Dave — don’t forget Vernon Wells. He’s at .307/.349/.568 this season (on pace for 50 doubles and 40 homers) and a mere 24 years of age.
Random Notes From a Game Dave Could Actually Watch
1. ESPN’s radar gun was on crack. If we’re to believe it, Pineiro throws an 87 MPH curveball, an 86 MPH changeup, and hits 95 regularly. I’m not buying that. He was definitely putting too much on his curve in the first inning, though. Its a much better pitch at 78-80.
2. Speaking of being on crack, does Joe Morgan have to broadcast every game I get to watch? Why doesn’t he just come out and admit that he hates Billy Beane and the A’s? Their on base percentage is suffering because people are now learning that they’re not going to swing at the first pitch? Come on Joe, you really think it takes 15 years for news to travel? The A’s have been doing the patience-at-the-plate thing since I was in little league. A more reasonable person would look at Chris Singleton, Ramon Hernandez, Miguel Tejada, and Eric Chavez and say “Hey, these guys are hacks.”
3. Ted Lilly has to be one of the most inconsistent pitchers in the majors. His mechanics in the first inning were awful, and his release point was all over the place. Come the third inning, he was brilliant. That curveball is just nasty, and when he’s spotting his fastball in the zone, he’s as tough as they come. One of these years, he’s going to put it all together and win 23 games.
4. If I was a left-handed pitcher, I’d wake up in a cold sweat at night thinking about facing the Mariners offense away from Safeco Field. As a team, we hit .301/.377/.454 versus lefties and .298/.367/.472 on the road. I’m just speculating, but I’d imagine our totals versus lefties on the road is something like .315/.390/.470. Even Dan Wilson can hit lefties, and Edgar eats them alive. Our worst hitter in the line-up against southpaws is John Olerud, and you can spot Greg Colbrunn instead if you feel like scoring 13 runs instead of 11.
5. Just a note for those who endured the ESPN telecast tonight, Willie Bloomquist is not a good defensive shortstop. He’s fundamentally sound, which is what Morgan focused on, but his lack of range cancels that out. He’s the classic example of being good at everything he gets to, but not getting to enough balls to really make himself a good fielder.
6. Mike Cameron’s awesome. Andruw Jones, Carlos Beltran, Mike Cameron. Pick your poison, but Cameron’s right there with them. I still don’t think Cameron’s going to be back next year, and someone is going to get themselves a huge bargain in free agency. Its not everyday you can pick up a gold glove player at a premium defensive position who can put up a .300/.400/.550 line. Nobody realizes just how good this guy is.
I have a complaint. I wrote a lot (here and on BP) about Melvin’s bullpen use, and in return I’ve gotten a lot of comments. The negative ones either say “you should have picked another game, you’re not showing how dumb/smart he’s been” (which wasn’t really my point, only to show that Melvin, in one game, made a series of strange decisions that don’t work out as a whole no matter how you look at them) or something along the lines of “You’re an idiot, and if you were so smart you’d be a manager, but since you can’t you criticize blah blah blah.”
Here’s the thing. If someone who does not perform an act is not qualified to comment on that act, doesn’t that mean that in writing about baseball, I should ignore all criticism from anyone else who doesn’t write about baseball?
Seriously, can someone explain to me why it’s not okay for me to write an article about baffling bullpen use because I don’t manage bullpen use as a job, but it is okay for someone who doesn’t publish articles or write about baseball every day to slag me for writing an article they disagree with? Shouldn’t these people by their own logic, say “I have no opinion on Box Melvin’s in-game tactics, because as I am not a major league manager, I am not qualified to have such an opinion. Ah, I see someone at Baseball Prospectus has written a long and detailed article on Box Melvin’s in-game tactics. I have no opinion on this article, as I do not write about baseball or publish baseball writing anywhere, and so am not qualified to have any opinion on this article.”
The M’s are now admitting that Kaz Sasaki, he of the Highly Suspicious Injury, can’t move without pain and isn’t likely to be back anytime soon. For those of you who don’t remember the original injury report, Kazu was returning back home, carrying his bags up a flight of stairs, minding his own business, when he slipped and fell, injuring his ribs.
Dave’s Post of Positive Stuff
You know, I’d rather just pretend that John Mabry wasn’t hitting 5th, Mark McLemore didn’t start, and Arthur Rhodes didn’t continue his descent into the tired, overworked reliever. So, here’s my take on the good things that happened yesterday;
1. Gil Meche, apparently without his best stuff, matched Tim Hudson pitch for pitch over 7 innings of work. The ability to hold down an offense even when you don’t have your A-game is a mark of a great pitcher.
2. Rafael Soriano was inserted into a tie ballgame. Hooray for the Box!
3. Ben Davis started. Hooray, again.
4. A power surge hit my apartment complex in the 9th inning, zapping my internet connection for the rest of the night. So, rather than lay in bed and listen to the carnage, I got a solid nights sleep, unaware of the awfulness going on 3,000 miles away. Hooray lightning.
Hey, I was at that Tacoma Rainiers game! Rett Johnson was dealing, guy struck out the side at one point, looked great all game long. Total game time was 2:17. It meant I missed the M’s tonight, which is I think the second, maybe third game all year. I see the Mariners lost in extra innings and I’ve gotta say, I’m tired and I just can’t bring myself to look at the recap and find out what happened. So folks, I know you’re probably thinking I’m going to tear into Box Melvin here, but sorry, I was off scouting.
Ahem! The Big Board has been updated. So long, Matt White! Aaron Taylor (Derek’s not kidding about that “a-ron” pronunciation, folks), come on down! You’re the next contestant on Bob Melvin’s Tilt-o-Whirl Bullpen Extravaganza! There were a few other moves as well, including the departure of infielder Jay Pecci (waived) and RHP Enmanuel Ulloa (sold to Expos).
In other news, Rett Johnson rocks. Behold his line so far in three AAA starts: 19 IP, 12 H, 5 R, 1 ER, 4 BB, 15 K, 0.47 ERA. This is after he threw six shutout innings of two hit, eight K ball tonight against Portland. Next time somebody tells you the M’s don’t have much on the farm, tell them they’re full of it.
Mmm… detailed goodness. Baseball Prospectus has a cool article today that goes batter-by-batter through the weirdness of Sunday’s Padres @ Mariners game. It’s free, so you can read it even if you’re not a subscriber, which you should be. Man, those Baseball Prospectus guys sure have some good writers working for them.
Transaction Corner
The M’s sent Matt White back to whence he came and called up Aaron Taylor (he pronounces it “a-ron” despite how you’ll hear it said elsewhere). Taylor was closing for the Rainiers, and it’s possible that Box Melvin will use him as a Sasaki-proxy in closer situations, which would allow him to move everyone else into more set roles and make his decisions even easier.
Man bites dog
The Seattle Times ran an interesting article yesterday: “M’s put prime seats up for online bids”. It’s interesting first that a story that raises legal questions about what the M’s are doing ran in the Seattle Times, though not surprising that it would have to come from Peter Lewis, their consumer affairs reporter. Muckrackers forever!
In the article, Lewis reports that the Mariners are selling charter tickets at auction on their (somewhat illegal) Ticket Marketplace site, where season ticket holders can sell their seats for whatever (totally illegal if they’re in Seattle) price they want. Here’s how this works:
- “The team made a strategic decision at the end of the 2002 season to cap season-ticket sales of the remaining charter seats and sell them solely on Ticket Marketplace, Hale said. As many as 111 charter seats per game appear for whatever price the market will bear.” [Article]
- M’s attempt to sell the tickets on the Ticket Marketplace for whatever they can get for them, plus 10% buyer’s fee (they’re taking a cut of tickets they’re selling… yeaaaah) —
- As game day approaches, they drop the prices
- A couple days before game time, they dump the remaining seats to Ticketmaster, where they sell for $box or $field depending on location
The M’s make a whole bunch of weasel-y statements in the article, and some remarkably insightful man-on-the-street comments.
Also interesting is the revelation of how much money the M’s made with their scalping last year: Lewis reports that they split the revenue with the software vendor, MLB Advanced Media (mlb.com (“the pop-upinest site ever!”)), and still made $100,000-$120,000.
Let’s take a stab at this.
I’d be surprised if Liquid Seats got more than 25% of revenue. MLBAM probably takes another 25%, at least. So the total secondary ticket sale market was, minimum, $200,000 — figure an average ticket price of $65, that’s about 3,000 tickets sold/year, or a paltry 40 tickets each home game. Figure it’s an even split all around — LS 33%, MLBAM 33%, Mariners 33%, that’s still $300k-$360k, 4,500 ticket sales/year, or 60 tickets each home game.
That doesn’t seem right to me. There are 51 listings of tickets for the July 8th game against Baltimore, mostly 3-4 tickets but many with more and as many as 11. Mostly semi-reasonable prices. The Mariners could easily sell 150 tickets just for that game.
There are a couple of possibilities:
- The Ticket Marketplace is a terrible place to sell tickets at those prices
- The Mariners lied about how much money they’re making
Given the Mariners record in financial disclosure and general forthrightness, I’m going to go with #2 there.