Prospect Insider - Spring Training Preview: Game 10

Spring Training Preview: Game 10

By Alex Carson

By 03-03-2013

The Mariners found themselves in an early three-run hole yesterday. So, naturally, I sent out a tweet sarcastically doubting their ability to come back. Truth be told, the way this streak has been going, we all knew they would. Yeah, yeah. I know. For the ten-thousandth time, allow me to toss out a spring training caveat and say that I know. Still, though. Isn't this a pretty sweet feeling? Hell, maybe the M's will keep giving us this feeling come April. That's the amazing thing about the uncertainty of a new season.

Today, the Mariners see Michael Saunders (Canada), Michael Liddi (Italy) and Oliver Perez (Mexico) for the last time before they join their country's World Baseball Classic squads. Both Bay and Liddi are in the Mariners lineup this afternoon. Perez is not scheduled to pitch.

In a funny only-in-spring happening, the Texas Rangers will have Lance Berkman lead off. Not that Berkman's bat and approach haven't been good enough to get on base throughout his career, but when you imagine "fleet of foot," he's not the first guy to come to mind. He needs to get some at-bats, though, so Ron Washington put him in the spot that should get him the most chances to do so.

Berkman will be followed by 2B Ian Kinsler, LF David Murphy, 1B Brandon Allen, C Geovany Soto, CF Craig Gentry, RF Engel Beltre, 3B Mike Olt, and SS Jurickson Profar.

Game time is set for 12:05 pm PT. You can switch your radio dial to 710 ESPN Seattle, point your desktop browser to mariners.com and Gameday or open the At Bat app on your mobile device.

Mariners Lineup
4-L Dustin Ackley
7-R Jason Bay
3-S Kendrys Morales
9-R Michael Morse
8-L Michael Saunders
2-R Jesus Montero
5-R Alex Liddi
0-R Mike Zunino
6-R Brendan Ryan

Pitching matchup
Joe Saunders will scale the bump for the Mariners on a partly cloudy, but warm, 74-degree day in Surprise. He'll oppose young Rangers' right-hander Justin Grimm.

For the Mariners' southpaw, he looks to improve from his first outing where he gave up a couple runs in one frame of work. I always like to see what these pitchers do when they know they're going two or more innings in spring games. I think it helps them settle a little bit and work a little more naturally instead of trying to squeeze so much into one inning. Saunders probably has a leg up on other back-end rotation contenders due to his left handedness, but there are enough arms in camp that nothing is guaranteed.

Following Saunders today will be Hector Noesi, Josh Kinney, Carson Smith, Jonathan Arias, Danny Farquhar and Bobby LaFromboise.

Monday's pitchers
Tomorrow, the M's make their 2013 television debut as their game against the Colorado Rockies will be broadcast by ROOT Sports at 12:05 pm. It'll be a good one to watch with half of "The Big Four" scheduled to work. The collective group is the best we've seen this spring.

Jon Garland gets the start and will be followed by Danny Hultzen, Taijuan Walker, Tom Wilhemsen, Stephen Pryor, Lucas Luetge and Carter Capps.

spring-training-preview:-game-10

Comments
The following 4 comment(s) for this article are shown below:

1. By: maqman on 03-03-2013 10:53:07
Peguero and Bay have been the biggest surprises to me so far. Who knows who will end up where yet, there are so many possibilities and permutations it's a waste of brain power trying to prioritize them. It is indeed still just March but this one seems to have a vibe unlike any seen in too many years.

Thinking of the money spent on Silva, Figgins and Bradley is a downer but how about those Mets. They gave Bay $22MM to go away and we may have a keeper there and Santana has cost them and lost them over his contract years more than the M's payroll this season. That's gotta hurt.

Speaking of hurting the Yankees are going to have to cough up well over $200MM to hold onto Cano. While A-Rod, Jeter, Rivera, Ichiro and Pettitte are all about done and Teixeira has admitted he’s on the downhill slope of his career. They can’t afford to get punked by the Dodgers and they have to have Cano to stay relevant. The trouble is Cano alone can't make it happen. What would they give to have our farm system? I love it!

2. By: Paul Martin on 03-03-2013 17:35:38
Texas loses their #4 or #5 starting pitcher, Martin Perez. Could they sign Lohse or trade with the Dodgers for some of their surplus???

Here is hoping they just try to fill the spot internally! Division just got weaker!

3. By: dewey on 03-03-2013 18:07:56
There 4thor5th starter the guy has 7 M.L. innings lets not go overbored. I like these early results sometimes when guys believe there good even when there not it carrys into there minds and the season lets hope we get lucky. Itodays game i think Morales might be the best trade we have made this dude can hit

4. By: nwmsfan on 03-03-2013 23:27:49
Some of this will translate and some of it won't for sure. I think its just a perfect storm of Morales and Morse showing their plus power and Bay to some extent with Smoak, Ackley and Montero focused right away knowing they have to figure it out. Mix that in with Zunino and Franklin and a healthy Guti and a power surge isn't that surprising but 23 HR in 11 games will surprise anyone.

There's just less filler in camp too now that Carp, Robinson, Figgins, Olivo, etc are gone. I think finding upgrades for all the below replacement spots will be the reason this team "surprises" people. Hopefully there won't be as many wasted AB's by players who just aren't very good

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