The ability to string together 2 wins in a row eludes the M’s

How about the ability to string together two hits in a row eludes the M’s, too.

Let us not confuse results with process. The issue is not pitches per plate appearance – that is a symptom of the problem. The issue is pitch recognition. Just as batters shouldn’t be swing at pitches in the dirt, there is no benefit to a hitter going up to the plate and watching three fat pitches go over the plate. Ichiro has demonstrated he can discern the difference between a strike and a ball. He’s fine.

The free swinging righties in the lineup, however, swing at pitches that vary from marginal to far outside of the strike zone. Opposing pitchers learn this and feed them a steady diet of marginal stuff. The low ratio of pitches per plate appearance is just a sign that they haven’t learned or are incapable of adjusting to this approach.

The question for me is whether these guys can learn or if the organization needs to replace them with people who do have (or can learn) pitch recognition skills.

One thing we need to remember is that the Ms have excellent defensive players at positions that are traditionally played by big hitters (3B, OF). If they had a more offensive-heavy mix they might be losing games 3-4, instead of 1-2. Hopefully, Griffey will be gone next year, and the Ms can upgrade at DH (he’s my all-time favorite player, but the time has come). Hopefully Balentien turns out to be a legit .800ish OPS guy and hopefully the Ms can get an entirely new middle infield. Those are my hopefullys for the near-future.

Lopez sucks and Lowe didn’t have it. And that’s that!

Wait, that’s not that. Lopez is SO clutch.

P.S. Ichiro needs to take more pitches.

These recent games are really depressing because I don’t know what Wak or Z can do about Beltre, Yuni, Lopez, Johjima, (Wlad).

Also, there are a lot of salaries coming off the books this offseason, whether or not any midseason trades are made. This is going to be Zduriencik’s team in 2010, and I don’t see why we shouldn’t be able to seriously compete then. We are one of the lucky teams in baseball to be in the AL West, where you only have to be better than three teams to make the playoffs. We need to take advantage of these years while we can.

And someone complained about Ichiro’s at bat in the 8th which I think is way off base.

As far as I can tell, the only post that came close to discussing (let alone complaining about) Ichiro’s at-bat in the eighth was mine. If I missed someone else’s, I apologize, but if it was mine, you totally misread it.

My post was mainly about letting Cain off with one run in the third, when Chavez, Beltre and Griffey saw one pitch each after Gutirrez and Ichiro had gotten on base, and then about the seventh, when Gutierrez was thrown out with Ichiro at bat. Ichiro then came up again in the eighth after the game was lost. No way any of that was Ichiro’s fault and my post certainly wasn’t criticizing Ichiro in any way, shape or form.

Again, if I missed someone else’s post about Ichiro coming up in the eighth, I’m sorry.

But the hitting just SUCKS right now.

This team is getting a little better at working pitch counts and it should improve more in that department by September.

But the fact is, many of the hitters on this team just plain SUCK (including Griffey as much as I hate to say it).

This club needs Michael Saunders, Jeff Clement, Adam Moore and Mike Carp on it very soon so it can create some better platoon situations and everyday lineup production for itself, BADLY.

And that’s just the start of what this club needs to do to improve itself at the plate because there are GLARING holes at 3B, SS and 2B aside from the guys you can potentially call up from Tacoma this year.

Maybe Tui and Trinufel can be, at the very least, “Mr. Reliable” types in two of those positions, but it’s tough to say with both of those guys (considering Trinfuel’s injury) now.