Game Forty Recap
14-26, 8 1/2 games out. The season will be over in a couple of days if the Mariners don’t start winning in a hurry.
There’s not much else to say. Day game tomorrow, so don’t expect any more roster changes. The Mariners have decided to go to war with this group. It’s Little Bighorn 2.0.
Game 40, Blue Jays at Mariners
They got rid of Sean White, so I’ve backed off my no game thread for the night stance.
Fister vs Cecil, 7:10 pm.
Ichiro, RF
Figgins, 2B
Gutierrez, CF
6-4-3, DH
Lopez, 3B
Bradley, LF
Kotchman, 1B
Bard, C
Josh Wilson, SS
Respect
Milton Bradley is going to rejoin the team tonight, and is in the line-up. He’s playing left field, and hitting sixth. Sweeney is DH’ing, and hitting fourth. This does not constitute anything like real change. So, fury, post one.
When Larry LaRue suggested last week that the Mariners were going to release Ken Griffey Jr if he didn’t retire, the organization’s most pointed response came from Jack Zduriencik:
“One thing Ken will always get is the respect and dignity he deserves in this game,” Zduriencik said. “And he’ll always get that from this organization and this community, and he deserves that.”
That has been the underlying reasoning given every time anyone defends Griffey’s place on the roster. Respect. He’s earned the right to go out on his own terms, we’re told. It would be disrespectful to ask him to retire, to place him on the disabled list, or to hit him anywhere other than fifth in the line-up, apparently. Those of us who think his presence on the roster is a huge problem that needs to be dealt with immediately aren’t showing the proper respect.
You know what? He’s not the only guy on the roster.
While the Mariners are respecting Ken Griffey Jr’s legacy by allowing him to tarnish it on a nightly basis, they are showing no respect for the rest of the team. Franklin Gutierrez, whose hard work has made him perhaps the best all around center fielder in the game, is seeing a prime season of his career flushed down the toilet. Cliff Lee, who was snatched from a contender after pitching in October, is seeing his talents wasted. Do they not deserve the respect of having major league caliber teammates? Is the work they put in all winter not worthy of the respect of having an organization deal with problems when they arise? What is respectful about asking the rest of the team to not just carry their own burdens, but compensate for the failures of a sacred cow?
While we’re all so busy respecting one man for what he did 15 years ago, we’re disrespecting the work of everyone else in the organization who is actually worthy of a job in 2010. The thousands of hours of preparation that went into this season by hundreds of individuals who receive paychecks for what they do now, not what they’ve done in the past… it’s all being undermined on a daily basis by the hero who can’t walk away. Doesn’t he owe them the respect they deserve?
Why is Respect Avenue a one way street?
Somewhere in the past few months, wires got crossed. Ken Griffey Jr has replaced the paying customer as the one that the organization is trying to please. In the process of respecting him, we’ve all been disrespected, being sold a product that isn’t worth the price of admission. Now, here we stand, with the season on the line, facing the prospect of four months of meaningless baseball, and Ken Griffey Jr is still on the team, Milton Bradley is still playing left field, and Mike Sweeney is hitting cleanup. When the team absolutely has to win a game, they’re still punting.
We’ve respected the hell out of him for 20 years. Now, it’s time for him to return the favor and GO AWAY. It’s time for the organization to respect the fans again and give us a team we can be proud of. We’re not proud of this roster. We hate this roster. We never want to see this roster again.
Ken Griffey Jr’s cup runneth over with respect. Rather than asking for more from all of us, he should use some and retire immediately. If he won’t do it on his own, then the organization needs to grow some balls and ask him to. If he declines, then they need to grow some bigger balls and put him on the 60 day disabled list. Every day he spends on the roster, you’re choosing to give the entire fanbase the finger in order to keep one man’s ego from being bruised.
It’s stupid. It’s time for this charade to end. No more respect. Go away, Jr.
Dave With Brock and Salk
Due to tomorrow’s day game, we’ve moved my weekly chat with the boys at 710 ESPN to this afternoon at 12:30. The Mariners probably won’t like what I have to say, so if they want to keep me from yelling at them on the air, perhaps they should schedule a press conference for 12:29. I can imagine a few things worth announcing.
Either way, tune in.
Game Thirty-Nine Recap
Boo, 14-25.
A lot of stuff happened. A lot of it mattered. But there’s only one thing you need to know. With a one run lead in the 7th inning, two runners on base, and nobody out, Wak went to the mound and summoned Sean White. That’s not the only reason they lost, but it’s reason enough to earn it.
11 games under .500, 7 1/2 games out of first place… If the Mariners don’t make wholesale changes tomorrow, then we might as well just shut the blog down and go do something else for the next four months. This is beyond ridiculous. The season is a few days away from being a lost cause, and the Mariners continue to lose due to staggeringly bad performances from the worst players on the roster, who are repeatedly put into remarkably important situations. Players who don’t even belong in the major leagues.
It didn’t have to be like this. Despite all the slumps and the injuries and the problems, the team could have survived. But they can’t survive another day of DH Griffey, Setup Man White, or Shortstop Tui.
Changes. Tomorrow. Or Fury.
Game 39, Mariners at A’s
Hernandez vs Sheets, 4:05 pm.
Happy Felix Day.
Sad Same Line-Up As Always Night.
Ichiro, RF
Figgins, 2B
Gutierrez, CF
Lopez, 3B
Griffey, DH
Kotchman, 1B
Josh Wilson, SS
Johnson, C
Saunders, LF
It’s Time
In 1987, Andre Thornton was given 97 plate appearances as a DH and posted a .118/.206/.141 line before he was removed from the roster and retired at season’s end.
In 2001, Harold Baines was given 94 plate appearances as a DH and posted a .131/.202/.143 line before he was removed from the roster and retired at season’s end.
In 2003, Dean Palmer was given 98 plate appearances as a DH and posted a .140/.235/.163 line before he was removed from the roster and retired at season’s end.
Those are the only three DHs in major league history to post a lower OPS than Ken Griffey Jr currently has in a season where they racked up at least 90 plate appearances. Not one of them made it to 100.
Ken Griffey Jr has 97 plate appearances. It’s time.
Process and Results
One of the main tenets of the blog is that, since we can’t predict the future, the best you can ask from someone is to make wise decisions based on probability and hope for the best. Good plans don’t always work, but the best path to success is to make decisions that have proven to work more often than not, and over the long haul, you will end up successful. So, we judge organizations on the process of their decisions, not on the outcomes they couldn’t have predicted to begin with.
So, let’s break the current problems the Mariners face into two categories – good process/bad outcome and bad process/bad outcome. I have no real interest in criticizing the organization for the former, as there’s nothing you can do about good decisions that don’t work. But the latter, those are the ones that we’re more than willing to lay at the feet of the people who put this team together, and those are the problems that they need to fix, because for the most part, those are decisions that can be corrected. Those are the ones to get upset about.
Good Process, Bad Outcome To Date
Signing Chone Figgins. Practically everyone was in favor of this move, because he was a good player who improved the team at a position where they needed improvement. He hasn’t hit, but he will eventually, and the investment was a sound one.
Putting Ryan Rowland-Smith in the rotation. He’s been downright terrible, but that wasn’t what anyone expected going into the season. As a strike-throwing flyball lefty, he profiled as a guy who was a good fit for the team and park. He just forgot how to throw strikes, and that’s a big problem for guys with fringe stuff.
Trading for Casey Kotchman. This one may be a little more controversial, but I’ll still put this in the good process column. He projected as an average-ish player, especially if he was platooned against lefties. Given the team’s payroll constraints, there weren’t many better options in his price range, and he offered enough upside to make the gamble worth it. You can’t predict anyone to post a .190 BABIP, which has derailed Kotchman’s season so far.
Trading for Milton Bradley. In the grand scheme of things, the M’s paid $3 million per year for two years of Milton Bradley. The risks were well known, but given the price, it was a risk worth taking. Forget the people who say Bradley has been the problem – they don’t know what they are talking about. The Mariners are 10-10 when Milton Bradley starts, yet 4-14 when he doesn’t. He has his issues, but every $3 million acquisition has warts. Bradley can still help this team, even if the first six weeks of his Mariner career haven’t gone so well.
Bad Process, Bad Outcomes
Signing Ken Griffey Jr. Self-explanatory.
Settling on Jack Wilson as your starting shortstop, then going without a capable backup. His durability problems were no secret, and the Mariners decided to screw themselves over when he ended up getting hurt.
Choosing catchers based on personality, not skill. They like Rob Johnson for his work ethic, so the fact that he has no major league skills doesn’t matter.
Screwing the bench over by carrying Mike Sweeney. Once they had committed themselves to Griffey, there was no reasonable way to have another player on this team who couldn’t play the field. They chose to keep Sweeney anyway, and in the process, completely destroyed the bench. This directly led to Eric Brynes playing LF against RHPs, an inability to pinch hit or pinch run in high leverage situations, and not being able to give struggling hitters a day off, as there was no one capable of playing their position on the bench.
Believing that Matt Tuiasosopo can play. Two years in a row, Tui has had a huge spring training, and his performances in March have convinced Wak that he’s a major league player. He’s not. He might be an okay platoon player in a year or two, but he’s a defensive zero who has the bat of a good glove shortstop. He belongs in Tacoma. He’s always belonged in Tacoma.
Not carrying a left-handed reliever. I get that some right-handed relievers don’t have big platoon splits and can get guys out from both sides of the plate. I understand the value in having relievers pitch full innings in order to save their arms and keep everyone fresh. That said, the Mariners are carrying a pair of replacement level arms in Jesus Colome and Sean White, neither of whom are good against lefties, that could easily be replaced by a generic lefty that would give the team the platoon advantage in critical situations when its called for. If they had six or seven good right-handed relievers, fine, don’t carry a lefty. But not carrying a lefty so that you can have Sean White’s useless arm on the team? That’s not good baseball.
Depending on Milton Bradley to play the outfield everyday. This is another consequence of carrying Sweeney, but instead of the original off-season plan of having Bradley split time between LF and DH, he was made the everyday LF when Sweeney made the team and Langerhans was jettisoned to get back to a 12 man pitching staff, giving the team no LH left fielder besides Bradley. The team should have known that asking him to play the outfield, and interact with fans all game long, was a recipe for disaster, and realized that everyone was best served having him spend his days at DH.
Game Thirty-Eight Recap
Boo, 14-24.
American League Teams, sorted by winning percentage.
Tampa Bay, .711
New York, .658
Minnesota, .632
Detroit, .579
Toronto, .575
Texas, .538
Boston, .487
Oakland, .474
Anaheim, .450
Cleveland, .417
Chicago, .405
KANSAS CITY, .385
Seattle, .368
Baltimore, .308
When you’re behind the Royals, it might – just maybe – be time to consider making some changes.
Yeah, this roster works. Just keep running Griffey out there – I’m sure his bat will come around any day now. Keep Sweeney around for that oh so valuable leadership that has kept this team on track. Don’t bother with an actual bench, as pinch hitting and pinch running are overrated. Don’t worry about acquiring any one of the hundred or so guys in Triple-A that could improve your roster right now. Just keep sitting there, doing nothing.
Game 38, Mariners at A’s
Rowland-Smith vs Gonzalez, 7:05 pm.
The line-ups are getting more ridiculous by the day. The A’s are starting a lefty, so instead of either of the actual useful left fielders, we get Tui in left, playing behind an extreme fly-ball southpaw who badly needs to have a good game. I’ll do a post on this tomorrow, but Wak’s lack of understanding that Tui sucks is a problem. Oh, and the kicker – Junior is at DH, hitting 5th. Against a lefty. Sure is a good thing we’re carrying two old guys who can’t play the field and 12 pitchers. That never comes back to haunt us.
This roster is a joke.
Ichiro, RF
Figgins, 2B
Gutierrez, CF
Lopez, 3B
Griffey, DH
Tuiasosopo, LF
Kotchman, 1B
Josh Wilson, SS
Bard, C