Doyle Returns
For those wondering how the young Aussie’s been doing, he’s starting his rehab stint with the Tacoma Rainiers tomorrow. Welcome back, Chris.
Attendance down, dog bites man
The headline is perhaps a little dire: It’s Official: The Wheels Are Off In Seattle but here’s a short summary from Maury Brown, who’s (among other things) the co-chair of SABR’s Business of Baseball committee. Short version: yow.
Also today: the Answer Guy in the PI on the team’s “mental skills coach” plus Jason Churchill’s got a farm report on some of the system’s pitching talent.
Fallout from Everett slagging the team’s offense: Hargrove has a meeting with the hitters! The article manages to get in this subtle jab:
Hargrove is a proponent of a set lineup, but the one he’s gone with is on pace to score fewer runs than any Seattle team in a decade and a half.
Hee hee hee. It also says on the Lawton release issue that now they’re saying didn’t actually ask for a release so much as ask to be moved for an infielder who might help the team, which uh… I don’t think you can trade him yet anyway. But Matt’s happy watching hits drop around him in the outfield now, so that’s good.
Game 34, Devil Rays at Mariners
LHP Casey Fossum v RHP Gil Meche.
Offense: Devil Rays 10th, Mariners 11th
Pitching (and defense): Mariners 7th (4.49 ERA), Devil Rays 11th (5.27 ERA)
Yeah, this is going to be a well-played series. And well-attended! Tomorrow’s game has a whopping 28k tickets unsold, and the Wednesday day game has 25k.
Fun facts from the Devil Rays press notes:
– they’re 41-81 all-time on the West Coast
– Gomes/Wiggington are tied for the top home run hitting due in the majors
– Joe Maddon, the Devil Rays manager, is now 44-44 over his career
– His uniform #70 is the highest for a regular manager in major league history
Yup.
Week 5
WLLLLWL to go to 13-20, last in the AL West.
Hitting well: Kenji, Ibanez
Not: the team
Pitching well: Joel Pineiro (!)
Not: the team
When will this end? If there was some end in sight, something to look forward to, I might be able to maintain some optimism, but this is the third year I looked at the team and thought they’d win 80 games, only to find myself a ways into the season asking when this will end.
We all know the things that are wrong. Anyone who watches a few games could make the same list as those of us who’ve watched nearly every one. It’s no secret.
The question is when does this end? The Royals went into the tank in 1995, and they stumbled from bad to bad (their 83-79 finish in 2003 broke a streak of eight losing seasons) and now are looking at their third season facing below .400.
Is that really what we’re staring at? Doesn’t it feel at least a little like it — a team that can’t put it together for a game, much less a series, and certainly not a season, where the pieces don’t ever fit and no acquisition seems to help turn things around?
When will this end?
129 games left.
Game 32, Indians at Mariners
Cliff Lee, extreme flyball pitcher, against Joel Pineiro, extreme groundball pitcher in the making?
As we’ve talked about, Joel’s stuff is gone, likely never to return. But this year, he’s getting a lot of groundballs, and you can actually be a reasonably effective pitcher even without missing bats if you’re throwing strikes and getting balls hit on the ground.
Should be an interesting contrast of styles. So that’s something to watch for.
And really, I don’t have much else. This team isn’t that much fun to watch right now.
Is Adrian Beltre the worst free agent signing ever?
Today’s fun venture into random comments or emails!
Warning! Contains condescension, sarcasm, and weariness
Contention:
Adrian Beltre is the worst free agent signing ever.
Refutation:
This is one of the most ridiculous and uninformed statements ever to waste our electrons here, the kind of lazy exaggeration that turns the mundane into the blissful or the unsufferable. If you know anything about baseball, if you pay attention at all, it takes about ten, fifteen seconds if you’re asleep to come up with worse deals, and if you’re totally ignorant, a couple of minutes informs you so you know better. There’s no excuse for making this kind of error.
Beltre doesn’t have one of the top 25 deals in baseball. Among those who are clearly right now in the middle of worse deals: Chan Ho Park ($15.5m), Mike Hampton ($14.5m).
In baseball history, you’re awash in choices, especially if we include players felled by injury — Mo Vaughn! Darren Driefor’s LA contract is, strictly in terms of production for dollar, the worst signing in baseball history (I used VORP for that, btw).
Or, to sum up: no.
Cinco de Mayo
Ahhhh, the 5th of May, another holiday that makes it socially acceptable to drink hard alcohol in the workplace. Ahhhhhhhhhhhhh. I do love a nice tequila. Good job, Mexico, killing up those French dudes.
PI: Sexson may not start today, either.
“That’s the happiest I’ve ever been with Gil,” Chaves said, noting that Meche allowed just two singles and two walks in six innings before running into a little trouble in the seventh.
“It wasn’t just the results. It was the intensity, too. And it was the direction (of his body) toward the plate. It’s the first time I’ve seen exactly what I liked from Gil.”
And Guardado, you may have heard — not the closer.
So the Seattle Times has a story on Guardado losing the official closer sticker (but has a much more interesting story about some cool things Boeing’s mulling over).
Game 30, Mariners at White Sox
Happy Felix Day.
Lawton playing center field again. Good thing Felix is all ground balls, all the time.
Contreras is due for a shallacking. His ERA doesn’t come close to matching his performance so far.
Guardado removed from closer role
Everyone gets their wish – Eddie Guardado is no longer the closer for the Mariners. If the M’s encounter a save situation today, expect to see J.J. Putz on the hill.
Game 29, Mariners at White Sox
RHP Gil Meche vs RHP Freddy Garcia. Freddy faces the team he would hardly recognize! Gil Meche faces the fourth-highest-scoring team in the AL! White Sox hitters beg (beg!) Ozzie Guillen to give them a start today!
Lemme throw this out there, then: why not start Livingston? The Sox are a crazy 13-2 vs RHP so far this year and 5-6 against lefties. Meche is a hittable righty. Even if Livingston’s a hittable lefty, he’s a much better option against this team if you want to win the game.
And it’s not as if you’d be messing up a critical part of the rotation, or anything. Plus, there’s a lot of debate over whether Livingston’s minor league success can translate at the major leagues. There’s not a similar debate about whether Meche is going to be contributing to the next good Mariner team. Why not look for opportunities like this to get him some work and see how he holds up?