Going out with a bang
Dave · September 8, 2004 at 8:17 pm · Filed Under Mariners
We interrupt today’s scheduled philosophy debates to bring you actual baseball talk.
Edgar launches homers in his first two at-bats tonight, making him 12 for his first 22 to begin September. He’s hitting .545/.583/.863 the past week. This is the last month we ever get to enjoy the incomparable Edgar Martinez. I have a feeling he’s going to make sure it’s one to remember.
Edgar esta caliente, indeed.
Comments
25 Responses to “Going out with a bang”
I keep posting this at various places without any critical analayis. Why does Ichiro bunt with runners in scoring position? What could possibly be his mindset in doing this?
What’s wrong with bunting?
Muwahahahahaha.
jason
Melvin may have assembled the worst lineup yet tonight. And that’s saying a whole lot.
I’m guessing he began eating rice balls.
😀
When on Offense, outs are bad, getting on base is good.
You could liken Ichiro bunting to Edgar taking a walk. Sure a home run is better, but a walk or bunt single is better than an out.
If the third baseman is playing back, bunting now and then may be okay. Also, (no facts to back this up) with the number of infield singles Ichiro gets, a bunt hurts less than with most hitters.
This “logic” does break down in a couple of situations:
1) man on 2nd with 2 outs (like tonight)
2) having Winn and Boone (or any other Mariner) hitting behind him
3) bunting out to the pitcher
No, but seriously, what’s wrong with bunting? It sets the game in motion and forces the other team to make plays, and thanks to this new stats I’ve seen, productive outs, we can find out which players are good at dvancing the runner.
Actually, I think the possibility of driving in a run exponentially increases as you raise the amount of baserunners on, even if the next batter is Willie Bloomquist.
It’s something like that…
Dobbs just homered in his first at bat for the M’s. Or as Dave Valle put it “first at bat for the Mariners in the Major Leagues”.
Heh. Don’t get too comfortable, Greg. You and Justin are backups next year, hopefully. 😉
Nice piece of hitting too, from Dobbs. Eighth (or ninth) pitch of his at-bat, after fouling off a couple and working the count fullalone a couple Bob Wickman lobs him a meatball and he launches it.
That was a poorly edited post. Ignore “alone a couple”. Not sure where it came from.
You see, when Ichiro bunts, the defense has to rush to throw him out at first – and they are more likely to make a mistake.
I is smart!
Let’s just hope it was a brain cramp by Ichiro and not something signaled in from the dugout.
Ok….what the heck?!?!?! I have to stop the madness here.
This thread is supposed to be about Edgar!! Get on topic!! The first 14 posts have not even named Edgar (besides one that mentioned him drawing a walk), or the two homeruns he hit tonight. Pick another thread people!!!!!!!!!!!
Sheesh.
Well, hooray for Edgar! Come back and be our righty pinch-hitter, buddy! Lord knows we’ll need one.
Well…apparently that’s not that insightful or conversational….
Carry on.
Edgar Edgar Edgar…
Edgar was his old awesome self — but you guys are missing the most important thing that happened today. … what the *$&!# was Boonie thinking when he first booted the ball for an error early in the game, then just SAT THERE LIKE AN IDIOT while meanwhile the Indian baserunner smartly takes second on him. And then Boonie throws it away! … If it were Piniella in the dugout instead of Melvin the Meek, he would have yanked Boonie out of the game in the middle of the inning. that was totally uncool, i-dont-give-a-damn defense. Boone has got to go.
Hmmmm…
It didn’t work, did it…
And no, Boone must not go. He’s our best option at 2B next year, and will bounce back – AS LONG as he isn’t counted on in the middle of the order. He’ll have a great year as in the 5 or 6-hole, if we pick up some average and power in front of him.
EEEEEDDDDDGGGGGAARRRRRRRRRRR!!!!!!
I love him!
….if only the bunt was the worst play in the game.
The “team leader” letting a ball through his legs and not hustling after ball allowing the runner to go to second on the play(says he thought the ball was still in the glove! That excuse doesn’t even work for Little Leaguers, Brett.) Leads to 4 unearned runs.
Catcher of the future strikes out for the 6th time in a row (five of them against left handed pitching -his strength) and ole’s on 3 very catchable wild pitches.
Enough of the negatives.
Dobbs at bat was fantastic and almost (gulp!) a base on balls. A big thrill for the 8,000 people still left in the stands.
Edgar’s second HR thanks to roof being closed. Two other deep fly outs may have been out of the K-Dome (if he only could have time warped!) Edgar is going out with a bang and will see more starts now that Bucky is out for the year.
Another poor game for Willie. Is that a negative or a positive?
Edgar launches 2 and flies out deep twice and what’s his take on the game? Greg Dobbs’ first MLB at-bat, of course:
“It’s great for a young player to be able to come in and do that. It was a good at-bat, really good. He worked the count, fouled some balls off, then when the count got to 3-2, he got a real good swing. It was nice to see” (quote thanks to the P-I).
How can a team possibly replace an attitude like that? Well, it can’t.
After seeing Edgar’s tying of Buhner homerun, I switched over to the A’s/Sox game. How frustrating to see 3-1 M’s in the bottom line and then learning that I missed a second blast.
I’ll take this back to Ichiro’s bunt, since it’s come up here, and I am dying to say I WANT TO BREAK HIS #$&^@ NECK! Knock that runner in, darn it!
He seems to do this mostly with a guy on 2nd and 2 out. This makes me wonder if the third baseman usually plays in on him, but plays back in these situations because bunting is silly. Even when he succeeds at beating out the bunt in this situation, the opposing manager probably thinks, fine, we got him out of the way without him knocking in the run. It’s almost like an IBB, except there’s a chance he’ll make an out, like last night.
I’m really more concerned about the bigger issue here. Is Melvin unwilling to order him not to bunt? Is Ichiro unwilling to listen to a strong suggestion that he swing away? At least Ichi did a couple things outside his comfort zone this season, namely being more patient at the plate early on and hitting third. Yeah, neither of them worked out well, but at least he and Melvin got together on a couple things. I’ll wait to see who’s managing here in 2005, but I am losing hope that Ichiro will even play CF.
OTOH, all they have to play for this year is pesonal achievements, and 257+ hits for Suzuki is #1 on that list, so actually, bunts are fine. Nevermind.
Edgar’s slugging finally goes over .400 . I think he has decided to just let loose and have fun. He’s not trying to walk as much, and he’s willing to risk a fly out for the chance to muscle it out of the park. I love that Edgar is taking what looked to be an abysmal you-shouldn’t-have-come-back year and making it look like a respectable HOFer final year. Go Edgar!
Ichiro bunting with RISP. I’ve seen it before. The rally almost always dies with the next batter. Weak. He needs to try and drive those runners in.
Another fun Edgar fact:
He’s hitting .346 (!!!) since the All-Star break.
I’m not sure whether to think he’d be even better if he was playing more regularly, or if he’s hitting so well because he’s had more frequent rest.
Regardless, that’s a pretty terrific second half.
Let SeptemGar continue…
Edgar’s legs are still bad – despite last weekend’s freak SB. But the big difference, IMO is not the psychological release of announcing his retirement or the “competition” with Bucky but that his eyes do not appear to be bothering him as much.
Earlier in the year he was flinching violently 2 to 3 times per at bat on slow break balls & other inside pitches. The flinching is down to about 1 or 2 times a game. I don’t know enough on his eye condition to comment whether it is due to his eye excercises or whether the problem abates from time to time.
His early season correction of chasing after the first pitch fastballs to avoid being set up with the slow curve is gone and he is back to his patient self.