Randy Winn.
Winnie the Pooh.
Randy: Winn, Lose or Draw.
And Shiggy!
Yeah, and Shiggy!
Goodnight folks.
P.S. Pat Borders just might be the M’s MVP if he can keep Freddy going like this.
While the M’s flounder their way towards another non-playoff season, two of their minor league affiliates are on the verge of winning league championships. The San Antonio Missions, who ripped through the Texas League this year to the tune of a .600 winning percentage, are currently up three games to one on the Frisco Roughriders in a best-of-seven series. They can wrap things up tonight with a win in Frisco.
Meanwhile, the Inland Empire 66ers (of San Bernardino) won 3-2 in 13 innings last night to take a two games to none lead on the Stockton Ports. The 66ers can wrap things up tonight — the California League plays a best-of-five championship series — with a win at home.
Hey all, Derek here. There are people out there who will tell you that the M’s play station-to-station baseball, waiting for the home run, and that they’ve gotten away from the small ball that made the team wrong. These people are stupid, and you should not listen to them.
| Year | BB | HR | SB | Runs |
| 2001 | 4 | 18 | 1 | 1 |
| 2002 | 4 | 21(tie) | 3 | 7 |
| 2003 | 5 | 26 | 5 (tie) | 9 |
(I know that table doesn’t look so hot. I’m sorry, but blogger makes it really hard for me to throw tables into these things. If you know how to pull this off w/o setting default post format to HTML, go on and drop us a line, because we run into this all the fricking time)
The source of the M’s problems is not that hard to find.
2001: 1st in OBP, MLB (.360)
2002: 2nd in OBP, MLB (.350)
2003: 7th in OBP, MLB (.344)
2001: 7th in SLG (.445)
2002: 14th in SLG (.419)
2003: 21st in SLG (.413)
Now, park effects, blah blah blah, but my point is that relative to themselves, the M’s woes are directly traceable to the fact that they’re not getting guys on base, and they’re not getting as many extra-base hits. It’s that simple. They’re stealing as much as ever (more, really, since as SBs as a percent of opportunities (baserunners) are up).