Game 17, Tigers At Mariners
Vargas vs Scherzer, 7:10 pm.
The Tigers did not give up a home run in 63 innings pitched last week. Their chances of extending that streak are pretty good.
The M’s send Jason Vargas to the mound, and while his 2011 season only consists of three starts, his pitch selection bears watching. In 2009, his first year in Seattle, he threw 69% fastballs. Last year, he threw 60% fastballs. This year? 49% fastballs. It looks like he’s relied on his slider a lot more frequently in his first three starts, and he still throws a ton of change-ups – his best pitch by far. Given that his fastball is 87 without a ton of movement, throwing it less often seems like a pretty good plan to me.
Ichiro, RF
Figgins, 3B
Bradley, LF
Cust, DH
Smoak, 1B
Kennedy, 2B
Olivo, C
Langerhans, CF
Ryan, SS
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So, time to look forward to midseason trades… Milton and Erik/League/Aardsma for Montero and a C+ prospect? Stick Montero at DH.
I can only dream.
and when will Smoak flip with Cust in the lineup?
Who gives a damn about the M’s?!?
The NBADL playoffs are on, somewhere!
Also, most of us have DVR so we can watch MASH reruns.
Yeah, you are dreaming if you think the Yankees make that trade. 😉
Sweet Smoak. Cust and Olivo (and Figgins) are really looking like the weak links of this lineup. I wonder if Wedge could bunch those guys somewhere in the lineup where they would do less harm.
3 strikeouts by Cortes so far in Tacoma, he´s earning his promotion…
Hey, it appears Olivo got rid of the King Tut beard…
Hey, I’ve got a couple of eppies of The Nanny queued up and ready as soon as this game is called.
New Mariner’s promotion:
“DH for the Day!”
At the beginning of every game they post a seat on the big screen, and that fan gets to be the DH for the day! As long as you’re fat and can’t hit a baseball, and fit in Cust’s jersey.
Might help attendance (for 1 inning).
Ah, and you solved the Mariners radio broadcaster mystery as well!
Tom, to the mound, with the mop please. Tom, to the mound, with the mop.
Ichiro! Time to flirt a little!
Man this is one ugly game – Detroit may be up 8-3, but their pitching sucks rocks almost as badly as ours has tonight.
So Ichiro really CAN hit a can of corn…
Ichiro! goes home alone tonight.
Ichiro hasn’t impressed me too much with risp but whatever. No one has.
Ichiro also loses his “!” for the night.
Mr. Z. That may be a good idea, but it is flawed.
There has to be someone in the said seat.
OffensivelyChallenged–
He doesn’t want to be seen as selfish anymore, so he’s trying harder to fit in with his teammates this year. Including his performance.
Jordan-
Excellent point.
Maybe we just have Beltre-Dude DH… He’s somewhat Cust-esque.
The Barkeep only has one drink serving tonight: vodka, straight up.
Pint of Vodka- the Offical Drink of the Seattle Mariners fanclub (brought to you by Schick Shadel)
I think Lueke is on the way to the DL.
His velocity is WAY down, and he looks like he doesn’t have the foggiest idea where the strike zone is. They’ll call it something like “forearm fatigue” or “dead arm”.
Chris Ray won’t be on the next road trip, seeing as how his performance doesn’t warrant paying for his plane ticket.
God knows who is worth throwing out there. Personally, I would like to see Jack Cust pitch, since the whole “hitting” thing isn’t really working out.
Valverde looks like he could play DH for us.
Great!
Pint? F that. It takes a fifth just to make it through a bullpen appearance.
It was nice of the ushers to clear out the stadium before the 8th, in order to give the clean up crew an early start.
Oh, they didn’t? Well, then it was nice of the bullpen to do their job for them.
Okay, starting to feel like watching M’s games this year is akin to sitting down in front of the TV and shooting myself in the forehead with a staple gun 27 times (once for every out) over 3 hours.
These guys are giving literal meaning to the term “diehard” fans.
Then again, 6 runs here and I take it all back.
Should be be insulted that someone’s grandpa’s been sent out to pitch? Skinny chicken legs, big belly, thick glasses… Wow.
Valverde is wearing New Balance. Must be specially designed to keep him from falling through the Earth.
So what exactly IS the average BABIP for slow rollers to 2nd base? (I’m asking Figgins that, sorry)
Oh, I see. Valverde stole the Tut beard from Olivo – that’s where it went.
Definitely fits with Juneau’s “grandpa” post… Probably “EEEE” width, too. The “Comfort Walker” cleat.
Smoak gets another AB!!!
So it bears asking– WHY… oh WHY do people walk Cust so often. He can’t hit the ball!?
I’m a bit surprised that last pitch to Cust wasn’t called a strike, given the ump’s strike zone tonight.
I’ve noticed Smoak’s bat comes through the strike zone at a weird angle when he hits left handed– the head of the bat is lower than his hands more often than not.
“Oh Mr. Sheffield!”
Congratulations on Josh Lueke for his first win as a Tiger, and Chris Ray for the no-doubt-about-it save of that win for him. They totally outduelled Vargas tonight.
At least this booze is good.
I like it!
And the funny thing, or rather the joke will be on us when it’s revealed that Cust is actually a double agent like Figgy.
I think I was able to hear how the call to the bullpen went today:
Wedge picks up the bullpen phone…
Bullpen: thank you for calling Shell at Safeco, how can we help you?
Wedge: I’ll take 2 cans of super unleaded please and a book of matches.
Pen: They’ll be ready shortly.
Langerhans line now: .129/.325/.419
Let’s not forget Cust’s situational hitting either.
Hopefully Schick Shadel has some vacancies tonight…
Painful stats of the night:
Player A: .235 AVG, .268 wOBA, .612 OPS
Player B: .196 AVG, .260 wOBA, .532 OPS
The first one is Jose Vidro from 2008. The other is Jack Cust so far this year. I know it’s a smaller sample size, but good god…
(source: Fangraphs.com)
We are more than 10% into the season. It may get worse once Cust starts to tire or accumulates some nagging injuries.
Well, people were talking about Cust’s “missing power” the middle of last year – so while it is a small number of at-bats this year, it’s a continuation of a trend that started a couple years ago.
Jack Z took a flier on the guy, so he must’ve thought there was a chance that the drop in power wasn’t just due to Cust aging – but so far that hasn’t panned out. Despite our 2009 experience, however, it’s not realistic to expect every one of Z’s moves to be successful.
On the other hand, unlike 2010 we should expect SOME of his moves to pan out. 🙂 And I think flipping a few less-than-stellar prospects for Smoak (meaning the end result of both Cliff Lee deals) appears to bear that out.
I hope Wedge puts Peguero in in the bottom of the 8th. Give Ichiro a rest?