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| Positive reinforcement! |
Yes, I know it's nothing new. In fact, the terribility of the Mariners has a storied history, ranging from the Van Winklean longevity of Diego Segui's suck to the overwhelmingly varied suck of Yuniesky Betancourt, a man who could exhibit every single baseball skill in the exact wrong way. Of course, as a Mariners fan, one can always hope to get rid of players like that, even if there is little chance that our wishes will come to fruition. As such, it is time to look back at the 2011 season and pick out the players who really shouldn't ever play on the Mariners ever again.
We'll start things off strong with perhaps our most overrated terrible player: Miguel Olivo. Yes, Olivo has been triumphed as our power hitter, with a whopping 19 home runs. For the record, that puts him tied for 37th in the American League in home runs, meaning the man that we all love as our power hitter is worse at it than over half the Texas Rangers. Of course, power is a lovely skill, especially when you have such a robust on-base percentage as Olivo's .253, which is one hundred and ninety-six (196!) points lower than Jose Bautista's league leading total. Olivo's OBP is worse than 16 seperate teams' batting averages. His wRC+, a lovely metric in which 100 is average and every point above or below represents a percentage point better or worse than average, has Olivo as a 71, or 29% worse than the average hitter. I miss Tom Lampkin.
Continuing our tour brings us to Anthony Vazquez, a man with an ERA so bad that it seems impossible for him to have pitched 30 innings. As I type this, Vazquez has just finished one of his best outings of the year, only giving up 2 runs in 2 innings pitched. Vazquez's fielding independent pitching (FIP) stands at 9.28, meaning the defense around him has IMPROVED his statistics to a 8.90 ERA and a .303 BABIP. He has given up 13 homers to match his 13 strikeouts, something that just doesn't seem possible. It seems as if it is physically impossible for any man to be more ill-suited to pitching in the Majors than Anthony Vazquez.
Perhaps its not fair to include him as he is almost certainly gone, but this brings us to Chone Figgins. Even in last year's incredibly disappointing season, at least Figgins still drew walks to the tune of a .340 OBP. Of course, in his attempt to recapture his ability to hit the ball, he decided to swing at EVERY PITCH IMAGINABLE. His OBP is now .241, lower than Miguel Olivo's even and emphasized even moreso by his 13 extra base hits in 300 at-bats. What's that, you say he's at least fast? 11 stolen bases to 6 caught stealings says otherwise, along with a -1.4 baserunning score courtesy of Fangraphs.
And finally, perhaps this isn't fair due to their (relative) youth, but I would like to make sure to mention Michael Saunders and Carlos Peguero. With Peguero, who strikes out an incredible 35% of the time, we may not have to worry about seeing him again. After adding Trayvon Robinson, Casper Wells, and a usable Mike Carp, there is even less of a place for a player with a .252 OBP and little understanding of defensive play (unless he can play catcher!) If we are lucky, the Mariners will have given up on Saunders as well. In this, his 3rd partial season with the big league club, he batted .149 with a .207 OBP, stats that are ridiculous only in their terribility. Furthermore, OPS is worse than Jose Bautista's OBP. That's right, Saunders can't even reach .450 with two COMBINED statistics. Well, at least he has 6 stolen bases?
While certainly there are more players on the Mariners worthy of being gotten rid of (Charlie Furbush, Luis Rodriguez, etc.), these men seem to stand out to me in the sheer depth of their depravity. One can only hope that GMZ continues his relatively strong run as our leader and brings in Major League-caliber free agents. Of course, based on his track record there (trade for Milton Bradley! Miguel Olivo! Chone Figgins!), I wouldn't count on it. Strong drafts woo!
I think you pretty much nailed these guys. I would say that it is unfair to Peguero because, like you mentioned, of his youth. The Mariners brought him up way before he was ready. They should have let him spend more time in AAA working on pitch recognition. I think that the mgmt grew so enamored with his potential power that they were blinded by it. They couldnt see all his other weaknesses. It is funny to me that they did that, when they had another guy, Carp, hitting homers like crazy in AAA.
ReplyDeleteWhile Peguero is young, I don't really see him as a guy that'll get much better because there are so many problems with his approach. Best case scenario, he becomes Wily Mo Pena, who is bad.
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