Tuesday, April 19, 2016

Adam Lind and the Mariners Take on Cleveland Indians


 
 
 
 
 
 
 
The Seattle Mariners acquired Adam Lind from the Milwaukee Brewers during the off-season after trading both Logan Morrison and Mark Trumbo. General Manager Jerry Dipoto was looking at upgrading the first base position.

So far things haven’t looked good for Adam Lind during the early season. He is primarily starting and hitting against right handed pitching. Dae-Ho Lee the Mariners signed as a free agent out of Korea starts against lefties. Lind’s history has been that he doesn’t hit well against left handed pitchers. Depending on the situation he will hit against lefties otherwise he will be on the bench.

So far Lee has hit two home runs including one that ended the last home stand against the Texas Rangers with the only win in six games in walk-off fashion. Lind who hits over twenty home runs a season does not have one as of yet. Also he is batting .172 only in twenty-nine at bats with five hits. Two of those hits happened last Saturday in New York against the Yankees.

The Mariners though are facing three right handed pitchers in Cleveland so we can hope that he gets hot during this stretch. The Mariners can use his bat in the middle of the lineup along with Kyle Seager who is struggling even more than Lind.

It is important for Lind to get going not just for the Mariners to go on a winning streak but his sake as well. You see he qualifies to be a free agent at the end of the season so if he expects to get another good contract he has to have a good season.

It is hard to know whether the Mariners will think about resigning him for next year or not. Both he and Lee are signed for only one year. The Mariners don’t have much down on the farm to choose from far as first baseman go. At triple A there is Stefan Romero though he is having a really good start at this season I would not consider him a prospect at first base. In fact most of his career in the Mariners system has been in the outfield after starting out as an infielder.

The only prospect the Mariners have at first base is DJ Peterson a former first rounder for the Mariners. At this point it is hard to know whether he is still in the future with the Mariners. Right now he is playing in Double A. I only see his chances increase if he goes up to Triple A Tacoma sometime during the season.

Whether this is one season or not at least the Mariners have two first basemen that we hope will be better than the ones we have had over the last few seasons.

Wade Miley makes his third start of the season this time against Cleveland. It is the first time he will have pitched on the road against Cleveland. He struggled some in both of his previous starts. He has pitched a total of twelve innings with an ERA of 8.25 and a record of 0-1. He got a no decision in his first start on the road against the Texas Rangers though the Mariners did win the game 9-5. On the positive side he has fourteen strike outs with giving up a walk. What we hope for though he can cut down the amount of hits he has given up which so far has been 17 in those twelve innings. He will be facing Carlos Carrasco who in his last outing went eight innings against the Tampa Bay Rays giving up one run on four hits and struck out eight batters. The Mariners have only faced Carrasco once and that was back in 2011. Since the Mariners seem to have problems against unfamiliar pitchers this will be a tough one for them. We can home that Miley is up for the challenge and get the Mariners a win. Go Team!

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