The Mariners come to town, on Apple TV. I forgot to cancel, so I guess I can watch.
The Mariners recent transactions got my attention. No, not that they've signed Zach Pop to a minor league deal. (Good luck with that.) But rather, one week ago they optioned RH starter Luis Castillo to Tacoma.
Yes, they did. I was shocked, surprised, and sought more information. I soon discovered that there are two RH starters from the Dominican named Luis Castillo, and the Mariners employed both of them. (This is like the Mets with their brace of Bobby Jones pitchers a couple of decades ago, except I think one of them was LH and the other wasn't.). Anyway, Luis Felipe Castillo made his debut with the Tigers a cvouple of years ago, was signed to a minor league deal by Seattle in January, and started a couple of games as the Mariners were looking for someone to fill in while they wait for George Kirby to make it back. Luis Miguel Castillo is the ace they prised away from Cincinnati three years ago. Except he hasn't been pitching very much like an ace since coming to the west coast. He gave the Mariners a very good season in 2023, but last year he was merely a solid, league average arm. And he's been a little below that level so far this year. The strikeouts are down, the hits and homers are up. He's been serviceable, but I think they expected a little more. Still, I'm sure he's still quite capable of firing six shutout innings with 10 Ks and it would be nice if he didn't do that tomorrow.
The Seattle approach in recent years has been to pair elite starting pitching with a more or less average offense. Interesting. I wonder if anyone else is trying that? The Mariners don't seem to be making a lot of progress - their Win totals over the last four seasons are 90, 90, 88, 85. But when you have strong starting pitching, at least you're always going to be competitive. Even with L.M. Castillo being rather ordinary a year ago, no AL team surrendered fewer opposition runs than the Mariners. They haven't been quite as sharp so far this season, but that's mostly because the Kirby replacements (L.F. Castillo and Emerson Hancock) haven't been good enough. The return of Kirby, which should happen within the next couple of weeks, should solve that problem. Logan Gilbert, Bryce Miller, Bryan Woo are young and talented - and if L.M. Castillo and George Kirby turn out to be your fourth and fifth starters, you're probably in pretty good shape.
While the Seattle offense has improved somewhat, it really isn't all that much better than it was a year ago. They've gone from slightly below average to slightly above average. Their best hitter so far has been utility guy Dylan Moore. Julio Rodriguez hasn't yet turned into the superstar everyone expected him to be - his best season is still his rookie year back in 2022 - and he also seems to lose a little bit more power every year, which is not the way it's supposed to work.
Hang on - the development of young players doesn't happen in a neat, straight, linear fashion? Who knew?
Incidentally, Rodriguez and LF Randy Arozarena have played every inning so far this season. Victor Robles was doing the same thing in RF until he hurt his shoulder making a spectacular, game-saving diving catch against the Giants. Alas, it only saved the game for a minute, as the very next Giants batter came up with the game-winning hit, but Robles will still miss most of the next three months and is lucky he doesn't need surgery. The lesson, kids, never to be forgotten - There's Another Game Tomorrow.
There will be some old acquaintances coming to town. Does anyone have fond memories of Trent Thornton. Yeah, that's what I thought. But Rowdy Tellez has been taking a pretty regular turn at first base, and we may need to say hello while we can as he'll be bringing a .111/.154/.222 line to town. He's got a chance to be the next Daniel Vogelbach at this rate.
I shall entertain myself then, and the fact that tonight's starting pitcher is named "Woo" delights me. I know I want to have fun with this. Just haven't figured out how. Perhaps that's wrong of me, but people have been mis-spelling and mis-pronouncing my name all my life. I nurse these grudges, I plot my revenge, I strike back when I can, in my way... Bryan Woo? Collateral damage.
Matchups!
Fri 18 Apr - Woo (2-0, 2.84) vs Francis (1-2, 3.71)
Sat 19 Apr - Castillo (1-2, 4.22) vs Berrios (1-1, 5.16)
Sun 20 Apr - Gilbert (1-1, 2.38) vs Lucas (2-1, 4.70)
The Mariners recent transactions got my attention. No, not that they've signed Zach Pop to a minor league deal. (Good luck with that.) But rather, one week ago they optioned RH starter Luis Castillo to Tacoma.
Yes, they did. I was shocked, surprised, and sought more information. I soon discovered that there are two RH starters from the Dominican named Luis Castillo, and the Mariners employed both of them. (This is like the Mets with their brace of Bobby Jones pitchers a couple of decades ago, except I think one of them was LH and the other wasn't.). Anyway, Luis Felipe Castillo made his debut with the Tigers a cvouple of years ago, was signed to a minor league deal by Seattle in January, and started a couple of games as the Mariners were looking for someone to fill in while they wait for George Kirby to make it back. Luis Miguel Castillo is the ace they prised away from Cincinnati three years ago. Except he hasn't been pitching very much like an ace since coming to the west coast. He gave the Mariners a very good season in 2023, but last year he was merely a solid, league average arm. And he's been a little below that level so far this year. The strikeouts are down, the hits and homers are up. He's been serviceable, but I think they expected a little more. Still, I'm sure he's still quite capable of firing six shutout innings with 10 Ks and it would be nice if he didn't do that tomorrow.
The Seattle approach in recent years has been to pair elite starting pitching with a more or less average offense. Interesting. I wonder if anyone else is trying that? The Mariners don't seem to be making a lot of progress - their Win totals over the last four seasons are 90, 90, 88, 85. But when you have strong starting pitching, at least you're always going to be competitive. Even with L.M. Castillo being rather ordinary a year ago, no AL team surrendered fewer opposition runs than the Mariners. They haven't been quite as sharp so far this season, but that's mostly because the Kirby replacements (L.F. Castillo and Emerson Hancock) haven't been good enough. The return of Kirby, which should happen within the next couple of weeks, should solve that problem. Logan Gilbert, Bryce Miller, Bryan Woo are young and talented - and if L.M. Castillo and George Kirby turn out to be your fourth and fifth starters, you're probably in pretty good shape.
While the Seattle offense has improved somewhat, it really isn't all that much better than it was a year ago. They've gone from slightly below average to slightly above average. Their best hitter so far has been utility guy Dylan Moore. Julio Rodriguez hasn't yet turned into the superstar everyone expected him to be - his best season is still his rookie year back in 2022 - and he also seems to lose a little bit more power every year, which is not the way it's supposed to work.
Hang on - the development of young players doesn't happen in a neat, straight, linear fashion? Who knew?
Incidentally, Rodriguez and LF Randy Arozarena have played every inning so far this season. Victor Robles was doing the same thing in RF until he hurt his shoulder making a spectacular, game-saving diving catch against the Giants. Alas, it only saved the game for a minute, as the very next Giants batter came up with the game-winning hit, but Robles will still miss most of the next three months and is lucky he doesn't need surgery. The lesson, kids, never to be forgotten - There's Another Game Tomorrow.
There will be some old acquaintances coming to town. Does anyone have fond memories of Trent Thornton. Yeah, that's what I thought. But Rowdy Tellez has been taking a pretty regular turn at first base, and we may need to say hello while we can as he'll be bringing a .111/.154/.222 line to town. He's got a chance to be the next Daniel Vogelbach at this rate.
And then there's Cal Raleigh, who turns out to be another one of those guys who specializes in hitting Blue Jays. You know, like Ryan Mountcastle used to be (and possibly still is.) Raleigh has hit .277/.324/.706 in his 18 career games against Toronto, which isn't all that impressive except for the Slugging. But bear in mind - this guy is a lousy hitter. His career numbers are .218/.297/.450, and Raleigh's also homered 9 times in those 18 games against the Jays. The only team he's hit more HRs against is Oakland, who a) stink, b) he's played against in 47 games. But it's April, and weird things are afoot. Raleigh so far in 2025 has hit more homers than Aaron Judge and Shohei Ohtani.. He's hit more homers than everyone in the world except... Tyler Soderstrom?
Oh, I have lived long enough to enter a world where nothing makes sense.
I shall entertain myself then, and the fact that tonight's starting pitcher is named "Woo" delights me. I know I want to have fun with this. Just haven't figured out how. Perhaps that's wrong of me, but people have been mis-spelling and mis-pronouncing my name all my life. I nurse these grudges, I plot my revenge, I strike back when I can, in my way... Bryan Woo? Collateral damage.
Matchups!
Fri 18 Apr - Woo (2-0, 2.84) vs Francis (1-2, 3.71)
Sat 19 Apr - Castillo (1-2, 4.22) vs Berrios (1-1, 5.16)
Sun 20 Apr - Gilbert (1-1, 2.38) vs Lucas (2-1, 4.70)
