Game 112, Devil Rays at Mariners
Happy Felix Day.
Hernandez vs Seo, 7:05 pm.
Seo has iffy stuff and throws strikes. He’s Tampa’s Joe Blanton, basically. Hopefully the M’s can treat him like the rest of the league treats Blanton, and not like we treat Blanton.
Also, bad news; Mark Lowe is battling some elbow soreness, and though I heard he was available tonight, John Hickey is reporting that he won’t pitch in this series. The M’s are being cautious with their young arms, which we like, but you still never like to hear that the arms we love are anything less than 100 percent healthy.
Here’s the line-up:
1. Ichiro, RF
2. Lopez, 2B
3. Beltre, 3B
4. Ibanez, LF
5. Sexson, 1B
6. Broussard, DH
7. Johjima, C
8. Betancourt, SS
9. Empty, CF
Adam Jones has 7 at-bats in August. Glad to see that part of the development strategy, after crushing his confidence with a premature callup, is to let him sit on the bench and not play. Well done, Grover.
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Mateo has won two straight 🙂
#23p – MSB, FWIW Doyle was 0 for 3 tonight, BA is now .215.
Mateo sucks. 🙂
ooops, sorry that should have been #239.
#253. I know. This was really harkening back to Dave’s earlier Random notes thread & the Doyle discussion there.
so, does the future of the free world hang in the balance, only to be determined by which gal makes the Sonics dance team??
Let’s look on the bright side: WFB had no GIDPs.
Man, I can’t imagine it being easy to be a rays fan. The M’s sure do lose alot of bad games, but I can’t remember keeping a team at 1 run through 9 innings only to lose in a walk-off grand slam.
Does anyone have the exact numbers for Richie this year in the PRIIBB category? You know, Post Raul Ibanez Intentional Base on Balls? It’s gotta be like a .900 average. He’s automatic. In that situation only.
Has anyone looked into hypnotizing Richie into believing the bases are loaded every time he’s at bat?
259- FSN had him at 8-12 before that last at bat with 21 rbis.
260, I’d rather he were hypnotized to believe they just IBB’d raul in front of him every time he’s at bat.
Richie Sexson is a Clutch God!
Or at least a minor deity….
Yay! Most awesome. Glad to see someone flew the profanity flag in my absence.
All’s well that end’s well, I guess.
But man, Grover infuriated me this game. What was it, the seventh?, when he bunted a .300 hitter to get to a .220 hitter, pinch ran for his good-hitting catcher, and burned his reserve OF, all in one inning with zero results? Aiyyyyieeeeee!!!!!!
I believe Jeff Nye has given Willie his new nickname. Spork. I love it.
In the OPS discussion, I saw lots of discussion about scoring runs, but I missed the “avoiding outs” part. You gotta move someone 4 bases before you make 3 outs. In OBP+SLG, OBP is largely the “avoiding outs” part and SLG is largely the “moving runners” part. Getting on base both avoids the out and moves a runner (even if it’s the batter moving down to first – that’s 1 base down, three to go…). So starting with OBP getting a 2x multiplier is reasonable, since it does double duty. Of course, hits and especially XBH can move multiple runners in front of the batter, so SLG regains a bit of ground.
Plus, walks do count for “moving runners” and adding walks into SLG gives essentially OBP+ISO, so you could use a “modified” OPS of OBP+(OBP+ISO) or 2*OPB + ISO. Dave’s emperical results are probably better, but I like thinking there’s at least a half-assed theory backing it up.
Oh, and for the record, Grand Slams are a really, really good way to avoid making an out.
Ritche before the break: .218/.288/.418
Ritchie after the break: .247/.313/.573
It’s a damn shame he doesnt walk….
Richie Sexson, almost as clutch as Carl Everett!
Willie isn’t last in Slugging, and no one said he was. He’s actually not even last in Isolated Slugging (PA>100) anymore, as the immortal Jason Tyner (one extra base hit, a double, in 105 PA, for an ISO of .010) has crossed the threshold. Willie’s second-last, with almost twice the PA of Tyler. Note that Tyner can at least hit a little, and get on base; he’s .362/.327 to Willie’s .320/.280. TWO EIGHTY SLUG. Why, that’s only tenth-worst in all of baseball (Abraham Nunez is slugging .215, which is keeping my Hacking Mass team afloat).
Sexson is alas nowhere near the top of the ISO table (again, 100 PA cutoff). His .227 is well behind Pujols’s .361 or even Raul’s .239. Richie is just ahead of Jonny Gomes and right behind, cough cough, Rich Aurilia.
Richie Sexson question. I read once that Ted Williams was a big believer in shoulder rotation as being an indicator of a player’s ability to hit. I believe I read this in the context of his watching Michael Jordan try to hit, and Williams explaining why he would not be a big league hitter. Thus, if you hit right handed, your right shoulder will face the pitcher after your swing, or, even more towards third base if you have a flexible, “good” swing. Does RS have the least flexible swing you have ever seen? His right shoulder barely gets to 1st base.