Good news, Chad Cordero threw a bullpen session yesterday and came away from it saying he felt that he finally had full range of motion in his shoulder.
“Did I know that doing a couple of small things would get him full extension? After all the years of working with pitchers, I’ve picked up a few things,” Adair said, smiling. “Chad’s doing the work, and he’s surprised us. He’s going to be ready sooner than we’d hoped.”
...
“I threw about 40 pitches, all fastballs, and my velocity was up. I don’t throw hard, anyway – 88-89 mph, and sometimes up to 90-91. I’d say I was throwing anywhere from 82 to 84 mph today.
...
“When I first signed here, I was thinking I’d pitch in June, maybe July. I’m way ahead of that now,” Cordero said. “Now I’m looking at mid- to late-May.”
Reading through that story though sparked a memory, that of why Cordero signed here in the first place:
"This was definitely not the best offer," said [Cordero's Agent]. "It's strictly an opportunity move. He put most of his emphasis on the best chance of closing. He thought this was a good opportunity for that."
Think Cordero has a chip on his shoulder now? I cannot believe the beat writers haven't jumped on this yet as a source of future bad chemistry.
0 recs | 80 comments
Give it time...
Things are bound to get boring over the next two days….
section331 - April 2, 2009
It's even more of a dick move considering the Mariners had no intention of ever letting Morrow start for them
and forced him to the bullpen all the while making him lie to the press in order to cover the teams own collective asses.
JI - April 2, 2009
Yeah, and they tricked Bedard's agent into letting Erik start again too!
Bastards.
Matthew - April 2, 2009
For a team so devious
they sure lose a metric fuckton of baseball games
JI - April 2, 2009
All part of the plan.
Matthew - April 2, 2009
Except they fucked that up too by winning at the end
seattlebruin - April 2, 2009
All part of some plan.
Matthew - April 2, 2009
The plan to control the population of WA by driving up suicide rates?
OlSalty - April 2, 2009
We're just waiting for them to let their guard down
Then we strike!
OlSalty - April 2, 2009
Hmm...
When they find out that the “bad” chemistry is what caused him to heal so quickly in the first place, they’ll be right on it…
PositivePaul - April 2, 2009
Lookout Landing:
Your place for steroid speculation!
Graham MacAree - April 2, 2009
lookout landing is on steroids now?
pdb - April 2, 2009
Steroids?
I thought “bad chemistry” was what was done in my neighbors trailer…
section331 - April 2, 2009
Bryan Cranston is your neighbor?
abender20 - April 2, 2009
Bryan Cranston lives in a trailer?
What.
section331 - April 2, 2009
Damn, check that....
It was late, and I’ve never watched that show – I just now got that joke.
section331 - April 3, 2009
I would argue that steroids and other performance enhancers are examples of exceptionally good chemistry
Jeff Sullivan - April 2, 2009
Except that they shrink your balls
JI - April 2, 2009
Isn't crushing balls the point?
abender20 - April 2, 2009
I think you are confused
JI - April 2, 2009
I don't think he is.
royalcurve - April 2, 2009
Shrunken != crushed
JI - April 2, 2009
.
PositivePaul - April 2, 2009
Cup check!
Wilder. - April 2, 2009
Pfft. Chemist. You probably think isolating a bacon-flavored chemical is a good thing.
Next thing you know, there’s bacon salt, bacon chocolate, bacon soda pop, bacon air freshners.
johnbai - April 2, 2009
Bacon lube
abender20 - April 2, 2009
Yeah...
This
hcoguy - April 2, 2009
Epic fail
Decatur - April 3, 2009
On Branyan:
“Given the chance to win a starting job for he first time in his career, the 33-year-old journeyman has shown he can play first base. He’ll get the chance to play against righties and lefties, although against tough left-handed pitchers the team might use Mike Sweeney at first.”
How concerned should we be about this? How likely is this to be from Wak’s mouth, or just Larue’s conjecture? I’m not familiar enough with Larue to tell for myself.
Terminator X - April 2, 2009
About what exactly?
Aaron Campeau - April 2, 2009
I was under the impression Branyan was rather worthless vs. LHP
And the plan was to go with a firm Branyan vs RHP and Sweeney vs LHP platoon. My mistake apparently if that was never the case.
Terminator X - April 2, 2009
Gotcha.
Not very.
Aaron Campeau - April 2, 2009
Cool.
Terminator X - April 2, 2009
What are you concerned about?
Matthew - April 2, 2009
I think that was kinda the plan all along.
Teej - April 2, 2009
And that's not quoted as being from Wak in LaRue's piece.
Matthew - April 2, 2009
That's why I asked about the likelihood of that being LaRue's personal conjecture
as opposed to something he had overheard at camp but didn’t have a direct quote on. That’s what I meant by “from Wak’s mouth” – something LaRue overheard from him, not a direct quote from Wak himself.
Terminator X - April 2, 2009
I'll bite and say that Russ Branyan has gone more than 0-fer the season v. LHP on more than one occasion
what that means… ???
JI - April 2, 2009
oops
is that Branyan’s .731 OPS v. LHP lifetime could better than what Sweeney offers once you factor in defense.
JI - April 2, 2009
Urge to kill rising....
OlSalty - April 2, 2009
If he's really already back to 82-84 that's great news
Maybe our bullpen won’t suck after all.
OlSalty - April 2, 2009
4 or 5 more and he's back to his old velocity
Here’s hoping the movement and control are still there
Terminator X - April 2, 2009
Here's hoping he comes back before our annual mid-May meltdown
Ezzra - April 2, 2009
I would argue that a man that advocated taking another and thus far much more successful pitcher would be the most pissed.
Robert - April 2, 2009
If you're referring to Tim Lincecum
I agree
JI - April 2, 2009
Truely a shame we didn't draft him
It’s like we had success right in front of us and we mistepped. Before we knew ,it had gone right behind us and all hope was lost.
Robert - April 2, 2009
It was like we punted our best chance
and in doing so helped a rival team reach it’s goal.
JI - April 2, 2009
In my mind I have this little grainy video of us circling the podium and bungling the pick at the last second that plays in a endless loop.
The only thing that lets me sleep at night is the fact that nobody could possibly ever capture this at multiple angles.
Robert - April 2, 2009
Thankfully I do not believe such a thing could ever exist
JI - April 2, 2009
The only way it could exist was if I angered both somebody that archived my mind AND somebody that was a master at capturing it in a digital form.
Thankfully I’m not quite that dumb.
Robert - April 2, 2009
Yes it is quite a relief.
JI - April 2, 2009
The one effing hometown guy that could really become a hero...
But NOOoooooo
PositivePaul - April 2, 2009
Revenge will come.
Oh, yes, it will.
Matthew - April 2, 2009
What a dick
He was totally saying that because Washburn was standing right next to him. Anyway… yeah closer might be taken, but hey, LOOGY is wide open for the moment!
Bearskin Rugburn - April 2, 2009
Isn't Cordero a righty?
or were you referring to Washburn?
Ezzra - April 2, 2009
Holy shit
I thought he was a lefty. Why the fuck would we let a 88mph fast ball only righty close?
Bearskin Rugburn - April 3, 2009
Because he's was a reasonably good player before he got injured?
Graham MacAree - April 3, 2009
He was an okay reliever
he was never an ace. But whatever, we’ve had this discussion before. I think there are much better candidates to close in the organization than Cordero.
Bearskin Rugburn - April 3, 2009
If Cordero is back to old form, i might prefer him to Morrow.. who even when he's on his game
has questionable command. My recollection of Morrow closing from last yr isn’t pleasant. Didn’t he blow like 3 straight games or something when Putz was out?
Rudy4three - April 2, 2009
Morrow has shutdown stuff
I want him to be used in high leverage situations and then use Cordero in the closers role so we can pump up his value and unload him for something nifty.
Robert - April 2, 2009
Kind of like
How Nelson was used in tough situation and then Sasaki cruised through the ninth in 2001.
Fin - April 2, 2009
No because Kaz deserved each and every one of those saves.
Robert - April 2, 2009
Kaz was better at closing than carrying luggage.
Mariner John - April 2, 2009
Nelson couldn't retire lefties with any consistency
JI - April 3, 2009
And why they had Rhodes as their LOOGY.
Now if there was only someone now who could step up as a LOOGY, then we would be set.
Fin - April 3, 2009
Rhodes could get RHBs out
JI - April 3, 2009
Morrow is so so so much better than Cordero
Jeff Sullivan - April 2, 2009
Except for three games one time
So he sucks
Gihyou - April 2, 2009
Nobody said he sucks, just that he hasn't proven he could close yet. With his stuff of course he should
be able to be a stud there, but I agree with Robert in that I like him better in that relief ace role where he can come in during the 7th and 8th and shutdown rallies. If Cordero has his stuff and command back then I’d rather use Morrow in the relief ace role, and let Cordero pitch the 9th.
I just feel that Morrow coming out of that pen every day in high leverage spots is a real weapon, as opposed to waiting around for save opportunities, especially if a guy like Cordero is back at 100% and has shown he’s capable of working in that role
Rudy4three - April 3, 2009
The 11 highest gmLI figures last year all belonged to closers
the 9th inning tends to have the highest leverage anyway. And I imagine the team won’t have a problem with bringing him in to destroy a rally in the 8th and then letting him finish.
Jeff Sullivan - April 3, 2009
Whoa.
Teej - April 2, 2009
Yeah, Morrow is a good reliever though even with his spotty control
If Cordero recovers his old stuff he’s probably just ~average, maybe a little above, but not as good as Morrow. I was crazier about the idea of Cordero closing eventually when I thought Morrow was slated to start, now he’s just a bullpen arm who can get both lefties and righties out with decent efficiency or a nice trade option we picked up for nothing.
OlSalty - April 2, 2009
Morrow was a shut down reliever last season
http://www.baseball-reference.com/pi/psplit.cgi?n1=morrobr01&year=2008
JI - April 2, 2009
Really, the only thing you could knock
was those pesky homers.
hcoguy - April 2, 2009
Considering his HR/FB% was 12.8% I'm not especially worried.
Aaron Campeau - April 2, 2009
best plan B in baseball?
larue says
“If Morrow stumbles, Cordero is as good a Plan B as there is in the big leagues.”
I thought the Mets had Putz as a plan B?
Lantern - April 3, 2009
No politics.
waldo rojas - April 3, 2009
What the hell is he talking about
Jeff Sullivan - April 3, 2009
Birth control?
d0nkey - April 3, 2009
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