Clement, Balentien Called Up
by Jon Shields ~ April 30th, 2008
I just mentioned that Brad Wilkerson was on his way out, and now John Hickey of the Seattle P-I is reporting that Jeff Clement and Wladimir Balentien will indeed be joining the Seattle Mariners in Cleveland for Wednesday’s ballgame. As I type Geoff Baker updates his blog that both Wilkerson and Greg Norton have been designated for assignment.
A couple questions I have:
- What happened to that May 8th date?
- Wouldn’t Wilkerson make a better fourth outfielder than anyone Seattle currently has?
- How did Miguel Cairo survive this?
Either way, it’s nice to see the team making some moves.
3 Responses to Clement, Balentien Called Up
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1 April 30th, 2008 at 2:02 pm
I am kind of disappointed that Norton got DFA. I would rather see Cairo or Vidro go. Good luck to both Clement and Balentien. I personally think Clement will strugle over the long term this year. I hope I am wrong. Cant be any worse than what we have up there now.
2 April 30th, 2008 at 2:39 pm
^Yeah, I’m surprised it wasn’t Cairo who wasn’t DFA’d. I would expect Wlad to struggle much more than Clement though. From what I read he’s an incredibly smart hitter.
I was looking forward to seeing Clement and Wlad up close and personal when the Rainiers play the Beavers in Portland this Summer. Guess I’ll have to step it up and by those dreaded big league tickets! Can’t beat the value of a minor league ticket, especially at a place like PGE Park.
3 April 30th, 2008 at 7:04 pm
The bad news when I got home from work was that we were down 8-3. The good news was that Clement and Balentien had been called up and Balentien had already hit and 3 run homer and Clement got a single. I think this is an awesome move because it will help us to fill the giant hole in the middle of our lineup.
I am very disappointed that the DFA’d Greg Norton though. If anyone should have gotten DFA’d it should have been Cairo instead. Afterall, Cairo is like a latin version of Bloomquist, so why do we need both?
I can’t wait to watch Balentien and Clement play everyday. And looks like I was pretty spot on in my predictions about two weeks ago of Balentien being called up relatively quickly.