Game 58, Angels at Mariners
Santana v Washburn.
Is there any stranger move than Cairo’s ascent to starting first baseman so far this year?
Any team in baseball, any position.
– There’s no injury involved
– Only a couple months ago, the team (and particularly the manager) expected Sexson to have a big bounceback year… which, relatively, he was
– Sexson is paid vastly more than Cairo, when generally teams favor the huge contract
– As of May 23rd, Sexson was hitting .200/.277/.413 while Cairo was hitting .171/.250/.200
– The last time Cairo hit as well as Sexson hit when benched was 2004, when he hit .292/.346/.417 while with the Yankees
– And he’s only hit that or better three times in 13 seasons
– Cairo’s career line of .266/.314/.357 is worse than what Sexson was hitting when benched
– Cairo plays pretty crappy defense too, and if the team can’t recognize that Ibanez is horrible out there, why would they suddenly realize Sexson sucked and turn on him?
– If the team wanted additional scrap, baserunning, and defense, there’s an internal option already much-beloved they could have gone with
– And if the problem’s the PR of having Sexson booed, see above
– Cairo’s not a prospect, or on a long-term deal that makes him worth developing
– Benching Sexson likely lowers his trade value (or his “release value”)
I follow baseball reasonably closely (um, yeah) and I can’t think of another decision like this on any other roster this year. Every day this goes on I’m more convinced the losing has only made the people who run the Mariners crazier. Pretty soon they’re going to go hole up together and have the ball boys read them increasingly made-up game reports.
“General Riggleman reports an absolute shutout against the hated A’s, sir.”
“Excellent! I order a brace of champagne shipped to them by autogyro!”
Update: so it appears that they’ve put Sexson back in the lineup, because it’s a new series. I have the same question I have every time they make a move like this — what does that have to do with anything? If Cairo was the right choice the last n games because he made the team better, why is that not true now? What can possibly be driving these decisions?
Comments
124 Responses to “Game 58, Angels at Mariners”
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.
Enazario: Maybe they’d talk about the M’s going from 1st to 3rd if they did it more often?
enazario: Don’t you know by now that it’s Kenji’s fault that those aren’t being called strikes? If Burke was in there Wash would probably have a shutout going. Damn you Kenji!!
101 – Haha. That is what I was thinking.
While I’m at it can they stop talking about how Washburn is locating pitches well and getting hit? He is locating well allright -right in the middle of the plate.
Solve the following mathematical equation for winning baseball in Seattle…
Suck + B_lls = M’s
So, Suck= M’s – Balls?
They mentioned on the radio that Washburn was skipped because he had such bad numbers against Detroit. Exactly against whom does he have good numbers?
The equation is also true in the negative
Suck + B_lls = -M’s, thus B_lls – M’s = Suck
Need a K. Ditch the guy who doesn’t strikeout hitters for one who does.
What have I told you boys about crude terminology?
SPELL IT OUT dammit!
P.S. Balls!
Nice work by Lowe. I hope we’re seeing him turn a corner in these last few outings. It would be nice to have both him and Morrow pitching well out of the ‘pen. God knows the franchise is deathly afraid of putting them in the rotation for fear of upsetting one of their $7+ MM/year starters.
Hey that Lowe kid is pretty good!
Honestly, I question your (and Dave’s) sanity to be able to continue on.
Aaaand.. there’s Yuni not thinking again. So much talent, but he just doesn’t concentrate. Sexson should have dug that out, but it isn’t his fault.
Yuni – Showing once again why he is so infuriating.
Your math is off. If:
Suck + B_lls = -M’s
then:
B_lls + M’s = -Suck
Which is, of course false.
J-Lo Shot!
Good thing they closed the lid….
so, what I’d miss?
If Lopez would just reach out for those easy plays he doesn’t make, I’d even be willing to vote for him in All-Star balloting. But he’s so damn frustrating.
I imagine they’d be more worried about Lowe’s elbow holding up as a starter than upsetting starting pitchers.
sez Dave with a straight face:
“….so the Mariners’ got some firepower coming up against Frankie Rodriguez in the ninth”
Wasn’t this game 58?