Game 71, A’s at Mariners
Kirk Saarloos vs Ryan Franklin, 1:35 pm matinee game.
The race to 300 runs is on, as the last two teams in the American League to reach the magic number match up. The M’s have scored 298 runs, the A’s 294. These offensive juggernauts both get to face undersized RHPs who couldn’t strike out your sister. Seriously. Kirk Saarloos has struck out 14 of the 290 batters he’s faced this year, a microscopic five percent. His K/9 is 1.90. That’d make a great ERA, but as a strikeout ratio, not so much. Franklin looks like Nolan Ryan in comparison with his 3.93 K/9. He strikeouts out 10 percent of all batters he faces. For comparison, Randy Johnson has struck out 30 percent of the batters to face him in his career.
So, today, look for lots of balls in play. The team that flashes the better leather probably wins.
Comments
137 Responses to “Game 71, A’s at Mariners”
Oh. But that was an exciting 12-inning game that we won, not a dog of a 9-inning such as we saw tonight.
#93 –Deanna said:”Olerud’s so done that he’s currently hitting .394/.432/.606 for the Red Sox, yes.”
of course, that is in 33 ABs, harkening back to the ‘small sample size’ debate 🙂
#100– DMZ said:”307 comments on yesterday’s thread”
and only a few of those were due to my ineptitude embedding….
Dobbs is hitting 9th in Tacoma. Shouldn’t that mean something?
Yeah, small sample size, but if only we had guys like that on *our* bench…
Also, the day/night thing — I think people are much more likely to hang out and chill on an evening or weekend game than a day game, when most people are working.
Also the Mr Corcoran and Mr Thomsen factor. A list of your most frequent posters as I recall had them at the top of the list.
98: I have been busy working and in the process of moving the last few days, plus I had a bit of a crisis that sent me back to Ohio recently. So, I haven’t been posting much. But I’m back.
Well that timing couldn’t have been more humorous.
Being at work or nice weather should be no excuse for not visiting and providing commentary at USSMariner. 🙂
Being at the game is a reasonable excuse, though.
It isn’t stopping me. I am managing to find a computer between shifts.
Bring a laptop to the game. Certainly there is somewhere where you can get free Wi-Fi…
Or I coud give post game commentary like this:
One of the least intersting games I’ve ever been to, or at least it felt that way. Franklin was predictable, Grover not going to the pen early was sopmething I feared after last night, and Seattle not scoring runs was par for the course.
Sexson repeatedly misses throws that take a medium hop to his right. He doesn’t even block them.
G-Man: I’ll give you the cliffnotes version: That game sucked.
Lorraine for the rotation!
(/sarcasm)
I’m significantly more likely to post extensively during day games. I never come here at night.
Except that I’m here now, proving myself wrong.
Way off topic (this would have fit really well with the last two threads dealing with Boone’s issues), but if you haven’t checked out David Bell’s throw to first from foul territory to nail the runner, well you really should. I laughed my buttocks off when the dude realized he’d been thrown out and did a double take. Reminds me of Sammy Sosa’s expression when Ichiro threw him out at the plate in ST 2001.
I think if you made a popup window come up, USSM could win 😉
http://www.nwsource.com/peoplespicks/2005/vote.cfm?lid=500054
speaking of Olerud, there’s a nice piece today in the Boston Herald about his family, and the effect their middle daughter’s health has had on them:
http://www.boston.com/sports/baseball/redsox/articles/2005/06/24/growing_family/?page=1
Well, that game certainly sucked.
An a brighter note: Who is planning to go to the Aqua Sox game tomorrow (Saturday) for Matt Tuiasosopo Bobbllhead Doll Night? First 1000 kids 14 and under get one…so better bring your kids/little brothers or sisters!
AAAAAAAUUUUGGH!!!
One can dismiss John Olerud’s BA/OBP/SLG as merely the outcome of a “small sample size,” and I do not doubt that is part of the truth. However, such a summary dismissal serves only to preclude actual thinking which is, after all, what differentiates baseball from all those other games.
Look at how Olerud is used: As a spot starter platooning with a righty, and as a late-inning defensive replacement. In the former, his manager is picking the pitchers against which he’s likely to do well, and in the latter he’s facing relievers, who as a group are simply not as good as starters. So I really THINK there’s more to his numbers than just “small sample size.”
#122: With all due respect, it’s 33 at bats … If he still was an everyday player, that’s about a week and a half’s worth of games.
122 – Or facing closers, who usually are pretty good, given they’re the guy the team is depending on to make sure nobody scores in the late innings.
For example, it was painful watching Greg Dobbs hit because he was basically always being put in as a last-ditch pinch-hitter in the ninth against the opposing closer. (Well, wait, it was painful for other reasons, but still.)
Olerud might not get enough at-bats all year to have anything but a “small sample size”, but it still inspires bench envy.
The Mariners and Padres will wear throwback jerseys in Saturday’s game, the Mariners with replica 1938 Seattle Rainiers jerseys and the Padres their 1936 uniform from their first season in the Pacific Coast League.
Olerud is an interesting study in aging players. Last year he was not very effective on a day to day basis however late last season and now early on, he does appear to be doing well. We accept that every player’s skills will deteriorate beyond a certain age and the data proves this out.
It does also appear that those same players can be excellent contributors if played to their strengths.
#122:
Olerud got a start this Wednesday in Cleveland (his first in quite a long time) facing Cliff Lee, a left-handed starter. He went 3 for 4 in that game with a double and a HR off Lee and an RBI single off Arthur Rhodes, a lefty reliever (for those with short memories) brought in to face him who had done a pretty good job getting him out in the past (4/18 with 1 K and 5 BB).
There’s no denying Olerud’s got some small sample size effect in his numbers, but it’s also possible he’s actually playing better than he did in Seattle.
Actually, Deanna, he’s probably not faced many closers. As a defensive replacement his role is similar to that of a closer — to help preserve a lead. In games he enters late, Boston, rather than their opponent, is more likely to be using their closer.
But I do share your Dobbs-pain.
Cliff Lee — Interesting. Lefties are hitting him at .326, righties at .218. Looks like someone in Boston is paying attention to the statistics.
#129 Makes me wonder…
Would baseball be more interesting to watch without all the data? What would games be like if we just went in and played?
I ask because often times LL and HS ball is very exciting to watch.
#129:
There is no doubt that someone in Boston is paying attention to stats, but the purpose of getting Olerud into the lineup was not to get Kevin Millar out. Millar actually played in right field in order to get Trot Nixon out of the lineup (which weakened the defense and may have cost the Sox a run in the 7th inning, but that’s the subject of another conversation). Anyway, Olerud is not on the roster to be a righty-masher, and as much as Red Sox fans might like that role for him, Francona is pretty committed to using Kevin Millar even if he can’t hit the ball out of the park much this year.
#130:
If you don’t care who wins the game, it’s fine to ignore the stats. But mojo will only take you so far, and in the M’s case, that doesn’t seem to include a World Series.
As nice as those 1995 commemorative statues are, in the words of an old baseball saying: Winning is the best promotion.
#131
I’m not advocating ignoring the numbers at all. I just wonder what the game would be like without all the video and data crunching? Would it still be interesting to watch? Would it be more exciting?
Perhaps it wouldn’t be as we still don’t know what’s going to happen until the ball is in motion.
except when:
Nelson/Thornton/Villone/Shigi throw pitches.
Those who shall not be named swing a bat.
#132: It would be a different game, no question. Ted Williams never got to pull out a laptop and look at video of all of his AB’s against Eddie Lopat before facing him. Then again, Williams never had to face a modern bullpen, and Lopat never had to face a lineup with a DH.
And yet, it’s still 90 feet between the bases, and 1-2-3 strikes you’re out, etc. And it’s the best game ever invented by the mind of man.
Are we actually going to let Franklin lose 16 games this year? I detect apathy in the blogosphere while Grover shrugs his shoulders and marches him out there week after week. I mean, how much sympathy can you have for his “lack of run support”. I was at the game yesterday and it could’ve been much worse.
Williams studied his craft enough that he probably knew Eddie Lopat as well without video as today’s hitters would with video. The real difference for Williams would be the speed, range, athleticism and gloves of today’s fielders.
Not the figurative gloves, the actual gloves.
the best game ever invented by the mind of man.
Yes it is. Everything about the game itself is perfect.
#135: Yeah, Ted Williams was a hitting savant; I picked the wrong guy. I probably should have said Bobby Doerr or Dom DiMaggio .
And to be fair to modern players, back in the “good old days,” there were eight teams in a league and four starters on each team. You played a balanced schedule, so you had to have a mental book on 28 pitchers, give or take a few.
30 teams, interleague play, five man rotations, and modern bullpens have gunked up the hitter’s job considerably.