Although it’s only postponing the inevitable, I will say “thank you” to the Angels for scoring three runs in the bottom of the 9th tonight to beat the A’s.
Particularly embarassing: Oakland may use the last series against the M’s to re-set their rotation going into the division series, gifting Seattle with some mercy wins against the Sacramento Rivercats.
Congratulations to the 2003 American League Western Division Champions, the Oakland Athletics.
If you’d like to look on the positive side, you can always view the countdown on the left as the time remaining in Pat Gillick’s tenure in Seattle.
From the “Too little, too late” file: The A’s have lost OF Jose Guillen for the rest of the season with a broken hand.
New Big Board. Not much doing… the M’s called up Luis Ugueto, and that’s about it. That should be all she wrote as far as callups go, unless they get creative and bring up Bobby Madritsch. I don’t think they will, though.
Since there’s nothing good going on with the M’s right now, it’s time for…
Last Game at Everett, redux
The field at Everett Memorial Stadium. I’ve always thought it looked like a suped-up little league field, though I will admit it looks nicer than what you get down in Tacoma. And that’s AAA baseball!
Aaaaand we’re underway. Sam Hays delivers the first pitch of the game.
Despite it being the last game of the season, the stands down the third base line weren’t exactly packed.
“Kids, Lionel Hutz no longer exists. Say hello to 3B Nick Orlandos!”
Adam Jones, the M’s first round pick this June, waits for his turn to hit.
“Garbage, garbage, garbage!” No joke — there’s a high school kid in a tux who collects garbage. I couldn’t make this sort of thing up.
More to come…
M’s lost, Boston won and Oakland’s up 7-0 in the 7th. If you’re keeping track, that drops them 1.5 games back in the WC and will drop them 4.5 back in the division once the A’s wrap things up. I’m ready to call the division a done deal, even if some people keep pointing to those magical six games with the A’s in the next two weeks. Remember, even taking 4 of 6 only nets you two games in the standings.
Is anyone else out there enduring Ron Fairly’s play-by-play? I start to entertain thoughts of ending it all when I have to listen to this for more than an inning. Teams have September call-ups — can anyone seriously argue that with the Rainiers season over the team couldn’t get (U.S.S. Mariner-endorsed) Mike Curto to sub in?
Let me attempt to stave off a few more emails and answer the questions that are popping up about my post this morning:
1. Yes, I realize the bench sucks, and needed to be improved. I started the Matt Stairs brigade. After we learned Colbrunn was gone for the year, I made a post explaining why the M’s now needed to acquire two bats.
2. No, I don’t think Pat Gillick should be given credit for Rey Sanchez hitting like he has. It is an obvious outlier, based on a bunch of seeing-eye singles, and it will not continue. Sanchez is still a pile of crap hitter. He just happens to be hot right now.
3. No, I don’t believe that we can assume that Gillick could have reasonably acquired people who weren’t traded. They weren’t traded for a reason. Perhaps the asking price for Stairs, Sanders, or Vander Wal was simply too high. Perhaps their teams didn’t want to trade them, fearing that it would scare off their last few remaining fans. Perhaps the Cardinals couldn’t stomach trading J.D. Drew with Jim Edmonds already ailing. Regardless, there is too much we just don’t know to assume that Gillick could have made a trade that no one else was able to make either.
4. And, to answer the most frequent point raised, no, I don’t buy into the lack of a move “crushing the team spirit” and causing the struggles we’ve seen from Ichiro, Cameron, Olerud, and Boone. I don’t believe that picking up a role player would have inspired them to hit .300 instead of .200, and I don’t believe there is any proof that this is occurring anywhere else. I don’t believe that Randy Winn is the only player on the team able to overcome this blow from management. Every at-bat, every inning, these guys give 100 percent. Adding Matt Stairs to the roster wasn’t going to energize the team any more than adding Rey Sanchez did.
Players Who Should Play Shortstop Ahead of McLemore
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Fully healthy Guillen
Healthy Sanchez
Bloomquist
Ugueto
Chad Myers (put that UT to use)
Cirillo (I’m entirely serious)
Also, you’ll note that Dave somehow manages to become the first one of us to post a beautifully formatted set of statistics.