Tuesday, March 15, 2016

On Monday Felix and Walker a Bit Off


The Mariners had split squad games on Monday losing both of them. Felix Hernandez pitched in one while TaiJuan went in the other. Felix looked a bit rusty however it was his first live action against major league pitching and he gave up three runs in three innings. TaiJuan went a total of four innings in his third outing.

Last year TaiJuan had outstanding spring training and then started out poorly when the season begins though he recovered the second half. This shows us that spring training has only so much importance. Other words TaiJuan could struggle during spring training and have a real good season. This becoming his second full season he could go through some trouble as well. The nice thing though is the Mariners have more starting depth this year so if needed he could go down to triple A to get things corrected.

Today the Mariners are facing the Los Angeles Angels. Miley who normally would have started the game has already faced the Angels in spring training and the Mariners do not want him to face them too often before the regular season begins since they will be facing them early. He most likely won’t face the Texas Rangers or Oakland during the rest of spring either. Today Miley will be going against a minor league team while Cody Martin starts for the Mariners against the Angels. Martin most likely will start the season in triple A.

Since the Mariners are in about the middle of spring training not much else to talk about. Seth Smith is out a few days with a tight groin so Dan Robertson who is having really good spring training is playing in right field today against the Angels.  He is a former Angel that general manager Dipoto knows well however he likely will start the season in Triple A. He can play any of the three outfield positions so he would be a good call up if necessary though Boog Powell and Stefan Romero are ahead of him. Speaking of Romero he is starting at first base since he is in the race for the job as the right handed hitting first baseman. Right now hard to say who will win the job for the Mariners; no one is really taking the job over. I would say if Romero had more work at first base he would be the leader. There is a good reason to have any of the candidates to win the job as well as question marks too.  The Mariners could go out and get another right handed hitting first baseman too.

In other local sport news the University of Washington men basketball team will be facing Penn tonight in the NIT in Seattle. So good luck to them though we all wish they were in the big dance this week. The Huskies are looking at bringing in a new Athletic Director so it will be interesting to see if Romar keeps his job.

The Seattle Seahawks have brought in free agent players on the offensive line, defensive line and linebacker. It will be interesting to see whether Russell Okung will stay at left tackle or sign elsewhere. There are other details about the Seahawks we will learn over the next couple months as well.

I am not a big fan of the MLS and the Seattle Sounders however they have started out poor losing first two games and having some injuries. I see part of the problem is that they only play about three to six games a month during the MLS season so how can they recover to win games. If I were a player after losing two games I would want another game to be played as soon as possible to get a win. I don’t understand how they play not many more games than the Seahawks. They play about thirty-three games over eight months not including some other games that are not part of the MLS schedule. More of them later at another time; enjoy the rest of your week.

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