Folks, we have a new leader in the clubhouse of extreme stupidity. John Kruk’s introductory two sentences today:
There are tons of dumb clichés in sports that everyone uses, and most of them make you look like you don’t know what you’re talking about. But there is one that seems to apply when it comes to evaluating a player: If you haven’t played the game, you just don’t know.
An editor for ESPN.com actually approved those words. Unbelievable.
Thanks to everyone (and I do mean all 413 of you) who responded about the cordless phone/wireless connection issue. You guys rule. I’m not sure how to convince my roomate to make the cordless go away, though.
Replacements for Aurilia, pros and cons:
Bloomquist. Can play short, sort of, can’t hit much
Leone. Can play short, sort of, can hit a little more than Bloomquist
Santiago. Can play short, can’t hit at all
I agree with Dave here: ditching Aurilia for the sake of ditching him doesn’t do the team any good right now, unless you play Santiago for the sake of backing the younger pitchers up with a bit sturdier defense.
Which reminds me — if you’ve been paying as much attention to this as I have, the M’s have been creeping back up in the defensive measures. Because the nature of defensive stats is so… bad… I don’t want to pin anything on anyone, but one possible cause is that when Ibanez went down Melvin (and I think this is pretty cool) went to that triple-headed OF platoon and started to swap Winn into left for defensive replacements in center late in games.
I still can’t get over hearing that guy say “Bloomquist has power. He just hasn’t shown it yet.” It runs through my head every time I post on Bloomquist. What could that guy have been thinking?
Ibanez is nearly back, but there are conflicting reports as to what the M’s will do to make room for him. The Times says it’ll be Aurilia: The Mariners are expected to move shortstop Rich Aurilia to make room for Ibanez. Aurilia’s agent, Barry Axelrod, called the club yesterday to find out their intentions. He was told that Aurilia could be involved in the transaction, with Seattle preferring to trade him over designating him for assignment to release him.
PI, though, says Leone. The Mariners are leaving open the question of which player will be moved off the roster when Ibanez is activated. The logical choice is rookie infielder Justin Leone, who started last night and had a couple of hits.
The real obvious choice here, if you’re not going to move Aurilia, is of couse Willie Bloomquist. Leone makes Bloomquist more than expendable — hell, a bag of baseballs makes Bloomquist expendable — due to his playing the same positions and having a much better bat.
Also, Matt Thornton starts today. Yay.