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M’s recall Clement from AAA Tacoma; Option Balentien

Seattle Mariners

Recalled C Jeff Clement from Triple-A Tacoma; optioned OF Wladimir Balentien to Triple-A Tacoma.

TG Analysis

With rampant change forthcoming and the season hopelessly shot (the M’s are 24-46 and have been outscored 270-347), perhaps Seattle will finally give Clement an overdue opportunity to improve the Mariners’ lukewarm lineup (28th in team Equivalent Average).

The topic of Jose Vidro’s inadequacy in the DH spot has been beaten to death here and elsewhere, but it really is worth noting just how large of an upgrade that Clement could provide. The 24 year-old has pounded the PCL to the tune of .327/.457/.680 with 14 bombs in 210 PA. Vidro, meanwhile, has authored a most sickly .215/.261/.327 “batting” line while often inexplicably hitting in the middle of the Seattle lineup. Provided that the Mariners do not overreact to another 50 at-bat sample and rather give Clement a fair shot of establishing himself, his bat should alleviate at least one problem spot.

As for Balentien, it’s probably for the best that he heads back to Tacoma to see regular playing time. When the M’s recalled Jeremy Reed earlier in the season, it stood to reason that Seattle might go with an alignment something along the lines of this:

LF Reed

RF Balentien

DH Ibanez

Bench Vidro

The offensive profiles of Reed (.349/.411/.557 at AAA Tacoma, .275/.351/.392 in Seattle) and Vidro are even at worst, and an argument can be made that the erstwhile White Sox prospect is better with the bat. And clearly, adding Reed’s above-averge range in left would provide a significant upgrade over Raul Ibanez’s stone glove.

Instead, the M’s have often been lining up like this as of late:

LF Ibanez

RF Reed

DH Vidro

Bench Balentien

The Mariners basically decided to plant Balentien’s power bat on the bench, while keeping Vidro’s feeble stick and Ibanez’s adventurous glove in the lineup. Not that Balentien had done much to garner everyday duty (.196/.265/.346, 29.9 K%), but that hardly seems like the best alignment for the player or the team. Perhaps with regular AAA playing time, Balentien can rediscover the philosophy that has led to decreased strikeout rates over the past few seasons.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, June 17th, 2008 at 9:43 am and is filed under Wladimir Balentien, Jeff Clement, Mariners. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.