Warrior: Brendan Ryan

Brendan Ryan is the fundamentally-sound, gritty-type player the Mariners haven’t had enough of in recent years. He plays the game hard, giving 100% at all times. For these reasons, some may describe Ryan as a warrior. Others may characterize him that way because he’s an alum of the Lewis-Clark State College Warriors baseball program.

College baseball receives just a fraction of the attention of other men’s collegiate varsity sports. For that reason, many casual sports observers do not realize that one of the most successful programs in all of collegiate baseball plays in the Pacific Northwest. Lewiston’s Lewis-Clark State College—the home of the Warriors—has won sixteen NAIA World Series titles since 1984. They’ve finished runner-up in the NAIA World Series another five times. Needless to say, they are an NAIA powerhouse, and their teams are known for executing baseball’s basic fundamentals, and playing a with pride.

LCSC’s baseball program has sent over 140 players to play professionally, many making it to the MLB level. Some of the most notable alumni of the LCSC program include former MLB outfielder Marvin Benard (9 MLB seasons), relief pitcher Steve Reed (14 MLB seasons), and World Series champion closer Keith Foulke (11 MLB seasons). The program has even produced players who have gone on to play for the Mariners: Jason Ellison, Bucky Jacobsen, and Brendan Ryan.

The LCSC program developed its identity under longtime head coach, Ed Cheff, who managed the program from 1977-2010, accumulating 1705 career wins and a .799 career winning percentage (in addition to the 16 NAIA World Series titles). Cheff is legendary for his discipline and no-nonsense, tough-love approach with his players. Players play the Cheff way, or their experience in the program may likely be bumpy. In this video, some players talk about playing for Cheff. The energetic, fun-loving Ryan, though, felt like “a round peg in a square hole” playing for Cheff at LCSC.

Brendan Ryan played three seasons under Ed Cheff. He was a key contributor up the middle for the Warriors from 2001-2003, where he consistently batted well over .350, slugging over .500. His relationship with Cheff, however, was tumultuous, resulting in his dismissal from the team a total of four times. After the third dismissal, Ryan’s scholarship was revoked. Cheff described why Ryan was ultimately booted from the program for good during Ryan’s 2003 junior season: “a lot of irresponsibility — being on time and being a student athlete and not just an athlete.” Cheff added, “Sometimes he didn’t focus as much as I thought he could as a student. He’s a bright guy. At that point in his life, [school] wasn’t as important as it should have been.”

Ryan bounced back, being drafted in the 7th round by the Cardinals in 2003. He was a gifted player long before he arrived to play for Ed Cheff at Lewis-Clark State College, as he earned numerous accolades as a high-school player in Southern California. However, his tumultuous time as a LCSC Warrior under Cheff undoubtedly shaped his toughness, hard-nosed style of play, and attention to baseball’s fundamentals. In the end, Ryan says of his experience with Cheff: “I learned a lot about life. People ask me if I would do it again. It got me to the big leagues, so I guess I would do anything again if I knew it was gonna get me to the big leagues.”

Watching the Innings Add Up

After today’s win to take the series against the Phillies, the Mariners are two games over .500 and just a half-game out of first place. The Mariners have played the entire season, to this point, with just five starting pitchers. And, their rotation has anchored a pitching staff that boasts the second-best ERA in the American League.

Mariners starters have been so consistent in their ability to go deep into ballgames that Eric Wedge has had the luxury of going through the first third of the season with an extra bench player, as the team utilizes just a six-man bullpen (most teams carry a seven-man bullpen).

But, with Mariner starters being so important to a team sporting the worst run production in the American League, one has to wonder what the team will do in August or September with two key members of its rotation: Miachel Pineda and Erik Bedard.

Michael Pineda is a 22 year old rookie, who in 14 starts this season has logged a 2.64 ERA on his way to a 7-4 record. Those numbers are exceptional, but in those 14 starts he’s logged 88.2 innings. Pineda’s career high in innings for a single season is the 139.1 innings he worked in 2010 in the minor leagues. Many analysts believe the Mariners won’t have Pineda exceed 160-175 innings this season. Thus, through 14 starts, Pineda is already halfway through his innings allotment this season.

Starting pitchers typically make between 32 and 34 starts in a season. If Pineda has worked half his innings total through 14 starts, one has to expect he will max out his innings after 28-30 starts—assuming he continues to pitch on rotation. Looking ahead, this means the Mariners may shut him down by Labor Day. What if the Mariners are within two games come September? One has to expect that the Mariners would protect their long-term investment, rather than succumb to the temptation of having Pineda exceed his innings to stay in a potential playoff run—much like the eventual-NL Central-champion Reds did last August when they shut down their rookie right-hander starter, Mike Leake. But Michael Pineda isn’t the only member of the Mariners big three who may not be baffling opposing hitters come September.

Erik Bedard has made 13 starts this season, going 4-4 with a 3.16 ERA. Bedard has worked quality starts in seven of his last nine games, and in all, he has worked 77 innings in 2011. He looks fantastic, and it is great to have him back, healthy again.

There has been some speculation that Erik Bedard will be the Mariners best trade piece should the team go into “selling” mode at some point prior to the trade deadline. But, even if Bedard continues to roll through the months of June and July, will teams want to invest significant resources in a guy who hasn’t made more than 15 starts in a season since 2007, even if he stays healthy? If the Mariners keep Bedard, would it even be fair for the team expect him to be sharp down the stretch? He hasn’t pitched more than 83 innings in a season since 2007, and it seems a strong possibility that Bedard will face fatigue at some point down the stretch even if his body does hold up.

It is exciting to see the Mariners just a half-game out of first place in mid-June. It is fun to think about the team making the playoffs for the first time in a decade, matching up well in a short-series with a Felix-Bedard-Pineda rotation that matches up nicely against any front-end rotation in baseball. But, with the Mariners monitoring Michael Pineda’s innings, and with Bedard not having worked deep into a season in four years, one has to temper expectations.

Once one factors these considerations, the playoffs seem far more distant.

The Day the Mariners Replaced Ichiro with Chone Figgins

The Mariners will not start Ichiro in this evening’s game in Detroit. Ichiro has started every game the Mariners have played dating back to August 31, 2009, when the Mariners batted Franklin Gutierrez leadoff and played Bill Hall in right field. It breaks his streak of 255 consecutive starts.

Ichiro has been in something of a freefall the past few weeks. His average has fallen to .252, and he is just 13 for his last 87 (.149 over that span). He batted .210 in May, and in June he’s hitting just .132. Manager Eric Wedge had this to say about giving Ichiro a night off: “Ultimately, I’m the manager. I’ve got to do what I feel like is best for him and ballclub. I feel like this is the right thing.”

We’ve seen Ichiro struggle before, but in the past he’s snapped out of slumps within days. This current slump is now weeks long, and Eric Wedge has decided to give his 37-year old outfielder a physical and mental break. He did not even allow his future Hall-of-Famer to talk him out of giving him a night off. When Wedge met with the media this afternoon, he was asked how his conversation with Ichiro went about giving him a day off. Wedge responded, “Well, I didn’t ask him.”

Ichiro will be replaced in the leadoff spot by another hitter in the midst of a slump: Chone Figgins. Figgins is batting just .187 overall this season, including the most recent two-week span in which he’s hit just .111, with an on-base percentage of .179. Still though, Wedge has penciled Figgins in at the leadoff spot because Figgins has found success from that position in his past. Over his career, Figgins has started 643 games in the leadoff spot, and he’s hit .289 from that position in over 2500 at bats. Wedge also hopes the start will “kickstart” Figgins’ offense.

For his part, Figgins insists he’s felt better at the plate as of late. “I’ve been having some good at-bats. The last six or seven games, I’ve been hitting some balls good, walking a little bit.” His stats don’t necessarily reflect his feeling better, though. Over his last seven games, Figgins is batting just .188, with three singles in 16 at-bats, and two bases on balls.

We’ll see what happens tonight for Figgy against Detroit right-hander, Brad Penny, against whom Figgins owns a career .273 average (6x22), including one double. For what it’s worth, Ichiro owns a career .444 line (4x9) against Penny, with a double.

Carlos Peguero will be starting in right field tonight, and Ichiro is expected to be back in the starting lineup tomorrow.

Recalling Mike Carp

After yesterday’s uninspired loss to the White Sox, the second straight game in which the Mariner offense failed to show up altogether, the Mariners optioned rookie, Mike Wilson, to AAA Tacoma and recalled OF/1B/DH Mike Carp. Carp had been on fire in Tacoma, where his 0-1 night yesterday snapped a 21-game hitting streak. After starting this season relatively slowly, Carp has been on fire the past month or so.

He prepared for the 2011 campaign by shedding 25 pounds, in an effort to achieve greater mobility defensively and on the base-paths. As a result, Carp stole six bases in eight attempts for Tacoma this season prior to being recalled. But that’s not all. He’s been exceptional in the batter’s box.

In 57 games at AAA this year, Carp’s already blasted 19 homeruns and accumulated a .348 batting average. Just as impressive though, is Carp’s approach at the plate. His OBP this season in AAA was .409, as he’s walked 22 times. While Carp has been hot this season, his bat did not just come out of the woodwork. His career AAA numbers are promising: in 277 games, he’s hit .282 with a .363 OBP and .519 SLG. Carp is only 24 years old right now, his 25th birthday being later this month.

Carp’s defense has never been super impressive. He has spent the majority of his professional career playing first base. But, with Justin Smoak entrenched there for the near future, Carp has been forced to develop his defense elsewhere on the diamond. He’s played 96 games in corner outfield positions since his arrival in the Mariner system prior to the 2009 season, when he came over from the Mets system in the JJ Putz deal.

Carp has spent time with the Mariners each of the past two seasons, but he hasn’t played regularly enough at the MLB level to ever get into a rhythm at the plate. In 35 games and 106 career at-bats, he’s hit .264 with a .358 OBP and .374 SLG.

Look for Mike Carp to get at-bats in either left field or designated hitter. He may also spot Justin Smoak at first base on occasion, should Smoak need a day off.

Worst in the MLB: Outfield OPS

This morning, Fox Baseball reporter Ken Rosenthal listed the least productive outfields in the majors based on OPS (on-base percentage plus slugging percentage). The Mariners rank 30th in the MLB—dead last. It should not surprise anyone who has followed the team so far this season.

Here is what the Mariner outfield has done to this point in 2011. Through 55 games, Mariners outfielders have hit a collective .215, with a .281 OBP and .306 SLG. That adds up to a .587 OBP, as an outfield.

By far, the most productive offensive outfield position has been right field, where Ichiro has played the vast majority of games. Right fielders this season have hit .271, with a .327 OBP and .311 SLG, adding up to a .638 OPS.

The next best outfield position is centerfield, where Michael Saunders, Ryan Langerhans, and Franklin Gutierrez have shared the playing time. Centerfielders have combined to hit .189 this season, with a .265 OBP and .300 SLG, for a .565 OPS.

Left field has been least productive outfield position for the Mariners thus far. We’ve watched a carousel of players out there in left, from Milton Bradley and Ryan Langerhans, to Michael Saunders, to Carlos Peguero and Mike Wilson. Left fielders have combined for a .177 AVG, with a .246 OBP, and a .306 SLG—enough for a .552 OBP.

To put these numbers in perspective, let’s look at some American League cumulative statistics. Throughout the American League, outfielders are batting .252 this season. Outfielders have achieved a .319 OBP and .401 SLG. The average AL OPS then is .721, over 130 points higher than the Mariner outfield.

If the Mariners are serious about contending in the AL West this season, the outfield will need to generate a much higher level of production. The team cannot afford to continue to spoil outstanding starting pitching performances in 2-1 losses and low-scoring shutouts.

When Playing the Game Hard Leads to Serious Injury

During the twelfth inning of last night’s Marlins-Giants game, Florida’s Emilio Bonifacio flied out to right-center field with one out and a runners on first and third base. The runner on third base, Scott Cousins, tagged up and attempted to score. As he raced to beat the ball to home plate, he collided with Giant’s catcher Buster Posey, who had not yet secured the baseball. Cousins scored what would be the winning run; but, Posey suffered severe injuries as a result of the collision. The full extent of the injuries may not yet be known, but signs seem to indicate that Posey suffered a broken bone in his ankle along with torn ligaments. Consequently, Posey will miss a substantial part of the season, if not the remainder of it.

Giant’s manager Bruce Bochy’s comments following the incident imply that he believes Cousins’ play was out of line with acceptable baseball standards. Bochy defended his catcher and implied that Cousins opted to force a cheap, violent collision rather than evade contact:

"He [Cousins] had two paths to go. There was home plate there, but he decided to go at Buster who was close to home plate. Is it a cheap shot? It depends on who you are talking to...He decided to go at Buster and try to knock it loose, that's what it looked like to me. But there was a lane for him."

"[Cousins] definitely had home plate to go for there. He didn't go out of his way, but he did decide to hit Buster and knock the play."

Others viewed the play from a different perspective. For example, Marlins’ manager Edwin Rodriguez had this to say:

“Posey was doing a great job. He was blocking the plate and the runner was doing his job trying to get to home plate. That was a hard, but clean play. He was doing his job. He was blocking the plate and the runner has no place to go but over him.”

Scott Cousins was the go-ahead run in the 12th inning, for a team trying to contend in a tough NL East. Based on the replays we can watch, yes, he had two options at the time: ram the catcher like he did on his way to the plate, or hook-slide to the backside of home plate. Both are legal, clean plays under the rules. In no way was Cousins' play a “cheap shot.” He has a right to home plate, and if a defender chooses to either stand in that line, or dive in front of it (as it almost appears Posey was attempting to do), that runner has the right to go through him. One can imagine that, when all is said and done, Bruce Bochy will reassess his initial thoughts and agree that Cousins’ play was clean, hard baseball.

Cousins had this to say about the collision:

“It’s a baseball play. That’s part of the risk of being a catcher. We’re trying to win games also. I’m not going to concede the out. Not in that situation. Not ever.”

“I’m on this team to help do the little things to help this team win the game. If that means going hard and force the issue on the bases, that’s what I’m going to do. I’m not conceding an out.”

“[I]t’s a baseball play. I feel bad for Buster Posey. I hope he’s OK. I really do. I’m going to send him a message over there to him.”

Last night’s incident occurred less than two months after Twins’ second-baseman Tsuyoshi Nishioka suffered a broken fibula when Nick Swisher of the Yankees slid hard into second base to break up a double play.

Nishioka said of the play that sidelined his rookie season in Major League Baseball: “It’s a professional play by Swisher and he didn’t do anything bad.” Nishioka added, “Swisher didn't do anything that he needed to come over to apologize [for].”

Twins manager Ron Gardenhire said this about Swisher’s slide at second base: “Just breaking up a double play. No issues there. [Nishioka] just got caught a little flat-footed and Swisher's a clean player and that's just a good baseball slide trying to break up a double play. There's no issue there.”

In baseball, a sport saturated with unwritten rules and unspoken gentlemen’s agreements, a fine line exists between good, clean hustle and dirty, cheap shots. Baseball is a sport where tradition allows for a pitcher to intentionally throw at a batter in some circumstances. In other situations, though, an intentionally-hit batsmen can lead to an on-field melee.

As baseball observers, we have the benefit of watching the replays of the Cousins-Posey collision in slow motion. We also have the luxury of hindsight. If we put ourselves in Scott Cousins’ shoes running full speed down the third-base line, as the play is unfolding in real time, we have a tougher time placing blame on him for what Bochy implied may have been a cheap shot. A play like that unfolds quickly, and players’ competitive juices shape their in-game reactions.

If Major League Baseball wants to do away with this type of contact—both at home plate with catchers and at second base, to protect middle infielders from base runners sliding hard to break up double plays—it must legislate a prohibition of this type of play in its rules. Currently, a custom exists in baseball for base runners to take out catchers while attempting to score. Scott Cousins simply practiced what has become popularized over baseball’s storied history. MLB’s best option for addressing this concern and eliminate these types of collisions is to attack it head-on with a rules change.

Should the Mariners Give Ichiro a Break?

Ichiro will turn 38 years old this year. Over his eleven-season MLB career, he has played in over 1600 games, never fewer than 146 in a season. In fact he has appeared in 157 games in each of his seasons but one. He continues to be able to do this year after year because he takes such great care of himself, and he keeps his body in remarkable physical condition.

Right now, though, Ichiro is mired in something of a slump. Since April 30th, his batting average has fallen 40 points; his on-base percentage, 36 points; his slugging percentage, 48 points. He has yet to hit a homerun this season, and he has not stolen a base in the month of May. When one combines that type of trail-off with the fact that he batted 24 points lower during the second half of last season than he did in the first half, or that in 2009, his second-half average fell off 22 points from the first half, one wonders if fatigue may be affecting his game.

He’s batting just .288 so far this season, with an OPS of .674. For the average MLB player, these numbers would be satisfying. But for Ichiro, and a Mariners organization that pays him 18 million dollars per season to be the team’s MVP, these numbers feel underwhelming.

Since the calendar turned to May, Ichiro has been slumping: he’s batted .222 with a .288 on-base percentage this month. History does show that Ichiro is a slow starter. In fact, over his career, April has been his least productive offensive month. But, May—even after factoring in this season’s May-long slump—has been his most productive month. Ichiro has batted .355 in the month of May over his MLB career!

In the so-called post-steroid era, players have not been aging as gracefully as they did a decade ago. With greater regularity, players in their mid-to-late thirties have struggled with diminishing levels of production. For example, we have watched former All-Stars Derrek Lee, Hideki Matsui, Magglio Ordonez, and Raul Ibanez all hit a wall this season. And, while Ichiro’s career has been healthier than these players, and while Ichiro plays a different kind of game than these guys, he is still human, and age will still affect his game at some point.

One suggestion would be to rest Ichiro a bit more regularly. If he were to have an extra day off every couple weeks, perhaps he would be fresher and more productive down the stretch in the second half of the season. This suggestion appears even more plausible now that the Mariners have a gaggle of outfielders available on their bench. The team could trot out Gutierrez in centerfield, with Peguero/Wilson/Saunders filling the corner spots.

However, resting Ichiro for even a handful of games this season would jeopardize his streak of consecutive 200-hit seasons. To date, he is on pace to collect 194 hits in 2011. If he were to rest just once every two weeks, he would miss nine games between now and the end of the season—probably losing between 35-50 at-bats. That would mean that he would have to collect his 200 hits in far fewer opportunities. Of course, perhaps given more rest, he would be more productive throughout the entire season.

Nobody expects Ichiro to bat .288 this season when all is said and done. Knowing him, at some point soon he will go on a tear and raise his average 25 points in a week. But still, despite the great condition in which he keeps his body, one cannot help but wonder if, at his age, allowing him a day off here and there would not be a bad idea over the long term.