A Full Deck (almost)

You could say the Mariners have their pitching lineup set—they will be playing with a full deck—except for one small vacancy in the starting pitching rotation. Still, with plenty of pitching cards in their deck, they should have a strong hand to play.

The M’s already had three good pitchers. Garcia is their ace. Moyer is the King and that leaves Abbott to be the Jack (I don’t think he’d like being the Queen). With the new addition of James Baldwin as a starter, the only question is who will take the fifth spot. The leading contenders are Joel Pineiro, John Halama, Ryan Franklin and Gil Meche.

James Baldwin brings experience to the team and could do as well or better than Sele. He was the winning pitcher in the 2000 All-Star game and went 14-7 that year for the Chicago White Sox. Last year, coming off of arthoscopic surgery at the end of the 2000 season a little too soon, he was 7-5 with 4.61 ERA for the White Sox and 3-6 with a 4.20 ERA for the Dodgers, who acquired him before the 7/31 trading deadline. He still equaled his career best in 1996, however, when he went 11-6 in 25 starts. At 30, he is still young and Pat Gillick thinks he can give them 200 innings this season. He went through the White Sox system with Mike Cameron who has been helping to recruit him. In addition, it is important for him to pitch for a winning team like the Mariners, even if he has to accept less money to do it.

Joel Pineiro has proven he can handle the starting job, even though he didn’t get to pitch a full season. He was 6-2 with 2.03 ERA. I think he would be a good fifth starter. If he falters, Lou could always draw on someone like Franklin or Meche.

Last year Halama struggled in the starting rotation but did well in relief. He might be a good replacement for Norm Charlton if he doesn’t win the starting spot.

Ryan Franklin did well as a long reliever. He could probably do the job of a starter, but is the management willing to give him the chance? Maybe they need him more in the bullpen.

Gil Meche (22) pitched for the Mariners as a starter in 1999 and 2000. He did well in 1999, going 8-4 with a 4.73 ERA. In 2000 he started experiencing some problems with his arm but it took a long to diagnose the problem. He went 4-4 that year with a 3.78 ERA. Eventually he had surgery that kept him out the entire 2001 season. Now he is back and feeling fine. It will be interesting to see how he does in Spring Training.

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