Wednesday, March 12, 2008

Position Battles Updated

Time for either a monster post, or two mini-monster posts, depending on what I feel like doing.

This one could use a bit of updating. I guessed that Brad Wilkerson and Wladimir Balentien would be in a platoon situation. Let's see their stats thus far.

Player AVG AB H R 2B HR RBI
Wilkerson .371 14 5 4 2 2 3
Balentien .371 28 10 2 5 0 6

We're looking at basically the same stats, except Balentien's is doubled because he has had twice the number of AB's that Wilkerson has had. Platooning looks like a great idea here, and I will not be changing my earlier guess.

I did this battle about a week ago, so there isn't too much updating to do. I mentioned the Miguel Cairo, Jamie Burke, and Willie Bloomquist were locks, and there would be one more player caried on the bench to start the season. Today, Bleeding Blue and Teal says that the Mariners will be going with a five man bench. That would greatly change this battle. A look at the stats of Wlad, Jeremy Reed, Mike Morse, Charlton Jimerson, and Gregg Nortan, who I forgot to mention in the original post.

Player AVG AB H R 2B HR RBI
J Reed .462 13 1 6 1 0 4
M Morse.500 24 12 8 3 2 8
CJimerson.286 14 4 4 1 0 2
G Nortan .227 22 5 6 1 1 4
Wlad --------See Above--------

Basically what I would have expected so far. Morse and Reed look good, and appear to be the biggest candidates for the bench job. Nortan also looks to be solidly in the mix, while it looks like Jimerson is slowly sliding out of the Mariners' radar. It depends on what happens in RF, but Morse and Reed are still my picks depending on how many bench players the Mariners carry. If there's only one more spot available, and Wlad isn't in it, than I'd say that Reed takes it.



Left Handed Set-Up Man Battle

I had Eric O'Flaherty, Cesar Jimenez, Ryan Feierabend and Ryan Rowland-Smith as the pitchers going for this spot. It doesn't appear that anything has changed so far this Spring.

Player ERA IP W L S H ER
R Rowland-Smith 0.00 6.2 0 0 0 6 0
E O'Flaherty 0.00 3 0 0 0 1 0
R Feierabend 1.69 5.1 0 0 0 2 1
C Jimenez 9.00 3 0 0 0 0 3

Only Jimenez's stats make me think, and I think that he's is slowly going out of the running, of he isn't out already. RRS and Feierabend seem to be getting the most attention, and have both pitched well. I had RRS or O'Flaherty picked to win this battle, and I'm going to stay that way, but I'd say to keep an eye on Feierabend.



Now that Horocio Ramirez is out of the picture, it turns into Cha Seung Baek vs. RA Dickey, but first, a look at the two's statistics for the spring:

Player ERA IP W L S H ER
Baek 1.29 7 0 0 0 4 1
Dickey 1.50 6 1 0 0 5 1
Overall, both have looked decent so far. This battle is tight, but at a statistical standpoint, it appears that Baek has the edge. I'm still unsure who to favour. If Dickey doesn't make it, he goes back to the Twins, and of Baek doesn't make it, then he becomes a free agent.

That's all for now, but I'll check back before I leave for Arizona next Thursday for a nice vacation, and some Spring Training Baseball.

No comments: