Saturday night Nathan Karns goes
to the mound for the Mariners in Texas against the Rangers. The last couple
weeks it has been tough for the starters. Outside of Karns and Iwakuma the rest
of the starters have had very poor starts.
Friday night TaiJuan Walker lost
his sixth straight game in seven outings after starting out going 2-0 in his
first four outings. According to manager Scott Servais Walker is in his
developmental stage which is hard to do on the major league level. We all know
that Walker has the talent however how far will the Mariners go before sending
him down to Tacoma. I would give him one more start to see where things go. If
he pitches again in the same manner I would then send him down. Regardless of
how he does in Tacoma I would leave him there until at least after the all-star
break.
It is hard to deal with a young
hurler who has so much potential. Just like James Paxton was told he needs now
to decide what kind of pitcher he wants to be. He is four years younger than
Paxton so he does have some time to mature as a pitcher but the Mariners can’t
afford to do on the major league level. If the Mariners were at the bottom of
the standings like the Oakland A’s this could be a different story.
News on Saturday morning the
Mariners decided to promote number one pitching prospect Edwin Diaz up to the
big club. He had been a starter at the beginning of the season for the Mariners
Double A team in Jackson however the Mariners felt that the way for him get to
the major leagues faster was to move him to the bullpen. In ten outings out of
the bullpen he pitched eleven and two-third innings in the past three weeks. He
walked only two batters along with striking out sixteen. He replaces Cody
Martin in the bullpen who pitched in the last two games including the game the
Mariners came from behind to win on Thursday 16-13. Friday Martin pitched three
innings so the Mariners felt he had to be one to be sent down with bringing up
Diaz. Martin was brought up when Joel Peralta was designated for assignment.
According to Servais that Diaz will likely be put into action the same way Mike
Montgomery was when he was moved to the bullpen during spring training. How
long Diaz will be around will depend on him of course. In the long term he will
someday be the Mariner closer but right now I expect that he will be brought in
different situations. It will be nice to see what Diaz will do tonight. Unlike
Walker or any young starter he is asked just to throw hard using two pitches
only. He throws a fastball that gets up to 98 miles per hour and a slider as
well. He does have a changeup but still has work to do on it.
It will be nice if Karns can do
what he has been doing so far this season. The Mariners could use him to go at
least six if not seven innings. It would be nice for the Mariners to win
Saturday night so tomorrow’s game would be less pressure to win and we hope
they can win another series on the road. Nice thing though is the Mariners do
have depth still down on the farm for pitching. Go M’s.
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