Game 21, White Sox at Mariners

Dave · May 1, 2007 at 6:26 pm · Filed Under Mariners 

Vazquez vs Washburn, 7:05 pm. Two pitchers doing well so far go up against each other in a battle of… I don’t know. Something.

Did you know that Ted Williams pitched mop-up in 1940 for the Red Sox and recorded a strikeout — of eight time All-Star Rudy York? It’s true. This fun fact brought to you by not having the lineups yet.

Also, a couple of years ago, the White Sox won the World Series. They had a pretty balanced line-up and could hit the ball out of the park. That team doesn’t exist anymore, and this White Sox offense is terrrrrrrrrrrrrrrible.

As a team, they’re hitting .225/.317/.379 while playing in one of the best offensive home parks in baseball. And that’s with Jim Thome (.340/.553/.680), who is now on the disabled list and won’t be playing against the M’s. Konerko and Dye have reverted back to their mediocre selves, while role players such as Crede, Erstad, and Pierzynski have just been downright horrible.

I fully expect to be reading all about Jarrod Washburn’s latest masterful performance in tomorrow morning’s papers. If he keeps facing Triple-A line-ups every start, he might just run away with the Cy Young award.

Comments

288 Responses to “Game 21, White Sox at Mariners”

  1. zzyzx on May 1st, 2007 9:28 pm

    Rauuuuuuuuuuuuuul!

  2. thenatural on May 1st, 2007 9:28 pm

    alright… I didnt jinx him, sweet

  3. bhsmarine on May 1st, 2007 9:28 pm

    you can have 1 U back, Raul!

  4. Zero Gravitas on May 1st, 2007 9:28 pm

    I would have considered pinchrunning Bloomquist for Burke earlier if Joh could finish the game at Catcher. I can’t see the game but I imagine Burke is not a speedster. This seems like one of those spots where Bloomquist might have been quite useful.

  5. Thom Jimsen on May 1st, 2007 9:29 pm

    Who’ll bring the dogs in?

  6. bakomariner on May 1st, 2007 9:30 pm

    poor ellison…just when you thought he’d get an at bat…lol…

  7. bhsmarine on May 1st, 2007 9:33 pm

    FUNK PUTZ!

  8. Lauren, token chick on May 1st, 2007 9:33 pm

    J. J. Putz: Imprisoning dogs since 2004.

  9. thenatural on May 1st, 2007 9:37 pm

    M’S WIN!!!

  10. BayAreaFan on May 1st, 2007 9:37 pm

    Good win.

  11. davepaisley on May 1st, 2007 9:37 pm

    11-6!!!!

  12. bhsmarine on May 1st, 2007 9:37 pm

    FUNK SAVE for the FUNK WIN!

  13. enazario on May 1st, 2007 9:37 pm

    Did you all see Ibanez apologizing to Sexson for losing him a rbi.

  14. msb on May 1st, 2007 9:39 pm

    now closing … the Dogcatcher.

    btw, the afternoon guys at KJR are still trying hang the monicker “Big Trouble” on Felix.

  15. Slippery Elmer on May 1st, 2007 9:41 pm

    #234 Joe said:

    Ok, so since the M’s have apparently given up on Morrow as a starter, how about this: get him ready to be the closer. Trade Putz, the “proven closer” in July for whatever you can get.

    I’d feel a lot better about that move if Lowe is back to form by then. However, that would make reliever Morrow redundant (like Lowe made Soriano redundant) and he could go down and learn to start.

  16. argh on May 1st, 2007 9:42 pm

    My love for Angie Mentik is well recorded here but my God, are they going to have the woman deliver on camera? Isn’t she due like momentarily? I swear during the post-game I thought she was in labor at least twice.

  17. sdlamm on May 1st, 2007 9:43 pm

    This just in… the highly touted Geoff Baker thinks that wins and ERA are the ultimate measure of whether a pitcher is an ace… it’s really sad that he’s a serious improvement over Finnigan.

  18. edgarmartinezyankeehater on May 1st, 2007 9:44 pm

    Well well well, looks like CyWash wins again, let me guess, the defending champs are a horrible team too right? suck it up and swallow it down, CyWash is a new man!

  19. BayAreaFan on May 1st, 2007 9:47 pm

    The M’s get the bottom of the rotation tomorrow. They need a w before heading east.

  20. Josh on May 1st, 2007 9:48 pm

    Well well well, looks like CyWash wins again, let me guess, the defending champs are a horrible team too right? suck it up and swallow it down, CyWash is a new man!

    The Cards aren’t doing to well but… oh… hmm.

  21. Big_Smooth_Mariner on May 1st, 2007 9:48 pm

    Welllll let’s not drink the J-Wash Kool-aid quite yet. He’s been very very good so far, but the White Sox are hitting like .220 as a team and they were without their main guy Thome. The next 2 weeks will be more of a measure for him, with much better line-ups to throw against.

  22. Josh on May 1st, 2007 9:49 pm

    to = too

  23. Morgan on May 1st, 2007 9:51 pm

    Nice win

  24. bhsmarine on May 1st, 2007 9:52 pm

    Lets hope they don’t get into a save situation with Putz going the last two games…

  25. apunetid on May 1st, 2007 9:54 pm

    I just got in and…M’s win! Yeah! This makes studying for finals fun (and umproductive)!

  26. Josh on May 1st, 2007 9:59 pm

    This just in… the highly touted Geoff Baker thinks that wins and ERA are the ultimate measure of whether a pitcher is an ace… it’s really sad that he’s a serious improvement over Finnigan.

    I don’t know what you read, but to me he seems to come to the conclusion that wins aren’t the best measurement standard:

    So, there you have the top dozen candidates to be, if not a No. 1, at least a No. 2 starter. What, no Ted Lilly? Didn’t the Cubs just pay him all that money? Wasn’t he a 15-game winner last season? Sorry, chumps. By the way, just for kicks, let’s take the top-7 guys from our list and check out their won-lost records.

    [. . .list. . .]

    Not a single 15-game winner in the bunch. Three of the seven had losing records and one was a .500 pitcher. But chances are, get them on the mound and they’ll give their team a better hope at winning each time out than any other No. 2 starters in the game today. For those who wondered this spring why I was so high on Angels starter Escobar, there you go. The Mariners? They don’t have anyone on the list. But Washburn gave it a go his last two outings. Let’s see what happens tonight.

    It may not be the most concise measurement ever, but it’s also not what you said.

  27. byronebyronian on May 1st, 2007 10:01 pm

    I am by no means going to anoint Washburn the front runner for Cy Young, but c’mon guys, he’s pitched well so far and who’s to say he can’t keep doing a decent job the rest of the way? I don’t buy into the White Sox being bad hitters and if Washburn was as bad as some make him out to be wouldn’t they Sox have owned him tonight?

    If Wash can continue to pitch to keep us in games where we have a chance to win, then I’d be very happy with that.

    Just my 2 cents.

  28. Josh on May 1st, 2007 10:13 pm

    Something interesting about Washburn coming into tonight was the ground out / air out ratio. Here are his recent marks:

    2002 – 0.63 (31.4% v. 49.5%)
    2003 – 0.71 (32.1% v. 45.5%)
    2004 – 0.94 (38.5% v. 41.1%)
    2005 – 0.98 (39.2% v. 39.9%)
    2006 – 0.94 (39.9% v. 42.2%)
    2007 – 1.30 (51.8% v. 39.8%)

    That 1.30 for this season will go down a bit after tonight’s 8/9 performance. Still, is he really becoming a fairly strong groundball pitcher, or have the lineups dictated most (maybe not all) of the results?

    Line drive % is your friend:

    2002 – 19.2%
    2003 – 22.4%
    2004 – 20.4%
    2005 – 21.0%
    2006 – 17.9%
    2007 – 8.4%

    Too bad it’s not mid-July. Might have been a good opportunity to sell high.

  29. Curt_rocks_my_sox on May 1st, 2007 10:18 pm

    Raul needs a day off. So does Hargrove.

    Hargrove needs a year off.

  30. B_Con on May 1st, 2007 10:22 pm

    Does Brandon Morrow have a nickname yet? How about a few bad ones to get things going…

    Chris Berman would suggest ‘Brandon “The Day After To”Morrow’.

    Niehaus would go with “Morry” or maybe even “Morrowy”.

  31. gwangung on May 1st, 2007 10:22 pm

    I am by no means going to anoint Washburn the front runner for Cy Young, but c’mon guys, he’s pitched well so far and who’s to say he can’t keep doing a decent job the rest of the way? I don’t buy into the White Sox being bad hitters and if Washburn was as bad as some make him out to be wouldn’t they Sox have owned him tonight?

    If Wash can continue to pitch to keep us in games where we have a chance to win, then I’d be very happy with that.

    You do realize that the two paragraphs don’t have anything to do with each other? That you can certainly believe that it was more bad htting than Washburn pitching well–but that kind of pitching can keep you in plenty of games….

  32. Josh on May 1st, 2007 10:30 pm

    Also, his IFFB rate is 18.2%. Unless he’s pitching to 9 Yunis, that won’t stick.

  33. Josh on May 1st, 2007 10:32 pm

    You do realize that the two paragraphs don’t have anything to do with each other? That you can certainly believe that it was more bad htting than Washburn pitching well–but that kind of pitching can keep you in plenty of games…

    He said, “I don’t buy into the White Sox being bad hitters.”

  34. sdlamm on May 1st, 2007 10:54 pm

    Josh,
    Read a little further in Geoff’s addition to his latest post and you’ll see him argue that a true “ace” has to win 15 games.

    “To answer a question below, yes, Peavy and Lackey are consensus “No. 1” guys on their staff. But are they true “aces” of their staffs? I’d argue that a true “ace” has to win at least 15 games and have an ERA under 4.00 as a minimum. The term “ace” is overused so often these days. Is Felix Hernandez an ace? In my book, he’s a 12-game winner with a great upside. Proving is everything in this game.”

  35. vj on May 2nd, 2007 1:32 am

    Going back to the “Funk Blast” post I’d like to point out that this is a great CD. Probably still available at the EMP giftshop.

  36. msb on May 2nd, 2007 8:41 am

    Niehaus would go with “Morry” or maybe even “Morrowy”.

    Neihaus doesn’t give players diminutive nicknames. He will use ones that have been given the clubhouse, but he himself favors the descriptive, ie ‘The Big Michigander’

  37. Evan on May 2nd, 2007 12:24 pm

    Dave does use Big Sexy when Richie’s hitting well.

  38. Joe on May 2nd, 2007 2:27 pm

    Only off by two bases there, Joe

    Actually, I posted that before Lopez took a pitch. I was referring to his HR earlier — when was the last time those two had HRs in a game? Of course, it could have been taken as a hopeful prediction, too.

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