Wednesday, January 14, 2004
SECOND LEFTY
TNT, they used to be dynamite...
General manager Bill Bavasi and his front office staff have narrowed their search to three veteran relievers - Mike Myers, Mike Matthews and Scott Sauerbeck - and are intrigued by an in-house candidate, rookie Travis Blackley.
If any of the three veterans sign with Seattle, it'll be to a minor league contract with an invite to major league camp. Before the Mariners clear room on the 40-man roster for a pitcher, he's going to have to earn a big-league job.
Among those veteran lefties, each would bring a résumé with him to the Mariners bullpen:
• Myers, 34, throws almost submarine fashion, and in nine years of big league experience is 12-20 with a 4.37 earned run average. Two years ago, now-manager Bob Melvin was a coach in Arizona when Myers pitched there.
• Matthews, 33, fought through nine years of injuries in the minors to get to the majors, where he's pitched for St. Louis, Milwaukee and San Diego. Last year, he was 6-4 with a 4.45 ERA for the Padres. In his career, he's 11-9 with a 4.14 ERA.
• Sauerbeck, 33, split last season between Pittsburgh and Boston, going 3-5 with a 4.76 ERA. In 367 career relief appearances, he's 19-16 with a 3.71 ERA.
Personally, I'd take Scott Sauerbeck as the second lefty in the pen. However, my gut feeling says Mike Myers. He's a former Diamondback, and Blow-Mel has tried to stock the M's with D-Backs. Why would he stop now?
Travis Blackley, however, is a very interesting possibility. Larry LaRue noted that the Angels had Chuck Finley start off in the majors as a reliever, and then he was able to return to starting after a year or two.
Obviously, Blackley should be better than Finley ever was. But who knows what will happen.
The wild card in all of this is Norm Charlton. That's right, Norm Charlton. I was watching the Northwest Sports Report last night (more on this later) and Norm is going to be at the Mariners Fantasy Camp down in Peoria this week to test his arm to see if he can still pitch competitively. For the love of God, I hope the M's aren't depending on Charlton to be able to pitch in 2004. He hasn't pitched competitively since 2001, so it would be a very long road for him to make it.
But these are the Seattle Mariners we're talking about here.
Anyways, on the whole FSNW deal...
My cable company got some new channels earlier this week. Yesterday, I was checking them out and all of a sudden, pops up Fox Sports Pacific, one of the 3 FSN digital channels available in most cable companies (Atlantic, Central, and Pacific). I had these channels back in Bremerton, so I'm already familiar with the Pittsburgh Sports Report and the New England Sports Report, sponsored by the Mohegan Sun (hysterical).
I had watched the 6:30 edition of the Northwest Sports Report (8:30 my time) and it was Jim Watson flying solo. I know that Watson joined FSNW after I left Washington, so this wasn't a huge shock to me. But he's much, much better on the Pac-10 magazine shows, such as "On Campus".
Alright, time to get ready for class.....
General manager Bill Bavasi and his front office staff have narrowed their search to three veteran relievers - Mike Myers, Mike Matthews and Scott Sauerbeck - and are intrigued by an in-house candidate, rookie Travis Blackley.
If any of the three veterans sign with Seattle, it'll be to a minor league contract with an invite to major league camp. Before the Mariners clear room on the 40-man roster for a pitcher, he's going to have to earn a big-league job.
Among those veteran lefties, each would bring a résumé with him to the Mariners bullpen:
• Myers, 34, throws almost submarine fashion, and in nine years of big league experience is 12-20 with a 4.37 earned run average. Two years ago, now-manager Bob Melvin was a coach in Arizona when Myers pitched there.
• Matthews, 33, fought through nine years of injuries in the minors to get to the majors, where he's pitched for St. Louis, Milwaukee and San Diego. Last year, he was 6-4 with a 4.45 ERA for the Padres. In his career, he's 11-9 with a 4.14 ERA.
• Sauerbeck, 33, split last season between Pittsburgh and Boston, going 3-5 with a 4.76 ERA. In 367 career relief appearances, he's 19-16 with a 3.71 ERA.
Personally, I'd take Scott Sauerbeck as the second lefty in the pen. However, my gut feeling says Mike Myers. He's a former Diamondback, and Blow-Mel has tried to stock the M's with D-Backs. Why would he stop now?
Travis Blackley, however, is a very interesting possibility. Larry LaRue noted that the Angels had Chuck Finley start off in the majors as a reliever, and then he was able to return to starting after a year or two.
Obviously, Blackley should be better than Finley ever was. But who knows what will happen.
The wild card in all of this is Norm Charlton. That's right, Norm Charlton. I was watching the Northwest Sports Report last night (more on this later) and Norm is going to be at the Mariners Fantasy Camp down in Peoria this week to test his arm to see if he can still pitch competitively. For the love of God, I hope the M's aren't depending on Charlton to be able to pitch in 2004. He hasn't pitched competitively since 2001, so it would be a very long road for him to make it.
But these are the Seattle Mariners we're talking about here.
Anyways, on the whole FSNW deal...
My cable company got some new channels earlier this week. Yesterday, I was checking them out and all of a sudden, pops up Fox Sports Pacific, one of the 3 FSN digital channels available in most cable companies (Atlantic, Central, and Pacific). I had these channels back in Bremerton, so I'm already familiar with the Pittsburgh Sports Report and the New England Sports Report, sponsored by the Mohegan Sun (hysterical).
I had watched the 6:30 edition of the Northwest Sports Report (8:30 my time) and it was Jim Watson flying solo. I know that Watson joined FSNW after I left Washington, so this wasn't a huge shock to me. But he's much, much better on the Pac-10 magazine shows, such as "On Campus".
Alright, time to get ready for class.....
/ Click for main page
