Game 99, Red Sox at Mariners
7:10. Thank goodness Jarrod Washburn has returned to the rotation!
I’m so glad. Fun facts about Jarrod:
– he finished 4th in AL Cy Young voting only six years ago
– he’s a workhorse, who has started over 30 games every year since 2001 except 2004 and 2005
– his career ERA is under 4.13, far below league average
– he has a career winning percentage over .500 despite playing for the 06-08 Mariner teams
– despite having pitched over 1600 innings, he’s walked only 500 batters and given up just over 200 home runs
– at the same time, he’s struck out nearly a thousand batters — that’s almost the magic 2:1 ratio analysts and scouts look for!
– he averages a balk only once every four years
– because of the below-market contract he signed with the Mariners, he’s under team control for another season! He’s a cost-certain bargain this year and next!
– his baseball-reference page can be sponsored for only $20?
– he’s 97-0 with a 2.12 ERA in games where he’s awarded a win
– he holds opposing lefties to a .245/.302/.399 line
– he’s a seasoned playoff veteran
And he’s left-handed! It’s all true. I hope no astute team trades for him, because he’s the heart and soul of this Mariner staff.
Rainiers Game Thread
Tacoma has a day game against Tucson today, starting at 11:30. The not-good Joe Woerman against real prospect Matt Torra. As always, you can listen live to the great Mike Curto at tacomarainiers.com.
A few interesting Tacoma related notes:
The M’s signed Oscar Villareal to a minor league contract, and he’s in the bullpen. Not a bad free pickup.
Wladimir Balentien has homered in four straight games. I think he wants to come back to Seattle.
Ryan Feierabend rejoins the team and starts Thursday, with RR-S making his first start on Friday.
Rhodes’ Usage
Here’s a fun fact about how the M’s have used Arthur Rhodes this year:
Among pitchers who have been used in at least 30 games in a season since 1950, only two pitchers have faced fewer hitters than Rhodes, who has faced 74 men this year – 2001 Jesse Orosco faced 69 and 2002 Rich Rodriguez faced 72.
Rhodes is facing 2.39 batters per game. It doesn’t get much more LOOGY than this – even when he’s getting people out, the M’s aren’t even trying to get full innings out of him.
Brad Wilkerson
Since being picked up by Toronto, May 9th on: .222/.313/.326, somehow even worse than he was doing when the M’s tossed him.
Here’s what’s crazy: that’s better than Johjima (.233/.269/.342) and Vidro (.230/.269/.323) over the same period. And it’s close to Betancourt (.262/.274/.371).
The Silva Burger
From this fine comment:
Rick Griffin: “Hey Carlos, you don’t look so good. Is it your elbow?â€
Silva: “I saw a fan eating a hamburger. *gets animated* I didn’t know we HAD those here. â€
Griffin: “You know you just gave up a 3 run homer to Kelly Shoppach right?â€
Silva: “… I mean, you could probably put the garlic fries right inside the bun with the meat!â€
The Silva Burger
Ingredients:
– one hamburger patty, large or extremely large, must not be “lean” or “extra lean” ground beef
– your choice of condiments and hamburger toppings
– hamburger bun
– one order of garlic fries
Prep:
1. Grill the burger to preferred state. If you’re impatient for the deliciousness of the Silva Burger, very rare takes the least amount of time, and you’ll be fine. Tapeworms = no-effort weight loss anyway.
2. Put grilled patty on bun bottom
3. Dump garlic fries onto patty
4. Stack with condiments and lettuce, etc
5. Finish with bun top
Additional success scenarios:
1a. Use layer of bacon to protect bun bottom from patty.
3a. Use layer of bacon between patty, fries
4a. Additional layer of bacon
Serves one given sufficient starting patty size. Should be consumed before starts, followed by getting shelled and pulled for either ineffectiveness, stomach pains, or emitting clouds of noxious gasses.
Game 98, Indians at Mariners
Lee v Silva, 1:10 pm.
M’s activate Putz from DL, option Rowland-Smith to Tacoma. There’s two possibilities here – either the club is sending him down in order to stretch him out and bring him back in August as a starting pitcher (woohoo!) or the M’s are the worst organization ever. I’m going with A, but this year has made B much more believable.
Game 97, Indians at Mariners
Sowers v Batista. 12:55.
WFB in center, Vidro at DH, LaHair at first, Clement catching.
Beltre Busts Out The Walking Stick
Adrian Beltre, bases on balls by year as a Mariner
2005: 38 walks
2006: 47 walks
2007: 38 walks
2008: 40 walks
Beltre’s already drawn more walks this year than he did all of last year. Beltre’s pretty clearly having his best year as a Mariner, and it’s time people besides us and Lookout Landing noticed.
Hey World – Adrian Beltre’s pretty good.
Game 96, Indians at Mariners
Laffey v Felix. 7:10.
Hey, wait, if Vidro was protecting Ibanez, what happens now? NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
RF-L Ichiro
CF-R Bloomquist
LF-L Ibanez
3B-R Beltre
2B-R Lopez
1B-B Vidro Cairo
DH-R Johjima
C-R Burke
SS-R Betancourt
All Time All Mariner Roster: Right Field
Derek:
Ichiro! 2004. He hit for a ridiculous average (.372!) took his walks to get to a .414 OBP, and hit for a little (very little) power. Plus, he’s Ichiro! so he’s got that going for him. His batting average is the highest ever recorded by a Mariner regular — second place is Alex at .358 in 1996. That .414 OBP is the tenth-highest in Mariner history, behind a lot of Edgar Martinez/Alex Rodriguez seasons (and one Alvin Davis). In total contribution to his team, Ichiro’s 2004 may not be top ten, but it’s top twenty, and when he’s running up against Griffey, Edgar, and Alex, that’s amazingly good.
I wondered how to rate Ichiro’s seasons defensively in right. The 2003-2007 UZRs have him at +14, 0, +2, -1 in right for the 03-06 seasons. It would have taken a huge defensive season in 2001 combined with a defensive zero in 2004 to make up the difference in offensive contributions, and I don’t see it.
There’s so much to say here, about Ichiro, my appreciation for his play, his position on the team and in fandom, and everything else, but I would say this — Ichiro is the greatest example I’ve ever seen of how a good enough player can break roles. Someone can play outstanding defense at a position where defense isn’t valued, can play a dead-ball era game when right fielders are expected to whiff or hit the ball a long, long way.
Alex did this, but Alex followed Cal Ripken Jr, who established that shortstops could be big and hit well. Ichiro is without modern comparison, especially in the outfield — Tony Gwynn’s best years gave you the average, Ted Williams gets you average and huge walks and power, and Ichiro… we’re all lucky to have seen him play for the Mariners, in the same way that we’ve been blessed to see Alex, and Griffey, and Edgar, and I wish there was some way I could make people appreciate that.
Dave:
I agree – 2004 was Ichiro’s best year, and even though he’s not the prototypical right fielder, it was the best year the M’s have ever gotten from the position. Jay Buhner had a great underrated run from 1994 to 1997, with ’97 probably being the best of that bunch, but he didn’t have any single season as good as Ichiro’s ’04. His walks and power were great, but the offensive value was at best equal to Ichiro’s best year, and while Bone had a great arm, the defensive comparison isn’t even close.
You could also make a case for ’78 Leon Roberts (an .879 OPS when the league average was .711), but not a good enough one to overcome the year with more hits in a season than any other in history. Unlike left field, there are some good performances here, and Ichiro doesn’t win by default – he was just that good.
So, with boring agreement between the two of us, let me use this space to make a quick statement on one of the common knocks people make against Ichiro now that he’s been moved back to right field – that he doesn’t hit for enough power to justify a spot in a corner OF position. There’s a well established belief among many that the correct way to build a roster is to get good defensive players up the middle (C, SS, 2B, CF) and get lumbering power hitters in the corners (3B, LF, RF, 1B). You’ll often hear comments about how offense from up the middle spots “is a bonus” and you rarely see people realizing just how much defense matters in a corner (Carlos Lee’s paycheck says hello) because of this preconceived notion of what kind of player you’re supposed to have in each position.
It’s crap. A player’s value is determined almost entirely by his ability to create and prevent runs and it doesn’t matter the way in which those runs are created or prevented. Whether you produce 30 runs of offense through death of a thousand singles or 25 home runs, the fact remains that the run creation is the same. If you have a great defender who has just an okay bat, but you already have a center fielder, that doesn’t mean you have to get rid of Defensive Stud simply because you can’t put that type of player in a corner OF spot. The 2001 to 2003 Mariners were playing three guys who were premium defenders (Winn, Cameron, Ichiro) but none of whom were classic sluggers, and they won a ton of baseball games.
Runs are runs, and you should almost never sacrifice aggregate run totals in order to fill a preconceived notion of what a certain position player should look like. The argument that the M’s should get rid of Ichiro in order to fill RF with a classic power hitter with inferior defense stems from ignorance of how baseball games are won. To the anti-Ichiro crowd – stop focusing on cliches and start focusing on production. He’s a great player, and just because most singles hitters play CF does not make him a liability in RF.
Derek:
It’s funny — I started to write that in my intro, but I stopped, said “I shouldn’t rant about this, at least not in the intro” and deleted it. My take was a little different, though — I absolutely agree with what you’re saying, but moreover, Ichiro often reveals more about those who attempt to evaluate him than about Ichiro himself.
To appreciate Ichiro’s value, you have to see past traditional roles, past recent dogma favoring Adam Dunn-type power/walk/no glove lineups, past all of this to the fundamental thing everyone who seriously follows baseball has been trying to figure out: how do you win more games?
We make this point all the time about players: it’s about what a player can do, and how they can contribute, not what they can’t do, whether that’s hit home runs or whatever. And I’ve no patience for attacks on the “leadership” of someone who works so hard, so consistently. Ichiro absolutely plays, and he helps his teams win.
Dave:
Yea, the leadership/chemistry thing is the last resort of a guy who doesn’t have any leg left to stand on, but refuses to admit that he was wrong. I’d love someone to explain how Ichiro’s routine that is apparently so harmful to this team now was also part of the 116 win “greatest chemistry ever” club in ’01. Or, if his personal stretching program (you know, the one that keeps him remarkably healthy and in the line-up every single day) is such a divisive issue that causes his teammates to underperform, how did last year’s team win 88 games with a massive lack of talent?
Even if you believe that chemistry is hugely important, and that Ichiro doesn’t have the right kind of personality to fit your predisposed opinion of what a good team player is, and even if we accept that you could predict good or bad chemistry ahead of time, there’s never been any kind of real position for why Ichiro’s one of the bad chemistry guys. Seriously, go through the articles where the old white guys criticize the eccentric Japanese guy, and the evidence boils down to “trust me, I’m there, I know more than you”. With guys like Bonds or Kent or Milton Bradley or David Wells or Izzy Alcantara, at least there was a stated basis for why they harmed clubhouse chemistry – so and so gets in fights with teammates, throws things at coaches, comes to the park hungover, whatever. With Ichiro, the basis is apparently “he doesn’t speak English” and “he stretches by himself”.
Sorry, but that’s not a real argument. That’s ethnocentric judgmentalism at its worst. The media is never more exposed as a biased collection of old white guys with preconceived notions (usually incorrect ones, at that) than when they write about Ichiro and clubhouse chemistry. It’s sad, really.