Comments on: Hey, What Do You Know… Bavasi Got it Right!

By: Dave Cameron

Dave Cameron — Fri, 02 May 2008 04:00:05 +0000

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.

By: Peter

Peter — Fri, 02 May 2008 03:36:57 +0000

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.

By: Sentinel

Sentinel — Fri, 02 May 2008 01:46:53 +0000

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.

By: Jay

Jay — Thu, 01 May 2008 20:44:49 +0000

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….

By: Sentinel

Sentinel — Thu, 01 May 2008 19:28:08 +0000

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.

By: Dave Cameron

Dave Cameron — Thu, 01 May 2008 18:36:28 +0000

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.