There are worse beers
Reader Chris sent us a heads-up on this. Go to this page for Northern League transactions. Scroll down to 5/1:
Assigned the contract of RHP Nigel Thatch (Rookie) to Fullerton of the Golden Baseball League in exchange for 1 pallet (60 cases) of Budweiser beer.
I wonder which M’s players we could get a pallet of beer for.
430 pitches
From Robert Whiting’s You Gotta Have Wa
In 1984, Hiroka ran an “autumn camp” for the younger players on his squad, and some veterans as well. […] Lasting fifty-nine days, from season’s end to late December, […] it consisted of an average of nine hours of daily drills, including 600 swings a day for each batter, 430 pitches a day for each pitcher, as well as swimming and akido – a kind of self-defense- sessions.
Reading accounts of Japanese training, I find it a wonder that any Japanese players survive long enough to make it to free agency or posting.
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 33, Indians at Mariners
D’oh.
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.
Game 31, Indians at Mariners
RHP Jake Westbrook v LHP Jamie Moyer. 7:05 FSN. Suggested drink: margarita on the rocks.
Tickets available for upcoming games:
Saturday: 19,500
Sunday: 12,000
Looks like sales are up.
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.
Drinking guide re-write looms
Hey all — this came up at the last Feed (and comes up fairly frequently in email and people stopping me randomly) so I wanted to say — I’m going to try and get through a total, top-to-bottom rewrite of “Drinking at Safeco” over the course of the next homestand.
What I need from you, dear readers: if there’s a place within walking distance of Safeco you want included, especially if it’s got good drink specials, drop me a line or leave a comment here with name of the place/address/why it’s good.
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).