Hey, What Do You Know… Bavasi Got it Right!
I love the contradictions in Seattle. General manager Bill Bavasi likes to keep us on our toes as he commits to aging catcher Kenji Johjima, who will be 35 years old when his contract expires. Catchers don’t age overly well and Seattle has a cheaper, younger option available. Bavasi then designated veterans Greg Norton and Brad Wilkerson for assignment. After that, he created a mini re-building process by bringing up the organization’s top two position prospects: catcher/DH Jeff Clement and outfielder Wladimir Balentien.
Good riddance to both Norton and Wilkerson, as both were holding back better, younger, cheaper players. Wilkerson (.232/.348/.304 with no homers in 56 at-bats) was also under-performing.
Although Seattle is under .500, the club has the benefit of playing in the American League West so it is less than five games out of first place. Clement and Balentien should provide some much-needed offence for a club that is middle-of-the-road offensively (seventh out of 14 teams in runs per game at 4.59) in the American League (and the club is not going to pitch its way to a title – despite being fifth in the league in ERA at this point).
But are Clement and Balentien really well-suited for spacious Safeco Field? Both prospects have a lot of their value tied up in power. Clement was doing ridiculously well at Triple-A Tacoma with a line of .397/.535/.692. He also had hit five homers in 78 at-bats and walked 22 times while striking out only 12 times. Can you say dominating?
Clement’s power may take a hit in Seattle but he is proving that he is much more than a one-dimensional slugger. He has shown the ability to hit for average and get on base. Clement, who bats left, is also hitting .391 against southpaws and .400 against right-handers. The difference, though, is in the slugging percentage: .478 against lefties, .782 versus righties. Regardless, he should do very well in Seattle, although I’d like to see him behind the dish more often than we likely will.
Balentien has even more power than Clement but he will not hit for a high average. His line at Triple-A is .254/.329/.619. Balentien also does not walk as much as Clement so there is an awful lot of value tied up in the right-hander’s power. He has hit six homers in 63 Triple-A at-bats this season after slugging 24 in 477 Triple-A games last year (and having three straight 20-plus homer seasons).
He is a proven run producer and has driven in 20 runners in only 17 games and he drove in 84 last season. In the last three seasons, Balentien has struck out 160, 140 and 105 times in roughly 440-490 at-bats. Expect some monster home runs off his bat, but also expect some bumps in the road. Some people have knocked Balentien’s effort and attitude in the past and he might end up being the type of player who performs better under constant scrutiny and when the game is on the line.
Both players had a nice start to their 2008 seasons last night against Cleveland. Balentien went 2-for-4 with a three-run homer off Cliff Lee, who has a 0.96 and had not allowed a homer all season in 37.2 innings. Clement was 1-for-1 coming off the bench.
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Safeco is a weird park. Overall, it suppresses run scoring, but it doesn’t effect hitters the same way. It’s actually very friendly to left-handed pull hitters, as the right field line isn’t that far away and there’s no wind coming in from that direction. It destroys right-handed pull hitters, however, as the ball just dies in the spacious gap in left-center field.
Clement is basically built perfectly for Safeco. His left-handed pull power swing means that he’ll probably be in the category of guys who do just as good or better in Seattle than they do on the road. Balentien, on the other hand, is probably going to have to be a monster away from Safeco to compensate for what the park will do to him. From Jay Buhner, Alex Rodriguez, Mike Cameron, and on down, that type of hitter has really found it tough to succeed in Safeco, and Balentien’s probably in for some adjustments.
Good riddance to Wilkerson, but I would have loved to keep Norton over Miguel Cairo. Oh well.
To go along with your post, I love the call-ups. Wlad and JC are a nice breath of fresh air that this team and its fans needed. Hopefully McLaren holds true to his statement of playing them both regularly.
Just to note, because the M’s play in the American League West they are actually further away from first place than they would be were they in either the AL Central (2.0 games back) or the AL East (3.5 games back). Furthermore, they’d be two games out in the NL East or 4.5 back in the NL Central. The only division in baseball with a bigger gap between first and Seattle’s record is the NL Central, home of the Arizona Diamondbacks.
I was happy to see Clement and Balentien get the call. Clement’s power, as noted by Mr. Cameron in the comments, is well-suited for Mariners home games and should translate well to The Show. Balentien on a bad day can’t be worse than the former alternative.
Too bad there’s three more years of Johjima at a ludicrous rate. Perhaps Bavasi can make him a player coach….
Jay,
The Diamondbacks are in the NL West. I’m sure it’s a simple typo.
And, youre right. The signing of Joh and then the call-up of Clement seems confusing. Perhaps they are still hoping Joh will break out of his funk, and Clement can dig Vidro out of the DH spot. Or perhaps lift Richie from 1B.
Had the Mariners left Clement in the minors for an additional week, they would have guaranteed an extra season before he could become a free agent. I think the same is true for Balentien but I am not 100% sure.
Bavasi must know that he’ll be long gone by then.
I wrote up a post on ussmariner.com today that deals with the service time issue – it’s not nearly as cut and dried as people are making it out to be.