U.S.S. Mariner

Whew. I think I responded to everyone who emailed about getting together to watch road games. If you’re interested, we’ve got two dates already, both Bellevue: May the 12th and May the 26th. If you’re interested (and if you emailed and I missed it) drop me a line for the info.

Rafael Soriano’s back in the majors; Bloomquist is on the 15-day DL and Jarvis has been officially released. What, they couldn’t find a taker in trade? I’m stunned. Stunned, I tell you. Stunned.

Productive Gluttony
Productive outs are defined in a sidebar in that article I didn’t see at the time because ESPN’s pages format like ass when you use anything but IE w/Flash. So!
POP explained
What is a productive out?
A productive out occurs when …
A baserunner advances with the first out of an inning.
A pitcher sacrifices with one out.
A [...]

Well, to expand at length on Jason’s post…. Productive outs is the worst stat anyone’s come up with in a while, and that’s not easy for me to say.
Other teams — the Anaheim Angels and the Florida Marlins, most notably — prefer to use their outs productively, by bunting, employing the hit-and-run; they put runners [...]

Well, here’s a fun article.
But Boston plays the “Moneyball” style — never bunt, don’t take chances on the bases, sit back and let your hitters hack away and do the work regardless of the game situation, regardless of the identity of the opposing pitcher.
This is just what Derek was talking about the other week, with [...]

All time, All Mariner team
– by games played –
DH: Edgar Martinez, 1,914
C: Dan Wilson, 1,1137
1b: Alvin Davis, 1,166
2b: Harold Reynodls, 1,155
SS: Alex Rodriguez, 790
3b: Jim Presley, 799 (no joke)
LF: –
RF: Jay Buhner, 1,440
CF: Ken Griffey Jr, 1,914
I’d forgotten about Presley. He’s not responsible for holding Edgar back (the M’s are), but looking over his career [...]

I’ve been a stranger around these parts lately, but have no fear, I’ll be back as a regular contributor soon. Just a tough week.
Some random thoughts that I’d like to turn into longer posts, given time.
1. There’s no way around it; when it comes to in game strategy, especially handling [...]

New GM Watch
April 29th edition
a brief comparison of GMs in their freshman year at the helm of their teams
–
Paul DePodesta, Dodgers, 13-7, .650[last year .525]
Dan O’Brien, Reds, 12-9, .571 [last year .426]
Bill Bavasi, Mariners, 7-15, .318 [last year .574]
I believe the Mariners last year were the best team in the major leagues last year at [...]

Derek’s right, of course. Guardado should have been brought in to face Palmeiro. The only thing I can think of is that he wasn’t ready, but who knows. Actually, I take that back — Derek’s probably right in saying that lefty-specialist Myers was brought in to face lefty Palmeiro, then that “closer Guardado” (not “lefty [...]

I was happy, however, to see Melvin disregard traditional closer roles and use Guardado in the game’s biggest situation — bases loaded in the bottom of the 8th, up two runs.
Well, sort of. But not really. From ESPN’s game log:
-Bottom of the 8th inning
-L Bigbie walked.
-B Roberts walked, L Bigbie to second.
-S Hasegawa relieved R [...]