Tag Archives: Mike Zunino

September 8, 2021

Best Batter Today

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Games of Tuesday shuffled the top five of the Baseball Musings Batter Rankings a tiny bit. Juan Soto of the Nationals reached base five times with two singles, two walks, and a hit by pitch to stay in first place. Atlanta took the game 8-5, however.

Pete Alonso of the Mets moves into second place with a two homer game, also drawing a walk in five PA. New York keeps pace in the NL East with a 9-4 win over the Marlins. That drops Paul Goldschmidt of the Cardinals into third place after St. Louis gave him a day off. Albert Pujols pleased his former fans with a home run as the Dodgers take the game 7-2.

Bryce Harper of the Phillies goes one for three with a walk in a 10-0 Brewers win, as Milwaukee returns serve after being shutout on Monday. Harper sits in fourth place. Jorge Polanco posts an 0 for 4, but remains in fifth place. The Twins beat the Indians 3-0.

The best game scores of the day go to Nelson Cruz and Mike Zunino of the Rays. Cruz goes four for five with a double and two home runs for an 88. Zunio comes in second, three for four with a triple and two home runs for an 85. Tampa Bay beats Boston 12-7.

Zunino now owns 29 home runs in 324 PA, hitting home runs in 9.0% of his plate appearances. For players with at least 300 PA, that puts him in the top ten, tied with Sammy Sosa‘s 2001 season. The record of 11.0% belongs to Barry Bonds in 2001, with Mark McGwire accounting for five of the top ten seasons. The only other non-steroid era player to make the top ten is J.D. Martinez with a 9.2% in 2017.

October 17, 2020 October 11, 2020

A Base at a Time

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Willy Adames walks to lead-off the bottom of the fifth inning for the Rays. He moves to second, then to third, on ground balls back to the pitcher, Framber Valdez of the Astros. That brings up catcher Mike Zunino. Zunino often comes up at the bottom of the Beat the Streak list, but he singles with two out to give the Rays a 2-1 lead. Carlos Correa follows with an error to put two on with two out.

Update: Randy Arozarena strikes out to end the inning.

October 6, 2020

Strat-o-Boone

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Aaron Boone appears to have pulled a Strat-o-Matic move, starting right-hander Deivi Garcia, then bringing in lefty JA Happ to start the second inning. Now Kevin Cash has his line up against righties facing a lefty. Nice. The opener strategy pioneered by the Rays may have just come back to bite them.

Or not. Mike Zunino just hit a two-run homer off Happ, and the Rays lead the Yankees 3-1.

Update: Manuel Margot hits a two-run homer off Happ in the bottom of the third inning. The Rays lead 5-1, and the Yankees strategy backfired.

April 10, 2019

Catching Some Rays

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Mike Zunino finished the Rays game against the White Sox with a .088/.139/.118 slash line after a one for five Wednesday afternoon. He might be thankful that Chris Davis is in the league, but it would appear that the Rays are thankful Zunino is behind the plate. With the 9-1 Rays win today, the pitchers and defense allowed 26 runs in 13 games, 2.0 runs per game. The offense is scoring 4.5 runs per game, but with the pitchers doing a remarkable job, they don’t need much offense to keep winning.

Beyond the Boxscore predicted the Mariners would miss Zunino’s pitch framing. FanGraphs indicate he’s still one of the best this year. The Rays pitchers were already pretty good, and Zunino may have taken them to the next level.

July 3, 2016

Mr. Power

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Mike Zunino made a nice 2016 debut for the Mariners, going 2 for four with two home runs and three RBI as Seattle slammed Baltimore 12-6. A career .194 hitter, 78 of his 187 hits have gone for extra bases. He currently owns 36 doubles two triples, and 40 home runs. He is a one dimensional player, but power is not a bad dimension as an asset.

June 11, 2013

Saving Jobs

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U.S.S. Mariner sees the call-up of Mike Zunino as an effort to save managerial jobs:

Both Jack Zduriencik and Eric Wedge are in the final year of their contracts, and they almost certainly know that they need to show some progress in the second half of the year in order to get another contract. The team isn’t performing well, the young core hasn’t lived up to expectations, and right now, there’s no good argument either one can make that they should be retained. If they catch lightning in a bottle with Mike Zunino and he has a monster second half, he might just provide the kind of hope and faith in the rebuilding effort that both men need in order to keep themselves employed with the Mariners.

He’s been a bit on an Adam Dunn at AAA, but then again, I’ll take a catcher with Adam Dunn numbers.