Game 35, Mariners at Rangers
Hernandez vs Harrison, 11:05 am.
Felix Day is going to suck eggs if we lose. With Bedard getting scratched for Saturday, we’re throwing Jakubauskas-Olson-Vargas at the Red Sox this weekend. Lose today, and you’re staring at a pretty good chance of being losers of six in a row when the Angels roll into town on Monday. The M’s have to win today. They have to. Felix vs an LHP – we couldn’t ask for a better matchup. We lose today, the season is basically over.
Ichiro, RF
Lopez, 2B
Sweeney, DH
Beltre, 3B
Branyan, 1B
Balentien, LF
Johnson, C
Gutierrez, CF (argh!)
Cedeno, SS
Wak gives us another Yuni-free day, which is a blessing. Hopefully Cedeno can play well enough to convince the staff that he should be at SS more often.
As far as the line-up goes, does anyone have an explanation for Rob Johnson hitting in front of Gutierrez? Death To Flying Things is hitting .273/.360/.591 against southpaws this year, and it’s not luck – he’s killing the ball against them. That’s a .951 OPS vs LHPs with a .211 batting average on balls in play. This isn’t some bloopers falling in. He’s struck out once in 22 plate appearances against them, and three of his six hits have gone for extra bases. He should be hitting 2nd, not 8th. Hitting him behind Johnson is just nutty.
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No, not really.
Win you collection of clowns. Win for Felix.
I guess it must happen occasionally, but I can’t recall the last time we played a day game in Arlington. Even their Sunday games tend to be in the evening to avoid the heat.
Nevermind his location in the order, does anyone have an explanation for why Rob Johnson is on this team?
sometimes a good “why is this guy on the team” is necessary… remember WFB.
It seems like I heard somewhere that Memorial Day weekend is the cutoff for any matinee games scheduled in Arlington.
Does Wak believe in that “knowing how to hit in the two hole” crap? I hope not.
Shouldn’t Sweeney and Johnson cancel each other out? Do we need two nice white guys?
Two weeks ago when I posted basically that the M’s are a 78-win team, the reaction was that the early hot start had changed everything. All they had to do was play at 78-win level for the rest of the year and win 85. I was too pessimistic.
Today, when I post that the M’s are a 78-win team, and their season will no more be over if they lose today than they will be in the pennant race if they win, I get the feeling I’ll be treated as too optimistic.
We sabermetric types have gotten very good at dismissing individual performances over short periods as small-sample-size theatre. We still need work on our treatment of team performances over similar stretches.
Maybe the answer is that there’s a plexiglass principle at play even within the course of a year. If a team with 78-win talent goes 9-1 for a stretch of ten games, that team may actually be more likely to cool off and subsequently play a stretch at below their true level. Maybe the manager decides he’s a genius and starts bunting too often. Or the hacking slugger gets even more hacktastic after a few lucky walk-off hits. Something.
For those interested, Adam Moore has been promoted to Tacoma. He’ll join the Rainiers tonight.
Clement’s time as a catcher in Tacoma is basically over. He’s strictly DH’ing right now, since his knee is bothering him again, and the M’s wouldn’t have promoted Moore to Triple-A to split playing time behind the plate with Clement.
Lose today, and you’re staring at a pretty good chance of being losers of six in a row when the Angels roll into town on Monday.
1-5 isn’t a lot better, especially since you’re punting two of those losses as wins to the current division leader, and one of TX or LA is going to come out of Arlington with at least 2 wins this weekend, and a fairly solid lead on us if we don’t win some of those Red Sox games. This isn’t a roster that’s going to run down a better team that’s a number of games up on them, and this is sort of the nightmare scenario you saw at the beginning of the year- the slightly below .500 true talent roster gets blown up after a slow start, with everyone capable of fetching anything useful for 2010 sent away, and the dregs of the roster + the kids playing out the string.
Clement’s time as a catcher in Tacoma is basically over. He’s strictly DH’ing right now, since his knee is bothering him again, and the M’s wouldn’t have promoted Moore to Triple-A to split playing time behind the plate with Clement.
Well, crap. This and Bedard’s injury isn’t exactly the Felix Day I was looking forward to.
I am completely not surprised that Clement’s career as a C is toast, though- two knee surgeries before he stuck in the majors pretty much made his eventual move to 1B/DH a foregone conclusion.
Felix’s fastest pitch so far has been 91 MPH. His fastball is averaging 90, and he’s throwing a lot of breaking stuff in the first inning.
He’s not healthy.
Dave,
What do you think about Felix’s velocity this year? It seems a little low, especially today.
Verlander is going strikeout crazy in Minneapolis. 11 through 4.2 innings so far.
Felix has nothing today. His curve isn’t breaking, his fastball is a meatball, and he knows it.
Dave thats exactly what i was thinking, felix is hurting:((
Presumably Clement could convert to a 1B, but with the logjam at that position in Tacoma already, DH is really the only option left in the M’s system. He could be part of a trade, of course, but “1B conversion project” is certainly not going to return much value (and nothing close to what you’d expect from a former 3rd overall draft pick). Who really needs a 25-year-old version of David Ortiz (and not the “Big Papi” version, but the 2009 version)?
Well, actually my nightmare involved them hanging onto the division lead into the summer, or being within a game or two, and then tanking badly after the trade deadline — the worst of both worlds. As painful as it will be to follow the rest of the season, crashing early both makes the decision to blowup and rebuild easy, and means you’ll get more future value for those current pieces.
Hope springs
eternaluntil mid-May.For anyone using Gameday–what has Harrison topped out at? His average fastball is 91 this year, so perhaps Felix’s velocity problems are a gun calibration problem? Please be the reason : o
Brett – Harrison has thrown 5 pitches at 91 so far.
Texas is said to have “slow” guns, according to the always correct Bill Kruger.
After watching the replay from last night again, I’m experiencing Elvis Andrus envy.
Well, actually my nightmare involved them hanging onto the division lead into the summer, or being within a game or two, and then tanking badly after the trade deadline — the worst of both worlds.
As painful as it will be to follow the rest of the season, crashing early both makes the decision to blowup and rebuild easy, and means you’ll get more future value for those current pieces.
Yeah, but as Cleveland illustrates, just because you have a well-run organization that’s done a good job of rebuilding does NOT mean you are a lock to make the playoffs every year. If you think you have a legitimate shot in a particular year, and taking it won’t completely screw up your future, you have to take it- you might not see one for a few years.
Why is Mike Sweeney not on the DL? Larry Stone asked Wak about the lack of pinch hitting for Grif last night and he said Sweeney was unavailable because of his back. Why don’t we reliease Sweeney and just have Clement DH some, learn to hit lefties so he can eventually be a full-time DH. Sweeney is unavailable about half the time–if a guy can barely play why is he on the roster?
I just started watching with Beltre’s at bat…I claim responsibility for both runs…
16 pitches for Felix in the last 2 innings combined.
Hey, who isn’t giddy with Wlad’s start to the season thus far?
Also, who wouldn’t like seeing Andrus in an Ms uni?
The Rangers talk team are impressed with Felix today.
I don’t think .296/.350/.444 from a corner outfielder is making anybody giddy, but he has been one of our better hitters, especially vs. LHP.
Or, as his namesake once said, “Thank you…thank you very much!”
He’s played above average defense so far and an OPS of .794 from a righty playing in Safeco is more than passable…but the point is, Wlad is doing it which represents a step forward for him.
A “breakout” season in the making for Wlad, perhaps?
Are you watching the same game I am? His curve has been great.
I’ve got to habd it to Rob Johnson. Even as part of the offensive nightmare which is the 2009 Ms, he stands out as being really terrible.
Damn it Felix! Stop trying to field those!
Boy i’d rather Felix tried to catch those with his penis than with his bare, right hand….
Felix hits (a game high?) 94 on his 110th pitch of the game.
Spectacular clutch play by Cedeno to preserve the shut out!!!!!!!!!!!
If there is something wrong with Felix, Wak sure as hell doesn’t know about it…7 innings, 110 pitches.
Drayer weighs in
More first pitch outs please :/
6 pitch inning with all three outs coming on first pitch swings. Nice. Nice if your a TX pitcher.
Yikes. Forgot the game was early and arrived at USSM to see Felix Panic everywhere. Seems like things have calmed down a bit by now? And Aardsma! Nice work so far!
If it stays 2-0, should they bring in Morrow, or let Aardsma try to finish it off? Morrow doesn’t fill me with much confidence at the moment.
So…Aardsma 6-out save? For once I’m glad I’m not watching. I just got a prescription for Prilosec, and I’m blaming Brandon.
Morrow on the way in from pen
Further support of the Texas pitch f/x system being slow is Aardsma only hitting 92, although no one has yet explained why he has ditched his curveball in favor of his change up, that would generally point to an arm problem as well.
Alright Morrow, please don’t suck.
nice upperdeck shot.
I think we should stick in in the rotation for a while to get his head together…
NOooooooooooooooo…
Good thing Blalock was leading off the inning.
there’s the Morrow we know and don’t love… almost throwing one to the backstop.. nice snag by Johnson.
Whoops, that one was hit a ton. Why, Wak? Why didn’t we leave Aardsma in??? I can’t take this anymore.
Wow Morrow is about to blow a second win in two days….great!
Announcer Jinx alert: “The Mariners haven’t had a shutout in Arlington since xxxxx”
First batter = HR
Damn it! Get Morrow out of there!
w o w…
so can we consider this little experiment over yet? clearly he is not a “closer.”
w o w…now it’s time to panic
Wow… Beltre and Cedeno were getting into it over that pop-fly.
i am to the point where I would rather see Batista closing.
I don’t think Beltre was very happy with Cedeno there…
They should’ve left Morrow on the DL…
Yeah, Beltre looked pissed and gave Cedeno an earful.
Flashbacks to yesterday.
Like Derek said, we lose this one–especially by blowing a two-run lead in the 9th–and this team might not recover psychologically.
Now come 2 walks…
Mom….my tummy is starting to hurt….
God DAMMIT Morrow!
that was a total meatball. Absolutely nothing on that pitch. Didn’t move at all, belt-high… a major league hitter will not miss that.
Crap.
&@$#
buh-bye…Mariners 2009 RIP
Wow. And somehow, I’m just not surprised.
Brandon Morrow…. I hate you.
Wow uh I don’t know what to say, they should 18-17 right now if it weren’t for Morrow.
Wow that sucks so much it’s almost funny.
Why??????????????? I can’t bare to listen to this anymore…
HOLY CRAP! that just sucked out loud.
People – don’t be ludicrous. Two games no more prove that Morrow “clearly isn’t cut out to be a closer” than…
What? Another homer! Ohfirfuxake!!!
Send him to Tacoma to learn how to pitch.
Well, fuck.
I wasn’t watching, but let me guess…. it was a fastball???
You know, Morrow.. when you only throw one stinking pitch, YOU WILL GET ROCKED.
You weak suck.
Dave Niehaus: “It is excruciating to say the least to watch Morrow right now…”
* less than 30 seconds later *
Dave Niehaus: “Fly away!”
Yes, it is excruciating to say the least.
Please forgive the extra posts.
Please forgive the Mariners for repeating parts of the 80s too.
Oh dear; this is getting funny now. If you can’t get satisfaction and a sense of triumph out of watching the M’s, why not some laughter?
Well, fuck.
So… Seahawks had a good draft day huh?
*sigh*
Double post as well. Mea culpa.
PERFECT timing for MLB Spam to send me an email titled “Feel-Good Stories Ruling Diamond”
Should we just start calling him Mitch “Wild Thing” Williams and get use to a 2K, 2BB, BS stat line every time he pitches?
F*** this. I’m done with this season.
As much as I am in love with Beltre, and as much as I hate to see the demoralizing Bedard trade finally meet it’s shitty end, I think it’s time to start selling. I need something to look forward to next year, because I think this straw today broke my back.
Wow uh I don’t know what to say, they should 18-17 right now if it weren’t for Morrow.
Should we just start calling him Mitch “Wild Thing” Williams and get use to a 2K, 2BB, BS stat line every time he pitches?
PERFECT timing for MLB Spam to send me an email titled “Feel-Good Stories Ruling Diamond”
Morrow, you suck. Go to AAA, work on your pitches, and stop blowing games for this team.
I will still follow the M’s.
I always follow the M’s.
I just can’t do that whole childhood rationalization thing. Thirty years ago I could say, “they won almost all of the game” to myself after a game like this afternoon.
Now, I just shake my head and take a bit of comfort in the potential future of this team.
Ugh all he does is throw fastballs with bad command and well the Rangers were licking their chops to face him again. I am waiting for Cordero to be major league ready again. Throw Morrow back in the rotation where he belongs.
Has one player ever managed to have a -1.640 WPA in two consecutive games?
Okay we all know Morrow is a major league pitcher. We can all agree after watching him in 2007 and also at times last year. He relies solely on that stupid straight 4 seam fastball. Where is his off speed stuff??? He is still not right, he hasn’t been right all year. ugh
What the bejeesus is Bill Haselman wittering about on the radio?
There is too much Bavasi on this team still, Dr. Z needs to start making calls about Bedard, Washburn, and Beltre.
Tom Tuttle – take it easy on the submit button, will ya?
Dude needs to go down to Tacoma for AS LONG AS IT TAKES to perfect an ASSORTMENT of pitches.. and focus on starting again. I don’t care what HE wants to do. It’s no longer his choice.
People, be kind to USSM. Hit the “submit comment” button once…
Also, I know we’re all pissed off at Morrow right now, but keep in mind this has way more to do with the previous regime that completely screwed up his development and left us with this crappy situation than Morrow’s actual talents.
Not that that helps anything… just gives you an alternative direction to channel your overflow of anger.
Sorry, my internet connection is just bad, that’s all.
goodness knows. Apparently a real closer has an attitude and an intimidation factor and is downright wacky on the mound.
It just bugs me too much to think about the guys that could be on this team right now but aren’t because of either bad drafting or bad trades.
I want my World Series.
Is it time for them to pull the plug on the Morrow as closer experiment and let him get back to starting? That guy is just not made to be a closer.
And how much difference would that make, really? Lou would have one of his petulant little meltdowns, and all the people who like watching childish behavior would cheer along (hardass? I guess your average pre-school is full of hardasses). And then what? Who pitches the 9th? Aardsma? He’s a fastball pitcher with questionable control, just like Morrow. I’m not convinced a season of him closing would end up all that different. Remember, for all the walks he gave up, Morrow was 6 for 6 in save opportunities before last night. (And if Aardsma pitches the 9th, we probably get Batista in the 8th, which means we may never get to a save opportunity at all).
Lou couldn’t fix Tampa. What fixed Tampa was better players.
As currently constituted, he’s not made to be a starter either. As a starter he couldn’t throw as hard, he couldn’t rely on his fastball as much, and all those walks would hurt even more. And apparently he’s not “comfortable” starting which — issues about his diabetes aside — may just mean he recognizes that he doesn’t have the arsenal of pitches that would get him through seven innings. Or it may mean that he’d be in full mental meltdown mode every inning whether he was giving up runs or not.
Yes, but that’s a good thing. Do you remember all thos sick, sick breaking balls he threw in his near no-hitter against NY? Plus he was able to keep decent velocity on his fastball. I know that’s the Morrow we all want to see, and I think that’s the Morrow he could have become given enough time in the minors to develop as a starter.
You would’ve had a better chance to win the game, that’s what difference it would’ve made.
All Morrow is right now is the reincarnation of Bobby Ayala.
Until he shows us he can consistently get it done, why should the Mariners keep giving him chances?
This team isn’t 20 games out right now, they were only 3.5 out.
If this team still has a chance to win the division, doesn’t make sense to not let Morrow fail if it looks like disaster is imminent (which it was after Blalock homered) rather than “experiment” to see if he’s the “closer of the future”?
I would definitely agree with you that Tampa was fixed by better players which is how the Mariners will be fixed as well.
Nonetheless, you can only give a player so many chances to succeed and fail in this league and you can only put up with so much if you are still at a point in the season where you have a chance to win the division.
Hopefully this team will do the right thing and replace Morrow with someone else in the 9th inning next time, otherwise this summer will be a lot longer than it actually will be.
You know, for all the knocks Batista gets, and deservedly so for the most part, he has been serviceable so far. A terribly high BABIP (0.360), a 50% GB rate, a 8.15 K/9 rate, and he’s cut down a walk on his BB/9 rate (okay, it’s still a shade over 5).
It’s going to be weird saying this, but I think I wouldn’t mind him being a setup man if it means that Morrow goes away to work on what he needs to work on – assuming that whatever’s wrong with him can be worked on.
What in the world is Morrow doing in the majors?
Send him down and keep him there. The M’s have enough pitchers to handle right now.
By the way, Batista is a better option at closer than Morrow at the moment.
Okay, let’s not kid ourselves, this was a competitive team for a couple weeks. Let’s get real and start actually rebuilding. Trade Adrian and Erik for a solid foundation… preferably similar to the one that Bill Bavasi threw away, please.
Bill, you are a horrible businessman.
is it too early to hate brandon morrow?? God that was brutal. Something needs to change it the bullpen when Aardsma is your most reliable option.
Bye Bye division winning 2009 Mariners, we barely knew you.
I think the problem is that Morrow doesn’t have the mental toughness to be a major league pitcher. You can’t have that kind of person as your closer – their memory just isn’t short enough. Aardsma may not be all that different from Morrow in the sense that he is a hard throwing, relatively inaccurate pitcher who depends on his fastball…but having a solid mental game could mean the difference between blown saves in the last two games, and having an 18-17 record.
This team right now has 13 players (if you include Silva) on the major league roster left over from the players who helped define the “Bavasi Era”.
By my count that’s 11 too many. (Or 10 if you think Balentin is intriguing)
Get rid of those 10 or 11 too many at once.
Silva, Lopez, Morrow, Betancourt, Johjima, Beltre, Bedard, Washburn, Batista and Lowe need to either be cut or traded NOW while there’s still a chance to do so.
No one’s going to get cut by Dr Z unless he absolutely cannot find value for them. Realistically, right now only Washburn has high trade value. Batista is improving his value each day. Bedard’s value was increasing until this recent setback.
Silva, Johjima, Beltre, Betancourt and Morrow would probably be at their low trade value and it wouldn’t be worth it to do any transactions right now.
If you’re so concerned with trading players, I think the Putz trade highlights Dr Z’s ability to get the maximum value for the players on this team. So in that sense, I am optimistic to see what he does later.
Blowing up the team is fine, but do it with purpose, not out of pure anger and frustration (and believe me, I’m not happy either).
Then get rid of them all by the end of the year.
If I can’t have this team be competitive in ’09, I at least want to have something to look forward to in ’10.
Geez, Tom. Let’s not get carried away. This team was always slated to be an about-500 team, and right now it’s 3 games under .500. When Cordero comes back, we’ll have either him or Aardsma to close and the other to setup, and it’ll be okay. Not great, but okay.
KaminaAyato is right: probably the only players tradeable right now are Wash and Bedard, assuming Bedard’s injury is minor and he only misses one start. And for whom would we trade them? Who’s out there who’s going to make us oh so much better? I’m not expert enough to say it can’t be done, but that’s certainly my impression.
we’ve already used ‘Backbreaker,’ ‘Acid in the Wounds’ and ‘Time to Panic?’
i suggest the next one should be titled ‘Can You Say Horror Show?’
so since Texas seems to be positively overflowing with offense and their pitching is probably over-performing right now, would they be in the market for a Washburn/Bedard? They’re getting a taste for the division lead and might be willing to make some moves to preserve their position.
hell, let’s give ‘em the both of them for Elvis Andrus (fat chance, i know).
It has been a horror show starting with the Texas series at home until now.
Seems like song titles to me. Pat Benatar sings “Backbreaker,” (“Heartbreaker”) Kanas sings “Acid in the Wounds” (“Dust in the Wind”), and Green Day sings “Time to Panic” (“Panic Song” — speaking of which, does anything more need be said?)
I’d say the next logical step would be Dylan’s “Everybody Must Get
StonedTraded”While we’re at it, we might as well add the Little River Band’s “Lonesome Loser” to the list — since, at this rate, these guys will probably be drawing about 6-8k by September.
yeah, “lose today and the season is basically over.” because 127 games is way too short of a time to make up 5.5 games.
If the teams you’re trying to catch are significantly better, it certainly can be.
And look at that: Ervin Santana came back from the DL and got his first start for the Angels today. Nothing stellar — 5.0 IP, 7 H, 3 ER, 3 BB, 5 K — but they still beat Boston, and he’s only going to get better. And so are the Angels.
1 win 9 losses. Last 10 games Ouch!!!
and lackey tomorrow, yes there are 127 games left, but you expect this mariners team to be better than the at full power Angels for the rest of the season? 6 games better at that? That like hoping for Elvis Andrus to be traded to us for Batista and Yuni.
The Angels may be better. 127 games is a ton though. Saying the season is over when you have that many games left is ridiculous. By no means is the season over. There is so much that could happen in that time, the M’catching up six games is not some far-out idea.
I was at the game and almost cried.
What a difference a month can make…
April 17th: “It’s a race to 85 wins. There’s no reason to think that the M’s can’t be right there at the wire.”
May 14th: “We lose today, the season is basically over.”