Of Gio, Powell and Suzuki

I've gone around and around on whether Landon Powell or Kurt Suzuki should catch Gio Gonzalez, and I still think, over the long term, Landon Powell should catch him and not Kurt Suzuki. I say this not because of the results of Suzuki catching Gio, but because the numbers say that, over the long term, any pitcher that consistently walks batters will suffer the consequences, and the numbers bear out that when Kurt Suzuki catches Gio Gonzalez, Gio Gonzalez consistently walks more batters.

When Landon Powell catches Gio Gonzalez, he usually gets hit harder. But the stat line Gio had on Sunday was deceiving. He went seven, and allowed only one run, but he allowed six hits and four walks. That's a WHIP of 1.43 for those of you scoring at home. Or, in other words, almost one and half baserunners per inning. Now, only one of those baserunners scored, yes, but no one ever called the Mariners the best clutch-hitting team in the majors. Their cleanup batter is professional rallykiller Jack Cust, for God's sakes, and it doesn't get much better as you go further down the lineup. The only guy in that lineup other than Ichiro that deserves to be in a major league lineup is Justin Smoak, and he's at least two years away from being the force he will some day be in the majors.

The walks will catch up to Gio, and I like his chances better challenging batters with his 95 MPH fastball than dancing around the edges, waiting for the strike call that he has neither earned from being thought of as an elite pitcher, nor will ever get because Kurt Suzuki complains about every call and holds pitches on the outside corner way too long. Kurt Suzuki seems to have learned from Jason Kendall only to have an attitude behind the plate; he doesn't seem to have realized yet that you have to earn that.

Which is not a huge knock on Suzuki. He catches an elite staff, and he can have an attitude about that. Kurt's an excellent defensive catcher; he can be a clutch hitter, although his numbers lately have dropped off a cliff. It's just that Gio is not a complete pitcher. He's a work in progress, and will be a work in progress for the next couple years. I just don't see him developing with Kurt behind the plate into a strike-throwing machine, which he will need to be to start dominating the way he can at times. Gio will get knocked around quite a bit more with Powell behind the plate, but at least he will attack the zone. Gio may learn to do by necessity what he's needed to do since he came into the league, and that's consistently throw a third pitch for a strike.

Waiting for that outside fastball to finally be called strike three isn't going to cut it, long term.

On a positive note, Jerry Blevins pitched 2, allowed no hits, one walk and struck out three. Especially impressive considering that there's really no considerable difference between Jerry Blevins and Gio Gonzalez in their pitching styles. Makes you wonder what would have happened in Friday's game if they hadn't pulled Blevins for Breslow. I say, let Cramer, Blevins and Ziegler mop up the innings until the eighth and platoon Breslow, Wuertz, Balfour and Fuentes in a closer-by-committee. A guy goes only 4 2/3 like Cahill did on Friday, you treat it like a second start lasting 2 1/3.

Cramer is sixth or seventh on the depth chart for starting, so you might as well use him like you would a starter and see how he does. This bring in a guy for one batter stuff is ridiculous, because the guy still has to warm up like he's throwing longer than a third or two-thirds of an inning. And it's kind of ridiculous to see a guy get pulled because he walked one batter, often when the pitch that walked the guy could really have gone either way.