Game 47, Angels at Mariners
Vargas vs Haren, 7:10 pm.
So, remember how I wrote that there’s no way that Wedge would play Liddi in left field with Jason Vargas – a flyballing left-hander – on the mound against the Angels, a line-up of right-handed pull hitters? Well, yeah, my bad. Liddi is back in left field tonight, and the odd part is that he’s not even taking Mike Carp’s spot, as Carp is playing first base and Justin Smoak is the one sitting. So, basically, Wedge went with option #2 from last night’s post, but instead of playing Liddi at first, he’s playing Carp there and Liddi in left. Carp’s a pretty lousy defender in left too, but at least he’s got a few months of experience out there and knows where the wall is. Poor Jason Vargas – I hope he’s got his change-up working tonight.
Oh, and everyone’s favorite catcher is back behind the plate as well. I’ll hold off on any kind of reaction given that Jaso may very well still be feeling the effects of that foul ball off his shoulder the other night, but, yeah, the Olivo-free roster was nice while it lasted.
Ackley, 2B
Liddi, LF
Ichiro, RF
Seager, 3B
Montero, DH
Carp, 1B
Olivo, C
Saunders, CF
Ryan, SS
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121 Responses to “Game 47, Angels at Mariners”
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Westy and Mike….you guys are entertaining! Informative AND funny. Thank you!
Entertaining in a nails on chalk board kind of way… 😉
We’re losing today and Figgins is still on this team.
Bad day. Baaaaaaaaaad day.
Gotta do something to keep the thread going – it’s not like the team’s going to tonight.
Is it too much to hope for that a Figgins deal is in the works and Wells will be right back up when it’s consummated?
(I know…I know…but I’d take a working Coke machine for Figgins at this point.)
And collectively, we are 99 years old. But, thank you anyway, WTF
And in regard to this game, WTF?
And in regard to the remaining non Felix games of this series, double WTF’s are projected.
And specific to the wells down Liddi stays decision, the baseball gods have just asked jack, WTF?
Would it really have to be working, SOZ?
The only way I could see Figgins traded, is in a bad contract swap. We could speculate about the next Milton Bradley to acquire.
Mercifully, this one is over.
Why not simply MAKE Figgins the coke machine? Give him a cart, like the vendors at safeco, and send him around. He could carry peanuts as well.
I am not sure I want to go “there” but does anybody else think that with the way griffey left and with the way Bradley might have been perceived to have been treated and with the drastic reduction in a certain segment of the population base not choosing the sport of baseball – is there maybe a social factor at work in some small part as to why the team still has Figgins?
Come on Steve, you know someone would throw the money purse at him and he’d whiff
I… would be surprised if that was a factor, Mike.
If it’s about color, I suspect that color is “green”. 😀
It certainly seems Z has a hard time with sunk costs
Haha, Mid80s (re: the previous Figgins comment, not the “sunk costs” one).
Yeah, you are probably right, Westy. However, I am just about out of ideas as to what the real reason is for keeping Figgins .. and that in itself probably means there is more than one reason. The team could use an entire squadron of publicists to spin some of the decisions it has made recently. Executing their “plan” certainly isn’t the correct answer, but that seems to be the most popular one at the moment.
By the time We have seen Liddi in LF for a few more games, Peguero will look like the Mark Belanger of outfielders. I like the kid, but not as on outfielder. I mean, who in the fuck are they trying to kid anyway.
Hey, maybe that is their strategy! Spin that around for a while, PR Dept, it might take the sting out of the Figgins decision for about a nano-second
Yeah, that dive was just goofy given how far away the ball was. Maybe he tripped, but it sure looked to me as if he really intended to dive.
Tomorrow’s headline?
“M’s celebrate Olivo’s return with 14 K’s”
Playing Liddi in the outfield is the best way to humiliate him and destroy any self confidence he may have gained. Guess for a moment Smoak playing LF or Saunders SS, it’s exactly the same. We are not insiders but sometimes it’s really hard to understand Wedge’s decisions – given those are really his own decisions of course because I strongly doubt they are. Hard to understand this club.
Wedge had been doing a pretty good job of getting Liddi and Wells out there against lefties. Now against lefties we’ll be seeing Liddi and … Olivo. So that is a step down.
Then, since Carp or, now, Liddi are out in left, Wedge was also using Wells as a late inning defensive replacement. Now that role falls to… Figgins?
Oh, man.
Platooning Liddi and Carp makes sense to me, as hitters they have some similarity, and neither is ever likely to be an all star. It does require some gymnastics since they really don’t play the same position, though.