Game 109, Red Sox at Mariners
Batista vs Beckett, 1:05 pm.
Line-up today:
1. Ichiro, DH
2. Vidro, 2B
3. Guillen, RF
4. Broussard, 1B
5. Beltre, 3B
6. Ibanez, LF
7. Jones, CF
8. Burke, C
9. Betancourt, SS
There are a lot of things I could point out that don’t make any sense about that line-up, but I’m going to focus on the one that could kill the M’s today – Jose Vidro playing second base.
Jose Lopez has been a terrible hitter since April. He’s stopped hitting for power, still has a lousy approach at the plate, and hasn’t improved a lick since he came up from Tacoma 72 years ago. He’s frustrating to watch and a problem at the plate.
But here’s the deal – Jose Vidro was traded from the NL to the AL for a reason. He can’t play the field anymore. Never a great defender, he’s now the middle infield version of Adam Dunn. His knees are shot, his range is totally gone, and he’s a significant minus defensively. Even if you’re the worlds biggest Vidro fanboy, you have to be able to watch him fail to move on easy groundballs and realize “hey, that guy shouldn’t be paid to use a glove.”
Miguel Batista is on the mound. He’s a contact pitcher with groundball tendencies. He’s facing an offense that can put up runs in bunches. He’s opposed by a guy who will finish in the top ten in Cy Young voting. And to support him, we’ve given him the worst defensive left field alive (non-Manny division) and the worst defensive second baseman alive to hang out next to the below average right fielder and first baseman. This should go well.
The Mariners do not understand the value of defense or how to appropriately measure it. Sticking Jose Vidro at second base is yet another shining example of this organization’s inability to realize that catching the ball is a big part of run prevention.
On a day when you expect a lot of balls to be put in play, you make a bad defense even worse. This is the team we root for.
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348 Responses to “Game 109, Red Sox at Mariners”
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Lead runner on. I’m for that.
Here we go. Savvy pitching by Batista or amazing good fortune, I’m happy to see we are still in this.
RALLY FRIES TIME!
OK. Now let’s see if we can get a hit with men in scoring position now.
And here he comes… Mr. Ibanez.
Beltre one AB to late but we’ll take it.
Two on with no one out. Looks like a good opportunity for the Mariners to finally score some runs!
Ibanez should be bunting here, after all his average is lower than Jose Lopez
Ok, guys. Let’s get some back. Raul, Jones… you two avoid double plays.
Burke, Yuni, you guys be heroes.
Warning track power!!
Warning track power!
Thats all the power Raul has… he put everything into a fastball down the middle and STILL couldn’t put it out of the short porch in right…
might as well be a sac bunt raul, that way no double plays, but of course, that will never happen.
Dear Jesus,
Please pacify the small sample size hordes – give AJ a hit.
noth, ever done any kind of analysis, find out if fangraphs tracks ahead of behind of live trading ? got to think public teams will trade higher than they should based on fangraphs.
Jones not exactly having a good day today.. but then again he’s not alone on the M’s for that either.
Go Burke! Didn’t expect that…
BURKE!!!!!!!!!
Adam Jones does his best Mike Cameron impression. 🙂 Just kidding.
Isn’t it nice to have a decent back-up catcher?
Oh, man. Did I call it?
Come on Yuni, make me a prophet!
Well when you need a hit you know where to turn:
The 30-something, journeyman, career-minor-leaguer catcher
Didn’t see stuff like that in AAA did ya Jones?
Of course that’s what Guillen is telling Jones in the dugout right now.
run expactancy before Raul= 1.47
run expectancy after Raul= 1.18
run cost of Raul’s aging: 1.82
BUUUUURRKKKKIIIIIIIEEE!!!!!!
216- I thought it was more of a Jose Guillen impression
Ugh.. Jones’s WPA for today: -.159.
223
Jones kind of looks like Cameron and I remember the year before Cameron left it seemed like he would strike out on 3 pitches a lot with base runners on. Don’t know if he actually did but it seemed like it when I watched the games that year.
For all the flash, Beckett gave up 9 base runners to Batista’s 11.
The score difference is pretty fair – although the run total for the game indicates luck on both sides.
225- Yea I remember that happening too, but I was just referring to Guillen’s 4 K’s last night, including one with one out and the bases loaded.
Hate to say this people, but the Red Sox are just plain better than the M’s. Better offense, better starting rotation. They’re not a great team, but they’re the best in the AL this year. We aren’t. End of story.
They shouldn’t hand the fries out until we are at bat… we don’t want to send the baseball gods the wrong message.
228 You’re not saying anything that we don’t already know. So what’s your point?
228 – You could have said the same about Detroit vs St. Louis. If you can make the playoffs, anything can happen. and I don’t think anyone who watches baseball would disagree with you…
What was that?
ummmmmm? ortiz steals 2nd?
Way to cover 2nd Jose…
Cue circus music. If Vidro is too slow to cover second…HE’S TOO SLOW TO PLAY 2B.
One problem with using St Louis as a comp for the Ms is that 83 games isn’t going to win either the division or the wildcard….
234 – Vidro is playing second….
233- Was someone thinking of covering? Mayber? After a nap?
That’s a perfectly apt play for this game… we just let Ortiz steal a base.
237 – Yes, and his first name is also Jose.
236 – I meant it in that if we can make the playoffs it doesn’t matter how much better the Sox are, anything can happen (as St. Louis proved by beating a CLEARLY superior team.) oh and by the way, one of those World Series wins was by our good friend Jeff Weaver. Not sure what that says about the playoffs…
239 – Touche…
230 – That was a problem with communication rather than him being too slow.
Personally, on days when Lopez needs a break, I’d play the ball girl who sits down the leftfield line… she can pick it…
243: And she probably has a better chance of occasionally putting one over the fence.
Bosox have been best team in AL over the season, but right now – I am not so sure. I’d like to see a bit of head to head action against a certain team whose name rhymes with a common pollinating insect – you know – recently fleeced the Dodgers at the trade deadline (imagine Adam Jones for Proctor and you get the idea).
#231–Sure, anything can happen in the playoffs. However, teams with superior pitching still usually win (see, e.g., the Yankees’ victory over the M’s in 2001, or, better yet, the near-victory of the vastly inferior Indians team over the M’s in the first round, based solely on the superiority of Colon and Sabathia over anyone in our rotation).
#230–My point is that the Red Sox have Theo Epstein, and the M’s have Bill Bavasi. The M’s have comparable revenues to the Red Sox, and better revenues than anyone else in the AL except the Red Sox and Yankees, and should be contending every year, like they do. But the M’s have been terrible the last few years. They’re respectable this year, but just not in the same league as the true playoff contenders (a group that may not include the Yankees this year, d/t their pitching problems). The Twins, Indians and Angels are all better, with less money. In the old days, the M’s could blame their problems on the lack of revenue from the Kingdome, but they don’t have that excuse anymore. They just don’t spend their money well, e.g. the deals for Batista, Ramirez, Weaver and Sexson.
242 – What do you mean by communication? Who is supposed to tell him to cover there?
Why was Lowe pulled, anyway?
Bees rhymes with Yankees? That’s a stretch.
Anyhow, if you’re going to use O’Flaherty for just one guy, why not use Sherril, who is the designated team LOOGY? Of course, it’s the 7th inning, and Sherrill can only pitch in 8th. It’s really (IMO) a waste of bullpen to use guys for one batter.
#246
Gotta admit that is a convincing argument.
247- It is Yuni’s call on who covers the bag. I am assuming they thought Ortiz was not going in any situation so Yuni didn’t bother to let Vidro know who was going to cover.