Friday Mariner fun
DMZ · March 10, 2006 at 7:59 am · Filed Under Mariners
M’s got whupped by the Sox. PI
TNT: Sean Green now has a kid and an invite to camp.
The Times: Lindsay Gulin, Foppert’s blister.
M’s got whupped by the Sox. PI
TNT: Sean Green now has a kid and an invite to camp.
The Times: Lindsay Gulin, Foppert’s blister.
I’d be more worried if they were playing like last spring when it was the minor-leaguers winning the games for them at the end, rather than as is happening now, where the kids are blowing a game they were in or ahead in.
“You see those kids on the mound and guys like Cortez and [Yorman] Bazardo, and they’ve got lighting in their arms,” he (Hargrove) said.
Lighting in their arms? Is this some new trick to keep the hitters off balance? Maybe like sharks with frickin’ laser beams on their heads?
I don’t think you pin the blister as to why Foppert lost complete site of the plate. Horrible control, if he’s making a case to start the season in the Emerald City..he’s not doing a very good job.
Foppert only had one walk his first game. So how do you know it’s not the blister? Why don’t you wait and see how he does after 3-4 more games?
the Herald also does the Green story. oh, and apparently Pokey Reese has decided to just retire
That LaRue piece is just a reminder of how little most beat writers know about the minor leagues. For instance;
“Green’s strengths are his control…”
He walked 29 men in 49 2/3 innings for Tacoma last year, which translates to 5.3 walks per 9 innings. In his minor league career, he’s walked 4.2 guys per 9 innings.
I’m glad Sean Green’s thrown strikes in 4 innings during spring training. I’ve repeatedly pushed his name out there as someone who could be an effective reliever and who gets almost no press at all. But control is his biggest weakness, not his strength.
Now, if LaRue had done a little homework, he could have found out that Green’s 3.12 G/F rate was the highest in the PCL and one of the highest in all of minor league baseball. The fact that he’s a freaking groundball machine is his real strength.
But, unfortunately, nowhere is that mentioned. Too bad, because a real picture of who Sean Green is in the papers would be a fun read.
the Netherlands have a 10-0 lead and a no-hitter going against Panama, and the US has managed to score 4 in the 1st against those pesky South Africans
Setting aside Felix for a minute: given the rotation the M’s had last season, how little they did to upgrade it in the offseason, how barren the farm was and is, and the longshots they’ve invited to camp, is anyone really surprised they’re getting blown out by double-digits every game. Jo-mamma must be wondering what he got himself into.
On the other hand, I’ve been enjoying the WBC a lot more than I thought I would: wildly unexpected performances by unknowns, upstart countries occasionally drubbing their supposed betters, and generally entertaining randomness both in the games as a whole and in seeing familiar faces in unfamiliar uniforms.
so, what is the WBC mercy rule? because the USA is up 14-0 in the 3rd inning, and nobody is out yet….
Up by 15 after 5 innings, or up by 7 after 7
I’m sorry, up by 10 after 7…
well, the USA team is up by 16 now, so unless the SA team rallies before the next 9 outs…
the M’s are down three after a Jeff Baker grand-slam off Washburn, but Jose Mesa just came in for the Rockies….
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Runs scored and allowed between Mexico, USA, and Canada:
9-3 : Mexico
8-8 : USA
9-15: Canada
Mexico and USA advance on tie-break. If the WBC used runs scored instead of runs allowed, Mexico and Canada would have advanced.
very nice piece about Mike Cameron on the SI site…
dammit. here
It’s only the eighth inning of a spring training game, and Dave Neihaus is already pulling out his (remaining) hair over Mariner ineptness. Pretty amusing, actually.
Dave hate leaving men in scoring position, especially as there was only one out when they got there…
“If the WBC used runs scored instead of runs allowed, Mexico and Canada would have advanced.”
I don’t know why they should use either. If they’re going to use runs scored or allowed, they should use run differential. There’s no reason to make pitching or hitting artificially more important than the other.
And the announcers’ continual complaints about ERA being one of the tiebreakers are spot on, there’s no way an official scorekeeper should have an impact on who advances.
Umm, Evan, you left out the 17 runs the US scored today against RSA. So, even if the WBC only used runs scored, Mexico and the US still advance.
That being said, I think it was pretty clear that the powers that be lined things up to ensure an advance by the US. Who knows why Buck Martinez put in both Leiter and Majewski, but the US should have won all three games.
Oh, nevermind Evan. I get it now — runs scored and against the teams that are all tied. Forget I said anything.
Man, Hargrove just sounds like a complete and total idiot whenever he is quoted in the paper. We need to throw strikes? Really, Captain Fantastic? It’s like he’s just a magic eight-ball with baseball cliches instead of answers to yes/no questions.
What a total buffoon. I don’t think this guy could manage his personal bathroom schedule let alone a baseball team. I wanted to give him a chance, let him show me that he’s not a complete bag of douche, but he really seems determined to be a crappy manager.
Why can’t we get someone competent here? It’s not like we don’t have the money?
I think what the M’s really need to do is score at least one more run than their opponent day in and day out.
What about the night games?
#24: I think what the M’s really need to do is score at least one more run than their opponent day in and day out.
Sounds like a Fairlyism. “What the Mariners need to do is to start scoring more runs than the other team. Most of the time a team wins if it scores more runs.”
And don’t forget to score four runs.
Alternatively, the Mariners could simply hold their opponents to at least one fewer run than the M’s score…
So nobody’s mentioning Beltre’s 2.0+ OPS? (SST, of course, but hey, it’s better than some whole months he had last year.)
Maybe we should rename the team the Dominican Republic Mariners.
#23–Man, Hargrove just sounds like a complete and total idiot whenever he is quoted in the paper. We need to throw strikes? Really, Captain Fantastic? It’s like he’s just a magic eight-ball with baseball cliches instead of answers to yes/no questions.
you are expecting to get deathless prose from a baseball man during spring training?
howsabout something more like this? 🙂
“Now we’ve got to continue to throw strikes, keep the ball around the strike zone,” Piniella said. “We’re not a big strikeout pitching staff so we’ve got to get the other team to hit the ball. Defense is going to be one of our strengths. Sometimes guys try to get too perfect, the main thing is to just stay out of power zone and let our guys go and get it.”
or my favorite, the classic (and here I quote Joe Torre, from among many hundreds) “We just need to score more runs”
Unrelated to Friday news, but since we don’t have a Saturday news thingy yet, I just wanted to share an observation and figure out if there’s any way we can quantify this stuff.
Matt Thornton sucked in his first inning against the D’backs on Saturday, but did very well in his next two innings. According to Thornton:
Source: Seattle Times
What I want to know is if there is a way we can keep track of when pitchers are throwing more 2-seamers and seeing if they’re actually having an effect. I know the sample sizes are small, but we don’t have a lot else to work with. I’d like to know how many groundballs that each Mariner pitcher is getting that has changed to the primarily 2-seam fastball.