USSM roundup
You know, I think in the best interests of everyone, let’s just pretend that yesterday didn’t happen. Deal? Good.
So, since there wasn’t a game last night, that gives me a chance to talk about some USSM things for a minute.
If you haven’t registered for the USSM/LL events in August yet, you better do so now. I’m going to be finalizing the ticket purchases shortly, and those who haven’t signed up will be left out. We have more open spots for the Tacoma game than the Everett game, likely due to the day of the week, but let me just suggest that if you’re thinking about going, you probably should. There’s going to be a lot of people who wish they would have gone once we post the recaps.
Also, for the two of you who wish you had more chances to hear me voice my opinion, well, you’re in luck. KJR is putting me on the air with The Groz on Friday at 2:20 pm, and assuming that I don’t flip out and make a fool of myself, this will turn into a weekly gig. USSM and KJR – a match made in Weird Marriage Heaven.
And, finally, I’m sure most of you have noticed by now that I’ve essentially been running this thing by myself the last month or so. Don’t worry, this isn’t a permanent situation – Derek will be back and we might even be able to coax Jeff and Jason into making an appearance or two at some point. However, for right now, it’s just me, and with the recent attack of trolls we’ve had, well, there’s just a bunch of administrative stuff that has popped up lately. So, if I seem a little snappy or don’t respond to your question as timely as you’re used to, I’m sorry, but just believe me that I’m doing the best I can.
Dave,
In my need for constant Mariners chat, are there any M’s message boards you recommend?
John McLaren definitely wasn’t talking about the game that didn’t take place last night:
“I think the difference for Felix between the first part of the season and now is the location of his fastball,” McLaren said. “He dominated the first part with the location of his fastball and could throw his breaking ball when he was behind in the count.
“We’re going to study a couple of things as far as how many pitches he’s throwing and how many breaking balls he’s throwing. We’re going to check him out. I thought he threw a lot of breaking balls tonight. I don’t expect him to throw every pitch (as a) fastball. But the fastball sets up the other stuff.”
- From Baker’s blog
Uh ohs…
Dave, this is what happens when you trade all of your top USSM prospects in order to afford Derek’s contract extension. It kills your organizational depth.
You’re doing fine with the solo gig, Dave. Between last night’s game and the back chat from various sources a lesser man might just have shot-gunned the server and called it a career. Very much looking forward to hearing you on the radio.
Dave,
You are doing an awesome job here, there is no way I would want to run this monster alone. Thanks for your time and effort. That’s all.
I listened to The Groz recently discussing the eagerly anticipated Adam Jones callup. After mentioning some of the good reasons to make the move, he offered the one contrary argument that vaporized all rational uses of probability: Statheads Never Consider Team Chemistry.
Be prepared.
Groz doesn’t come unglued like Gastineau when someone starts talking about stats, but he’s pretty unenlightened. Tread carefully, Dave. A few years back, someone called and had the nerve to criticize Dan Wilson’s hitting (when Wilson was on his way to another low .600 OPS season). Both Groz and Gas went nuts and shrieked that Wilson “calls a good game” and told the caller he was way off base. Gastineau positively drips with sarcasm when he talks about “statheads”. I guess you should consider yourself lucky you’re not on with both of them.
I’ll be listening.
Yeah but what a great opportunity to educate! Can you imagine if Dave is able to convert Groz, even partially?
You’ll do great on the radio. You have strong opinions and the knowledge and ability to defend them, and really only the former is required to succeed in that genre. The fact that you can back up your views with actual data puts you way ahead of the typical radio personality.
Just don’t drop any f-bombs.
I can’t believe Baker is trying to blame USSMariner for yesterday pitching performance by Felix.
I watched the game, and without knowing what his pitch selection breakdown was, it was clear that oriole hitters had a gameplan to hit the first pitch and hope it was a fastball. Felix might not have been locating his breaking stuff as well as he should have been, but to me it was his fastball that was getting hit hard.
Dave,
Don’t let the trolls get to you. With the amount of “open” forums out there today, i think people are used to being able to hide behind a monitor trying to illicit responses to feed their egos and feelings of self importance. As someone who’s helped run a 100,000 user forum, my best advice is just not to feed them.
It’s really normal forum lifecycle: coremembers > massive broad popularity > trolls > backlash against the trolls > stability. Your coremembers will stick with you and with moderation and user scrutiny/debasement, the trolls will find another forum where they get more ego stroking.
Thanks again for putting up with all of us while this place grows in popularity.
P.S. Is KJR by any chance streaming your appearance? I’d love to listen, but I’m down in California.
Congrats on the upcoming weekly gig! Count me in as one of the two folks interested in hearing more of what you have to say…just as long as KJR streams the audio over the net!
And you’re doing a great job running things on your own here. I think I can speak for everyone here when I say we all appreciate it.
KJRAM.com then click “Listen Live” at the top.
boy, it was nice to take a day off baseball…
FWIW, Groz, a voracious reader, has mentioned of late that he has been reading USSM a lot, so he too may keep an open mind
http://www.950kjr.com/main.html; I think they also pop interviews up online by the next day
Honestly, KJR owes you a slot considering the amount of airtime they’ve filled using ideas from the blog lately. More often reacting against those ideas, of course, but in terms of where they get the material for something to talk about, it’s pretty clear where it comes from even though they avoid identifying the source.
Dave, you did mention carpools, right? I could get to Everett on my own, but I’d rather suffer Cheney with others ….
If Felix were to actually rediscover how to control his fastball, and get crazy movement on it again, then he’d probably be fine going back to throwing a lot of them. Since that’s unlikely to happen, we’re just going to see him get hit hard for the rest of the year. It’s great to be a Mariners fan!
I also get a kick out of how everyone associated with the team conveniently ignores the fact that most of the hits of Felix were hit off of high fastballs – other than the homerun.
Dave-
I asked this question last night but it got skipped over as it was part of the end-game muck. Any idea why Felix’s BABIP is so far above league average (.354 compard to .290-.300). Is this something to be worried about or a regression to the mean scenario?
Is there any way to see historical Future Forties? (ie, the Future Forty from like July ’03 or some other arbitrary date)
Dave, you’re not only doing a good job, I am sincerlly shocked you didn’t shut the comments off last night. That was a train wreck.
I wish I could make it to either/both of the events. You guys had to choose the week I’ll be suffering through a wedding in New York, didn’t you? It’s not all bad, though, as I will be visiting Yankee Stadium for the first time.
In my need for constant Mariners chat, are there any M’s message boards you recommend?
Not really, no. If you’re looking for a place with intelligent fans where you can pick the topic, go start a diary over at Lookout Landing.
Yeah but what a great opportunity to educate! Can you imagine if Dave is able to convert Groz, even partially?
If Groz thought I was an idiot with ideas that had no merit, he wouldn’t put me on the air. He deserves some more credit than he’s getting in this thread.
I can’t believe Baker is trying to blame USSMariner for yesterday pitching performance by Felix.
He’s not. In fact, I might agree with McLaren. The HR to Gibbons was on a third consecutive slider, and as I showed in the Charting Felix, there are often times as the game wears on where Felix is throwing 60%+ breaking balls in the 5th-7th innings. I think there’s validity to what McLaren is saying. The pitch selection mantra was never intended as an anti-fastball movement. It was an anti-predictability movement. And if Felix is overcompensating by throwing too many consecutive breaking balls, that’s not what we’re looking for.
Dave, you did mention carpools, right? I could get to Everett on my own, but I’d rather suffer Cheney with others ….
Yep, there will be carpools.
we’re just going to see him get hit hard for the rest of the year.
Overreacting a little?
I cried when I heard what Mclaren said about too many breaking pitches. he hung a slider to someone he was going to walk, that says he lost concentration to me. alot of the hits he gave up were weakly hit balls. if he walks Gibbons and gets Gomez this is a completely different story we would have been saying how felix pitched well for leaving everything up in the zone and he might of had the win.
I didn’t mean to suggest that Groz thinks you are an idiot, Dave, nor that he is one. No offense intended toward anyone. My point, more clearly stated I hope, is that it is a great opportunity to educate the the common fan. Congrats and good luck!
21 (Carson) – Learn to spell “sincerely” correct, moron. (Is flaming yourself allowed here?)
23 (built2crash) – I think I agree with the lost concentration thing. I love how Felix has the mentality that he’s got to put the team on his shoulders when he takes the hill, but he seems to lose that fast when he gets in trouble.
Just wanted to second the remarks of Jar and others that you’ve been doing yeoman’s work on here of late, Dave, and we appreciate it. DMZ is usually such an important part of the site, but the USSM has weathered his absence this last month thanks to you. Keep up the great work.
Darnit, I was just about to use the phrase “yeoman’s work”. Thwarted.
Nice.
Dave,
Running this as a one-man show can’t be easy, yet the quality and frequency of the posts recently has been amazing. Many thanks for all the great work. (No, I’m not looking for free stuff. Really.)
Dave — Best of luck to you on Friday
Dave you have been a busy lad lately and it’s much appreciated!
Also thanks for passing on the KJR link. Since leaving Latte Land for CO I have not listened to that station in quite a few years.
Dave,
I’m excited that you’re going to be on KJR and hope
that it becomes a regular thing. I think it could
really get USSM some new readers.
But let’s not go overboard about Groz, eh? I’ve been listening
to him for 10+ years. He doesn’t spend very much time preparing
for the show and he really doesn’t know his stuff (unless you’re
talking about sports from the 70′s when he was a kid growing up and
he was apparently paying attention). I have KJR on all day long
and every day there’s some real doozies — things he says
that are just so factually incorrectly that you can’t believe
they let him on the radio…
Congrats on the KJR gig, Dave. I can’t wait to hear it.
Regarding KJR, please keep in mind that their primary job is to entertain and keep you listening, not to inform. They often say things that I doubt even they believe, but it can generate enough debate to fill time until the next commercial break.
if anyone is interested, I found this page that has up to date Mariners news feeds
http://www.dcdeal.com/mariners/
Dave — Congrats on the KJR gig! Though I don’t always agree with Groz on everything, he at least seems to be more open-minded than some of the clowns (not mentioning names) on that station.
I’ll be listening…best of luck!
Congrats, Dave! My dad just told me that he heard KJR yesterday talking about how Felix and Chaves read the article and took it to heart for the 8-inning shutout two starts ago
(…So did he forget all that info last night?)
Anyway, I’ll be listening on Friday and hopefully Felix will too.
Did anyone else notice Felix’s mound demeanor last night? I haven’t seen that much sulking since Freddy Garcia (his role model). It’s not difficult to pinpoint the reason for his struggles. The King falls behind 2-0 on seemingly every hitter. And when he works ahead 0-2/1-2, he leaves something juicy overy the middle of the dish.
Congratulations on the KJR gig, Dave. You deserve it. Groz is a nice guy, but as far as being any more informed than your average casual fan on the street, he’s a complete boob. I’d consider it a smashing success if you can even get him to understand the concept of not using strictly batting average or ERA as a metric to rate players.
34 – I agree with your point but that’s a very poor excuse for the spouting of nonsensical homeristic crap which is pretty much their stock in trade. For example if a host doesn’t have a basic understanding of what’s possible under the salary cap in say the NFL or the NBA it is difficult to have any kind of informed discussion about trades or transactions.
I’ve found KJR is pretty much of the Mike Hargrove school of thinking on all matters baseball related.
39: The point is that there is no reason to get worked up over anything the KJR hosts say about baseball.
Hey all,
If anyone is interested I have a single free ticket to the Aqua Sox game tomorrow night (Thursday). It is General Admission (which means sections 1-8 or lawn). I work in Bothell and live in Marysville so if anyone is interested in coming ot pick it up contact me at nick.paredes@verizon.net.
RE: KJR
At least with the Mariners winning and being newsworthy, not every single host devotes some time each day to husky football. Even if its not always smart talk, at least its on a topic that I enjoy listening to. which is also the reason why I check out this joint daily. thanks for the good work D!
http://sports.yahoo.com/mlb/news?slug=ap-mariners-suzuki&prov=ap&type=lgns
Sorry, I don’t know how to do the links. Interesting article on Ichi’s new contract, he’s going to be paid through 2032!
Dave,
The truth is that you’re really the former KJR Sports Babe and they are in for a big surprise when you walk in the door (that is…fit through the door).
38 25 and 23
I noticed his mound demeanor. It also seemed to me that he shook off a lot of signs from Kenji. I’m glad to see postings critical of Felix. If I recall from his last start against Detroit he gave up 10 hits in 6.1 innings with two walks. How does a lineup like Detroit only score 2 runs? The bullpen committee saved his win. I think the fact that the Mariners are winning as a team is lost when the focus is placed on individual numbers. That isolates goats and sacred cows. The most popular sacred cow is wannabe King Felix who prior to the game which is listed here as Happy Felix Day. When he sucks we’re just supposed to forget that the game took place. Trust me, I want Felix to be a number one pitcher. He’s not there yet.
The other recent sacred cow is Adam Jones who has yet to be brought up. If he is brought up I hope he lives up to the advance billing on this blog. But PCL pitching is not MLB pitching. Compare Jones with Jack Cust who started the year in the PCL and is now with the A’s. Cust was the PCL OPS leader the last two seasons. When he moved up to face the same MLB pitching Jones will face his isolated power number dropped 128 points; SLG dropped 166 points and his OPS dropped 206 points. Adam Jones does not have the offensive numbers that Cust had. His obvious advantage is that he can play left field. I don’t believe he will become the offensive powerhouse he is billed on this blog. I hope I’m wrong. I believe the M’s are hesitating on Adam Jones because his PCL numbers make him better trade fodder than if he comes up and does not provide the additional defense and offense. Average, or below average, MLB numbers reduce his value in a trade for pitching.
I’m glad to see postings critical of Felix.
You’re either a new reader or you’ve buried your head in the sand for the past year. I don’t think there’s anyone on the pitching staff that we’ve been more critical of than Felix. I’ve devoted tens of thousands of words to his frustrating inconsistency.
But PCL pitching is not MLB pitching.
Of course, if you’d actually read any of the stuff I’ve written about Adam Jones, you’d realize that I’ve said all along that I expect him to hit something like .270/.330/.450 in the majors right now. So, obviously, I’m totally aware of that.
When he moved up to face the same MLB pitching Jones will face his isolated power number dropped 128 points; SLG dropped 166 points and his OPS dropped 206 points.
1.121 to .953 isn’t 206 points.
Average, or below average, MLB numbers reduce his value in a trade for pitching.
If you want to trade Adam Jones for pitching, then we can’t help you.
Somebody, anybody, don’t forget to point us forgetful oldsters to #13 and #14 in this thread Friday before Dave’s appearance with the Groz, or please re-post those KJR online links? Please?
It makes me grit my teeth when OTHER teams like the Yankees and the Orioles make good use of bloopers, bleeders, and dink hits to score runs.
Particularly the Yanks, they have more power than that….
Dave said in #22: I think there’s validity to what McLaren is saying. The pitch selection mantra was never intended as an anti-fastball movement. It was an anti-predictability movement. And if Felix is overcompensating by throwing too many consecutive breaking balls, that’s not what we’re looking for.
Is there any chance that McLaren and Chaves might tighten up the reins, so to speak, on Felix, and maybe call more pitches from the bench? The kid needs guidance, obviously, and maybe he’s being a bit too strongwilled for Kenji to deal with without Kenji trotting out there every other pitcher to remind the kid what the game plan is…
47- Ditto.
Quick question. What is Felix’s contract situation? I was looking at the mlb contracts link on the left side and it says he’s only signed through this year.
46
I’m not going to argue with you about prior posts. However “Let’s just forget yesterday didn’t happen” is not too critical compared to the thrashing Horacio Ramirez received for winning the day before.
Also, Fangraphs has Cust’s 2007 PCL OPS at 1.159 and his A’s OPS at .953. The difference is .206.
Quick question. What is Felix’s contract situation? I was looking at the mlb contracts link on the left side and it says he’s only signed through this year.
He’s under club control through 2011.
I’m not going to argue with you about prior posts.
So, now, the entire relevant commentary on our opinions is what we’ve written in the last 24 hours? Give me a break.
Also, Fangraphs has Cust’s 2007 PCL OPS at 1.159 and his A’s OPS at .953. The difference is .206.
http://firstinning.com/players/Jack-Cust-a/
See hte story on espn.com? http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/news/story?id=2941080&campaign=rss&source=ESPNHeadlines
“The All-Star outfielder’s new contract extension calls for the team to defer $25 million of the $90 million he is owed, money that the team will not have to fully pay until at least 2032.”
Suzuki, MVP of last week’s All-Star Game, gets a $5 million signing bonus and annual salaries of $17 million from 2008-12 under the terms of last Friday’s deal.
That’s a pretty nice “retirement plan” for Ichiro…
That’s a pretty nice present value for the M’s. It was argued Ichiro is worth $20 million a year, but the M’s are only paying equivalent to $16.1 million a year.
Yes, you are.
Of course Jones’ numbers will drop. But you’re taking an extremely simple minded approach to this. Cust and Jones are two different batters, with two different styles and different holes in their games. Trying to project one from the other is just going to be an exercise in frustration.
(Not to mention the fact that Jones WILL get getter as a year or two passes….)
Yeah, I’m going to be coming over to the Everett game on the Kingston-Edmonds ferry. Any chance of a carpool or am I going solo?
Dave,
As a lifelong M’s fan now living in Holland, I just want to say that you are doing a really great job here; thanks for keeping me informed. And congrats on the KJR gig; I look foward to listening.
Just an optimistic note to all those concerned about Felix’s performance-
At age 21, Randy Johnson was drafted out of USC by Monteal in the 1985 draft. He wasn’t called up to Montreal until ’88, when he was 24.
This really puts Felix’s rediculiously rapid development into perspective. The kid will be fine. He’s just not the ’95 version of RJ this year. Not yet anyway.
swwashfan, Don’t forget that one of the main reasons to call up Jones if for the defensive improvement we would receive.
Also, Fangraphs has Cust’s 2007 PCL OPS at 1.159 and his A’s OPS at .953. The difference is .206.
So, ah, let’s see. 1.159 to .953 is a drop of .206, or about 18%.
Jones’ current PCL OPS is .973. An 18% dropoff would be 175 points, or about .798.
Dave’s projection for Jones in Seattle was .270/.330/.450, which gives a projected OPS of .780.
Looks like Dave is projecting roughly the same drop-off for Jones as Cust. Actually, a little more of a drop-off. Now, ordinarily, I’d assume Dave was accounting for the difference in pitching between the PCL and the AL, but maybe he was assuming Jones would have a bad reaction to the clubhouse food in Safeco or something.
Jones will face his isolated power number dropped 128 points; SLG dropped 166 points and his OPS dropped 206 points
You are aware that they have different batting styles, and play in different parks?
but maybe he was assuming Jones would have a bad reaction to the clubhouse food in Safeco or something.
If by “food”, you mean “the LF-CF gap”, then yes. Safeco’s still a daunting place for right-handed pull hitters.
Here’s the thing about Felix (and I know this isn’t really a Felix thread, but here goes anyway)…he’s only 21. I think we all, myself certainly included, want him to go out and throw a shutout every game. I’m always upset when he gives up a baserunner, let alone a run. A Felix run makes me much more upset than a Batista/Ramirez/Weaver/Washburn run, because I know how special Felix can be. But he’s only 21. Last night, he clearly didn’t have his command, but he battled his way nearly through 6 innings of scoreless work before hanging a slider…he still departed allowing 3 runs in 6 innings, which is certainly not the end of the world. And that was a bad start. The great majority of pitchers are in the minor leagues at age 21, but here are a few age-21 stat lines to consider (traditional stats used because I couldn’t find GB%, FIP, etc. any further back than the last three seasons):
GS IP H K BB HR ERA ERA+ WHIP
#1: 20 133.3 146 126 29 13 4.32 96 1.31
#2: 26 157 177 147 47 15 3.71 114 1.42
#3: 17 97.7 106 90 33 11 4.52 85 1.42
#4: 2 107 76 119 57 5 2.61 151 1.24
#5: 5 86 102 64 54 11 6.49 81 1.81
There’s 5 pitchers in their age-21 seasons. #1 is Clemens, #2 is Felix’s projected stats at the end of this year, #3 is Peavy, #4 is Pedro, #5 is Santana. This compares Felix to four other power pitchers, all of whom are among the very best in the game. Felix is on pace to make the most starts and throw the most innings of any of them, and his numbers look comparable or better to all except Pedro, who was a reliever (and is perhaps the greatest pitcher to ever live). Felix, for all his inconsitencies and frustrating tendencies, is having a great age-21 season. I want Felix to throw perfect games every time out, but I think we all need to remember he’s only 21. Barring injury (knock on wood) he’s going to be one of the best we’ve seen in long time…let’s sit back and enjoy the ride a little.
With all that said, I’ll reveal the side of me that gets frustrated when he allows any kind of run…I am curious why his 2-seamer and change aren’t as effective as they were at the beginning of the year. I suppose it can be attributed to the shift in arm angle, although that should cause more horizontal action on those two pitches, if a little less vertical action. It’s clear to me that he’s not as comfortable making the ball go that way (in to right handers) as he was at the beginning of the year. But there I go, wanting him to be perfec again.
Oh, really? What’s the OPS for our DH? And for our LF?
Gee, guess, with that kind of dropoff, we really did drink the Koolaid. No possiblle Jones could improve on that, no way, no how….
[/sarcasm]
garhof got ahead of me with the same thought while I was typing…also my chart didn’t work out as while as it could have, but if you shift the categories over a litte I think it’s readable.
gwangung,
Exactly! If out LF/DH were tearing up the league, this would be an entirely different story. But they are not. And Adam Jones’ low end projections for playing in Seattle (.780 OPS) are still better than our starting 2 and 3 hitters (Vidro-.723/Raul-.724 OPS). Interesting. And he plays a little D.
Isn’t it worth noting that Cust’s 2007 PCL OPS of 1.121 is in only 97 plate appearances? Small sample size, anyone?
In 2006 his PCL OPS was 1.016 in 584 appearances that included 143 (!) walks.
In 2007 for Oakland his OPS is down ENTIRELY due to a lower walk-rate, as his slugging percentage is basically the same (.549 in ’06 to .559 in ’07).
How these numbers could in anyway be interpolated to make a grand statement comparing the PCL to the AL is beyond me, unless the statement you are trying to make is “AL pitchers walk Jack Cust less than PCL pitchers did.”
48 (Karen) – I might have to go back and watch, but I am pretty sure I saw Kenji look over to the dugout a couple times during the game. I didn’t notice until not long before Felix exited. Did anyone else notice this?
A lot of wondering enters my mind about that, but I’ll save them until I have a chance to look at the game again.
If by “foodâ€, you mean “the LF-CF gapâ€, then yes. Safeco’s still a daunting place for right-handed pull hitters.
Ha, ha, yes. What did Mike Cameron call that gap? “That bad place I shouldn’t hit the ball to” or something like that. Of course, that gap is a fine place for doubles to land. Especially if your left fielder is slow and has a bum hamstring.
Taking a look at Park Factors, it looks like the Tacomadome’s are roughly equivalent to Safeco’s but I think both are adjusted relative to their respective leagues, so maybe not directly comparable. Plus, I don’t know if Tacoma is as punishing to RH pull hitters. Either way, Jones hasn’t been playing half his games in a bandbox.
Gee, guess, with that kind of dropoff, we really did drink the Koolaid. No possiblle Jones could improve on that, no way, no how….
Yup. Nearly .800 OPS from a kid with lots of defensive value. Terrible. Just terrible. You know, .798 is only .062 points higher than the average AL LF’s OPS for this year (.736, according to Baseball-Reference)? And it’s only .008 points higher than the average AL DH (of course, we don’t have an average DH, but that’s another story).
Yup, Jones better stay in Tacoma. Even if he gives us a defensive boost, the likely dropoff in hitting moving from the PCL could leave him with an OPS+ of only 105. Why would we want a guy with a three-digit OPS+ cluttering up our 25-man roster?
Indians lose. We could have been playing for a one game lead in the WC race tonight. Instead, we’re trying to get back one game back.
Damn White Sox. Damn Oreos picking last night to hit.
Bedard scratched from tonite’s start. We get Cabrera instead.
BTW, saw this note on Rototimes just now….
Erik Bedard will miss his scheduled start on Wednesday due to stiff neck, according to the AP. Daniel Cabrera will move up to start Wednesday, while Bedard is now in line to start on Friday against Oakland.
71 – AWESOME. The baseball gods don’t completely hate us.
Worst headline ever – “One bad pitch to O’s spells loss for Hernandez”
One per batter? Life as a casual simple minded fan must be so much easier.
I want Felix to throw perfect games every time out, but I think we all need to remember he’s only 21
Yes. And even last night wasn’t really terrible*. 3 runs in 6 innings isn’t what you want from your ace against a bad team, but that wasn’t Pineiroific either. Felix will have games like that, and he should win a few too. Not all of Clemen’s 350 wins were 2-hit shutouts.
* – but then, last night didn’t happen. But that was a really interesting simulated game he threw. They even televised it on FSN.
Y’know, author names don’t appear on blog entries when I read the redesigned USS Mariner in Explorer, so I’ve had no idea who’s been at the helm of late…
Hey people talking about Jack Cust,
So it dropped about .200 points. So what? If we assume the same thing will happen to Adam (which is a pretty big and illogical assumption), Adam will have an OPS of .777. Vidro’s is .720 and Ibanez’s is .724 and those guys can’t play defense worth shit. Lopez, Betancourt, and Sexson are below .777 too. If Adam Jones’s OPS in the majors this year is .777, he’ll be a massive success and our fourth best hitter in terms of OPS (unless Sexson rebounds which I still think he can do).
Hey people talking about Jack Cust,
I think it’s pretty much all sarcasm. Probably an unfortunate hangover from last night. I’ll throttle back. Clearly even with a big dropoff, Jones would be an offensive upgrade. Whether the offensive upgrade is the icing on the cake (the cake being his defensive value) or the other way around, there’s really no good reason to leave him in Tacoma.
Better hitting and better defense, all at the cost of going with a 6 man bullpen instead of a 7 man pen. Wowsa. Bring him up now please…
Or just trade him for a RH middle reliever. Those are hard to find.
Sorry, that just slipped out. No more sarcasm today from me, I promise.
Just wanted to say thanks Dave, I noticed DMZ hadn’t been around, but certainly didn’t think the quality of the site has been impacted. Really appreciate all the info we get here.
73: I have no idea why people think like that. A few games ago, Bill Kreuger said Washburn pitched well but made “one mistake”, giving up the grand slam to Sheffield. I guess the bases loaded themselves.
Dave, have all requests for event registration been replied to or acknowledged? I sent my Tacoma request in a few weeks ago and hadn’t heard a reply … it has me a bit concerned that my e-mail wasn’t received. I don’t want to gum up the system by RE-requesting, though ….
A .777 OPS from w/ CF quality defense from a Right handed power hitter at Safeco is a good player. And to think he could be better than that. Even if his bat is as bad as Ibanez, his glove is >>> Ibanez. There is no good argument, unless you over-buy into chemistry or something.
I think Freddy Kreuger would make a better analyst than Bill Kreuger.
Having played professional baseball should disqualify your being a professional analyst.
What, you don’t think Joe Morgan is the greatest baseball analyst ever?!
75: There’s your problem…you’re using Explorer. Try FireFox.
what? no Erik “baseball’s leader in strikeouts” Bedard? (he might have other attributes, but I sure didn’t hear about them on the radio today …)
I see this was the header the last time Cabrera pitched vs the Ms:
“Daniel Cabrera struggles to throw strikes, but his stuff is nasty when he keeps it in the zone. The Mariners hitters will go out of the zone to swing at anything they can reach. Not a particularly good matchup for the M’s”
Any word if the M’s have contacted Harold Reynolds on being a broadcaster? There’s one ex-ballplayer that isn’t too bad, and would be an upgrade to anyone currently not named Dave Niehaus.
I think Harold Reynolds is under contract to mlb.com now. I seem to remember seeing a story about it.
There’s your problem…you’re using Explorer. Try FireFox.
That’s actually not the problem. With the current site design, the author is displayed on the main page, but when you click through to the individual posts, the post author isn’t listed. (For instance, on the page where I am currently typing this comment, nowhere is it listed that Dave posted this blog entry.)
This is quite likely a known behavior, and either isn’t a priority, is in the queue of things to be changed, or is waiting for DMZ and his mad webskillz to get back from his commitment. In any case, if there is doubt about the author of the post, navigating back to ussmariner.com/ should prove to be enlightening.
89- Yeah, I have explore too, and the same deal on my screen when I go to the comments screen. Luckily, however, I was able to remember who the author was when I entered the site on the main page.
89 (Mat) – I don’t think 85′s comment was just to blame the issue on Explorer, as much as it was to point out that Explorer is inferior to Firefox. Which is 100% truth.
#88– he is — and the M’s did talk with him and let him know they could be interested …
Carson (#68), thanks for the answer to my #48. I realize that if Kenji only glances over at the dugout once in a while, it’s probably just for seeing positioning signs or pitchout signs, but if it’s more frequent than that, it’s more likely to be pitch calling from Chaves (or even McLaren). Harder to tell on TV than live game watching, too…
(and I finally noticed that I said “pitchers” instead of “hitters” in that post…oops…it looks like you knew what I meant, though)
I notice that among all the bilge that needed to be bailed, no one refuted the nonsensical assertion that Horacio Ramirez was “thrashed” here after his start. Apparently pointing out that Ramirez was a bit lucky, and that one good start doesn’t mean we should expect a different pitcher moving forward, can only be read as a vicious beat-down by some folks.
Just heard on KJR that Ibanez is out tonight and Broussard will be batting cleanup. Woo…
85: yeah, maybe I should use Firefox, or maybe I just like punishing myself by using Microsoft products. But Explorer has 86 percent of the browser market, so it might be a good idea to design the site with it in mind.
The always accurate Yahoo is claiming that the M’s could be in the hunt for Teixeira
Where’s Mike Morse?
Hopefully the KJR gig leads to bigger and better things for Dave—like being brought into the M’s front office!
We have a pitching change! BEDARD OUT, Cabrera IN! M’s go from good size home underdogs to faves, a nice swing. Let’s see if the M’s can take some pitches tonight.
Wed 7/18 929 Baltimore Orioles
D CABRERA +1.5 -158 +137 OVER 8.5 -107
07:05 PM 930 Seattle Mariners
J. Washburn -1.5 +148 -145 UNDER 8.5 -103
Just read an article saying that $25 Million of Ichiro’s salary can be deffered as late as 2032! Fantastic back laoding if you ask me. And for Ichiro a perfect retirement plan. He’ll even make 5.5% interest on it. Dave any thought on this? it makes it look (IMHO) like an even better Deal for the M’s. Heres the Link
http://cbs.sportsline.com/mlb/story/10260757
Where’s Mike Morse?
He tore cartilage in his knee at the start of the month and had a scope done. Not sure what his current rehab status is (Tacoma lists him as on the 7-day DL).
Or did you mean this guy?
Catchy tune…
no one refuted the nonsensical assertion that Horacio Ramirez was “thrashed†here after his start.
It’s called a strawman. There were a lot of strawmen set up yesterday.
I generally like Gasman and Groz. Be glad you don’t have to be on with NY Vinnie.
robo, i doubt those “stats” will make much sense here.
#97– actually they were linking to a Dallas columnist suggesting Seattle should be trying to get Tex …
sadly, I’m guessing Raul is just getting a day off, rather than they finally decided to have him sit against a lefty…
#102 Morse broke a hamate bone in his left hand.
http://seattle.mariners.mlb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20050412&content_id=1013105&vkey=news_sea&fext=.jsp&c_id=sea
forget that link, it’s bunk…But I do remember somewhere that he did break the hamage bone.
sadly, I’m guessing Raul is just getting a day off, rather than they finally decided to have him sit against a lefty…
It’s not even a lefty anymore. Bedard scratched, Cabrera in.
Not to rosterbate too much, but would going for Teixeira even be worthwhile?
For him being in the division, I don’t actually know that much about him.
Dave–As we’ve reached the 1/2 way point, does it make any sense to compare the community projections made at the beginning of the year to actual?
#13: I’m listening right now (Mariners Home Game night?) and I basically want to puke. I can physically feel my mind going numb.
Dave –
I normally work until 7:00 pm but last night I got off at 5:00, so I was able to Gastineau, who I normally like, but he REALLY seems to revel in his ignorance of things. He was seriously advocating not bringing up Adam Jones unless the M’s go on a 6 or 7-game losing streak, as though that wouldn’t be a classic “too late instead of too early”-move, and when a caller tried to say Ibañez’ defense has slipped, he practically dared the caller to toss a stat like FRAA out there (the caller, to his credit, didn’t take the bait) and said (paraphrasing, obviously) “all I know is the team has the sixth-best record in baseball and I have watched the M’s lose and say “if only Raul played better defense they would have won.’” Good luck on Friday.
(Sorry for the run-on sentence.)