Game 26, Athletics at Mariners
Felix.
1:10.
Felix Day! It’s Felix Day!
Woo-hoo! Yeah! Felix Day is here! Sorry to have to spring this on you before you get of town, Oakland, but that guy with the weird facial hair (no, the other one, the one that’s scheduled to start today) drew a short, short straw, because he gets to pitch against Felix. I know, sometimes life’s like that. But hey, look at the bright side: because of the way the schedule works out, you won’t have to face him again until July. Two months without having to see that terrifying curve. It’ll be like a vacation.
Game 25, Athletics at Mariners
6:10. The return of Bedard, unless they scratch him at the last minute and don’t tell anyone again. Facing Justin Duchscherer.
As I write this (which is early, because it’s a beautiful day and I’m going to go down to Safeco and see it live! In person!) Bedard requires someone to be taken off the 25-man, and speculation’s run to Baek/Corcoran. We’ll see — they’ll have to make a decision before game time.
Upgrade note for 4/25
We upgraded WordPress. I hurried to get it in ahead of the game thread, but it turned out to be a little rougher than I’d expected, so if you had any issues between ~5-7, sorry. It’s been handling the game traffic really well, though, so I’m inclined to think it all worked out.
If you ever wonder what we do with our time behind the scenes… it’s stuff like that.
Game 24, A’s at Mariners
7:10, FSN. Batista v Eveland. Oakland comes into the series tied for the division lead with the Angels. The M’s have a chance to pull them down. We’ll see how it goes.
Dana Evelend’s another guy the A’s took off the Diamondbacks. He’s a lefty, pretty heavy groundballer, historically has a little above average on walks given up, about average for striking guys out.
I don’t think lineups have that huge an impact, but if I were to put together tonight’s, I’d be wary of where I put the slow ground ball hitters, if you know what I’m saying. We’ll see what happens.
Lineups!
C-R Suzuki
1B-L Barton
2B-R Ellis
DH-R Thomas
LF-L Cust (who is listed under “designated hitters” on the A’s roster)
RF-R Brown
SS-R Crosby
CF-R Sweeney
3B-R Murphy
CF-L Ichiro!
2B-R Lopez
LF-L Ibanez
3B-R Beltre
DH-B Professional Hitter who is not hitting Jose Vidro
1B-R Sexson
C-R Johjima
RF-R Bloomquist
SS-R Betancourt
M’s Extend Johjima
Well, this is a bit surprising – the M’s have locked Kenji Johjima up through the 2011 season. No financial details to report, but I was told that this was “a good deal” for the M’s. Considering that Johjima took less money to play in Seattle initially, it’s not a huge surprise that he’d take a below market deal to stick around.
Despite his early struggles, he’s still an above average catcher right now, but I do wonder how much he’ll have left to contribute beyond 2008. Signing him through his age 35 season is a classic M’s move, as they consistently show willingness to have bad long term contracts in exchange for some short term rewards.
The bigger news is that this almost certainly means that Jeff Clement’s days behind the plate are numbered. The M’s wouldn’t have extended Johjima if they were optimistic that Clement was anywhere close to being ready (in their opinion) to be behind the plate regularly. Johjima’s extension means Clement’s going to end up at 1B or DH, and I wouldn’t be surprised to see the organization start trying him out at first base in Tacoma in the not too distant future.
Laugh, cry, your pick
Scraps wrote in yesterday’s comments:
Is Jeremy Reed really so bad that we think Willie is a better option in RF?
No, Reed is really so bad that Willie is a better option on the bench, because Willie can play multiple positions and Reed can’t, and Reed is only a marginally better hitter. (You don’t need both Willie and Cairo, but that’s another issue.)
I don’t understand where the fascination with Reed comes from at this point. When he was here, everyone wished he wasn’t. Now I guess we’ve forgotten how bad he was. 840-odd plate appearances, .314 onbase, .366 slugging, 17 for 32 as a base stealer, not making anyone forget Mike Cameron in the outfield. He’s a AAA player. Sure, he’s 27, so maybe it’s time for him to have one decent year, convince management that he’s finally reached his potential, get an overpriced contract, and go back to sucking. I figure that’s the best-case scenario.
Good points. I wanted to point out though that today, a .316 OBP and .366 slugging percentage would make Reed clearly a better offensive option than three players who started Opening Day:
Jose Vidro, .264/.310
Brad Wilkerson .302/.244
Kenji Johjima .268/.246
…in addition to being a better option than both Bloomquist and Cairo in the outfield.
Thanks
During the game tonight, I believe I finally managed to catch up on writing thank you notes to everyone who decided to support the site in the last week or so. Thanks everyone, for encouraging us to throw that donation button up there, and for following through. I look forward to trying to do it justice.
I have some thoughts about how to do that, and we’ll be talking more about that soon.
Game 23, Mariners at Orioles
Loewen v Washburn. 7:10.
Adam Loewen’s a lefty from Surrey, BC, which as I understand it is on the way to Vancouver from here (just kidding! I know you have to turn off at some point).
The M’s are 9-8 against RHP and 2-3 against LHP this year.
Last year, it was 60-61 and 28-13, and interestingly, though you’d think they were vulnerable to lefties, they actually hit better against them – .295/.348/.446 to .284/.333/.419.
No, we do not have any information on when Lookout Landing will be up
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