August 3, 2004 · Filed Under Mariners · Comments Off on
A few notes from perusing today’s box scores.
- Ichiro goes 6 for 6 with 5 singles. His run the past month has been incredible and one of those things that you just may never see again. His remarkable ability to string together periods where he becomes a one-base machine is historic. Despite the awful start to the year, he’s now hitting .354 and leads the league in batting average. He’s even 9th in on base percentage, and statistically, his value in 2004 is very similar to when he won the MVP in 2001. Amazing what some better teammates do for his magical “value”, huh. Remember that when Scott Rolen is winning the NL MVP this year because Barry Bonds’ teammates include J.T. Snow and Neifi Perez.
- Can we all thank the Lord that Lou Piniella is not around to watch the walkfest that is the Mariners pitching staff? Can anyone imagine what he’d do to Nageotte, Thornton, and Blackley? For all the Fire Melvin talk, at least he’s not ruining the careers of our young pitchers. When Lou was here, we feared for the safety of anyone coming up from Tacoma. This is one scenario where Melvin >>> Piniella.
- Bucky Jacobsen is now hitting .321/.424/.661 in 56 at-bats. He’s still not an everyday player. Manny Ramirez is hitting .332/.412/.623. Bucky is obviously going to cool off (the 19 K’s in just 56 AB show obvious struggles), but until he does, play the man. There’s just no point in not having him in the line-up right now. And if that means Edgar is a pinch-hitter the rest of the year, so be it. He’s the Sacred Cow, but he’s not Everyday Sacred Cow.
- Brad Penny’s firing a two hitter in his Dodger debut, and LA is winning 3-0. Apparently, Paul LoDuca’s heart and grittiness didn’t go with him to Florida, but Penny’s 3.06 ERA certainly came west.
- The M’s are only a game behind Kansas City in the Justin Upton race after the doublehearder sweep. We’re not going to catch Arizona’s ineptitude, but the best player in the draft frequently falls to the #2 pick, especially when the team selecting #1 threw a ridiculous amount of money at a college shortstop the previous year, as the Diamondbacks are doing with Stephen Drew. If we get the #2 pick, Upton is very likely ours.
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