Game 48, Mariners at Tigers
Dave · May 22, 2008 at 8:57 am · Filed Under Mariners
Batista vs Bonderman, 10:05 am.
Jeremy Bonderman has the second highest walk rate of any pitcher in the AL this year, putting 14.3% of all batters he faces on via the free pass. Miguel Batista has the fourth highest walk rate in the AL this year, putting 13.5% of all batters he faces on via the free pass.
This game is going to be torture, but slightly less torturous than usual – Reed in left, Ibanez at DH. Yep, they actually did something that we like. Turbo sits down, the defense gets better… I mean, really, this is pretty obvious, right?
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The solution to your misery is just down in Tacoma. From today’s News Tribune
Does Jimerson still wonder why he got demoted?
Methinks a meme at the end of this game will be that Bonderman “found his control.” The Ms aren’t going to let a little thing like wildness stop them from avoiding walks like the plague.
Come on, you love torture just like the rest of us.
Signed,
Masochistic Mariners Fan
That is only the solution to half his misery.
ah Dave, it will only be half as long as you fear.
Although Pasco’s Own Jeremy Bonderman may try to walk 14.3% of the hitters he faces, the Mariner batters will have none of that nonsense. They will be putting that ball into play, thank you very much.
So does Batista make it through the third today, or does he get yanked after giving up 6+ in the second?
Actually, since Sexson is sooo bad this year versus right handed pitching, even though Vidro is not much better…Vidro at first base MAY have been better…just maybe
Yep, this should make for 2.5 hours of great family fun.
On the one hand, I want Reed to hit for the cycle and make several webgem plays in LF, on the other I want the team to lose miserably, to hasten McClaren’s exit. What a strange time to be a Mariner fan.
I assume you are talking about how long the first 4 innings will take.
This is a boon, since our disciplined approach at the plate and not swinging at first pitches should payoff for us.
Oh wait…
We can blame Maclaren all we want, but Bavasi’s roster construction continues to amaze me. Washburn, who I know is a convenient target, has never been compelling. Never. I guess I would rather watch young mediocre pitching than old, highly-paid mediocre pitching.
Washburn ERA by month as a Mariner (there are 14 data points representing all 6 mos of 06 and 07 and the first 2 mos of 08):
3.51-4.23-7.57-2.90-4.06-7.45-2.96-3.40-5.75-4.36-5.35-4.03-4.86-11.93
Hmmm … how many good months out of 14 do you see? I see 4.
Hmmm … how many terrible months out of 14 do you see? I see 5.
That’s frequently how I watch baseball–wanting individual players to do well, even though I want their team to lose. Don’t usually do that with the Mariners, although lately the best I can come up is a list of players I want to do well and being ambivalent about the team as a whole.
Proposed new slogans:
“Mariners pitching…it’s what’s for dinner.”
“The Seattle Mariners: We make bad teams look good.”
But dangit, I’m still watching.
I argued that a streak for the Mariners was two wins in a row, though my friend refused to go below three. I’m now officially on board with Uncle Mel, though. One win is a streak for these guys.
“I think,” Stottlemyre said [on mariners.com], “that we’re only one well-pitched game away from having a good streak.”
Oh, you don’t think that’s what he meant?
Maybe instead of asking for a personal catcher, Washburn should have requested a personal left fielder?
Maybe instead of asking for a personal catcher, Washburn should have requested a personal left fielder?
That probably would have kept him to only 8 earned runs last night.
Maybe instead of asking for a personal catcher, Washburn should have requested a personal left fielder?
He should request not having a catcher at all, and adding a rover instead.
[somewhat off-topic]
and Dickey is up
Call me old fashioned but without the latex uniform and the lean, whip-wielding bat girl, it’s just not baseball.
Maybe this is the game where Miguel Batista finally harnesses his “new discovery” pitching secret. I still blame Kenny G for jinxing him in spring training. Yet another thing I can blame smooth jazz for.
The way I’m staying sane this year watching some of the M’s games is thinking of it all as just a big experiment. What will happen to a team that does one stupid thing after another? That’s what I ask myself, and it makes it worth watching, in an ongoing train wreck sort of way.
So throwing away a useful spare part in Baek (a 5th starter, long reliever type, not terribly valuable but cheap and the kind of player a team needs a few of) is just one more dumb move in a long line of dumb moves.
Certainly we can’t expect clever moves from a team that flushes 38 plate appearances on a 34 year old Miguel Freaking Cairo in only a month and a half.
At least they put Reed in left on a day they’ll definitely need him. I would have expected the Mariners to put him out there on a day that Felix kept everything in the infield.
And being from Pasco, I’m hoping the Mariners get smoked by Bonderman today. I’ll be back on board tomorrow.
It appears from the chart posted yesterday that when Washburn pitches a receiver of the ball isn’t really required.
The contrast between the two teams I follow closely, the Ms and the Red Sox, couldn’t be more dramatic. *sigh*
Paul B: I’m trying to take the same attitude, but then I read Geoff Baker writing
Sometime in July I’m going to realize that there really is no reason to carry out the “What will happen if the team gives up 8 runs in the first three innings?” experiment for the nineteenth time. At that point the team will need to do something really crazy – like having Bloomquist playing a different position every inning for a week – to continue entertaining me.
Sooo.. should I be expecting Geoff’s “ALL BLOGGERS ARE WRONGZ!!1!” post tomorrow morning if the M’s lose and Reed/Ibanez go 1-8 combined?
oooh, today’s Keys To The Game:
“throw strikes, pitch well”
Add me to the ambivalent list. I really want this team to do well in the long run, but it look hopeless right now, so I find myself hoping they get humiliated so that changes come.
NBarnes, I’m with you. I follow the Dodgers and I was struck earlier by how similar the complaints of the fans of the two teams were: playing the high-paid player, not the best player, no offense, bad GM, etc. At least temporarily, they’ve figured it out. Fortunately they’re not in the same league, so it’s not a zero-sum game for me.
Was there any more insight, like “outscore your opponent”?
I’m in the same boat over here.
Honestly, at this point, USSM is driving me paying attention to this team, rather than the other way around.
I’m not “giving up” or anything like that, but they’re a bad team losing ugly and making comically bad decisions while doing it; and there’s not much reason to watch that on a daily basis.
Johjima catching.
So is Inge. Apparently on the Tigers, players are expected to do what the manager wants, not the other way around.
I just hope Reed doesn’t make an error or have a horribly bad at bat. If so, he’ll be stuck on the bench for a long while.
I’m not sure what to do, usually it takes a lot of alcohol to make the Mariners games tolerable, but now I’m at work so that’s not an option. Any ideas on how to make it through the game without going crazy?
well, he IS a rookie…
Yeah, Cabrera is an asset at 1B…
Niehaus: “The Mariners have to take advantage of this situation…”
Wanna bet?
37: take a meeting
We should also really be hoping for Raul to hit well today, to try and put the kibosh on the the Ms reasons for keeping him in LF.
Plenty of reasons to watch the game today!
predictio: walk to lopez, double-play by Ibanez
Wasn’t there talk of Cabrera in LF? Did he play some there in FL? Inge at 3B and Carlos at !B make a nice combo.
2 out, so what – we didn’t plan on scoring anyway.
Maybe instead of asking for a personal catcher, Washburn should have requested a personal left fielder?
Washburn needs to request a personal pitcher.
gosh, did you know Jeremy Bonderman is from Pasco?!!
Google a new pony every inning?
I rest my case.
when does someone destroy the clubhouse?
are you listening or gamedaying?
if listening, you can always try to identify just what Rizzs is reading from, when he gets on one of his helpful information rolls (“Alfonso Pitchero was born in the tiny town of Agua Muddy, not far from the hamlet of No Mas Agua, the hometown of Mariner prospect Edgardo Jardinero, although they have never met each other…”)
Given the Mariners desperate, knee jerk reactions to everything, I imagine if Reed doesn’t go at least got 2 for 4, he’ll be glued to the bench until they realize that Clement needs to come back up… Then Reed will probably get DFA’d and Cairo will stay snuggled up in the corner.
This instant result line the Mariners are demanding is getting a tad ridiculous. The season is all but done. Back up and take the correct angle to clean up this mess. From the top down is where changes need to begin.
23: What we don’t know is that the mariners have actually signed on with ABC to be a part of the latest big hit reality show. The first half of the season is going to be all about the in-fighting and drama amongst the team as new characters are introduced and sent down, then suddenly a tragic loss happens (Sexson takes a salmon to the head while showing a new call-up around Pike Place Market and suffers a coma) and classical character Ken Griffey Jr. returns to take the reins of a team lost and confused and they make one of the greatest runs of all time to go to a 1-game playoff with heated rival, the Yankees, who have also been streaking late into the season. Of course, it all comes down to a bottom-of-the-ninth dual between Griffey and Rivera, with Ichiro on first and Betancourt on 2nd. Griffey hits a double down the left field line and ichiro manages to go from first to home, just beating the throw and finding himself on the bottom of a dog pile at home plate. Just as all the excitement is going on, Sexson wakes from his coma and all his amnesia, which none of us knew he had. But now he remembers how to hit and they tear through the playoffs, eventually winning seattle their first world series.
Because reality shows are all about reality.
Mariner game plan: “The opposing pitcher has trouble throwing strikes. We know that, they know that. So what were going to do is, be aggressive. He’ll be trying extra-hard to throw strikes, but because we’re swinging, we’ll scare him out of the strike zone.”
I could see Reed going 2 for 3 with a homerun 3RBI 3Runs and a Walk. I hope he does at least
Was is not it Jeremy Reed who made more than a few spectacular plays during his stint as the M’s center fielder?
ManageWA: I’d tune in!
Yes, but pinch-hit for in the 9th by WFB, who will ground out softly.
Yeah…that Rizzy is just a fountain of critical info, isn’t he?
At least watching Gamecast, I don’t have to suffer through 30 seconds of Batista mentally preparing himself to throw every pitch. Grip it and rip it, Miguel!
Wait, Sheffield ‘avoiding’ a tag? Seriously?
Sheffield was trotting – is that as fast as he can run right now?
It depends on what defensive metric you use, but there are only a handful of guys who play a better defensive CF than Reed.
An Ordonez bobble head with real hair would be pretty cool.
WHAT? Nice tag Jo.
M’s: Nobody Out, Man on Third: Zero Runs
T’s: Two Outs, Nobody On: 1+ Runs
How many times has this scenario played out in back-to-back half-innings for the M’s?
I love piling on.
60 who’d a thunk it, especially with our stud defensive catcher….oh…wait…that’s right…
msb
I’m just listening to it, that is a good idea though thanks.
jlc
9 different ponies? Awesome!!
I was about to post how we have one of the worst umpires in baseball behind the plate today….Balkin’ Bob Davidson. Then I noticed he got the call right. Damn it!
Only the one run yielded by Miggy in the first – he’s hot!
Two outs? So what?
And then I noticed it’s not even Davidson…it’s Mike Reilly! LOL.
Tigers score first. Game winning RBI?
wait… sexson with an infield hit? What next? Mariners with a win. Someone is playing jokes on the radio!
What the crap. Sorry if this has already been discussed – I just showed up. But:
Pitches-strikes – J Bonderman 9-4.
Batters faced – J Bonderman 4.
4 batters. 4 strikes. 4 balls put into play. Can the Mariners take a freaking pitch every now and then? Please?
so, is this Sexson’s career year for infield hits?
Anyone else think Ichiro! is better off trying to steal home next time he is on 3rd with no outs?
Weird stuff going on here…Sexson with an infield base hit. Batista getting out of an inning. Reed in LF, Ibañez at DH where he belongs.
75: If he’s that close to the opposing teams dugout, he’s probably better off trying to steal players.
This is our chance Reed!
52 – well done, sir! I have emailed it to friends who will appreciate it.
“Can the Mariners take a freaking pitch every now and then? Please?”
No.
Urgh. Fielder’s choice.
Stealing home? That would mean they’d be playing to win. They can’t do that…
Honestly, I don’t know why it takes guys like Miggy or Trachsel or Padilla so long to throw pitches. All that extra preparation/concentration never seems to help them much, anyways.
Sexson should be ashamed. He was barely jogging and almost got thrown out on that. He should have been safe by ten yards.
BTW…Vidro would have been out…
Actually an interesting discussion on FSN between Niehaus and Blowers about why AAA plyers don’t get scouted for holes in their game by the opposition so that they can be exploited when they’re called up.
Kenji must be feeling snakebit these days
Or playing for love. “Stealing Home: Stealing hearts, stealing laughs, stealing memories. Mark Harmon is a washed-up baseball player who is called back home to handle the ashes of his childhood sweetheart and first love who had committed suicide…”
Wow. The Mariners have everything but the suicide, and that probably isn’t far off.
I imagine Washburn sitting in the dugout right now, poking his Kenji voodoo dool and laughing maniacally.
Er, voodoo doll.
oh, lord, Rizzs is now off on Sparky Anderson again.
Gee, Rizzy, is it really true that Klinger from M*A*S*H used to wear a Toledo Mud Hens hat? I always thought that was a Texas Rangers hat!
“For crying out loud, when it rains it pours.”
–Niehaus.
What the &$*% was he looking at? Home plate?
Hey, what do you know Tigers pitchers aren’t the only ones who make errors.
I still can’t read “Joyce” in the boxscore without thinking of this:
http://arts.guardian.co.uk/pictures/image/0,8543,-10105055279,00.htmlwell, that one is all on Batista
Miguel just wanted to throw a few more pitches.
Gopherball Batista….nice try Reed…
Fire up the Dickey machine, boys.
52: If they actually filmed that as a black comedy, complete with the “reality” show-within-the-show as a plot device — I’d line up to see it. Call it, I don’t know, Major League II
OK, who plays whom?
Vidro – Jack Black
Washburn – Keifer Sutherland (obviously — and yes, he can do comedy. Washburn is all physical bits anyway)
Felix – Carlos Mencia
Ichiro – John Cho (sorry, drawing a blank on Japanese comics)
Johjima – Bobby Lee (see above)
Sexson – Jason Segel
He’s not latin, but I’m sure Kal Penn could pull off Batista — just imagine pitch after pitch getting batted past his head, looking like this.
If there was ever a time for Reed to make an amazing catch in LF…so close to doing it too.
“Here Go The Tigers?”
How about, “There Go The Mariners”?
Did Reed catch the ball? Impossible to tell from what we’ve seen so far.
wow
Well, he has to not get pulled from the game in order to do that.
Are these guys trying to be a bad team?
It’s only a matter of how many losses this team is going to compile this season. They are a $117 million pile of garbage.
Well, kids, that would be: game, set, series…
Oh, goody…does that mean we can call Western State Hospital and have him committed before he can do any more damage to this team?
I was about to post how we have one of the worst umpires in baseball behind the plate today….Balkin’ Bob Davidson.
Except the worst umpire in the history of baseball, Mike Reilly, is working 1B, so Balkin’ Bob gets overshadowed.
good god
6:
Your words may be prophetic.
Given that I just graduated college I’m so happy I didn’t buy the radio package this season. I have for about 6 years but I didn’t like this team from the get go and well I wouldn’t be listening to these games as the season is over….I’m hoping they don’t fire Bravsi until the 2nd time seattle comes to toronto because me and my buddies are planning on making a HUGE fire Armstrong, Bravsi, Mac Sign its going to be awesome. This team is terrible.
I can’t wait until Jarrod Washburn comes out and trashes Jeremy Reed for not catching that ball.
annnnd theres a walk for batista
That Reed moment was odd. How do you lose your glove? This season is so brutal, I’m having difficulty finding any silver lining to it (its probably wishful thinking to believe that Lincoln will finally relinquish control of the team).
FSN is really in love with this “super-slow motion hit” thing today.
Can the M’s just forget to tell Batista what plane they are catching and leave his worthless butt in Detroit?
I think C.V. Bucknor is probably worse than Reilly, actually.
We have a Dickey sighting!
I saw Dickey in a pregame interview – he was exhausted. A few innings on the mound might wake him up, though.
Coaching visit to the mound
“Jesus Christ, Miggy, if I’d wanted to see Washburn get shelled again I’d have put his name on the goddamned lineup card!”
“Sorry.”
Remember the salad days, when our worst pitchers were Piñeiro and Franklin and Meche?
Good one!
I think C.V. Bucknor is probably worse than Reilly, actually.
Lou was right. Bucknor’s smirk is really irritating.
two questions.
how much is the painful push-off foot affecting Batista’s pitching, and why is he even pitching if he is hurting?
Do the Tigers continue their hitting once the Mariners leave town?
This is like watching your girlfriend make out with your best friend. It just makes you sick.
I wish our pitchers were as good as Ryan Franklin. That’s right. I miss Franklin’s quality.
my buddies are planning on making a HUGE fire Armstrong, Bravsi, Mac Sign its going to be awesome. This team is terrible.
Yes. I’d love to see a few “the fish is rotten at the head” signs.
What is the least wins the M’s have ever had in a month? We have to go to New York tommorow, and the Red Sox’s come next week. This could be a 4-5 win month.
“Guess the inning a Mariner hits a home run” …
that’s a good one– almost as good as the ‘If the Mariners get 7 runs in the 7th inning” contest
Uh, did Simms really just say the M’s started the season with 5 guys who could be number 1′s? I mean, 3 of them are really number “2′s”. Teehee.
The mariners will score this inning. Watch it happen.
I haven’t seen any recent words from Bavasi on the team’s gargantuan collapse. Mclaren has kept yakking for a few days, but nothing from Bavasi. It seems like Mclaren is the voice of the organization right now, but I know he doesn’t control things like who gets DFA’d, called up, sent down, etc.
Not that words mean much, but I’d like to hear Bavasi’s spin on this craptastic piece of work.
Ha i got that post in before the Yunidouble
124- You can break up with your girlfriend…we’re stuck with this shit…
I blame everything on my mother…she just HAD to give birth to me in Washington…
“Gift-wrapped run”? Not with this tam, Dave N.
Not to mention his variable strike zone — and the fact that he’s been known, at times, to be downright argumentative with the pitcher(s) regarding it.
134 – you’d think a man on third with no outs would be a gift wrapped run… what is the run expectancy in that situation? basically 1 right?
Uh, did Sims [that name autocorrected for me by USSM to the suitable shame of the author
Ugh, I’m a fool. No more soda on my keyboard. Sorry.
haha the run expectancy is actually closer to 1.5
Mariner’s doing there best to show Bonderman they won’t take any of those wussy walks.
*their
you’d think a man on third with no outs would be a gift wrapped run… what is the run expectancy in that situation? basically 1 right?
It’s more than one. It’s almost one and a half.
Lopez is a sissy for taking that walk.
Lopez….what shame, to the bench with you. That is not how a Mariner plays baseball.
they might want to include Lincoln in that list, especially as Chuck like to claim that “the one decision I get to make every day is that I decide whether the roof is going to be open or closed”
Lopez should be careful… his OBP may climb back above his BA
So it’s still possible to get a hit when playing DH…interesting.
@130:
Prophetic.
well, he has been quoted after most of the recent team actions, so maybe he is not being asked to comment on the teams collapse …
A RUN! NO WAY
On effing pitch from a guy hitting shy of .200?
Christ…
Why do I care?
I thought the toe-spreading thing was taking care of that. And obviously he’s playing hurt and sucking to hold up last year’s tradition of Sexson and Ibañez. One of those veteran responsibilities.
I want to give Wlad a free pass (you know, being patient with the guys), but he has been pretty awful in the field lately.
Hey, at least we didn’t get shut out!
In these trying days, one must be thankful for small wonders.
I meant to say being patient with the young guys.
Mac LOVES his outfield defense. I don’t
@148:
I haven’t seen those quotes, most likely from some sub-conscious blocking of things that make no sense to me.
Seems like if there were an opportunity to get a quote from him, the “what do you think of the team’s play” question would be the elephant in the room.
You know, everybody talks about the Cleveland rebuild but what about the Tigers? They went from back-to-back 100+ loss seasons (including a near historic 43-199 in 2003) to the world series 3 years later. Granted, there was some flukiness in that, it was in the context of a generally weak AL Central, and that 95 win 2006 team was playing over its head (and Leyland’s contribution in that first year was probably overstated), but still.
Just watch — this game is going to lead McLaren to publicly wish he had two Ibanezes so he could play one in each corner to improve his outfield defense.
This from Churchill on his website:
“Carlos Triunfel returned from suspension Wednesday night versus Inland Empire and singled in his first at-bat, doubled in his second and finished the night 3-for-4.
Triunfel has hit safely in 12 of his last 13 games and is hitting .439/.452/.561 in May with five doubles in 10 games. That after he managed just three extra-base hits in 18 April starts.
Welcome back, ‘Los. Now keep your mouth shut and keep raking.”
Any “official” word on why he was out?
Finally some good news!
Miggy: 3 innings, 70+ pitches.
I heard Sims’ voice and realized we’ve only gone through 3 innings. Somehow it feels like I’ve been tortured through at least 6.
He was punished for having too high of an OBP. That kind of crime isn’t taken lightly in this organization.
well, Baker talked to Bavasi about Geoff’s ‘diversity is killing the clubhouse’ theory, and apparently didn’t ask then …
man, the Tigers keep trying to give the Ms at least one game of the three.
I can see it now… Dickey leads the M’s to a win….
holy crap, three pitches and an out…WTF is this effective pitching all about?!!
Ok..wow. 3 pitches?
So, will they DFA Rowland-Smith as punishment for Batista only going three?
Two outs on four pitches?!…WOW!
Guess the Arson Squad hasn’t indoctrinated Dickey yet. Oh, wait…
Vote for Cairo
The Killer B’s:
The Buffalo, The Bus Driver, and Badtista
So the Yankees also are pretty much guaranteed to wake up against the Mariners, right?
“One thing about Cairo, he can really handle the bat.” Actual McLaren quote from March 16 News Tribune.
Uh oh. Passed ball by Johjima. Maybe we’ll sign Doug Mirabelli to catch RA. Then, call up Clement, and we’ll have 4 rostered catchers!!! Roles!
Dickey is my hero…
So, will they DFA Rowland-Smith as punishment for Batista only going three?
Probably Dickey. After all, it’s the effective long reliever who always takes the blame for shitty starters.
I’m dying to see what the record is.
Question:
In 2009, would you rather have Granderson or Ichiro as your starting CF?
Granderson $1m -
2008: .817
2007: .913
2006: .773
Ichiro $17m -
2008: .747
2007: .827
2006: .786
Ichiro is 34, Granderson is 27 (older than I realized when I started the post…). Both play above average CF, but i’ve got no idea about Granderson’s arm. He’s got more power than Ichiro, and hits more doubles and triples while he’s at it (not park adjusted). Granderson takes slightly more walks and strikes out WAY more. Granderson was on the DL earlier this year, Ichiro I don’t think has ever been injured in the Major Leagues.
Ichiro is a huge fan draw at home and the road; lots of folks have barely heard of Granderson. Ichiro is a perennial all-star and potential hall-of-famer. Granderson could continue to out OPS Ichiro for years to come and not sniff a starting All-Star gig.
man, if only they’d known in spring– they could have used him in that Fun-go commercial
I hear you. But aren’t you the least bit interested to find out what the worst possible record is for a team with a medium-large payroll?
I am, or at least just enough to continue to check in.
Don’t look know but the Ms have the bases loaded with nobody out. What could possibly go wrong?
Ichiro is 14 for 39 with 7 BB in the last 10 games, and his OBP is .457. Looks like he is on one of his hot streaks. Assuming that streaks exist.
God. ‘now’.
Tying run at the plate! Usually we never get to say that after the first inning!
Bases Loaded, no outs. What better way to celebrate than swinging on the first pitch?
Raul will lose focus because he wasn’t in the field…
You know, the Indians turned an unassisted triple play recently.
Pitching coach to Bonderman: “You know what team this is you’re pitching against, son?”
Bonderman: “Oh, sorry coach. I forgot.”
Two pitches later: Double play ball.
Ok, Poll question…how many runs will the mariners score here (bases loaded, no outs)….
0
1
2
3+
So, has anyone else noticed Sexson’s home/away splits? .973 ops away, .479 ops at home? Is this just small sample size or is safeco really killing richie to that degree?
Bases Loaded Double Plays = Productive Outs.
Way to get the runner in there. We’ve just got to play chip-away baseball from now until the apocalypse and we might have a positive pythag. record.
Okay, you can look now. Bases loaded, nobody out produced one run.
By grounding into a double play…
Priceless…I set my watch to GIDP with the bases loaded with this team…
Wow, way to fall bass-ackwards into a run, guys.
I’m dying to see what the record is.
Heh, double ones instead of double nines. But I’m sure if you were a Tigers fan that year that’s what it felt like. Right now, the M’s are on pace to go 60-102, and anyone who was following the team back in the early 80s knows what that feels like. Come to think of it, that was about the point where I checked on on the M’s for about a decade….
DarkKnight: Without looking, my guess is that both SafeCo and the small sample size are factors.
Small sample size, plus Sexy is probably more comfortable playing on front of fans that don’t despise him.
This team is too much.
It’s more difficult to screw up as bad and often as this team does, than it is to actually be a good team.
I mean, really. This is so far past the law of averages, percentages, whatever.
Perhaps I’m just popping off during the course of a game, but how often can one club embarrass itself? I don’t just mean losing, either. I mean just playing stupefyingly horrendous baseball.
Yes, this team is mediocre. But it is possible to be mediocre and play like a respectable baseball team.
This club is an embarrassment!!!!
My wife asked me a question last night, and I’m still pondering it:
“If, next time we play detroit, the mariners offered to start the game in the 4th, with the tigers having a 4 runs lead, would the tigers take them up on it?”
My immediate answer was “of course.” Yet, watching the way 60% of our rotation has pitched in this series, I have to wonder whether that would actually be in the Tigers best interest.
Gameday has shown Dickey throwing a curve, a slider, and a changeup. It knows he throws the knuckleball, shouldn’t they just set that to override all the other options?
Yep, Dickey’s taking the reverse red-eye back to Sea-Tac.
I need extremely uncomfortable towels right now. The kind made out of sandpaper.
ARGHHHHHH
HA! I read that, checked out gameday, and a description changed from Curveball to Knuckleball as I was looking at it. Weird.
Dear Mariners:
Thank you for visiting. Please come again. We look forward to your next visit to our city.
Your friends,
the Tigers
203
They’d even pay for the plane tickets, hotel rooms, ect.. for the M’s to come back.
204/ 203
I wonder if the O’s miss us.
2 runs?
DFA Dickey now.
Check out his lefty-right split. (His OPS against lefties is almost double his OPS against righties).
I’d hazard a guess that any home road split is based more on what pitching he has been seeing.
Of course, Mac doesn’t care about platoon splits. That’s modern statistical mumbo jumbo.
I was never on the Dickey bandwagon. The first game he threw against the Angels showed me he’s a pitch-to-contact guy…regardless of what he throws…that will be very similar to Washburn or Bautista. A knuckleballer should make people miss…but I didn’t see Dickey do that his first time out. Like those other guys, Dickey gave up a lot of well-hit balls, many of which found gloves that day. Today…not so much.
At least the M’s aren’t teasing us any more with the possibility that they might “put it all together” at some point this year and contend. I’m beginning to seriously believe we might see the end of McLaren by the time this team returns to Seattle. Bavasi will follow, hopefully, after the draft.
Call me crazy but it seems like Balentien is starting to consistently make more contact with the ball now.
Right now I think any team in the American League would be delighted to see us on the other side of the field. The Yankees will probably be at the airport to say hello when we get there. Ughh.
I’ve never seen 2 on, 0 out turn into 2 on , 2 out so quickly.
Except with the bullpen of course, so the relievers can only throw to one guy in an appearance.
209: You mean with his bat, right?
Two on, nobody out, zero runs scored.
Hey, I couldn’t make this stuff up.
Ichiro in 2008 W/RISP: 5 for 31 (.161)
Oops, now 5 for 32.
Hmm…so that’s what it looks like to have great defense in LF. I was wondering….
Watching this Detroit series has been like my personal ‘Ground Hog Day’.
217
I’m with you except we didn’t jump out to a 1 run lead in this one.
Hey if they don’t score any more is it called an improvement? 12 runs, 9 runs, then 8?
OH wait…
the Tigers are going to be really sad to see the Twins.
217–Fortunately I didn’t see the first one and I’m working now, so I just look up occasionally at the TV. Don’t know if I could take 3 of these puppies.
Hey if they don’t score any more is it called an improvement? 12 runs, 9 runs, then 8?
That line looks asymptotic to 7.
We’ll never win again.
Do any of you know if there’s anything in Washburn’s (or anybody else’s) contract that prevents him from being sent to Tacoma?
Plus, I still can’t play the piano and my chances at Andie McDowell do not seem to have gotten any better.
Meanwhile, if this Mariner debacle provides the spark for a rejuvenated Tiger team that ends up winning the World Series, will the Mariners at least get awarded an honorary nose ring in recognition of their considerable contribution?
Paper bag time
They might ship us a case of the finest champagne, only to have us send it back because that would violate the rules of MLB, as pointed out by the one and only Mr. Derek Zumsteg.
I have trouble accepting the fact that we’re just not competitive against anyone. I *understand* why we’re not, but I just have trouble with the acceptance of it.
I honestly feel like we’re going to lose each and every game going forward. If we can’t beat the other worst team in the AL, how do we stand a chance against anyone else?
Have you guys noticed what McLaren’s favorite expression is about his team? I mean besides, “[Name of pitcher] just didn’t have it today.”
It’s this: “feeling good about ourselves.” Every damn interview it’s “We’re starting to feel good about ourselves again” or “we’ve just got to get back to feeling good about ourselves.”
Is this some kind of psychological mumbo-jumbo? Has he read some book called “Feel Good About Yourself!” Is he seeing a psychiatrist who feeds him this stuff? (If I had to manage this team, I’d been seeing a shrink daily.) It’s as if the team can just “feel good” about itself, it will magically start winning.
I don’t think I can take this anymore. It’s been a loooong series/spring/year/five years. Why do I watch this junk?
I just noticed that the Ms have pushed the Tigers into the lead for runs scored in the Central. That’s good work guys. Definitely honor in that right?
224 -
I’m wondering if the M’s could drum up some clever marketing and start selling their services as “slump-busters” for other teams. It could at least bring in some revenue to offset the declining attendance at home games.
And really, no one would call it “throwing the games”…I mean, it’s pretty obvious that they really are just plain bad…
Oh, Green gave up some runs.
Designate him for assignment along with Dickey.
jro:
We DO get to play the Padres again.
When we can start some “Blow up the M’s” bets? We have a whole bunch to bet on…when will Mac get fired? When will Batista be moved to the bullpen? When will we DFA Washburn? When will we trade Beltre?
DFA Washedup-er-Washburn, send Morrow down to the minors so he can be a starter next season, move Batista to the pen, and then find ANYONE to take those two rotation spots.
Does a pitch sequence that includes a shot at Mike Reilly have to be more entertaining than a series of Washburn batting practice fastballs?
Maybe Washburn would suck less if we signed a 16 year old girl to catch him.
jlc: Just so. The only thing binding me to the Ms is USSM and LL. Frankly, the Ms don’t deserve the blogospheric support they get.
Blow this team up now, its over, its been over! Get Sexson and Vidro out of there, if you can trade them off for a washing machine.
If there’s another team out there willing to pay us enough to make this a full time gig, I’d be happy to offer blogospheric support… but I don’t know if I’d be as invested in it. I’d probably have to move. Even then.
You know what’s funny? There are still people who believe that guy in Cinci could save this craptastic team.
14 pitches, 13 fastballs… somebody tell Washburn this strategy only works if you throw in the mid 90s like Morrow
Hmmm..another day…another M’s blowout
No wonder I drink…
At least it would be fun to watch.
Well, emotional investment is part of what makes the Ms’ blogs good. It’s always bizzare to me when some troll comes by and accuses you lot of ‘not being real fans’ and ‘wanting the Ms to lose’ when it’s bloody obvious to everybody but the most dense that you guys live and breathe Mariners baseball. The opposite of love isn’t hate, it’s apathy. Blogging for pay for another team really wouldn’t be the same.
I do wish the Ms would hire a good GM for you all to track, though. Chris Antonelli would be nice to watch in action.
I think the only ones that think Griffey could save this team work for the FO..I just think it would give some of us a reason to still watch the games..
241
Ehh, I don’t know if there’s anything that could make this fun to watch. Well, unless Kenji charged his own pitcher. I know that topic has been brought up here before. Now THAT would be fun to watch.
240- That’s no excuse. You drink by choice.
Well, you’ve already gone through the first four stages of being a Mariner fan (denial, anger, bargaining and depression) so you’re on the home stretch there.
As bad as Batista has been, why did Mac start him? They had a day off on Monday, and he could have been skipped. If this was covered above, I am sorry. I just tuned in, and will now go read the above 245 comments.
245 – I don’t know…I bet their are more alcoholic M’s fans out there that say…Tampa Bay Ray fans…
*grin*
Cheers everyone…
What’s the point..no one can pitch on this team lately… no one. The group is defeated before they play. The clubhouse has forgotten that they play to win…
236: I just bought a new washing machine, and I can tell you right now that I won’t give it up for Sexson and Vidro….
236: my washing machine is broken.
The difference between my washing machine and Sexson/Vidro: my washing machine can be fixed.
So, since pretty much absolutley everyone is sucking (even Ichiro is batting below .300), doesn’t that mean the team’s “chemistry” guys are failing at their job? I mean, it’s one thing to believe in a dubious theory, but it’s another to believe in it only when it “works” and ignore it when it doesn’t. But that’s the thing about the M’s lately, they don’t just use dubious reasoning, they aren’t even consistent about it. I’m beging to conclude their problem isn’t that they have bad theories, it’s that they have no theories. They just use highly subjective reasoning to explain doing whatever it was they wanted to do in the first place.
243: The only reason I see hope in the griffey trade is because it seems like Seattle is a very emotionally driven team. Most every single player is playing below expectation, even when expectation is low. The city is apathetic and even with the fervent support on this board, apathy seems more and more rampant with each passing game. Griffey would at least act as a spark for something. Does it save the team? No. But he would at least make us lively again. Maybe get the safe packed again and get some hope in the community. Of course, the FO would see that as a genius move and then we’d be back to square one with no FO changes and our pain becoming exacerbated with a turn around leading to a !!70 win!! season.
Basically, I’d love to see Griffey’s return, it would give some life, but that’s it. And I doubt the Reds will release him until post-600.
I think those amount to the same thing.
Nah, he’d stink as bad as everyone else. (Truly…see his stats these days?)
Dear Mariners,
Thanks for kick-starting our season.
Signed,
The Baltimore Orioles
The Texas Rangers
The Detroit Tigers
If I were McLaren I think I’d be contemplating a resignation about now. There’s some dignity in being able to clean out your desk on company time.
I don’t know. I’m closer to believing in chemistry with this team than any other in the last umpteen years. Bad chemistry, granted, but that was one of DMZ’s options. You’d think there’d be somebody playing over (maybe up to) their potential.
At least the marlins are doing well. I always cheer for them because they’ve been to the post season twice, and have two world series rings. Let’s see if they can keep up that impossible streak. Also, Mark Hendrickson is pitching pretty well for them, and he’s local fodder (mount vernon).
Swing low, sweet chariot…
Does anyone know where I can look up LOB numbers? It’s either not on BR or I’m not adept enough to find it.
The solution to the M’s chemistry problems:
1. Douse with gasoline.
2. Light match
Reed is now hitting .400. The last time a Mariner was at that level this year, they DFA’d him. If you want to fit in, Jeremy, you need to get your average down closer to the Medoza line so as not to make the veterans feel bad.
256: P.S. The New York Yankees felt it would be inappropriate to be included on the list until *after* the games have been played.
Going home, going home,
I’m just going home.
Quiet-like, slip away-
I’ll be going home.
It’s not far, just close by;
Jesus is the Door;
Work all done, laid aside,
Fear and grief no more.
Friends are there, waiting now.
He is waiting, too.
See His smile! See His hand!
He will lead me through.
Sorry, Reed made the last out while I was reading the blog. He may be safe now.
I wanna see what the attendances are like next home stand, now that everyone has gotten their ‘it’s baseball season!’ obligatory games out of the way. I predict a new low of under 5,000 fans in the seats, not tix sold
I’m expecting the moderators to swoop in any minute and point out this isn’t a Griffy thread (though it is a game thread, so maybe it goes), but I’ll take this opportunity to point out bringing Griffey back would be a great example of several of the bad ideas that are causing the team to lose.
-PR move trumps game impact? check.
-Oft injured player on back side of career trumps young player? check
-Defensive liabilities ignored? check
-Panic quick fix instead of addressing underlying problems? check
As a fan, yeah, Griffey is a huge part of the M’s history, and I’d like to see him end his career as a Mariner. But bringing him in this year would be a giant mistake. It would make Baker’s commentors happy and give the local media fits of joy, but I think most fans, even casual ones, would see it as throwing in every towel in the clubhouse.
Try hardballtimes.com.
Whew. I was afraid we’d go a full week without another entirely unrelated thread turning into yet another Griffey discusson.
Dodged a bullet with that one!
Pinch hitting Bloomquist for Ichiro for the last at bat. Talk about raising the white flag of surrender.
So if McLaren and Bavasi aren’t gone until after the draft, I’m assuming any sort of fire sale won’t happen until well after they’re gone. I’m almost looking forward to it at this point. Unfortunately it doesn’t really seem like we have much to sell. He is my favorite player and I would hate to see him go, but I would guess that Beltre would be one of our top chips. Who else will be on the block? Putz? Bedard already? I guess I’m assuming we are sellers. By going out and getting Bedard I took management to be saying – “it’s all or nothing.” It’s pretty clear we didn’t get “all”, so we start over, right?
Singin’..
“It’s been a long, a long time coming
But I know a change gonna come, oh yes it will.”
I think our pitching staff just broke Joe’s Tracer in this series. What’s Blowers going to do now???
I think those amount to the same thing.
Tey have the same result – the team sucks – but they’re very different, and one of them is fixable.
If the team is basing its decisions of poor theories, then simply correcting the theories should improve the team. But, if they’re acting based on no real reasoning at all and just rationalising after the fact, you can’t fix that without years of intensive logic therapy.
Pinch hitting Bloomquist for Ichiro for the last at bat. Talk about raising the white flag of surrender.
Ichiro wanted to go home early so he could dress up neighbourhood cats in Mariner uniforms and feed them to Ikkyu.
Mustering any positive emotion at this point is futile. Mariner brass…get bent.
LMAO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
(And I HATE using that acronym…..)
Stupid reporter question of the day:
To McLaren:
I don’t know. I think that’s a good question. At least if the reporter was going for snarky, sarcastic, snide, etc. If that was a real question asked, then that reporter has some balls.
The more I think about this team, the more I think about how eerily similar this team and this front office is to the New York Knicks under Isiah Thomas.
Either way, the report has big balls. Great question if you ask me.
“reporter”
What was Mac’s response?
re: 282
That question doesn’t look stupid, it looks harsh – if deliberate – the reporter was implicitly insulting McLaren to his face.
The reporters only turn on you when they know you don’t matter any more. Looks like this reporter might think McLaren is toast.
Is anybody else getting the feeling that this team might not be very good? I think I am. Just a tingle.
The Nickster asked: Have you guys noticed what McLaren’s favorite expression is about his team? I mean besides, “[Name of pitcher] just didn’t have it today.†It’s this: “feeling good about ourselves.†Every damn interview it’s “We’re starting to feel good about ourselves again†or “we’ve just got to get back to feeling good about ourselves.â€
Sounds like Chuck Armstrong signed McLaren up for the 12-step program endorsed by Stuart Smalley in “Daily Affirmations With Stuart Smalley” and demanded he read Smalley’s book “I’m Good Enough, I’m Smart Enough, and Doggone It, People Like Me!”
That is the most awesome question ever, still laughing 10 minutes later.
The clubhouse has forgotten that they play to win…
That’s the same sort of crap as “they wanted it more.” “Heart” and “want” can’t make up for talent and skill. This team is made up of people who play to win. Unfortunately, they’re mostly not very good at it. This is a badly-assembled collection of mostly mediocre, mostly overpaid players who mostly aren’t being employed in ways that minimize their shortcomings. No amount of desire or chemistry can overcome that.
So, since pretty much absolutley everyone is sucking (even Ichiro is batting below .300)
Ichiro is not sucking. He’s a lifetime .330 hitter, and he’s batting .351 in May. He was .252 in April. For his career, he’s hit .293 in April and .369 in May. So he’s a little below his career line for those months, but he still has a couple of weeks in May. (And offenses in general are down in the AL this year). Every year we are forced to listen to the clueless national media going on about how Ichiro has finally fallen off the cliff and every year they’ve been wrong. I have no doubt that’s the case this year too. Those of us who have watched him on a daily basis for the last seven years have no excuse for making that mistake.
Anyone else here wondering if Ichiro regrets signing that extension yet?
All I can say is. I am glad I missed this game.
Glad Reed got a hit, though.
198…. My Wife asked me why I still watch these guys day after day……
Only answer I had was, I love the game.
[nope]
Hey slescotts — wherefore the hostility? Reverse red-eye is an airline flight. The M’s have a history of sending down (or releasing) members of the bullpen for no obvious good reason — and one HR certainly qualifies as that sort of specious reason. Given all that, that comment is both sad and humorous, sarcastic and accurate, all at once. I’m not sure what you thought he said, but it certainly seems more appropriate than your little diatribe.
(And if the mods happen back here and just delete #296 — and I think they should — they should delete this as well).
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Mariners: Your Slump Busters