Game 73, Mariners at Dodgers
Art Thiel had a piece today – well, I suppose I should say last night, since that’s the timestamp and now that the P-I’s only online, it’s not like there’s “today’s edition” of the paper to talk about – on how Ichiro is getting no media attention. Selfish Ichiro, waiting until the media have other things to focus on (Griffey!) before giving them something to write about.
Really, I’d argue that based on performance so far, it could even be his best season ever. The hitting is up there with hit-record-breaking 2004, except it’s not all singles all the time like it was then. If you want to find fault, though, he’s not walking (at all – only 5 unintentional) and his base-stealing has been subpar.
There’s also a peculiar sequence in which Thiel gives Ichiro’s responses to some apparently uninspired reporter questioning. The frequent cliche-ness of interview questions is really a shame with somebody like Ichiro, because we know he has interesting (insightful, quirky, quasi-literary) things to say, not just the stock answers you usually see. But what caught my eye was this comment, about how he feels compared to last year:
“I don’t remember how I felt last June.”
Maybe it’s because he was drowning his sorrows. And if you imagine that time as an employee, which he is, and your company is in the toilet, people around you getting laid off, others making veiled threats, your bosses being fired, that’s a pretty traumatic numbing experience. Anyway, apparently things are much happier now by all accounts. As nice as it would be for Ichiro to put the team on his back and carry it while being a clubhouse leader and catering to the media, can we get him some help?
Can you remember how you felt about the team back then? Has it changed? Should we be happy now or still frustrated?
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Drayer mentioned that as Joh is back, Burke has been DFA’d. I assume nothing will keep him from rejoining Tacoma.
I can’t imagine anyone would claim Burke. Even if there’s a team that needs a backup catcher, odds are they have one at least equal to him already in their system. If you’re a GM grabbing Burke out from under Zduriencik, you’re not picking up anything special but you certainly are being a dick. Granted, that description certainly applies to a couple of GMs, but it’s such a small club I would think nobody would pee in the pool like that unles they thought they were getting the kind of player that would make it worth it. And Burke, for all his positive qualities, just isn’t that.
Drayer on the pre-game saying we could see Griffey twice in the field this series (Saturday and Sunday, since it’s a lefty starting for the Dodgers tonight). Though I expect it’s more like “we’ll run him out on Saturday and then, depending on how many quarts of blood they drain out of his knee, we may see him for a couple of innings Sunday.”
Line Up:
Ichiro RF
Russ Branyan 1B
Adrian Beltre 3B
Jose Lopez 2B
Franklin Gutierrez CF
Kenji Johjima C
Wladimir Balentien LF
Ronny Cedeno SS
Jason Vargas P
Probably the best lineup that could be fielded without Endy but 6 right handers and the pitcher in a row… could be a quick game.
Given the condition of Griffey’s knee, I don’t understand why you’d want to put him in LF, except in an absolute emergency. Even running around the bases is likely to induce significant swelling, so why put him in the field? Please help me understand the logic of this.
The logic is “the M’s don’t have enough LH bats in the lineup” — as Dave has pointed out more than once. With an offense this lightweight, you have to take every opportunity, however marginal or risky.
But, yeah, I agree — Drayer expressed surprise at the plan too.
Well, 6 RH in a row isn’t as big of a deal with a LH starter… unless you can chase him early. Then you’re making life easy for the RH relievers. But given the roster, it’s not like there are a lot of options. This park has been very good to Beltre, but unfortunately he’s not quite the player he was when he wore Dodger blue (he more or less admitted that if the M’s weren’t contending he would be going under the knife right now to re-fix that shoulder).
Kershaw (who was taken two picks after Morrow) career
vs RH: .256 / .353 / .382
vs LH: .203 / .288 / .357
Though his numbers this season are better than that — he’s been brutal against LH batters so far this year, and he’s been really good at home.
All things considered, I’d rather have a RH-heavy lineup tonight. But unless this guy is having an off night, the M’s have a huge task ahead of them.
Sorry my bad – thought Kershaw was RH for some reason.
Wow, look at that smog. Put a UV/haze filter on that camera!
Yeah, I screw that up all the time (not specifically with Kershaw, but with everybody). But I’d rather look at the splits anyway, since some guys pitch like they’re “more” left- or right- handed than others.
I think it’s going to be a loooong night for Ichiro and Branyan.
Man, I’m sleepy. I can’t decide whether to hope the game is so exciting that it wakes me up, or so dull I can take a nap.
I have a sense of dread, and we’ve only gone 1/2 inning.
Well, if the top of the first is anything to go by…
Nice by Branyan – he seems to be getting much better at first.
I’ve been enjoying Ronny at ss
I wonder why Cedeño doesn’t have an ñ on his uniform.
I wonder why Cedeño doesn’t have an ñ on his uniform.
He was just happy he didn’t have to sew his own, so he didn’t complain.
If he keeps fielding like that they should give his ~.
Why does Jojihma have to come back on THIS roadtrip of all the times?
Can anyone tell me what our record is with vs without him?
Please put Johnson back in!!!!
Why does Jojihma have to come back on THIS roadtrip of all the times?
Can anyone tell me what our record is with vs without him?
Please put Johnson back in!!!!
Satire?
And if it’s not satire, look up our record this year without Ichiro vs. with Ichiro.
Obviously Ichiro is hurting the team, and shouldn’t be playing.
We’re going to need all this defense tonight.
Wow, that’s a ton of respect for Gut’s arm. I think he should have run on that one.
Jason Vargas is going to have nightmares about Chavez Ravine….
You have to wonder if that would have been a HR if Johnson was catching.
So. When is Mr. Glass back pitching again?
Maybe he doesn’t pronounce it that way. “Book him, (Ce)deno”
Good night, everybody!
At least my fantasy team with Ethier, Kemp and Kershaw is going to rake tonight. . .
Damn it, reality sucks.
This feels like a long road trip already.
No satire…I just meant Johnson can at least call a game. Kenji is garbage and you will see this if they don’t yank his butt out of the starting lineup. The M’s give up around 2 more runs a game when he is catching as opposed to Johnson.
That may have been the worst swing this team has ever made. By someone not named Beltre.
Why do I have the feeling that the ‘discussion’ with Coolalvin will be the most entertaining part of this game?
Coolalvin206 Jarrod, did you figure out how to post using an iPhone at the stadium?
Sigh. I have nothing else.
Thanks, Sidi. I’m laughing already.
you don’t need anything, as Ethier just provided all the proof anyone would need
If you’re talking about Bedard, it’s Monsieur Glass to you, bud. (Or perhaps it’s M. Verre, pensez-vous ?)
Anyway, Drayer said they’re trying to build up his arm strength (with Morrow only going a few innings per start, the bullpen can’t really afford to have another starter going only 60 pitches). So he’s scheduled to start on the independence day weekend.
I just meant Johnson can at least call a game. Kenji is garbage…
Totally. When I saw Kenji flash the sign for a belt high fastball right over the heart of the plate, I knew it would be trouble. Damn Kenji.
Vargas actually seems to be doing a pretty good job putting things on the edges, considering his actual talent.
Man, Kenji sucks. I mean, it’s not like Pierre is fast or has a bunch of stolen bases or anything.
TomTuttle, I have all of those guys on my team as well. haha.
Rob Johnson doesn’t do that.
If only that had been Rob, it would have sailed into the outfield and we could have seen how well he called the next batter for a strike out to get himself out of the mess.
Damn Kenji. Wish we had Johnson’s 10% throwing out runners numbers out thee. then we’d be winning.
Great little hit.
Wow, his ERA goes up as the game goes on? That’s shocking, I would expect a pitcher to get better as he tires out…
Ichiro will not be denied.
Man, suddenly Kershaw looks mortal against lefties. M’s better take advantage of this because it’s unlikely to last.
Hey guys, instead of being snarky about Johnson vs. Johjima, why not try explaining why CERA is BS. If someone isn’t willing to listen to reason, then by sarcastic.
Damn, called to the front door and two men on! Go!
Er, damn.
I was about to joke, Get that RBI! to Lopez, and he does it.
That’s what I’m talking about.
Hmmm, according to Yahoo it’s still the top of the 2nd and the score is 0-0. Of course, they’re also telling me that the Reds somehow played a game with just a center fielder and a second baseman, so….
why not try explaining why CERA is BS
It’s small sample size theatre. Often pitch sequences are called by the manager, not the catcher. It doesn’t account for the pitcher sucking. It doesn’t account for pitches shaken off. It doesn’t account for ability of the hitter. It doesn’t account for how bad the umpire sucks…
Damn, now Kenji’s going to hit into a DP just to make us look like idiots.
And I feel dirty for defending Johjima, at this point.
And Franklin gets the first walk. I love that guy’s approach to the plate. Imagine what this lineup will be like once Zduriencik has had a chance to completely remake it?
Thank goodness Kenji’s back. Oops.
And CERA doesn’t account for a pitcher missing his spot or hanging a breaking ball.
I’d forgotten how good Kenji is at GIDP’s.
<blockquoteDamn, now Kenji’s going to hit into a DP just to make us look like idiots.
Good psychics never look like idiots.
I’d edit that darned thing if ‘edit’ still worked.
I had also heard Catcher ERA is skewed by certain pitchers having personal catchers. You think the guy who catches for Maddux may have better CRA than they guy that catches for Carlos Silva…
Ok, so why does Russell Martin’s jersey say “J. Martin” on the back??
I’m hanging onto the fact the guys are hitting better than I expected, that is, not a no-hitter or shut out.
Umm. Someone needs to go back to little league.
Well, the most basic Bing or Google turns up articles like this so I don’t see that it’s even necessary to do someone else’s work for them.
And yeah, considering how much I hate Johjima’s new contract and how often I cringe when I see him swinging at pitches, I’m not real happy being in this position either. After the long, sordid post-Wilson history with catchers, you’d think the M’s would’ve found the answer by now. Johjima isn’t it, but Johnson definitely isn’t it either.
Meanwhile, note: Dodger Stadium is a “pitcher’s park” for Dodger pitchers. For Mariners’ pitchers, it’s apparently a bandbox.
I just checked. His full name is Russell Nathan Jeanson Coltrane Martin, Jr. So I’m even more confused now.
why not try explaining why CERA is BS
This is just a guess, dealing with tens of thousands of names per year…it’s a first/middle name thing. We deal with a few graduates every year who go by their middle name, but officially go by their first.
Crap, it looks like Sabathia is back into prime form… and the M’s aren’t going to miss him on the swing through the Bronx.
According to Wikipedia (and they’re NEVER wrong!), he’s honoring his mom and her maiden name Jeanson for this season on his jersey.
Gah, sorry, that was a response to Scottdids.
mlb.com
He also thought it would “put his game back on tracK”… but if anything, it’s run it right off the rails….
God damn it. Chavez has that.
Kenji calls for another belt high fastball on the inside half of the plate, and gives up a triple. Damn.
Please go yank him. Me and my rotisserie team can’t take any more of Vargas tonight.
Wait… did the Dodgers just sacrifice with a 4 run lead..?
I gotta stop chugging the rum and coke. I read that as your rotisserie chicken couldn’t take more of this.
I gotta stop chugging the rum and coke. I read that as your rotisserie chicken couldn’t take more of this.
Makes more sense than picking up Vargas in a fantasy baseball league…
Thanks, Nintendo!
GO JAPAN! (Ichiro is good though.)
Roy Corcoran’s the answer here?
It’s 12 team, AL-only, 40 man rosters. Every starting pitcher in the league is on a roster, except for Sidney Ponson.
Apparently so.
It’s 12 team, AL-only, 40 man rosters. Every starting pitcher in the league is on a roster, except for Sidney Ponson.
That’s…insane. So I can see picking him, but playing him? Or is the league so strange that every player you pick plays?
Jane Seymour comes to baseball games? Does she think it’s cricket?
Although, I did see her in a Sears in Santa Barbara once, buying clothes for her kids, so maybe she is a real American now.
Ichiro got bored.
It’s only taken 6 innings of Johjima back from the DL to remind me how bad he is….
Wow Corcoran sucks, he’s tapping into his inner Bobby Ayala….
I think it’s especially irritating how Johjima twirls his mustache and laughs evilly after each run scores.
23 man starting rosters, 17 man bench. Most of the bench is taken up with minor leaguers or injured guys though. I only have 3 active major leaguers on my bench. Ronny Cedeno, Mike Carp and Darren Oliver.
Its not really insane. Its the original Rotiserrie rules (with a few tweaks custom to our league) that were used until ESPN and Yahoo came in and dumbed down fantasy leagues by mixing the player pool to use AL/NL players together. In those leagues you can pick up league average players at will, which is kind of boring since it’s not anything like real life, IMO.
Geez. . .if we had HALF of the offense the Dodgers had and a little bit better of a pitching staff, this team would be right there with the Yankees and Red Sox (seriously).
2011 can’t get here soon enough.
I think Roy is the perfect guy for sacrafice for a few innings here, so we don’t waste the rest of the bullpen on the first game of a 9 game road trip.
Happy three innings, Roy.
“Corky” is probably the worst nickname ever.
Wow Corky can’t throw a strike right now. Good thing Felix is pitching this weekend…
I call him the Ragin’ Cajun. I think that’s worse than Corky.
That ichiro fellow, I like him!
And casual and friendly FUs to the slagging of Joh immediately upon returning. Can’t you be Cubs or Yankees fans (a fate I wouldn’t wish on [nearly] anyone) if you enjoy that sort of thing?
I call him the Ragin’ Cajun. I think that’s worse than Corky.
Hmm, people who can cook a tasty dish vs. a guy who delivers life lessons, despite barely mastering shoes with laces.
That had a nasty back door break back into the zone, hard to blame Wlad for taking that.
Felix: 134 PA, .904 OPS with Joh, 171 PA, .523 OPS with Johnson
Bedard: 40 PA, .734 OPS with Joh, 208 PA, .613 OPS with Johnson
Washburn: 63 PA, .774 OPS with Joh, 256 PA, .592 OPS with Johnson
Vargas: 68 PA, .777 OPS with Joh, 104 PA, .660 OPS with Johnson
Olson: 85 PA, .813 OPS with Joh, 124 PA, .875 OPS with Johnson
Morrow: 36 PA, .768 OPS with Joh, 61 PA, .884 OPS with Johnson
OPS is not a pitcher’s stat.
Also, 200 plate appearances is pretty much nothing for a pitcher.
Remember how Washburn was owning everyone? Obviously 200 plate appearances (around 10 games for a starting pitcher going deep) doesn’t mean much. Let alone all the “60 plate appearance” numbers.
OK, so why do the Sounders’ jerseys say “XBox” instead of “Sounders?”
And casual and friendly FUs to the slagging of Joh immediately upon returning.
I hope you realize my posts are a little sarcasm directed at some CERA advocates. Johjima isn’t of course responsible for how well the pitcher executes the call. I’ve yet to see Joh holding his glove right in the center of the zone calling for Vargas’s, or Corky’s 90mph heaters. The batter will never look for it there.
Great quote from LA announcer: Yuniesky Betancourt has been a solid fixture.
This is the first I’ve gotten to see of Josh Wilson on the M’s. The night lighting makes him look a lot more pale than he does in the afternoon, in a football helmet.
Slippery Elmer I’ve noticed that, and it seems to be a soccer/football thing.
I actually love the sport, but Nascar is the only “sport” that whores out advertising space at a greater rate.
KG,
So its the veteran pitchers that have had a lots of MLB experience that forget what they throw, and where to throw it when Joh is behind the plate? And its the 3 youngsters, that presumably depend more on the catcher, that have pretty much the same or lower OPS when Joh is catching? Wow.
Right in the freaking zone. Nice pitch, Miggy… Ethier is unconscious.
Well, local fantasy players who have Andre Either should be happy about this game.
I think Wak’s strategy of letting LA’s young hitters swing themselves into exhaustion in the first game of the series will pay dividends in the last two games of the series.
Ichiro, selfishly, is not conserving his energy, like the rest of the
hittersbatters until Wak springs his trap in game 2. I don’t think Lopez got the memo either.Catching up with the thread, it makes listening to the game this last 2 hours a tad more enoyable in retrospect.
I’m just amazed the Ms aren’t being shutout, the way things have gone
In a way, that was an appropriately symbolic way to end the game. Couldn’t they have pinch hit Griffey or something?
That’s not good news, Beltre in a recorded interview in the postgame show basically says he’s the drop of a hat away from surgery.
He may not last out the road trip. The good news I suppose is that he’d be back by mid August. That stinks, can’t trade him, and he is unlikely to be a even a type B, if he misses a third of the season. Of course his value on the market won’t be great with back to back shoulder surgeries, he might as well come back to the M’s.
Beltre is hurting, you can see it with every dive and swing. If or when he has to get that shoulder fixed again, that is really going to hurt the teams chances of contending.
Well, Corcoran’s worn out his welcome. Can’t wait for Shawn Kelley to return. Oh yeah…Ethier was just ethereal tonight (as in belonging to another world).
Larry Stone had more tonight from that pregame interview with AB
It sounds like he will be DL bound pretty soon….
I can imagine that this shoulder is going to prevent him from hitting with any power. He can’t even swing hard or dive for a ball without a lot of pain. The only good thing I can see out of this is that he would be seen as damaged goods in the FA market and maybe the M’s could get him back for pretty cheap.
“It sounds like he will be DL bound pretty soon”
Well that sucks. That makes Tui’s injury doubly crappy. I suppose on the bright side, we’ll get to see Carp playing a bit with presumably Branyan over at third. And hey, when Yuni’s back, that quasi third he often likes to play for some reason might actually help out with Branyan over there.
Has anybody crunched the numbers to see how much worse off we can presume to be with Branyan at third and Carp at first? I assume Carp’s defense is better than Branyan’s given that I heard in an interview that he has played 1st pretty much his whole life going back to little league (note: i haven’t looked at any numbers to back that up, just going off the fact that he said he played it his whole life, so he’s probably better than Branyan defensively there).
Obviously then we get a pretty major drop in defense from Branyan at third over Beltre, but also get a very nice boost in offense at third with Branyan there, assuming Branyan keeps going as he has.
So has anyone crunched all the numbers to see how it all should come out?
Josh Wilson? Morse?
Branyan at third sounds a little scary but he used to be a 3B so why not? It does blow big time Tui had to get injured back in April. But Branyan at third and Carp at first is the only way I can see it going down without making the offense even more anemic. Ugh they have overcome so many injuries and obstacles but this one may be the one they can’t overcome. Their lack of minor leauge talent at many positions is beginning to show.
FINALLY. I had given up on reading the main Seattle blogs, and just reverted to googling Ichiro news for the day. Of course, if you google Ichiro, you will find many news sources talking about his 100th hit, rising BA, etc., etc. BUT, not a work at the Seattle Times (typical), and surprisingly, not much here either. Glad you guys are getting caught up with the news. There really is so much to read about. Ichiro just never ceases to amaze. He is approaching a several more records, and obviously shows no signs of decline.
Chris Shelton has been playing 3b for the Raniers, and I see that he leads the team in errors by a wide margin with 15. Still it may work out better than playing Branyan out of position. I think the last thing you’d want to do is take one of the few consistent offensive threats on the team, who does not have a history of being consistent, and then move him to a new, harder, defensive position to replace a gold glover.
Imagine the team without Beltre, now imagine the team without Beltre, and Branyan’s offensive production dropping off the table, along with his trade value. I’d rather trade Branyan for a third base prospect, or a third base journeyman and a prospect rather than move him to 3rd.
hang on… crunch, crunch, crunch.
yep, we still don’t make the playoffs.
I love that quote about Ichiro not remembering last June. I don’t think that’s just him trying to be cute when answering a lame question — I think it’s just his whole Zen approach to the game. Last June was a crappy time for the team and for his happiness in playing the game, so why would he dwell on that time instead of focusing on the present moment and on making his current performance as good as it can possibly be?