By Blaidd Drwg

The Mariners are starting to play musical chairs with their roster. The inconsistent Hector Noesi has bought himself a Sounder ticket to Tacoma and is being replaced in the rotation by Hisashi Iwakuma. I don’t particularly like Iwakuma, but with the All Star break looming, you don’t need to worry about your #5 starter for a couple of weeks.

Carlos Peguero is being recalled to replace Noesi. While I thought they needed to call up another OF when Guti went on the DL, they called up a pitcher, then Saunders came down with the flu, meaning we got to see Chone Figgins start for 5 games. Peguero has all of the makings of a 4A player – he has been killing the ball in the minors (this season to the tune of 18 HR is 49 games with a 1002 OPS) but he has huge holes in his swing and doesn’t have any plate discipline. This year he has 18 unintentional walks in 212 plate appearances, which would be pretty average in the majors (about 50 walks in 600 PA) but considering that number would deflate about 25% in the majors, you are talking about a guy who would probably draw about 35 walks over the course of the season. Look, strikeouts are not inherently bad – Adam Dun has struck out in nearly 50% of his AB this season and is batting 220, but he also is second in the AL in HR and has an OBP of 370, which is pretty darn good.

Peguero looked lost in his callup to the Mariners last season and I don’t see any reason to think he will have all of a sudden figured out how to hit MLB pitching in the meantime.

While you hope that his callup would inject some pop into the Mariners lineup, where exactly is he going to play? Peguero is a LF/DH type and a left handed bat. The Mariners roster seems to be riddled with those right now. Here are a few ways I see this playing out, in the order I see as most likely (I also make the assumption that Guti is on the DL for longer than expected – until at least after the AS break):

• Peguero is mostly used as a PH and gets the occasional start and is back in Tacoma by July 20th.
• Peguero takes most of the AB that are going to Montero at DH and Montero finds himself in Tacoma (this is what Geoff Baker thinks will happen) or on the DL.
• Peguero is in a platoon with Casper Wells in left. I would assume that you would want Wells, one of 2 guys who have an OBP above 325 on the roster, in the lineup regularly, so he becomes your full time DH.

I also wonder if sending Montero down will mean that we could be seeing Danny Hultzen making his MLB debut sometime this month.