Things are still in a state of flux with Balentien in the mix for CF starts, pushing Reed to play some first base (he DHed in last night game, an interesting choice) and hopefully diminishing the time that utilityman Willie Bloomquist takes away from the younger players.
Wladimir Balentien
9 August 2008
Though we dropped the game 5-3, Wladimir Balentien uncorked a two-run bomb, showing the Ms that they were wise to bring him up and dump the punchless Jose Vidro.
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19 July 2008
With LaHair, Clement and Johjima rotating at DH (and Wladimir Balentien itching for major-league at-bats in Tacoma), he’s not needed for backup. Unlike Sexson, who can at least point to some good numbers in the last three seasons, you have to dig back to 2003 to see numbers you’d want at DH (note that this was four years before he joined the Mariners, but you’ll have to ask Bill Bavasi about that wonderful reasoning).
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17 July 2008
Let Reed and LaHair try and hit lefties. Let Wladimir Balentien, currently working out his kinks in the minors, try to do so at the major-league level. Trade away your productive vets and release the unproductive ones. Wipe the slate clean and pretend that nothing matters this year except for next year, and every year to follow. Pretend it’s spring training—because, frankly, the games mean about as much now as they do then.
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27 June 2008
John McLaren, in an effort to demote Wladimir Balentien and perhaps jumpstart Ichiro's fading bat, asked the Japanese superstar if he wouldn't mind shifting back to right field. Ichiro immediately accepted, and the Mariners sent a struggling Balentien to work on his batting eye in Tacoma. This makes a certain amount of sense, even for a team that's battling merely for respectability. No sense working Ichiro too hard or ruining Balentien's confidence altogether.
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18 June 2008
The move was made in part because the Ms sent down struggling right fielder Wladimir Balentien, whose .196/.265/.346 line, with 35 K against only 10 walks in 107 ABs wasn’t helping the offense any.
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5 June 2008
Well, it was all over ESPN last night, and the Seattle bloggers and sportswriters are buzzing about it: the normally cool-headed John McLaren lost his temper in yesterday's news conference. His Mariners are 18 games below .500 in spite of a $120M payroll, and they play like a team of Little Leaguers, or at least overpaid Little Leaguers who are just waiting for their candy bar and Gatorade at the end of the game. McLaren railed about how tired he was of losing, how tired his players are of playing hard but getting nothing for their efforts, and of how something was going to have to change--and soon.
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14 May 2008
His veteran clubhouse presence would help young guys like Wladimir Balentien, Jeff Clement, Yuniesky Betancourt, possibly counteracting the lack of presence by vets like Sexson and Beltre. Seems a perfect veteran-buddy match for Raul Ibanez.
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2 May 2008
Yung Chi-Chen is waiting to step in, should Lopez to falter down the stretch like he did last year; Wladimir Balentien is making the most of his first year in the bigs by making like Vladimir Guererro; and they just brought up Jeff Clement (who's really a catcher) to push Vidro out of the DH spot, and backup a solid Kenji Johjima, whose contract was recently extended. King Felix will be dominant on the mound, and now that J.J. Putz is healthy, he should be the shutdown guy he was last year.
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