Tagged: Twins
Who was dumber, Seattle Mariner or Minnesota Twins
David Ortiz made a name for himself in Boston, probably a Hall of Fame DH. But at one time he was in the Mariners organization and later was with the Twins. The question is who was dumber to let him go.
He was signed by the Mariners as an amateur free agent in 1992. He made his minor league debut in 1994 at the age of 18 in the Arizona rookie league hitting .246 with 2 homers in 167 at bats. Next year, same league, he hit .332 with 4 homers in 184 at bats. In 1996 he made the jump to A ball with Wisconsin hitting .322 with 18 homers and 93 RBIS. Only 20 and showing lots of potential.
David Ortiz of the Boston Red Sox points to the sky (as in, to God) in tribute to his mother after hitting a home run. 20:34, 17 April 2007 . . Toasterb . . 858×1620 (214,756 bytes) (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
The Mariners were in a playoff hunt in 1996 and on August 29th acquired Dave Hollins from the Twins for the proverbial player to be named later. On September 13 David Ortiz was the proverbial player. It can be said that giving up an A ball player in a playoff drive is a safe bet. Now it looks like a steal, but in 1996 no one noticed. Hollins, by the way, hit .351 in 94 at bats. He did his part.
Ortiz got into 15 games with the Twins in 1997 and split time with them and their minor league affiliates for a few years, also having wrist injuries in 198 and 2001. But in 2002 he hit .272 in 125 games with 20 homers and 75 RBIS at the age of 26. So what did the Twins do? Following the season they released him. Good bye, so long, thanks for nothing. good luck.
The Mariners would love a .275 hitter with 20 home runs and 75 RBIS. Can we go Back to the Future?
In his first year with Boston he hit .288, slugging 31 homers, driving in 101 runs, the first of five consecutive years driving in 100+ runs. And to rub a little salt into the Twins wound, Ortiz finished fifth in MVP voting.
There is no point going over his Boston career, that is not we are here for. We are here to see who is dumber Seattle or Minnesota. It is clear. The Mariners thought they had a good young player, but they could not know he would be a Hall of Famer, and you have to pay when you want to trying to get to the playoffs. The Twins, however, had a bat with 20 homers and a good average, and released him. They got nothing.
Twins win!
Jeremy Bonderman recalled byMariners, a pitcher not to get excited about
I thought when the Mariners invited pitcher Jeremy Bonderman to spring training as a non-roster invitee, that he would not make the team. He was 30 years old, but had not pitched since 2010. When he was sent to Tacoma, I figured the M’s were desperate for pitching. As it turns out, they were.
In his first appearance in three years in the big leagues, Bonderman struck out the first Twins batter he faced, and retired the next two for a perfect inning. Then the Twins realized who was pitching and pretended it was batting practice. Bonderman lasted 4.2 innings, 9 hits, one walk, and the one strikeout, giving up 9 runs. Both Mike Blowers and Dave Sims, the Mariner broadcasters naturally gave him kudos. Blowers said he saw a lot he liked. (Is he a Twins fan?) He liked the movement on Bonderman’s fastball, liked the movement on the curve ball, and apparently the Twins also liked his pitches, since they hit them all over the park.
Jeremy Bonderman (Photo credit: Kevin.Ward)
Bonderman is a Washington native, coming from Kennewick and Pasco High School. He was a first round draft pick (26th overall) of the Oakland A’s in the 2001 amateur draft, but was traded to Detroit in 2002 as past of a three way trade, with the Yankees also involved.
He was with the Tigers as a 20 year old in 2003 and finished 6-19 with a 5.56 earned run average. One could write off the year as being young and learning at the major league level. He did have a couple of 14 win seasons, but his lowest ERA was 4.08 when he was 14-8 for the 2006 Tigers. His career record coming into this season was 67-77 with a 4.89 ERA. Not something to warm a Mariner fans heart, especially when he has not been in the majors since 2010.
He started 11 games in Tacoma, going 2-4 with a 4.52 ERA. Bonderman will always be a mediocre pitcher and has no future for the Mariners. So why is he up? Because it is in his contract that he had to be brought up June 1st or be released.
But why when you preach about young kids, about the youth movement, why bring up a veteran with no future. And in the process release 24 year old Vinnie Catricala, the Mariners 2011 Minor League Player of the Year. Vinnie has not fared well since then, hitting .229 in Tacoma in 2012 and .253 in Jackson this year. Maybe he, or Francisco Matinez, another third baseman, whom the M’s got from Detroit in the Doug Fister trade, recently traded back to Detroit, will not amount to anything. But why promote Bonderman, dumping two young players?
Bring up one of the young arms to see what he can do. We already know Bonderman and what we know is a high probably of a loss every time he pitches. Mariner decision making is often a mystery.
Seattle Mariners like Royal Twinkies
Twinkies are bad for you, most things that taste good are. It isn’t right, but that is the truth of the matter. I can’t eat a Twinkie, just looking at one makes my weight go up a pound. I have no metabolism you see. The doctor said I am unique in that matter and prescribed a diet of organic grass and water. I still gain weight. A&E is considering a reality TV show based on my problem.
(I Would post a picture of Twinkie here, but the Internet and Hostess is blocking me.)
The Mariners love Twinkies, but in their case, the Twinkies are good for them. I am referring not to Hostess Twinkies, but the Minnesota Twinkies, or Twins as you know them. I do not use the word Twinkies in a disparaging way. My father was born in Storden, Minnesota, so I have a warm spot in my heart for the land of a million lakes.
This year the Mariners feasted on Twinkies winning 8 of the 10 games they played against dad’s state. The bad news is that Minnesota is not on the schedule again until 2013. The Mariners could have used more 2012 Twinkie games to munch on.
The same could be said of the Kansas City Royals. The Mariners were a royal pain in the derriere of Kansas City winning 7 of the 8 games against them. Sadly they are no longer on the 2012 slate either. Seattle went 15-3 against these two teams and not having them on the schedule greatly diminishes their chance of finishing above .500. Instead they have to play teams like Oakland, Los Angeles Angels at Anaheim’s Disneyland, or whatever they call themselves these days, and other teams that could give the Mariners indigestion.
But the good news is that in July the M’s were 15-11 and in August were 15-12. two winning months in a row, so if they can have a winning month in September they will have had a strong finish to a dismal start. Baseball fans have short memories and focus on what happened early, see the losing record, and think things haven’t changed.
But they have, at least of late. How that translates to 2013 is another matter. I will chew on that next year.
Why the Mariners need to win big this weekend
Going 4-6 on a road trip is not that bad, at least for the Mariners. The problem is they won the first four, but lost the last six. The last four losses in Tampa came by 3-2, 3-1, 5-4, and 4-3 scores, tough losses, all of them.
It is tough to win when as a team you go thirty consecutive at bats with runners in scoring position and fail to get a hit. That is how you lose close ballgames.
Press box at Seattle’s Safeco Field. Taken before the Seattle Mariners played the Cleveland Indians, 24 July 2009. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
The Mariners come home for three weekend games against Minnesota and they need to win at least two, but getting a nice new broom to sweep the Twins out of town is preferred.
The first Mariner homestand saw them lose six of nine, not something that will bring fans to the ballpark. The homestand drew an average 20, 654 loyal fans.
Forget the phrase, ‘build it and they will come.’ They built it, they came-because they were winning. The Mariners need to win at home to begin bringing fans back to overpriced beer and hotdogs.
They also need to win big against the Twins to break the losing streak. I would add the cliché that they also need to win to get back on track, but I don’t know what track they are on. Wedge is still looking for the right lineup, still looking for players, like Figgins, Smoak, Ryan, to mention three, to start hitting. Wedge has, in truth, been looking for the right lineup for a year and a month.
Another reason to beat the Twins is that the Tigers are coming to town after the Twins. Seattle may have swept them in Detroit-they also swept them in Motown last season, but the Tigers will want some payback.
safeco-02 (Photo credit: mr_crash_davis)
The Mariners are now 11-16, so a losing homestand prior to a ten game road trip beginning in New York with three, then two in Boston and Cleveland, and three in Colorado, could, even in May, sink the good ship Mariner. The will be facing some good hitting lineups. It is time for the Mariner hitters to start making some noise. If they don’t, there will not be much noise in Safeco this summer.
Why The Mariners Aren’t The Twins
The bloom is off the thorn. After a brief spurt of winning when new Mariner manager Daren Brown took the helm from Don Wakamatsu, the Mariners have sunk back to their woeful ways, having lost eight of twelve.
So why is Seattle so bad? What has happened since 1998 through the Piniella years?
Steve Kelly of the Seattle Times had an article earlier this week that compared the Minnesota Twins to Seattle and posed the question as to why Seattle can not be like Minnesota.
The Twins lose Johan Santana and Tori Hunter to free agency and win. They lose their closer Joe Nathan for the season, lose Justin Morneau to a concussion, yet they continue to win while Seattle continues to lose.
Kelly points out that the Twins have had two managers since 1986. TWO!!! The Mariners have had five since 2005.
What comes across in his piece is that the Twins have stability and a sound minor league system stocked full of quality players. And they have patience.
I think he is right. The Mariners would like to be the Twins, but they make bad choices in the draft, sign free agents who are a bust, are impatient with young players, trading them away instead of developing them, and generally make wrong decisions about everything.
Patience is a dirty word to the Mariners. They try to rush success rather than have a long term strategy, having all the bases covered with prospects who can step in when the time is right.
The good ship Mariner has round aground in shallow waters because of narrow thinking, while the Twins chart troubled waters with ease.
The Twins are the Rock of Gibraltar. The Mariners are just rocked.
Balls and Strikes 