I’m alive and well, so thanks for caring. I’m not sure the last time I went four days without posting; maybe never. My life is transitioning (in a good way) and I’m rebalancing my schedule, but don’t worry, USSM will still be a part of that balance.
As a peace offering, I give you the first look at the Mariners delegation to the Arizona Fall League. You won’t see this elsewhere for quite a while, as the good ship U.S.S. Mariner continues to provide you with information before anyone else. They have only named 5 of the 6 slots, with a TBA in the last pitcher spot. There’s a chance it could go to Rett Johnson, but that decision hasn’t been made yet. The five named are:
Shin-Soo Choo
Mike Morse
Greg Dobbs
Jared Thomas
Chris Buglovsky
Okay, so it’s not a who’s who of the farm system, but there you go. If you plan on taking a trip down to the AFL this year, you’ll at least get to watch Choo do his thing.
I think I fixed the archive/permalinks issue (there’s a thing with… blogger’s publishing.. it’s one of those errors where you spend way too much time overthinking the problem until you step back and start all over, and bang, it’s a real problem, but simple).
Any win against the Yankees is a good win, but ahhhhhh, a 7-3 victory’s even better. A couple of thoughts:
I don’t care what color men or analysts say about scratching out a run to win a game, because it’s not true. The M’s won today like they used to win when they had league-best offensive attacks: by busting open a huge inning out of nowhere, chasing pitchers off the mound crying, not recording a single out, as the crowd roars for the next reliever to be brought out for the lions.
In almost every game today, the winning team scored as many or more runs in one inning than the losing team scored all game. It was true in every game in the AL: Minnesota over Cleveland, Baltimore over Toronto, Texas over Tampa, Anahiem over Detroit, Kansas City over Oakland, Seattle over New York. In the NL, it was nearly complete: Arizona over New York, San Diego over Cicny, San Francisco over Philly, Pittsburgh over Colorado, LA over Chicago, St. Louis over Atlanta.
Some of those were low-scoring games, but there it is.
Only two games didn’t go like that — Houston over Montreal, Flordia over Milwaukee.
You can win games putting one run on the board every few innings. You win many, many more when your offense can put up a huge number in one inning. I’ve always felt, in the abscence of any evidence at all, that this is part of why putting together good offensive sequences is so important: once you start the party, everyone who shows up should bring something for the potluck.
Unfortunately for us, Melvin seems addicted to the poisonous potato salad of Scott Spiezio. 0-4 for Spiezio, again underscoring why he shouldn’t be in a lineup. Spiezio’s .205/.279/.335 is significantly worse than 2002 Jeff Cirillo and about the same as 2003 Jeff Cirillo, which cost Jeff his job (rightfully). How good does Spiezio’s glove have to be to carry that awful of a bat at first, the least demanding job on the field? Why not just play Bucky there every day? [edit: as our readers note, Bucky’s got a knee fluid problem that keeps him from playing first regularly, which goes to show the kind of thing I miss out on learning by skipping out of town for a week or two]. Or a can of tomato soup? Small strike zone, hard to pitch to, same approach every day, steady contributor….
And he (Spiezio, not the can of soup) is better than today’s third baseman, Willie F. Bloomquist, now hitting a pity-inspiring .239/.261/.291.
What’s it going to take to end the Bloomquist myth — that he’s talented, and can contribute to a contending ball clup? We’ve offered his minor league lines, his major league service… none of it has been persuasive. If he plays almost full-time, as he has lately, from now until the end of the year, will that put this wounded legend out of its misery? Or will a new crop of excuses spring from the ground in this winter’s rain, that he has to begin the season as the starting third baseman if he’s to be expected to live up to that, or that Bloomquist’s still young and developing, and was concentrating on his defensive play this year? Even if those were true, doesn’t that make him such a limited player as to be useless?
Will this myth fade away, its adherents quiet about its former prevalence, and someone new and (I hope) more deserving annointed as fan favorite? Or like many cults of the irrational, will every failure of his talent in every test only increase their fervor and belief that he’s the team’s unjustly maligned savior?
Rett Johnson worked another inning Thursday night: 0 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 2 BB, 2 K.
Baseball America interviews Chris Snelling on his injuries, rehab, and so on. Despite all the crap he’s been through, it sounds like he still has a good attitude about things. The link is here; you’ll need to scroll down to the August 12th entry.
Short-time Mariner Quinton McCracken is hitting .318/.366/.494 in 85 at-bats with the Diamondbacks. Rich Aurilia’s hitting .314/.375/.486 in 35 at-bats since joining the Padres. Aaaaaaah!
This is a pitcher you can trade: 11-13, 3.57 ERA, .251 average against.
This is not: 3-11, 5.13 ERA, .296 average against.
Sadly, they’re both Ryan Franklin.
Looks like the Rainiers and M’s are close to a deal which would keep the M’s AAA affiliate in Tacoma through 2006. The deal includes a reported $600,000 in improvements to Cheney Stadium.
Can we please put an end to the Willie Bloomquist lovefest? He didn’t reach base himself, he pinch-ran. He then advanced to second on a throwing error — contrary to popular belief, his “intangibles” had nothing to do with it. He then stole third (why run? You’re already going to score from second on a hit, and if you’re out the rally’s over) and scored because the throw hit him in the head.
Maybe, just maybe, he’s able to scare opposing fielders into bad throws. If that’s the case, it’s the only thing he does well, not that it justifies his roster spot.
Edgar Martinez. Hall of Fame. Five words that have inspired thousands more since the best designated hitter of all time announced that we only get to watch him do his thing for another two months. As every other local and national columnist weighs in, I’ve sat back and read. And read. And read some more. After two days of reading, one thing has become pretty apparent to me; one of the best hitters to ever play the game doesn’t have a snowballs chance in hell of getting elected.
The best columnist in Seattle, Larry Stone, wrote about Edgar on Tuesday. Stone has a vote and says he will vote for Martinez. However, he called several other voters to ask their opinion and the news isn’t good. Bastion of ignorance Phil Rogers, whose terrible work with the Chicago Tribune somehow landed him a job writing for ESPN.com, had the following to say:
“I think he has a much better chance to be one of those guys that falls off the ballot early than a guy that gets much support,” said Phil Rogers, national baseball writer for the Chicago Tribune, who is solidly in the “no” category.
“He just came to the big leagues and became an elite hitter too late in his career, and didn’t pile up enough career stats. To me, it’s not the DH. I’d certainly vote for a DH. But I think Harold Baines has a better case than Edgar.
“I think he’s popular in his region, and like a Kirby Puckett or a (Paul) Molitor, he probably deserves support for how he plays the game. I just don’t think there’s enough there for me to give it a second thought.”
Rather than get into a long analysis of why the comparison of Baines to Martinez is like comparing Scott Rolen to Aubrey Huff, I’ll suggest that if you’re interested, you can do the reference yourself. Or, you can simply ask yourself this. If Edgar played the next six years and went 659 for 2,845 (a .231 average) with 84 homers (13 per year), would you be more impressed with his career? Because after doing that and hurting his team for half a decade, he’d have the same number of hits, at-bats, and home runs as Harold Baines. The difference between Baines and Martinez isn’t longevity of success. Martinez could match Baines career performance by simply sticking around and being a terrible player for the next six seasons. And somehow, that would improve his stock in Phil Rogers’ mind.
After reading Rogers’ sentiment, and the fact that nearly everyone with a Hall of Fame vote agrees with him, I realized that I don’t care. Sure, I’ll be happy for Edgar if he’s inducted, and I’m sure he’ll consider it a great honor if there are more Larry Stones than Phil Rogers in five years when he comes up for election. But let’s be honest; the hall of fame is voted on by people like Rogers who simply do not care to understand the game in a meaningful way. I have no interest in letting Phil Rogers ignorance do anything to alter my perception of the incredible career Edgar Martinez put together.
People will spend years discussing whether Edgar is a few hundred hits short, what might have occurred if the M’s had called him up earlier, or the merits of a DH being enshrined in Cooperstown. In the end, though, the facts will be unchanged;
74th best career batting average of all time.
17th best on base percentage of all time.
52nd best slugging percentage of all time.
32nd best adjusted OPS of all time.
For 18 years, Edgar Martinez was one of the few best hitters this generation got to see. If 18 years of historic production isn’t enough for Phil Rogers, then I don’t care what Phil Rogers thinks. Edgar Martinez is a Hall of Famer whether the people who actually get to vote think so or not. Give him a bust and a speech. Or don’t. It doesn’t change the fact that Edgar Martinez is one of the greatest players of all time. He is what the hall of fame is all about. Thanks for the great run, ‘Gar.