The Attrition War, Padres
Part of a continuing series, follow-ups to the initial post detailing the Mariners history over the same period.
Do the Mariners, in comparison to other teams, suffer a higher rate of injury to their pitching prospects than other teams? Here, I look at the Padres.
Junior
As one of the few people left who roots for Ken Griffey, Jr., I wanted to point out that he’s finally having the sort of year the Reds thought they’d be getting when they traded for him five years ago. I can’t believe it’s been that long.
Griffey homered and walked three times today, raising his season line to a none-too-shabby .290/.365/.546 with 20 homers, giving him 521 in his career. I still say he hits 600 before he’s done. He’s also on pace to play in 150 games for the first time since he left Seattle.
He’ll probably go on the DL tomorrow. Ken, I’m sorry.
The Attrition War, Orioles
Part of a continuing series, follow-ups to the initial post detailing the Mariners history over the same period.
Do the Mariners, in comparison to other teams, suffer a higher rate of injury to their pitching prospects than other teams? Here, I look at the Orioles.
Game 91, Orioles at Mariners
1:05 sure snuck up on me. RHP Sir Sidney Ponson v RHP Gil Meche.
Bloomquist sits! (gasp of shock)
Notes from Underground: Wrapping the Feed and Game Outing
Bill Bavasi put me in a headlock, threw one fan’s hat in the trash, and told another “I’m right, you’re wrong — get lost.” Jim Caple brought bats identical to the ones Babe Ruth, Ty Cobb, Honus Wagner and Shoeless Joe used. It was revealed that David Cameron is on steroids.
Suffice it to say, tonight’s USS Mariner/Baseball Prospectus outing was eventful. With a 3-2 win sealed in last of the ninth, it was enjoyable as well.
Read more
Game 90, Orioles at Mariners
LHP Bruce Chen vs. LHP Jamie Moyer, 7:05pm, FSN & KOMO
I just got back from Maryland tonight after a really long — amazing how Friday afternoon NYC traffic can turn a four-hour drive into seven hours — one-night trip with wife and son. Palmeiro was on the cover of the Baltimore Sun, as you might have guessed.
Chen’s in search of his fifth straight win, and since he’s a lefty, Hargrove has take the liberty of benching Reed in favor of Willie Bloomquist. Morse at short, Lopez at second, Borders behind the dish; the rest is pretty standard.
And hey, how’s this for amusing? For a mere $4.95 per month — $44.95 a year — Major League Baseball will host your baseball blog at their special URL which I won’t be mentioning. They really are all about the fans, eh?
P.S. Blogger hosts blogs for free and even lets you post photos now. No foolin’.
Game 89, Orioles at Mariners
RHP Rodrigo Lopez v RHP Joel Pineiro (that’s ei for everyone commenting). 7:05, FSN.
There are, according the the press notes, 11k tickets left tomorrow and 10k tickets for Sunday. Yow. Willie Bloomquist is working on a nice little nine-game hitting streak, during which he’s hit .438. But today he sits in favor of Morse at short and Reed in center. Also, it’s the sixth anniversary of Safeco Field. Yayyyy.
But most importantly — Snelling’s in left field, batting 8th. Woo-hoo!
Week #16 in Review
Short week. But the three-day vacation gives you all the more time to savor that four-game sweep.
Vital Signs
Wins: 39. Losses: 49. Games out of first place: 13.5.
Finishing off a four-game sweep of the Angels, the Mariners game a couple of games in the standings this week. But the A’s keep winning, too, which now leaves the Mariners 6 games away from 3rd place. According to third-order wins, the Mariners are unlucky by not quite 3 games. Still, only Tampa Bay and Kansas City have fewer 3rd order wins.
Runs Scored: 380 (last in the American League). Batting average: .257 (last). On-base percentage: .317 (last). Slugging percentage: .389 (last). Home runs: 65 (last). Bases on balls: 247 (8th). EqA: .262 (tied for 10th with the Blue Jays, mere fractions above the last place White Sox, A’s and Royals).
Runs allowed: 393 (8th). Staff ERA: 4.26 (8th). DIPS ERA: 4.83 (13th). Strikeouts: 451 (last). Bases on balls: 296 (12th). Home runs allowed: 96 (11th, tied with Twins). Starters ERA: 4.88 (12th). Relievers ERA: 2.96 (2nd). Defensive efficiency: 71.7% (2nd, tied with Oakland).
Nice way to close the first half of ’05, but in all honesty, it hasn’t changed much. It was the Mariners’ third victorious sweep of the season (the Royals and Mets being the other shameful victims), and scored in double digits in consecutive games for the first time. In fact, those two games represented the 6th and 7th times the Mariners had scored 10+ runs all season. (By comparison, the ’04 club scored 10+ runs only 3 times in the first half.) More amazing, in those 5 previous victories, the Mariners garnered a victory only once in the following game and averaged little over 3 runs in that next game. And against, what at the time was, the second best pitching staff in the league. Even a stopped clock is right twice a day, I guess.
In a truncated week, the Mariners went 3-1, after dropping the first game of the Baltimore Orioles. They dominated their opponents on the scoreboard (26-16) largely due to some well-sprinkled fairy dust. Their oppoents hit more home runs (6-3), the Mariners drew no more walks (12) and accumulated no more total bases (57). Chalk this up to the small size of only 4 games.
Heroes
Richie Sexson went 4-for-13 (.308/.500/.615) with a double, a home run and 5 walks. With two outs in the fifth inning Saturday, Sexson clobbered a two-run double off John Lackey that scored the deciding runs in a 6-3 victory over the Angels.
Over the four games, the entire bullpen saw 11.1 innings of action and allowed just 2 runs. To be specific, J.J. Putz surrendered a Juan Rivera home run on Saturday and an infield single, walk and a run-scoring sac fly on Thursday. Even including Putz, the bullpen combined to allow 9 hits, while walking 6 and striking out 8.
Not-so-much Heroes
Someone’s hamstrings feeling better? Adrian Beltre is hacking away again, going 2-for-16 (.125/.176/.125) with 1 walk and 7 strikeouts. That’s a total of 14 outs in 17 chances at the plate. Randy Winn contribued 17 outs of his own in 20 times to the plate.
Thursday against the Orioles, Aaron Sele lasted 6 innings and allowed 4 runs on 7 hits and a walk. He surrendered home runs to Jay Gibbons (SLG .595 versus righties) and Sal Fasano (.404 career SLG). He did strike out 5, only the third time he’s done that all season.
Coming to a stadium near you
The Mariners next play three more against the Orioles in at Safeco Field. Then they travel to Toronto for a three-game set at Rogers Centre.
While the O’s started the second half with a win over the Mariners, they closed their first half 6-13. They have scored 436 runs, 4th in the AL, and allowed 412, 9th in the league.
Toronto has scored 428 runs, 5th in the league. They’ve allowed 384 runs, also 5th in the league. The Blue Jays lineup is exceedingly balanced without any sinkholes, but also plain vanilla average. Eleven Blue Jay hitters have logged 150 or more plate appearances. All but Aaron Hill sport an OPS between .707 and .806. And a Roy Halladay-less rotation means the Mariners will at least get a sporting chance of it.
You’ve got the wrong guy!
ESPN.com has a fluffy article about the Dept o’ Homeland Security busting up vendors hawking counterfeit merchandise (and “forged or illegally scalped tickets”).
So here’s what cracked me up:
“Our focus is not the individual vendor,” Moskowitz said. “It’s the criminal organizations behind the vendors. Those organizations are driven by greed, and anyone driven primarily by greed is dangerous to the public.”
Like Major League Baseball? Isn’t being driven primarily by greed the whole problem with capitalism in general (“I have a moral obligation to sell crack to schoolchildren if it’s legal in order to maximize shareholder value.”)
Not to mention, as Moskowitz put it, “The same methods used to bring counterfeit goods into this country can be used to bring in weapons, drugs or people.”
Wait, wait… so these methods they’re using to bring counterfeit goods into the country, along with weapons, drugs, and people… you’re going after the counterfeit goods? Could you please go after the other three? Because that’s what scares the crap out of me. Nobody’s going to blow up the Columbia Center with a fake Raul Ibanez jersey.
Now, I wouldn’t mind so much if they were busting all these vendors, tossing them in interrogation rooms and working their way up the system to close off those methods. But they’re not. If you read the rest of the story, they confiscate a lot of stuff but only make two arrests (though they “plan to question many vendors privately” which, uh, they could have done if they’d gone ahead and arrested them).
So what’s more… well: Read more
Game 88, Orioles at Mariners
Thank heavens, the game’s back on and — wait. RHP Daniel Cabrera v RHP Sele? Oooooohhhh.
Congratulations in advance to Rafael Palmeiro on some milestone hit. Boooooooooooooooo!
Bloomquist starts at short. So here’s a question– say you’re Mike Hargrove, and you believe in the hot hand, which is why you’ve been playing Bloomquist every day. How long of a break before you’d assume the hot hand was cold again? Would you try it? And how long does he have to be cold before you go back to not using him again?
And also, where’s Doyle? Fricking play him or let him get his hacks in at Tacoma.
On an unrelated note, Hargrove’s quote in the MLB.com (no link because of their stupid auto-play video clips) —
“I think a five-day break for the All-Star Game would be great. That way you could go home. This way, you spend two days traveling.” — Hargrove on the three-day All-Star break.
Please note how many players have kids in April. So something’s getting done. That’s all I’m going to say.