The Parting of “Friends”

Figgins in all of his glory. Credit: Tom Szczerbowski-US PRESSWIRE

Note that “friends” is in quotation marks. I did not shed a single tear between the release of Chone Figgins or the trades of Ichiro and Brandon League. Figgins was an absolute disaster with the Mariners, and I feel relieved to know that I will never have to look at him wear a Seattle Mariner uniform again.

Ichiro did a lot of good things for the Mariner organization and the city of Seattle during his stint here, but it was time for him to go. He was no longer contributing to the team’s success and he seemed to cast a negative spell over the locker room. Following Ichiro’s departure, the team excelled which proved that parting with him was the right decision.

Although his stats were not terrible, Brandon League gave every Mariner fan a heart attack every time he stepped on the mound. There was no such thing as a save without suspense for League, and most were glad to see him sent to Los Angeles were he can no longer scare us. The fact that we got a few decent prospects in return was just the icing on the cake.

I am very thankful that each of those players are no longer Seattle Mariners.

The Making of History

On August fifteenth, King Felix threw the 23^rd perfect game in baseball history. All of us got to witness history and one of the finest moments in Mariner history. His performance that afternoon was absolutely masterful and the fan reaction was very exciting as well. For Felix’ following start, Safeco Field filled with fans, and the King’s court was spread throughout the whole stadium. I hadn’t seen that much energy in Safeco in almost a decade. The fan base needed the boost that the perfect game gave, and I’m sure all of us are thankful that Felix achieved perfection that day.

The Coming of New Players

This year’s MLB Draft was very productive for the Mariners. The third overall pick, Mike Zunino, had a phenomenal first year in the minor leagues. His .538 wOBA and 234 wRC+ in short season Everett confirmed his status as a prospect and he is now ranked the 44^th best prospect in baseball and 3^rd best catching prospect. There were several other good selections made in the draft. Names like Joe DeCarlo, Tyler Pike, Patrick Kivlehan, Chris Taylor, and Timothy Lopes have already started to gain attention just months after being drafted by Seattle.

The Stadium Alterations

The fences are moving in! This has been an idea tossed around by Mariner fans for years. While there are pros and cons to the change, the Seattle offense which has been at the bottom of the league for years, will certainly get some help from the shorter fences, but the pitching staff will struggle more. However, considering the strong future of the pitching staff, I feel confident that we will continue to have a solid staff and still get more run production from the batters. The smaller field also allows Seattle to pursue and attract top free agent bats. This was a very good all-around move for the organization.

The Astros

Tired of being in the division cellar? At least for now, the Marines will no longer be the worst team in the AL West with the Astros around. Having the 107-loss Astros in the west will also mean that Seattle will have more games against the poor Houston team and far less against the three good teams in the division.

Overall, there has been a lot to be thankful for over the past year, and I hope that we will have many more things to express our gratefulness for in a year from now.

Credit: ©Joe Nicholson-US PRESSWIRE

Scene one: The Mariners are basking in the glow of a two-run lead. It’s been three innings since the opposing team manufactured a run, and with the first batter of the ninth inning, a fastball lands easily in the glove of the left fielder. The pitcher works an 0-2 count, then gives up a single to batter No. 2. The next batter receives a double; the fourth, a four-pitch walk. With the bases juiced, the last batter of the inning grounds into a double play.

Scene two: After eight scoreless innings, the Mariners trail by a single run. The ninth begins with a four-pitch walk, followed by a line drive off the pitcher’s glove. With runners in scoring position, the pitcher issues an intentional walk to the third batter, grabs a three-pitch strikeout with the fourth, and induces a double play on his 13th and final pitch.

In the first scene, the Mariners win. The lead is preserved, the crowd breathes a sigh of relief, and the feeling is one of pleasant, though not overt, surprise. In the second scenario, the Mariners lose. Despite an effective outing, the offense falters in the bottom of the ninth, and fans walk away from the game feeling unjustifiably disappointed in the closer.

Perhaps you guessed, and rightly so, that the pitchers in question are Tom Wilhelmsen and Brandon League. It may not be apparent from the scenes described, but the postgame emotions are relatively familiar to the Mariners fanbase. With six blown saves, League incurred wrath regardless of recent success. In equal measure, Wilhelmsen inspires unwavering trust with his knack for getting out of jams, even when he creates them.

Let me make this clear: Tom Wilhelmsen is not the new Brandon League. However, some of the situations he’s been entrusted with have reawakened feelings that, as one SoDo writer put it, are “League-like.” Could Wilhelmsen become the next League? Unlikely. Still, my feelings regarding both closers have been so colored by emotion and habit, rather than a solid understanding of their track records, that I’d like to put this to rest once and for all.

Without proper context, there are a few similarities between the two:

League          Wilhelmsen
48 H                 49 H
20 R/18 ER   20 R/18 ER
1 HR                 4 HR
19 BB               23 BB
6 HLD              7 HLD
6 BS                  3 BS

League’s allowed home run total is impressive, to say the least—even taking into account his 12 appearances for the Dodgers, he has just one homer on the season. On closer examination, League carries a ground ball rate of 46.8%, while just 25.7% of outs are made on fly balls, yielding a GB/FB rate of 1.82. By comparison, batters facing Wilhelmsen make 46.0% of outs on ground balls and 37.4% on fly balls for a GB/FB rate of 1.23.

Before you go burning those Bartender jerseys, however, let’s examine the next set of numbers.

League          Wilhelmsen
.272 AVG       .210 AVG
.307 wOBA    .271 wOBA
38 SO                70 SO
9 SV                  20 SV
3.63 ERA        2.64 ERA
3.46 FIP         2.82 FIP
1.42 K/BB      3.29 K/BB

The first two things that jump out at me are Wilhelmsen’s additional 11 saves and .210 AVG. While this paints him in a highly favorable light, seven of those saves were earned after Brandon League’s departure, not to mention League’s lack of save opportunities after losing the closing role to Wedge’s closer-by-committee approach.

With regard to batting average, Wilhelmsen outperforms League in every situation. Opponents are batting .227 against Tom and .274 against Brandon in their home parks. At Safeco Field, the numbers drop to .191 against Tom and .271 against Brandon. Aside from the Safeco fences doing their part, Wilhelmsen sees a strand rate of 79.0%, almost 10% higher than League’s rate of 69.9%.

Finally, keep in mind that League’s numbers are based on his three months with the Mariners (disregarding his 12 appearances, loss, and 6.00 ERA in Dodger blue). In that time, he recorded 46 outings and 44.2 IP, while Wilhelmsen has racked up 58 appearances and 61.1 IP so far.

Of course, Wilhelmsen’s dominance is just reflected in his results; you can find his pitch arsenal and its effectiveness analyzed in depth over here. Equally as valid is the point that Brandon League’s performances are rendered moot with his move to Southern California. Then again, this isn’t really an argument for either pitcher. I stand by the Mariners’ decision to send League to L.A.—while I wish him the best, I’ll take “Last Call” over “Closing Time” any day.

Credit: Kim Klement-US PRESSWIRE

In light of yesterday’s trades, not so much as a peep was heard out of the Mariners’ front office this afternoon, even with the trade deadline looming. Following yesterday’s 4-1 win over the Blue Jays, the team shed Brandon League and Steve Delabar for some outfield depth and a Double-A reliever.

The first name dropped was that of Eric Thames, a 25-year-old left fielder in the middle of his second major-league season. Thames (pronounced as it appears, not as the ancient British river) debuted last spring for Toronto, where he batted .262/.313/.456 in 95 games and 394 PA.

In 2012, Thames saw 46 games with the Blue Jays before being optioned to Triple-A, where he boosted his wOBA from .281 to .403 and his BABIP from .308 to .383 in just 54 games. Defensively, he has been used exclusively as a left fielder this season, holding a .989 FIP and a single error in 456.1 innings.

On the heels of the Mariners’ second swap during a series (albeit one not quite as dramatic as Ichiro’s departure), news broke that the Dodgers won the Brandon League bidding war. In his place, they sent two low-A prospects: outfielder Leon Landry and RHP Logan Bawcom.

Landry holds a respectable .328/.358/.559 line in 80 appearances with the Dodgers’ high-A affiliate. He split his 2012 season in left and center field, putting up a respective 1.000 FP in 58 chances and .990 FP in 103 chances. Currently, Landry holds a 6-game hitting streak, his most impressive performance a 3-home run explosion against the Padres’ Lake Elsinore Storm.

Logan Bawcom, a 23-year-old Double-A reliever, was the Dodgers’ 17th round draft pick in 2010. Like Landry, Bawcom has one year of minor league service under his belt, and just a handful of appearances for the Chattanooga Lookouts in 2012, where he posted a 2.60 ERA and 2.88 FIP. In his trade round-up, Larry Stone relayed some scouting reports from Keith Law and Baseball America, both of whom pegged Bawcom as promising but far from solid:

Bawcom, he [Law] says, “might surface as a middle reliever, but his command right now would make him an up-and-down guy. Despite some tail on his fastball, he doesn’t generate enough ground balls to survive without cutting his walk rate.”

However middling the prospects, it looks like a win-win for both sides, and a relief to have Brandon League off the shoulders of the Mariners. With several corresponding roster moves to make, the team sent Carlos Peguero back to Tacoma, and recalled relievers Stephen Pryor and Carter Capps.

Credit: Dennis Wierzbicki-US PRESSWIRE

Capps has seen just one game in Tacoma, striking out 3 of 4 batters in 1.1 innings of relief. He capped a 37-game stint in Double-A earlier this season with 19 saves, a 1.29 ERA, and a 1.63 FIP in 49 IP.

The Mariners have not seen Pryor since June 12, when he injured his groin on a play at first base. Since then, he has made 7 appearances for the Rainiers, allowing 6 hits, 4 walks, and no runs in 8 IP.

One last note on the trade deadline: Jack Zduriencik spoke to the media this afternoon, explaining his hesitancy to trade Jason Vargas and Kevin Millwood. Via Greg Johns:

If there wasn’t a nice match, I wasn’t motivated to do something that would take away from where we are currently,” Zduriencik said. “We’ve played decent baseball lately, we have pieces here for the future, and in order to make a move, it would have to be the right thing to do.

For now, it looks like a smart move on his part. As long as Millwood remains in the rotation, he buys Hector Noesi more time to develop in Triple-A. And even though teams passed on the pair today, there could be a trade in the works by the offseason. These may not be the blockbuster moves we hoped to see, but for the price of never having to watch League play in Seattle again, I think the Mariners did just fine.