Friday’s news
4:00 pm. Bad news, bad news: Brandon Morrow, the M’s first round draft pick, isn’t pitching. “Sore elbow.” Yup. Update: just as the AP story on that came out, he threw two innings in the Arizona League (box score)
On the game thread front: we’re up on Marbledog again. Be good.
Player acquisition news: Cuban players SS Eduardo Paret and 3B Yulienski Gourriel have both defected in Columbia. Both were on the Cuban WBC team. Gourriel, whenever he can get his passport/etc straightened out, will get a massive deal.
1:00 pm. Texas beefs up. They get LF-R Carlos Lee and prospect OF-R Nelson Cruz (and a PTBNL) in exchange for CF-L Lance Nix, OF-R Kevin Mench and RP-R Francisco Cordero. Nice little deal for the Rangers. I’d have thought the Brewers would be more focused on getting future value.
So Doyle comes up, Dobbs DHs that game (and hits well, because he always hits well in games I attend — his agent should buy me some nice Tacoma and Seattle season tickets, because they’ll get their money back tenfold). Then Doyle’s put on the DL with a shoulder impingement and sent down to Tacoma — where he DHs.
From what we know, it looks like he’s just not going to play the field for a little while, but we really don’t know what’s wrong yet, and whether there are longer-term implications for his playing time, either there or here. I also don’t entirely understand the implications of the move, or Doyle’s option status for this year. I’d puzzle it out but there’s a lot going on here (sorry).
Thursday’s news
A cruel and vindictive deity continues to persecute Snelling and, by extension, his fans
The M’s just put Snelling on the DL with an “impingement in his left shoulder”.
As if I wasn’t in a spectacularly crappy mood already.
Go to a game to see my favorite Mariner reappear, but nope, Dobbs starts at DH and after the game, Doyle’s sent back down. Thanks!
Broussard news catch-up
Choo’s been traded to the Indians for Ben Broussard. Team link.
First story I think that mentioned the M’s have now bought both halves of the Indians platoon.
Doyle for Everett would have been a nice, if overdue move, especially since it would mean that you could put Doyle in LF and DH Ibanez, which would help out on the defense, too, but if they’re going to play Broussard at DH v RHP, then Doyle’s not going to get playing time, and he’ll probably go back to Tacoma so he can get his swings in. Bavasi’s not going to have our boy up if he’s not going to play.
An interesting possibility is that Broussard means a Sexson move is more likely, which if true… wow.
Also, as Jim Thomsen notes, “We get, in my opinion, the best musician in baseball. Broussard is a great guitarist who writes quality songs.” Enjoy the musical stylings of Broussard at his site.
Stone on Everett DFA
Larry Stone: “Bare bones with bat led to Everett’s extinction“. Note Stone here cites the never-before-revealed vesting threshold at 500 – we’d pegged it at about 450. The Times Mariner notebook “No hard feelings”
Disappointing headline for Thursday: “Leben, an Everett fighter, is top contender in booming sport”. Turns out that Leben is from the city of Everett, and the booming sport is ulimate fighting. I know!
Game 101, Blue Jays at Mariners
Laurie, who is in possession of a ridiculous bandwith quota and who is also not afraid to use it, is guest-hosting tonight’s thread. Head on over to Marbledog and knock yourself (and, quite likely, her server) out. While you’re over there, please thank her for this generous offer as we recover from the day’s fireworks.
Hello Doooooooooooooooyle
Chris Snelling is going to join the Mariners this evening in time for tonight’s game against the Blue Jays. Carl Everett has been designated for assignment to create room on the roster.
And there was much rejoicing.
[DMZ update: Here’s the team announcement]
Game 100, Blue Jays at Mariners
7:05, Halladay v Meche.
Notes: Lopez returns, bats 3rd. Everett’s still the designated out-maker, batting ahead three people who hit better than he has.
So let’s look at the Blue Jays lineup for a second
CF-R Reed Johnson
LF-L Frank Catalanotto
1B-L Lyle Overbay
3B-R Troy Glaus
C-B Gregg Zaun
RF-L Eric Hinske
DH-R Bengie Molina (whaaat?)
2B-R Aaron Hill
SS-R John MacDonald
There are some weird choices in there, too.
New arrival…
Long time readers may recall this post, dated two years and two days ago. Along similar lines, I’m pleased to announce the arrival of the newest M’s fan, Noah Robert Barker, born today at 8:24am. I’d have a picture for you, but WordPress is arguing with me at the moment. (Take that, WordPress!).
Alex Rodriguez and the uniform with pinstripes
I understand why Alex wasn’t embraced by Yankee fans. For all of his talk about embracing the pinstripes, he spoke with the same somewhat robotic insincerity that’s been his public face for years, a mask that he grew into that free agent year. Everything he says runs through the self-censor loop, because he’s been so consistently and so harshly punished for verbal slips before, and then he’s criticisized for not being frank and open.
In any event: Alex isn’t having a good year, and it’s certainly not the year the Rangers and Yankees are paying him to have.
From my distant view, this all looks insane. There’s the Yankees broadcast crew, possibly prodded from outside (see rumors), hashing on him, ESPN has been frantically whipping the flames of this conflict as a former GM (who once tried to sign Alex, failed, and then attacked him) and now analyst attracts more and more attention by, over and over, whipping Alex for real but mostly perceived shortcomings. The Yankee fan base seems easily-led and almost irrational, spouting off about how he lacks the soul to play in New York, or the courage to face pressure, and so on, until you want to be sick.
I wonder if this makes future signings or trades that require consent harder. If I was a player, knowing that any bad month or week might be fanned into a wildfire of hatred, I wouldn’t want to play there, no matter how good the money was. It wouldn’t be worth it.
In any event, for a reasonably intelligent view on this, I recommend Steven Goldman’s Pinstriped Blog, on the Yes Network site.
Here, a first view on what was happening, and here, even better, at length answering emails from readers on the situation.
As for the Mariners, if the Yankees did call, offering one of the best players in baseball for pennies on the dollar, well, you take that deal.
You do.
New and improved Gil Meche
Larry Stone, o’er at the Seattle Times, writes of Meche’s success and the choice it presents the team right now.
“My whole thought process has changed,” Meche said Monday on the eve of a tasty showdown tonight with Roy Halladay. “Whether people think it’s a fluke, I know the feelings I’m having on the mound are different than I’ve ever had before.”
If you haven’t already read it, I recommend Dave’s post “What is Gil Meche?” on the stats behind the turnaround, and reasons to be skeptical that it’s sustainable.