Ramirez trade looking worse and worse
For all the talk regarding Weaver, the other pitcher killing the Mariners is Ramirez. His inability to make hitters miss bats is causing the team to rely on two starters who are guaranteed to wear out the bullpen.
Much like Weaver, I don't see much that Ramirez can really improve upon. He's an upper 80's pitcher with little movement on his fastball and nothing resembling an out pitch. Most clubs have 5 guys in their farm system indistinguishable from him "stuff" wise. He appears to me to be the classic AAAA pitcher. Not good enough to be effective consistently to earn a spot in the rotation.
The pessimist pointed to the fact the Braves were ready to move him as all the information needed as to his future abilities as a starter. When one of the undisputed kings at pitcher evaluation gives up on a player, buyer beware. Not only did Bavasi bite, he gave up a valuable commodity in Soriano in the process, which led to the misuse of Morrow.
Because the team has so much invested financially and emotionally to both Weaver and Ramirez, the players are allowed to fail much longer than would otherwise happen. Weaver is the absolute worst pitcher in all of baseball right now, but is your starting pitcher tomorrow. Ramirez' has done nothing to hold his spot in the rotation, but is probably a lock for at least the next four starts before the whisperings increase.
The front office is lucky the AL West is so weak this year. If Anaheim or Oakland were 11 games over .500 the pressure would greatly increased. Instead the team can say they are only a game out of first and ready to make a run. They point to improvement in Weaver's last outing and almost sound like they mean it...
The team acts like it can afford to give away games. It will soon find out it can't.
For all the talk regarding Weaver, the other pitcher killing the Mariners is Ramirez. His inability to make hitters miss bats is causing the team to rely on two starters who are guaranteed to wear out the bullpen.
Much like Weaver, I don't see much that Ramirez can really improve upon. He's an upper 80's pitcher with little movement on his fastball and nothing resembling an out pitch. Most clubs have 5 guys in their farm system indistinguishable from him "stuff" wise. He appears to me to be the classic AAAA pitcher. Not good enough to be effective consistently to earn a spot in the rotation.
The pessimist pointed to the fact the Braves were ready to move him as all the information needed as to his future abilities as a starter. When one of the undisputed kings at pitcher evaluation gives up on a player, buyer beware. Not only did Bavasi bite, he gave up a valuable commodity in Soriano in the process, which led to the misuse of Morrow.
Because the team has so much invested financially and emotionally to both Weaver and Ramirez, the players are allowed to fail much longer than would otherwise happen. Weaver is the absolute worst pitcher in all of baseball right now, but is your starting pitcher tomorrow. Ramirez' has done nothing to hold his spot in the rotation, but is probably a lock for at least the next four starts before the whisperings increase.
The front office is lucky the AL West is so weak this year. If Anaheim or Oakland were 11 games over .500 the pressure would greatly increased. Instead the team can say they are only a game out of first and ready to make a run. They point to improvement in Weaver's last outing and almost sound like they mean it...
The team acts like it can afford to give away games. It will soon find out it can't.
posted by Tom at
2:59 PM
