Waiver update
Jayson Stark, in a rare ESPN.com article that’s not Insider-only, offers the status of who has and hasn’t cleared waivers.
Notable M’s on the list:
– Moyer and Guardado both did not clear, so no trades there.
– Gil Meche was blocked? Meche? Really? Who claimed Meche?
– Pineiro did clear. Come on Joel, one more good start before the August 31st deadline, maybe someone’ll bite. Keep the hands up.
End of… well, something
Scott Spiezio was released after today’s game.
The sheer volume of salary that Bavasi’s been willing to eat is amazing. There are teams out there that refuse to admit mistakes with player contracts, squeezing them forever.
You can go around the diamond with the 2004 infield: Olerud, Boone, Aurilia, Spiezio.
Game 121, Mariners at Twins
RHP Meche v RHP Silva, 5:05.
This is going to be an ugly game. Remember when Melvin was perhaps a bit fixated on running out only five starters out all year? Meche wore down badly as the season went on, he got shuffled a little but never got the rest even a casual observer knew he needed… that’s a lot like things right now. Meche’s arm isn’t right, he’s fighting soreness and inflammation, and they’re running him out there over and over to get rocked.
I don’t think Jeff Harris is any great shakes, but if after tonight’s game you don’t agree that he should have stuck around while Meche got some time off until he could pitch effectively (and I know, maybe that’s never), well, I don’t know what happened but hopefully it’s a pleasant surprise.
Bloomquist remains in the 2-hole:
Ichiro RF-L
Bloomquist 2B-R
Ibanez LF-L
Sexson 1B-R
Beltre 3B-R
Reed CF-L
Morse DH-R
Betancourt SS-R
Torrealba C-R
Bloomquist isn’t hot anymore, skip. It was fun while it lasted, but it’s time to move on. He’s 19-68 in August so far (.279/.286/.353) and .269/.303/.341 on the year. It’a a modest average without enough walks or punch to make him an effective hitter. An AL #2 hitter averages .271/.326/.396.
Transaction of the day
8/19: Sent C Wiki Gonzalez outright to Triple-A Tacoma.
But they called up Ojeda on the 15th, so technically.. they had three catchers there for a while? It’s also curious that this move was essentially announced a couple days ago but didn’t go through until today — I can see where you’d do that for (say) Felix, having him join the team ahead of a scheduled start and waiting to formally call him up (though… wait, isn’t that also illegal, to have a guy in uniform and not on the roster in the dugout? I think it is) because it saves you a 25-man roster spot, but this is odd.
Updating: so Wiki was optioned to Tacoma on the 15th, when they called up Ojeda, and I have a blind spot for the MLB.com transaction page or something because I missed that.
Outrighting will clear a spot on the 40m, though what the team does with this is uncertain.
Week #21 in Review
Take the bad with the good. Chris Snelling is done for the year. Felix Hernandez makes the Royals look like my old high school team. Feel free to start a petition for the Mariners to play the Royals all 162 next season.
Vital Signs
Wins: 52. Losses: 68. Games out of first place: 17.5.
The Mariners drop another game in the standings. The Angels retake the AL West lead this week. The gap between the Mariners and third-place Texas is now a mere 5 games. Please hold your tears back, but the Mariners are now unofficially eliminated from the playoff picture. Big shocker there. They are 3.7 games below their projected wins according to third-order wins.
Runs Scored: 525 (12th in the American League, tied with Minnesota). Batting average: .259 (tied last with Kansas City). On-base percentage: .317 (13th). Slugging percentage: .396 (12th, tied with Kansas City). Home runs: 101 (13th, thank you Kansas City). Bases on balls: 333 (9th).
Runs allowed: 561 (8th). Staff ERA: 4.49 (8th). DIPS ERA: 4.71 (13th). Strikeouts: 651 (last). Bases on balls: 382 (10th). Home runs allowed: 133 (12th). Starters ERA: 5.03 (11th). Relievers ERA: 3.38 (4th). Defensive efficiency: 70.4% (4th).
It was a week of the brooms. For the second time this season, the Mariners sweep Kansas City, and they are now 7-2 this year versus the Royals. And this followed suffering a sweep to the division-leading Angels. On the week, the M’s went 3-4. They were outscored 43-40 and out-homered 10-8. They did draw more walks than the Angels, Royals and Twins 22-15 and hit more doubles 11-6.
Read more
Ouch
Toronto Star columnist Richard Griffin:
Even the struggling Yankees, with all their millions and a frothed-up owner, were not able to change their landscape in a significant manner. Besides, with so many teams still alive, the only teams with any “give up” in them seem to be the Royals  and maybe the Mariners.
Hey, that’s unfair!
Ryan Franklin cares so much that he’s willing to risk having his arms plucked off by Adrian Beltre. Willie Bloomquist cares so much that he stars in those helpful instructional videos you see at the stadium. There’s no “quit” in “Ichiro,” and not just because there is no “Q” in the Japanese language.
Rick the Peanut Guy cares, I am certain.
How can this team have given up? The Jumbotron still plays that “When-the-Germans-Bombed-Pearl-Harbor” clip from Animal House on the rare occasion the M’s are within striking distance late in a game. Rick Rizzs still reminds us in the seventh inning of every 10-1 shellacking that this team never quits.
Didn’t they trade Bret Boone?
The Seattle Mariners are full of young, hungry players eager to prove themselves. Yuniesky Betancourt wants to win so badly he actually tried the hidden ball trick last night. Wiki Gonzales might be the laziest man in baseball, but he’s in Tacoma, so he doesn’t count. And if Matt Thornton didn’t retire after his performance two nights ago, when even Dave Niehaus was openly mocking him, he’s not going to just up and mail in a season.
You might have thought that Mike Hargrove had given up on winning games when he kept starting Scott Spiezio, but … okay, you’ve got me there.
Doyle doesn’t quit. He just breaks. That’s different. Joel Pineiro doesn’t quit, even though I wish he would.
If the Mariners ever do give up during a game, they should do it in style. Give the grounds crew tiny white flags to wave while dancing. Have the Moose start at second instead of Bloomquist. Pencil in a starting battery of Demetrius the Batboy and the Non-Blonde Ballgirl, whom I saw make some nice stops the other night. Or even play Spiezio regularly. Things like that.
This team, though, didn’t slog through decades of grim failure to throw in the towel now. It slogged through those decades to milk countless entertainment dollars from the pockets of people like, well, me.
And that’s not over until I say it’s over. You hear me, Toronto?
MLBAM and new stats
Reading my latest copy of Baseball America, I came across this in an Alan Schwarz interview of MLB Advanced Media (they run MLB.com for MLB) CEO Bob Bowman, and there was this update on something I thought had been forgotten:
AS: Several years ago, you said your grand plan to outfit every stadium with a multicamera system that would capture both pitch and hit speeds and trajectories, allowing for all sorts of new data on which to rate players [sic]. What is the status of that?
BB: We tested the program, it works great. I anticipate that we will embark on starting to install devices in parks this year, even this baseball season. Our only hope is that the cameras that we put in there will be able to capture and distribute the data in real time. I would anticipate that we would have an announcement on what we’re going to do certainly by September.
Duuuuude. The possibilities are immense. The ability to look at fielder ranges in composite, for instance, and compare them, to see that one second baseman is great on slow-hit balls anywhere but can’t go to their glove hand on line drives, or… defensive metrics have always been the worst statistical tools we have, and while I don’t yet know how you’d turn positional, speed, and even route information into a stat, the opportunity would be awesome.
I don’t like MLB.com, which has started playing video highlights every time I load whether I want them or not. I didn’t like that putting all the sites on one page stifled team innovation, because the Mariners were ahead of other teams but also because it meant that team sites had personalities. But MLBAM has done some great things in making advanced stats available to fans along with hit charts and good stuff of that nature, and I’m all for advancing fan knowledge and research in general.
This thing could be truly, deeply cool if it’s done well. I’ll keep my fingers crossed.
Bizarre Hate Triangle: My Take On Beltre-Franklin-Price
After Adrian Beltre, ahem, straightened Ryan Franklin’s collar tonight, Mike Hargrove acted quickly.
The manager informed us that Franklin’s frustration resulted in cross words with pitching coach Bryan Price, who told the hurler to relax. Franklin’s response, according to Hargrove, was “I just bleeping care.” Moreover, he assured the media, the incident was mere piffle, a tempest in a teacup. Read more
Guardado to the White Sox?
Dismayed by the Mariners’ failure to score even four runs against Joe Mays? Flabbergasted that Scott Spiezio got his third hit of the season? Superstitiously ready to suggest that Derek write about Sand Frog in the P-I every week?
Take your mind off of the desperate horrors of todays game with the soothing salve of a new trade rumor. The Daily Southtown reports that Eddie Guardado has apparently cleared waivers, and the White Sox may be looking to add him.
Standard caveats apply, but note that Bill Bavasi and Ken Williams have worked together on major trades before. Also note that Williams isn’t afraid to make a big deal, and that hungry Pale Hose fans are spoiling for their team to do all it can to win this year. After the Freddy Garcia trade, Williams offered the following explanation to Baseball America: “Two words: nineteen seventeen,†Williams said, referring to the last year the White Sox won the World Series. “How many more generations of fans are going to have to wait? I don’t want to wait.’’
To complete washing the shameful loss taste out of our collective mouth, I offer this: Chicago’s got some prospects I’d love to have, including Brandon McCarthy, who the Mariners were reportedly trying to acquire before the deadline.
There are reasons to believe that a deal could happen. While I don’t advocate trading Guardado just for the sake of doing so, a swap that included McCarthy would be well worth completing.
[Bonus grammatical pedantry inside.]
Game 120, Mariners at Twins
5:05. Ryan Franklin v Joe Mays in a matchup of… of… who cares?
Ignitor’s at second, batting second. Ibanez in left, Morse is the DH while Betancourt plays short again. Ojeda makes his first appearance as a Mariner.
Goodbye, three game winning streak, it was nice knowing you. Come back and say hi sometime, okay?
If you’ve got the MLB Extra Innings package, Zach Duke’s mowing down the Mets.