Kuzul

There was a serious fantasy fallout with Brian Fuentes being traded to the Minnesota Twins on Friday. One player’s stock soared for the final month of the season and one player’s stock went down.

Let’s take a look at the Fuentes trade from a fantasy perspective.

Brian Fuentes—Stock Down. Despite recording the save in yesterday’s 1-0 win over the Seattle Mariners, Fuentes should be seeing the eighth inning more than the ninth inning.

Unless current closer Matt Capps goes down or starts to really struggle, then Fuentes has very little fantasy value moving forward.

Matt Capps—Stock Even. Despite NOT recording the save in yesterday’s 1-0 over the Mariners, Capps should get the majority of the save opportunities moving forward. The only reason Fuentes got the save yesterday was because left-handed batter Russell Branyan came to the plate, and Fuentes was a better match up against the lefty.

I could see Capps losing saves like this every now and then, but his stock should remain unaffected moving forward.

Fernando Rodney—Stock Up. With Fuentes being shipped out of town, someone needs to close games in Anaheim. That guy will be Rodney.

Rodney is having a typical Rodney season with an ERA of 3.83, a WHIP of around 1.40, and a very mediocre BB/K ratio. He will be a decent fill-in choice if you need a No. 2 closer for the day or week.

Rodney could benefit from the Angels’ easy schedule in September. The Angels play the Mariners and Cleveland Indians a total of 10 times in September. Easy games means wins, and wins potentially could equal saves for Rodney.

You can follow The Ghost of Moonlight Graham on Twitter @ theghostofmlg

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The Cy Young Award is one of many awards that typically sparks debate over whether or not the right player won; think back to when Bartolo Colon won the award in 2005, a year when he led the league in essentially one statistical category, wins.

This insight (read: tangent) came from my perusing of Baseball Prospectus’ On the Beat series, where author John Perrotto provides us with a handful of scout reactions to some Major League players. On August 9th, Perrotto had this tidbit about sure-thing non-Cy Young contender Felix Hernandez,

“The fact that this guy is 7-9 is just further proof that you can’t judge a pitcher solely on his win-loss record. He was 19-5 last season and his stuff is basically the same and he’s pitching almost as well. Believe me, there’s nothing wrong with him that some run support wouldn’t help. He’s still as nasty as ever.”

And really, once you look deeper, Felix truly is having the same season as last year, with an argument that he’s performing better. That is, his strikeouts are up (career high), and his walks are down (career low). In fact, Felix is performing at the best level of his career across the board.

Felix is currently tied with CC Sabathia for the highest WPA in the American League. His 3.27 mark is higher then the total he put up in 2009 and the highest mark of his career.

I suppose what this post boils down to is A Case for Felix, as there is a legitimate chance that despite his mound heroics, Felix won’t come home with the Cy Young this year. It wouldn’t surprise me if his potentially sub .500 record leaves him off the ballot of most BBWA despite being among the most valuable and dominant in the American League.

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The Seattle Mariners’ Felix Hernandez is a legitimate first starter.  Doug Fister is a second starter type, who is third in the rotation because Jason Vargas is in between. Coming into this year, Seattle had also “imported” two first-starter types in Cliff Lee and Ian Snell.

With that kind of a rotation, Seattle ought to have had a shot at the postseason. No such luck, which is why Lee was re-traded to the Texas Rangers early in July.

Because of injuries, Lee didn’t start until May 5.  Meaning that his “season” (to the time of trade) was a third over by the time he got started. And this was after Seattle had lost crucial games in April and early May to division rivals Oakland A’s and the Texas Rangers.

Ian Snell WAS a first starter. And only for the Pittsburgh Pirates. As far back as 2007. This year, he had a good six-inning, one run first start, and then went downhill from there.

After that, he never pitched more than 5.1 innings, and either gave up three or more runs, or pitched too few innings to count (sometimes in relief), or both. This led to an 0-5 record in decisions, and a record of 1-9 in games started by him. Small wonder Seattle demoted him to AAA, as did Pittsburgh last year.

Between Lee’s absence in the first month, and Snell’s dismissal after mid-June, the Mariners have had to fill the gap with Ryan Rowland-Smith. Given his 1-10 record in decisions, (4-18 counting no decisions), that was the other closest thing to having a sure loser every fifth day. That is, until they pulled Luke French out of the bullpen to (better) fill his shoes.

The other three starters haven’t done so well, either, but that’s for reasons not relating to pitching. In a word, it’s mostly not their fault.

Vargas has the best record, in large part because he’s had halfway decent run support, at least in two-run starts. His 9-5 record is the only one for the Mariners that is what you might expect, given his 3.15 ERA.

Of Hernandez’s nine losses, three were poor starts that he deserved to lose; three were six inning, three-run efforts that should have given the team a 50-50 shot at victory (instead of being losses); and three were long-inning, two run efforts that he should have won, but lost, because the Mariners didn’t score enough runs.That’s why he’s only 8-9.

Despite his having the worst ERA of remaining “Big Three,” Fister hasn’t won a game in which he gave up more than one run, because of inadequate run support. Small wonder he is 4-8.

So Seattle’s real troubles are exemplified by the other former Pirate, shortstop Jack Wilson.

Wilson was a light hitter that even Pittsburgh was willing to give up last year—for the chance at another “draw.” But Wilson’s offense and defense has declined from 2009, meaning that the Pirates did not lose anything by accepting the more durable arbitration-year Ronny Cedeno in trade for him, and saved a bit a salary.

Jeff Clements, whom they also received, represented a ”free roll,” although a busted one, for them.

Even so, Wilson, with his slash line of .249/.282/.316, is now a middling hitter on the Mariners. That, unfortunately says something about the rest of the lineup.

Apart from Ichiro Suzuki, batters Franklin Gutierrez, Jose Lopez, and Chone Figgins are all shadows of their former selves. Like Wilson, they are hovering around the .250 range in batting average, and the .237 team average is dead last in the majors. Nor are they doing better by other metrics.

The Seattle Mariners are now 30th in most offensive categories, and overall. In so doing, they have taken this dubious distinction away—from the Pittsburgh Pirates.

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Seattle Mariners outfielder Ichiro Suzuki is a unique fellow, to say the least.

Now he has become Japan’s version of the “Most Interesting Man in the World” from the Dos Equis commercials.

It seems as though the hit machine is the face of Kirin beer, a Japanese product.

Watch Ichiro act the part of a salesman on TheSportingRave.com.

Apparently, they make excellently processed beer. And that’s the way Ichiro likes it.

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The Seattle Mariners are owners of the third worst record in baseball this season, and typically when a team performs as badly as the Mariners have this season, someone has to pay for it.

In the case of the Mariners, the wrong people have paid for it. After turning the Mariners around from a 101 loss team in 2008 to an 85 win team in 2009, Mariners manager Don Wakamatsu and his coaching staff were fired Monday.

Wakamatsu went from Coach of the Year candidate to unemployed all in the span of less than a year, while his bunch of under-performing players continue to keep their jobs and pick up their paychecks.

The Mariners have been by far the worst hitting team in baseball this season. They have scored 390 runs this season, worst in the league and 26 less than the Pirates. The Mariners are hitting .235 as a team, also the worst in the league and seven points worse than, you guessed it the Pirates.

To call the Mariners offense pathetic this season would be an understatement. Ichiro is the only Mariner that is hitting above .255 this season, while Chone Figgins, who has been far below his career average this year, has climbed all the way into second with a whopping average of .253.

It’s okay though because the Mariners hitters swing for power and not average right?  

Nope.

The Mariners have the fewest home runs in baseball this season with only 67 all year. The Major League leader in home runs this season is Toronto Blue Jays right fielder Jose Bautista who has 36 home runs, more than half of the Mariners total as a team.

The Mariners are 12th in baseball in pitching this season, yet pitching coach Rick Adair was fired along with Wakamatsu. Pitching has not been the Mariners problem this season, and if the Mariners had even a decent offense this season they would have been in playoff contention right now.

Mariners fans had hopes for the postseason this year after the team acquired pitching ace Cliff Lee during the offseason, but those hopes quickly faded once Mariners fans saw the team step in the batters box this season.

The Mariners brought in players such as Casey Kotchman and Milton Bradley, who the Seattle front office hoped would add more depth and production to the offense. Both players have struggled this season and Bradley was even placed on the restricted list for 13 days in May so he could seek help for his emotional outbursts.

Jack Wilson has always been one of the best defensive shortstops in the league, but he has also been one of the worst hitting shortstops in the league. The Mariners have focused so much on becoming the strongest defensive team in baseball the past few seasons that they forgot they still have to score runs to win.

It is a wonder that Jose Lopez is still on the team after the season he has had. Lopez hit .272 with 25 home runs last season for the Mariners, and because of that he started out this season as the Mariners cleanup hitter. Lopez is currently hitting .240 with six home runs, not exactly the stats of your typical four hitter.

Lopez has also made numerous mistakes in the field and on the bases, perhaps none bigger than in a game a few weeks ago where he was on first base in the ninth inning of a tied game. Lopez’ run did not matter, as the winning run was on second, yet Lopez decided to take off on a line drive to right field and ended up getting doubled off at first to end the inning. The Mariners went on to lose the game in typical Mariners fashion this season.

Lopez is just one cog of the disaster that is the Mariners this season, he needs to go and so do many other players from this team.

Wakamatsu has the perception of a very laid back manager, which was good last season for a team that was trying to come together in the clubhouse, but was bad this season for a team that has not been winning.

Wakamatsu never had a chance this season once the Mariners stopped hitting and started losing, it’s a shame that he had to go, especially when others deserved to go more.

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Let’s call the American League West for what it is, over. Pull out the white flag, hook it up, and raise it to the top of the flag pole and let it fly proudly.

That’s the note that I would write to the front office of both the Oakland Athletics and the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim. It’s time for these two teams to call it a season, pack it in, and start planning their off season capabilities.

So, let it be known, on this 10th day of August 2010, that the AL West was declared for the Texas Rangers (insert the sound of crickets here). Where is everybody? Where is the champagne, where is the celebration?

Oh wait, the fans here in Dallas are waiting for one of the most monumental collapses in sports. They’re waiting for the Rangers to fall on their face like they’ve done so many times before.

Let me soothe you Ranger fans. Let me put your fear at ease. The AL West is a wrap. At no time has a Texas Ranger team held an eight game lead two weeks into the month of August, the second to last month of the regular season.

This is not the team that has fallen in seasons past. These are not the same players that have quit on each other because they didn’t know how to handle a division lead, or a divisional race for that matter.

While the Ranger fans work their way out of hiding, I’ll talk to the other baseball fans whose teams wish they had an eight game lead in their division. They would love to be breathing a little easier at this point, just ask the fans of the White Sox and Twins who are in a dead heat in the AL Central. Ask the fans of those two teams if they wouldn’t love to have that kind of lead and be able to call their division, over.

The Rangers are doing all this despite Vladimir Guerrero hitting .232 after the All-Star break with just a single home run after hitting 11 prior to the break. During the first half of the season, Guerrero struck out just 30 times in 323 at bats.

So far, through just 82 at bats, he has almost half that number (13).

The first three months of his time with the Rangers, it looked as if they had gotten a diamond when all the Angels saw was a guy past his prime. He hit .333, .330, and .356 from April to June respectively. However, those numbers took a huge fall as Vlad hit just .210 in the month of July and had his second highest number of strikeouts (12) that same month.

Not only has Vlad struggled, but they’ve been without second baseman Ian Kinsler who was put on the disabled list on July 28th with a left groin strain.

One guy that they have been getting production from is outfielder Nelson Cruz. Prior to the All-Star break, Cruz was hitting .299 with 11 home runs and 41 runs batted in through 174 at bats. Since the break, Cruz is hitting .344 with four home runs and 20 runs batted in.

However, that’s not the most telling stat. Cruz had struck out 44 times in those 172 at bats but has just 15 in 90 at bats. If he keeps that up, he would have cut down on his strikeouts considerably.

The hottest Ranger of them all since the All-Star break, a guy who’s making one heck of a case for the American League’s Most Valuable Player award, is outfielder Josh Hamilton. While his numbers in the first half of the season were more than respectable, hitting .346 with 22 home runs and 64 runs batted in, his numbers post All-Star break have been nothing short of astounding. Hamilton is hitting .395 with a .457 on base percentage not to mention hitting .454 in June and .418 in July.

Two players can not carry this team, especially if they hope to make a serious run through the playoffs. Josh Hamilton and Nelson Cruz can’t carry this offense on their own.

Michael Young (.247), Elvis Andrus (.258), and Benjie Molina (.232) are all guys that they need to step up as the team reaches October, each of three haven’t exactly been impressive since the All-Star break.

However, it’s not the hitting that will make or break this team in the next two months, it’s their pitching. Rich Harden, just this past weekend, showed just how much the team can’t trust him as a starter down the stretch. His five walks and one hit batter through two and a third innings was not what manager Ron Washington was hoping to see.

The best move the Rangers made prior to the trade deadline all but guaranteed them a playoff spot. That move was landing left-hander Cliff Lee from the Seattle Mariners, a guy that most thought was about to be traded to the New York Yankees.

Since his arrival to the Rangers, Lee is 2-2 with a 2.63 ERA. While he’s going to be instrumental for this team over the last few months, his previous playoff experience will prove to be exactly what will help this team come October. There’s no substitute for having a guy anchoring your rotation that knows what it’s like to get to the World Series. Not only that, but he knows what it’s like to pitch in those games.

Outside of Lee, the Rangers have been getting big performances in their rotation from Tommy Hunter (9-1, 3.01) and C.J. Wilson (10-5, 3.30) not to mention Colby Lewis (9-8, 3.37). Aside from those four, when the starters can turn the ball over to their bullpen and not worry about a lead getting squandered, it helps their confidence that much more. Darren Oliver (2.33), Darren O’Day (1.18), and Alexi Ogando (1.19) have been nothing short of solid when they get the ball in the late innings. Though Oliver has struggled of late, giving up six earned runs in his last five appearances (4 1/3 IP).

What every team needs is a guy that can come in to the game in the ninth and shut the door. The Rangers have that guy in young right-handed flame thrower Neftali Feliz who has racked up 29 saves this season and has blown just two save opportunities all year.

So, for all you Ranger fans who are afraid to come out of the woodwork and believe that this team has it wrapped up, you can come out of hiding and wear your Ranger colors proudly. Sure the Cowboys are almost a month away from kicking off, but there’s another team in Arlington that might have their best shot at a championship this year.

Doubt all you want, question if you must, but admit that this is not the same team or the same players that have let the fans down in the past. This is a team that is gearing up for October.

So, as Brian Dalgin says so well…Let’s go!

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The title of this article could have been “With the Mariners Ship Sinking,” but the Seattle’s ship sunk about five months ago after they started the season 2-6 and looked hideous in doing so.

Not only did the Mariners lose a lot during the first week of the season, but they have lost a lot all year and now, their losing has cost their manager his job.

The Mariners fired manager Don Wakamatsu on Monday as well as pitching coach Rick Adair and bench coach Ty Van Burkleo.

Wakamatsu went 127-147 since getting Seattle’s job in November 2008. Daren Brown, the Mariners’ Triple-A manager, will take over for Wakamatsu on an interim basis.

There were two main reasons for Wakamatsu’s firing.

1. He lost the clubhouse.

When a manager doesn’t make it through the next year after going 85-77 the previous season, that tells me the players were just tired of his act.

Ken Griffey Jr. retired in the middle of the season because he was unhappy and then Wakamatsu got into it with Chone Figgins back in June.

In the middle of the fifth inning in a game against the Boston Red Sox, Wakamatsu pulled Figgins after he perceived a lack of hustle from his second baseman on a play in the top half of the inning, when a relay throw from left fielder Michael Saunders rolled through the infield.

That allowed Boston’s Mike Cameron to advance to third after his double, but he did not score.

Wakamatsu and Figgins exchanged words in the dugout, and a short skirmish broke out involving several members of the team.

TV replays showed Jose Lopez—with Figgins behind him—being restrained by Jack Wilson and Ryan Rowland-Smith while Russell Branyan was held back by multiple teammates.

The whole fracas was a real black eye for the entire Mariners’ organization.

A baseball manager is more of a relationship manager rather than a football or basketball coach, which is more about implementing a system and then following through on the X’s and O’s of the sport.

Once a baseball manager loses his relationships with his team, then he has nothing left.

2. He was a victim of unrealistic expectations.

The Mariners were very active in the offseason adding Cliff Lee, Milton Bradley, and Chone Figgins. With those additions, many thought the Mariners would improve on their 85 wins from last year.

However, this team was doomed from the beginning.

Seattle went into the season with two starting pitchers, a mediocre bullpen, and an Opening Day lineup that had Casey Kotchman batting third, Griffey Jr. batting fifth, and Rob Johnson and Jack Wilson batting eighth and ninth.

I don’t care how many runs the Mariners thought they were going to prevent, there was no way this team was going to be as good as they were last season. Those unrealistic expectations were the other reason Wakamatsu got the ax in Seattle.

You can follow The Ghost of Moonlight Graham on Twitter @ theghostofmlg

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The New York Mets management could learn a lot from the Seattle Mariners. Yes, the Wilpons should be looking out West for a better model of how to run their organization. I am aware that the Mariners are 42-70 and are currently 22.5 games out of first place, but their organization is being run correctly.

Why would I possibly suggest this? On the surface, it seems just as bad as suggesting the Mets follow the management styles of the Pittsburgh Pirates, Kansas City Royals, or the Baltimore Orioles. Before anyone labels me as crazy, let’s take a look at a few of the moves that the Mariners have made this year.

In the off season, the Mariners believed that they would a playoff caliber team, but they were in need of an addition to the top of their starting rotation (Sound familiar Mets fans). So what did Mariners GM Jack Zduriencik do? He went out and traded three prospects for Cliff Lee. Keep in mind that the Mariners did not trade away any of their top-three prospects in the deal.

So how has Lee done so far? He currently leads the AL with a 2.44 ERA and a 0.92 WHIP. Yes, Lee was traded to the Rangers, but he was exactly what the Mariners expected when they traded for him. Imagine if the Mets had made a move like this in the offseason. They would not be a sub-.500 team this year.

However, just like the Mets, the Mariners have… (to read the rest of the article click on the link below)

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Make no mistake, this Mariners season has been a disaster in every way, but making Don Wakamatsu the fall guy is the kind of shortsighted thinking left to the dregs of baseball, not a supposedly forward-thinking franchise like the M’s.

Apparently it only takes a year to go from genius to doofus if you believe the Seattle brass, who suddenly have no faith in Wakamatsu’s ability to lead the Mariners out of the morass—this despite doing that very same thing during the 2009 campaign.

Yes, this season has been a bitter disappointment considering the expectations the Mariners and their fans had coming in, but can you really lay the blame on Wakamatsu?

The M’s stink in many, many ways, but managerial acumen was not one of them.

With Seattle at 42-70, Wakamatsu can’t be absolved of all blame, but there’s a plethora of evidence suggesting there are other places to look for reasons why things have spiraled out of control.

The second-year manager had to deal with several flammable situations, including the Milton Bradley Meltdown and Ken Griffey Jr. Presents Naptime; the unassailable fact that every player in the lineup suddenly couldn’t hit a grapefruit; the Cliff Lee Conundrum, in that everyone knew the team’s best player wasn’t going to be around in August; and now the Chone Figgins Chowdown, where a .220 hitter suddenly thinks he’s above criticism.

In my mind, Wakamatsu has handled these situations to the best of his ability, never putting down his players in front of the media (even, I think, “selectively remembering” in the Griffey situation).

Did the players bail on him? Possibly, but that only goes to underscore that when players go in the tank, they often don’t turn on each other.

Did management hang him out to dry? Certainly. When Figgins got off the hook for his churlish behavior, most people knew the writing was on the wall, even with Wakamatsu earning the dreaded “vote of confidence.”

Remember last year, how everyone praised Wakamatsu’s demeanor in helping to turn around the fractious Mariners clubhouse? Did he all of sudden become some hard-ass who never listened? Of course not, but the easy answer is the players tuned him out.

This move now turns the spotlight on GM Jack Zduriencik. Wakamatsu was his hand-picked guy, and many of these players who are stinking up Safeco were brought in by Jackie Z to put this team over the top. Instead, they’ve fallen far, far behind the pack, and guys like Brandon Morrow, Carlos Silva (!), and J.J. Putz are all doing big things on other teams.

In a lot of ways, this reminds me of Bob Melvin’s tenure, where a low-key manager was given the boot after one good season and one bad one. Melvin wasn’t a great skipper, but he also wasn’t given enough of a chance to show what he could do. When he moved on to Arizona, he put together some decent years. I expect the same thing to happen with Wakamatsu, who is well-regarded around MLB.

Lou Piniella is not walking through that door, no matter how much Chuck Armstrong and Howard Lincoln want it to happen. The Mariners are on their seventh manager since Lou left, and the franchise continues to drift along, with occasional spikes that do just enough to ensure ownership that they won’t ever relive, from an attendance standpoint, the dark days of the Kingdome.

Don Wakamatsu deserved better, but he fell victim to one of the oldest rules in the baseball book: The axe always falls on the manager first. 

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After weeks of rumors, Mariners manager Don Wakamatsu has been fired. This comes as no surprise to anyone, due to Seattle’s constant struggles; this season the Mariners are 42-70.

The Mariners had high expectations this season.

They acquired many good players last offseason: Milton Bradley, Chone Figgins, Brandon League, and Casey Kotchman. But of course, those players have not performed at all.

Bradley is now a full-time bench warmer, batting barely over .200 without any power or run production. 

Figgins has been another big disappointment. He is hitting around .250 right now, but a few weeks ago he was hitting around .230. He is not showing the patience that he had last season, and the only thing he is good for is stealing bases.

League has had an up and down season. He is either striking out everyone, or he is giving up three runs. He has great stuff, but he has not reached his potential yet.

Kotchman has been terrible at the plate. He is hitting about .210, and he is not hitting for power or driving in runs. He is only good at defense; he has no errors this season.

You might say it is the player’s fault for doing so badly, but I think it was Don Wakamatsu’s fault. He did not take out or help the players that were struggling and kept on pitching/letting them play.

I think Wakamatsu deserved to be fired, and I hope that their new manager, Daren Brown, who was the manager of the Triple-A affiliate Rainiers, will do better in his place for the remainder of this season and, hopefully, years to come. 

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