Game 130, Yankees at Mariners
7:05. Your lineups:
Ichiro, RF-L vs Jeter, SS-R
Ignitor, 2B-R vs Matsui, LF-L
Ibanez, LF-L vs Sheffield, DH-R
Sexson, 1B-R vs Rodriguez, 3B-R
Beltre, 3B-R vs Giambi, 1B-L
Dobbs, “DH”-R vs Williams, “CF”-B
Betancourt, SS-R vs Lawton, RF-L
Reed, CF-L vs Posada, C-B
Ojeda, C-R vs Cano, 2B-L
Aannnd in the biggest matchup of the day… RHP Mike Mussina v RHP Ryan Franklin. Not even in terms of “how good are they now”, but where their careers have been.
Mike Mussina is 36 this year. He’s 223-127, with 2,393 career strikeouts and a career ERA of 3.63. He’s had a couple of absolutely stellar years (1992, 1994, and his 2001 was pretty good too) a whole collection of almost-as good-ones. His worst years, he’s been league average. While probably not a Hall of Famer, Mike Mussina has had a tremendous career that seems to have gone largely unappreciated, and that could be because of the postseason, or his generally quiet manner, or whatnot.
Lately, he’s been beat up badly a couple times this year but also dominated on other occasions. June 14th, he pitched a complete-game shutout of the Pirates, striking out six and allowing only one walk (and no home runs) and using only 109 pitches to do so.
By contrast, his opponent Ryan Franklin has been horrible since he returned from his steroid suspension. Franklin hasn’t had a good start since July 4th, when he celebrated this nation’s independence with a complete game shutout of the Royals (six hits, one walk, four strikeouts).
And as to the career… Franklin is only four years younger than Mussina, but he’s 33-49 for his career, with 406 strikeouts.
Mike Mussina was a college pick out of Stanford at #20 in the 1990 draft. The Mariners picked Marc Newfield at #6. Two years later, they drafted Franklin in the 23rd round of the 1992 draft.
Oh well. Amazingly, the press notes indicate that there are 9,000 tickets for tomorrow’s Harris v Chacon matchup, and 7,500 each for the Wed King Felix v Randy Johnson match and the Thursday 1:35 mid-day Pineiro v Wright game. What’s the world coming to when the M’s can’t sell out Yankee games ahead of the series?
Comments
268 Responses to “Game 130, Yankees at Mariners”
Wait a minute… A-Rod didn’t just “decide to play elswhere” He said he wanted to be a “winner” and joined a team that finished well behind the M’s the previous year. The M’s were well on their way to being competitive year in and year out. The Rangers were’nt even close. That leaves greed and selfishness. Leaves the home team,m(which we could probably thank him for in hindsight) Reason to boo him? Absolutely. Northwest sports deserve better, we need to quit being such P***ies.
I’m not disputing A-Rod’s on field excellence – MVP level seasons etc. He should be highly paid, and is. But to assert that he was paid fairly is wrong in my opinion. He isn’t that much better or more valuable to his team than similar players who are paid less (but still highly-paid).
Texas was not a good team when A-Rod went there. The stars of Texas’ glory years in the 90s moved on. Clearly Seattle was the stronger franchise at the time. You talk about taking a ton of money for doing what he loves – does he love losing? Do you? Because he and the Rangers sure did a lot of it. I don’t think there was anything to indicate that Texas had a plan to turn it around other than Hicks’ promises that he would build a contender. Which, of course, he did not. And this was not the first time in sports history that a single player was dramatically overpaid and subsequently his team struggled to attract talent/build a winner. Sadly, Alex was couldn’t see the possible consequence of his actions (which was never certain but history suggests was likely), and having Mr. Greed himself, Scott Boras, as his agent and advisor (“hey, more for me…”) didn’t help at all.
I don’t think any of us can compare our own situations to what a superstar ballplayer faces. Guaranteed employment? I’d be all for that at my current salary, but after the first 100M or so, doesn’t employment become irrelevant? And if you’re among the very best at what you do, you really guarantee your own employment. After 5 more years with Seattle and another $100M, if he’s still healthy he can continue to play and will continue to be paid handsomely. I assert without proof that he would have been happier here and would have been part of a winning organization. He would have been the MAN in Seattle, Edgar notwithstanding, because of his performance and outgoing personality.
Of course I’m the same Pollyanna who thought that Moyer should accept a trade for 3 months in order to bring some future return to the team where he’s had his greatest success. Sue me for living in a (fantasy) world where loyalty and team success have equal or greater weight to vast sums of money.
The Rangers were’nt even close.
Go check the standings and look at how the Rangers had been doing, because — and I know this sounds rude — you have no idea what you’re talking about, and until you go figure it out, you’re only making yourself look stupid.
Go check out how the Rangers had been doing when Alex made the jump.
Go. We’ll still be here when you’re done.
That leaves greed and selfishness.
Athletes? Greedy and selfish? Again, my youthful idealism crumbles.
/sarcasm
Jim said: “I’d be all for that at my current salary, but after the first 100M or so, doesn’t employment become irrelevant?”
Maybe the guaranteed employment issue is less important than the guaranteed money issue. I don’t know what Alex Rodriguez specifically wants to do with his money, but I can think of a lot of reasonable things to do with the next $150M after the first $100M. Personally, I think it would be interesting for him to save his pennies, invest his money, retire as a very rich player and then attempt to buy the controlling share of a team, becoming the first modern player-turned-owner. Lord knows he couldn’t do much worse than David Glass in KC. If he doesn’t want to do that, he’s free to redistribute that next $150M however he pleases. Perhaps he has a sick relative and would rather see that money go towards cancer research than paying some other ballplayers. Maybe he’d want to donate it to help build more baseball fields for kids, etc. What he chooses to do with the money specifically isn’t the point, the point is that there are a lot of things you could do with it.
Just because $100M is a lot doesn’t mean you can’t do more with $250M.
Check out BP’s 2001 pre-season predictions:
http://www.baseballprospectus.com/article.php?articleid=760
The stathead consensus was that the M’s would finish 3rd in 2001, behind the Rangers. In fact, here’s an excerpt from the article:
Why is everybody so bloody obsessed with A-Rod’s making “too much†money? Why doesn’t anyone ever obsess about the amount of money Tom Hicks has?
Maybe A-Rod would like to own a baseball team after he retires, in which case an extra $150m would come in pretty handy, won’t it?
(And you can boo him if you like because he cheated in last year’s ALCS, then lied about it when he got caught. That sets a bad example for the kids, I’d say.)
Thanks Evan, that’s sweet of you to drag that out like that.
To me, the worst thing about ARod’s departure was the 2001 season. We were that 1 big bat away from going deeper into the play-offs. We would have had better chances to go to a WS had he stayed.
Forget the money for now. In 01, he would have made a difference for the Mariners and we’d all be happy no matter how much we gave him and he would have been very statisfied with a ring and 100 mil.
Has anyone ever done wins over replacement for ARod vs. Gullien? I wonder what that year would have held with him here. What is the website that one can plug in rosters? I’d like to run that 01 series with Arod in place of Gullien just so that I could be even more depressed then when I see The Ignitor second in the order, making spectacular plays at second only to toss the ball into the stands.
I wish it were Wednesday…
I wonder about the statheads who seem to think they know more than the three geniuses in Atlanta. Every year Atlanta wins and some one has to eat crow.
Atlanta gets no respect now. When Cox, Schuerholz and Mazzone enter the Hall of Fame, I want to be there.
Wouldn’t it be sweet if Edgar is inducted the same year?
That’s why you love me.
Evan…You’ve read alot more into DMZ’s post then I.
hope this helps.
“What he chooses to do with the money specifically isn’t the point, the point is that there are a lot of things you could do with it.”
In my mind’s eye, I see A-Rod ticking off the “things you can do” on that list he has, no doubt in order of importance:
1) Set aside retirement fund for Scott Boras.
2) Set Scott Boras to working out a way for ARod to leave the Rangers and play for another “winner”, now that he has the money to pay Boras.
1) Buy humongous hurricane-proof $12 mil six-bedroom, nine-bathroom mansion in Miami FL.
2) Find a honey to decorate it,…er, woo and marry a honey to live in it and bear children while he gets up at dawn and works out all day and night.
3) Get a lucrative endorsement contract that clothes him and his family top to bottom, professionally and personally (Nike, this season).
4) Become an absentee landlord for several apartment buildings in Tampa FL.
5) Buy a $7.5 mil 8-room apartment at Trump Park Avenue in NYC, now that he knows he’ll be staying a while there. Four bedrooms and six bathrooms. I guess you need a couple of extra bathrooms to hide the dirty diapers until the maid arrives to take out the garbage.
6) Contribute money to Boys & Girls Clubs of America in Miami FL, and film ad for Boys & Girls Clubs of America, which ran during 2005 ST but were pulled during Apr & May when he was pretty ordinary.
…and there are still millyuns and millyuns (as Carl Sagan used to say about stars) left to do something with.
They could use some $$$$ help in Louisiana and Mississippi about now, and Bush HAS implored individual citizens to give what they can…
#260:
Who cares what the 2001 WARP numbers are for A-Rod vs. Guillen? That tells you a lot about the regular season and very little about how well they’d do against the 2001 NYY team in a 7 game series.
Getting to the playoffs wasn’t the problem in 2001. If you want to make that case for 2002, be my guest.
we need a new thread– the Ignitor is on the Dl, and Lopez is back up, per Rotoworld:
Mariners placed infielder Willie Bloomquist on the 15-day disabled list with a strained left hamstring.
This is good news for the Mariners, as Bloomquist was playing regularly and batting second despite his ugly .257/.289/.333 line. Manager Mike Hargrove will likely use both Yuniesky Betancourt and Jose Lopez at second base, giving Mike Morse more time at shortstop.
Ask and ye shall receive, msb…
2000 Texas Rangers 71 – 91 before Alex made the jump including a 22-36 record the last two months of the season. But you’re right, the Rangers were definately headed in the right direction. Please enlighten me, if I am missing something. Unless, that 73-89 record after he got there was somehow competitive. I guess it was an improvement.
hello? I was asked to look up the standings…beacause I looked “stupid”..what was I supposed to see in those standings that was supposed to make it look like the Rangers were going to be competitive?