Game 47, Mariners at Devil Rays
RHP Gil Meche v LHP Mark Hendrickson. 4:05, FSNW for TV.
Also, since this gets asked every game thread — it’s Darnell Coles in the booth with Rizzs.
This series appears like it’s perfectly timed. After a brutal schedule against other AL East teams, finally a rest against a patsy. The Mariners are 18-28, we’ve got a rotation that’s in deep trouble, a bunch of automatic outs in the lineup, and the big question is whether there’s a 2004-style dismantling in the team’s near future. You would think that Tampa would be a tonic for this battered squad.
It’s not so simple. Park-adjusted, the Devil Rays offense ranks 7th in the majors, the Mariners 24th. Their pitching, though, has been awful awful awful. If you think the Mariners are bad, the Devil Rays are giving up another full run each game, and even if you want to give Safeco some credit, there’s no way that gap isn’t wide. And their starters — 5.82 ERA, 38 HR in 48 games and 262 IP. 129 walks to 151 strikeouts. That their bullpen (4.95 ERA) offers any improvement is a horrible comment on how bad their pitching’s been.
However, particularly relevant to tonight’s matchup, the current Mariner splits
v. LHP: .225/.285/.334
v. RHP: .254/.312/.388
Last time I looked at this, I suggested that opposing teams should consider calling up anyone left-handed from their AAA teams to make spot starts against the Mariners. At this point, I would consider having my right-handed starters throw left-handed to turn the Mariners into the harmless (but cute) basket of kittens that shows up against southpaws.
The counter-argument, of course, is that the team can’t hit either way. 30 points of OBP? Who cares? Have the right-handed groundskeeper relieve, they’ll get themselves out.
Or, to put this another way: against left-handers, the Mariners are nine Royce Claytons, hoping to be nine Adam Everetts. They’re nine Kazou Matsuis.
Against right-handers, they’re nine Chone Figgins. Sure, there’s a bump in OBP and a bigger bump in power, but it’s the difference between a team that scores three runs runs most games (3.3 average or something similar) and possibly four, five a game (Chone Figgins has a RC27 of 4.6, which isn’t the best comp, but it’ll do). One’s awful and the other’s below average, so your choice is “is this lefty’s ERA more than a run and change over the right-hander I was going to spot here?
If you’re Tampa, it’s unlikely any left-handed option would be that bad, given how awful their starters are. I’d throw a left-handed kitchen sink at the Mariners if I was them.
Comments
262 Responses to “Game 47, Mariners at Devil Rays”
and once I ask, rhetorically, why would anyone give them anything for Boone?
Well, if Boone goes, I think we’ll be paying most of his salary for the year. I just dont think anyone really wants his kind of problems. It is time though.
I know public opinion is not on Beltres side anymore, but I still think he’s going to come around. Most of us didn’t expect him to repeat last years performance. But we did expect power, decent average, and good fielding. I really think dropping him down in the line up is a good place to start.
Ooh, major board violation in post #249. Someone fix it quick please.
With Boone’s glove having followed his bat out the door, you’re talking about a below average second baseman with a $9M contract. If we have to pay Boone $4M for the second half of the year, he might as well be playing for the Mariners.
why watch him play and suck for the rest of the year?
if we realeased Olerud, we can certainly do the same for Boone…i’d trade him for just about anything at this point. as soon as Lopez is ready you might as well give him the job..theres no point in him playing second all year when he can get a bit more expirience up here.
oh ya, and sincere apologies on the Doyle reference..it shall never happen again, i promise 😐
if you can get a marginal prospect like Jon Huber for Dave Hansen, you might be able to get a couple for Boone even if it means eating his contract and watching Lopez adjust to the majors for the rest of the year. at this point, as much as i hate to agree, i think Boone is done, but not every GM might think so…they could look at giving him back to SD with Loretta on the dl or somthing, you never know
Its more than likely ’06 will be a rebuild/recovery year too meaning 3rd or 4th place again. Its time to get into ‘Development Mode’ and look for guys who might grow into players by ’07. Aquasox anyone?
Given the depressing state of the Mariners I thought I would give some words of inspiration to the board from the artist Marshal Mathers aka Eminem.
“My songs can make you cry, take you by surprise at the same time, make you dry your eyes with the same rhyme. See what your seeing is a genius at work so its easy to misinterpret it at first. When I speak its tongue in cheek, I’d yank my teeth before I’d ever bite my tongue, slice my gums, get struck by lightning twice at once and die and come back as Vanilla Ice’s son and walk around the rest of my life spit on and kicked and hit with sh*t everytime I sung, like R. Kelly as soon as Bump and Grind comes on.”
Or somethin like that.
#257 deleted for aesthetic reasons
Yo. Yo. Yo. testing 1,2,3
OT–FSN is showing Nebraska vs Missouri, if you’d like to see Alex Gordon….
249, 249, 249, got…to…fix…249; we are all superstitious here and fear another dreaded loss if we don’t change that karma; oh, wait, maybe we NEED a karma change — though Doyle doesn’t
Game #48 coming up. I tentatively predict a win under certain conditions, of course.