The Mariner Monitor

At Baseball America’s prospect blog, they’re going back through their prospect reports and commenting on them based on what’s happened this spring.  There’s some nice things to say about Brandon Morrow and they talk about how he’s in a battle with Sean White and Jon Huber for the final spot in the Mariners bullpen.  He also talks about how Adam Jones has struggles and how Jesse Foppert was cut. It’s an interesting and up to date read.

Derek Zumsteg recently previewed the Mariners over at Baseball Prospectus.  Solid read so be sure to check it out.

J.J. Putz and the Mariners got some good news yesterday when they both found out that his MRI turned out okay and that he just has a sprained elbow.  The closer will start his rehab on Tuesday and it’s expected that he’ll be ready for opening day.  Putz had a monster season in 2006 and PECOTA expects more of the same in 2007 although they are expecting a slight uptick in his walk rate with a strikeout rate that’s more down to earth.  Regardless, having him in the pen will go along way towards the Mariners ending their current playoff drought.

The Mariners lost 4-1 to the Rangers today and all their hitters managed was a measly one run on three hits.  Jose Guillen singled home Willie Bloomquist in the first inning for the only run of the game.

Horacio Ramirez gave up two runs on four hits and a walk with two strikeouts in five innings of work.  Eric O’Flaherty was knocked around for two runs in two innings.

The loss drops the Mariners to a pretty poor 5-13 spring record.  Felix Hernandez gets the start tomorrow against the Brewers in a day game.  It’d be nice for a good showing from King Felix.

USS Mariner scribe David Cameron recently took on the five key questions the Mariners have going into the 2007 season at the Hardball Times.  He touches on everything from the rather random pickups the Mariners made during the offseason to the how good J.J. Putz really is.  The final prediction is an 85-90 win season as the best case scenario and with a fair chance of being in the AL West mix late in the season.  Great read though.

There’s no doubt that third baseman Adrian Beltre has been a disappointment since the Mariners signed him prior to the 2005 season.  His homerun power has all but disappeared and in this interesting column at Baseball Analysts, Jeff Alberts visually breaks down Beltre’s swing and compares to his breakout 2004 season to determine what might be the problem.  Good stuff.

It wouldn’t surprise me, after reading this Jeff Passan column on Kenji Johjima, that the Mariners catcher knows more about his pitchers then his pitchers know about himself.  It looks like when it comes to catchers, Johjima doesn’t cut any corners when it comes to getting ready to call a game.

It’s also nice that the catcher can rake.  He hit .297/.343/.468 which would normally be a very good season but it was overshadowed by guys like Brian McCann and Joe Mauer.  Regardless, PECOTA expects his homers to dip a bit but his batting average should stay up close to where it was this year.  His weighted mean average is .296/.350/.441 and they expect his VORP to be right where it was in 2006.

Raul Ibanez hit a two run homerun in the Mariners spring opener in the first inning today to get the Mariners off to a good start.  Unfortunately, those were the only two runs the Mariners would get the rest of the way.  In the meantime, the pitchers would be solid but not good enough to walk away with the win.

Feliz Hernandez wasn’t quite in form yet and he gave up a run in the two innings he threw.  Ryan Feieabend threw two scoreless innings and Arthur Rhodes was also solid in his one inning.

Tomorrow, the Mariners will get a rematch.  Hopefully the Mariners will turn things around and walk away with the win.