Game 22, Mariners vs. Astros

Nick Margevicius vs. Cristian Javier, 4:10pm

Can’t get worse than last night’s game, right? Nick Margevicius was solid in his first start, but his stylistic similarities to Nestor Cortes have me a bit worried.

Cristian Javier is a 23-year old righty with a fastball at 93, a change, and two high-spin breaking balls. The curve looks quite good, but he’s only thrown it a few times, opting instead for his solid slider. The FB looks like a Yankee-style offering, and while it’s been ok, teams that have hit Javier have done damage off of it. The slider’s been hard to hit.

So, Evan White. With three more Ks last night, he has 34 in 77 PAs. He looked frustrated at times, despite notching a much-needed double. I’ve been trying to think of an M’s precedent for this, and there just isn’t one. Mike Zunino was ok/fine at the start of his career. Javier Baez struck out all the time but kept hitting homers. Scott Spiezio wasn’t at the beginning of his career in 2005, and wasn’t given this many PAs with the M’s that year. Same with Miguel Olivo. Stephen Vogt went 0 for his first call up with Tampa, but it was under 30 PAs and he struck out just twice.

1: Crawford, SS
2: Moore, LF
3: Lewis, CF
4: Seager, 3B
5: Nola, C
6: Vogelbach, DH
7: Long, 2B
8: White, 1B
9: Smith, RF
SP: Margevicius