought Trevor Cahill had better stuff than Felix tonight. Cahill's two-seemer was unreal. Its lateral movement had the Mariners frozen all night. However, it was a double-edged sword. While it allowed Cahill to rack up strikeouts, it also moved out of the strike zone a bunch. Both the walks and Ks upped his pitch count in a hurry. To the M's credit (I guess), they were content to sit around and watch a ton of Cahill's pitches.
• Between Cahill and the A's defense, I didn't see anything out of the M's offense tonight that gives me hope or despair. They sat around and watched Cahill for most of the first half of the game, and then allowed the A's to juggle the baseball around the diamond in the latter half. But hey, runs are runs, and every single one of them should be celebrated like a newborn child after what we saw last year.
• Michael Pineda got a fair amount of face time in the broadcast, because he seemed to be seated next to Felix much of the game. I'm not sure how much I believe in development through osmosis, but I know I want Pineda sitting next to Felix. I hope he thinks the only way he gets to stick in the majors is if he pitches just like Felix.
• By all accounts, Eric Wedge is the most intense manager the M's have had since Lou Piniella. It seemed like the Mariners were a little more animated than I was used to. This could be because it was opening day, it could simply be a fluke, or it could be something bigger. It is something to watch. Intensity isn't exactly a quantifiable thing, but if Wedge brings it, I think we can expect few errors, clean baserunning, longer at-bats, and a little bit of passion. At least tonight, I saw all of that.
• I have conflicting feelings about hit-and-runs. As a strategy, I hate it. I pretty much hate anything that takes pitch selection away from a hitter, especially since hitting and running also demands such a precise type of hit. However, the fan in me loves it when a hit-and-run is successful. It is poetry on grass. There is something so elegantly conniving about it. Aside from Felix's ninth inning, the highlight of the game for me was the successful hit and run executed by Jack Wilson and Brendan Ryan.

Really, almost everything looks beautiful to me on opening day. It is always a great day, especially when the Mariners win. As naive as it is of me, I always find myself believing that every team starts out with the same chance to do something special when they all line up 0-0 on the season.

Thoughts on Opening Eve 2011

I just finished watching the Giants and Dodgers play a quintessential pitcher's duel, and I eagerly await the debut of the Mariners tomorrow. In the meantime, a random assortment of thoughts:

• In 2003, Bob Melvin made his managerial debut on opening night, and it was also in Oakland. That's about all that is the same between Eric Wedge and him, but it was an excuse to unearth the box score from that game. It is one of those random games I vaguely remember for no good reason. I remember the M's looking bad, and they did in a 5-0 loss. I didn't remember Mark McLemore starting at shortstop, Ben Davis at catcher, or Giovanni Carrera pitching a scoreless eighth. This is a team that won 93 games. Therefore, if the M's are shut out tomorrow, I will expect a 93-win season.

Michael Pineda As A Swingman

One week in, the big story in Mariners camp is whether or not Michael Pineda will crack the starting rotation. He turned in a solid opening Cactus League performance, which was enough to cause a stir. Imagine what will happen if he goes out and pitches four or five productive innings.

An issue with Pineda is limiting his innings. He pitched in a career-high 139.1 frames last season, and pitching him every fifth day in a major-league rotation puts him on track to toss 160-180 innings, even assuming a pretty strict pitch count. Plus, Pineda is likely to make it hard to pull him at his pitch limit in some starts, because he has the kind of stuff that will flash brilliance at times.

It is time to revisit an idea I wrote about on my blog a year ago. I dubbed it the swingman position, and I laid out the rationale behind it with this post. In essence, I think it would make sense for many teams to keep four starting pitchers in a regular rotation, skipping the fifth starter as often as possible. When the fifth starter is needed, a team would use two or three swingmen to get through the first six to seven innings of a ballgame.