U.S.S. Mariner

Mariners versus Blue Jays! The newly revamped and revitalized Mariners head back home after their triumphant world tour.
Monday, 7:05p, LHP Moyer v RHP Hentgen. I always think of Pete Harnisch instead of Hentgen — “He’s still around?”.
Tuesday, 7:05p, RHP Meche v RHPP Halladay. Halladay’s been the best pitcher on the Blue Jays staff so far, [...]

Hey, also, where are all these big changes we were promised? It’s been a week since Finnegan’s piece in the Times, and two weeks since the piece in the News Tribune. So far all we’ve seen is the McCracken-Nageotte swap — color me unimpressed.

So, three games and Nageotte still hasn’t pitched. After Mateo’s long outing on 5/27, he’s only thrown 10 pitches in the past three days, so I’m sure he’s fully available again. Nageotte will go back to Tacoma tomorrow (the team is back in Seattle Monday), Jamal Strong will make his way to Seattle to take [...]

Jon Rauch is being run out of the White Sox organization. They’ve come out in public and said “anyone interested in Jon Rauch should call us.” See, he left the stadium early after a bad start, possibly (Rauch maintains) because of a misunderstanding and possibly (the White Sox say) because he didn’t want to talk [...]

Two things on today’s broadcast:
The Rizzs-Henderson blasting of diving into first was the first multi-minute commentary that I’ve heard from this year that was entirely, verifiably true.
I discovered that I own a fan that somehow totally obliterates Dave Henderson’s voice, except when he raises quite a bit to make some weird point. It’s really quite [...]

Manager Second-Guessing of the Night: Terry Francona
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In the bottom of the 8th, Hasegawa relives Mateo.
Varitek singles
McCarty doubles (again with the doubles)
Men on second and third, Gabe Kapler-R is set to bat against Hasegawa. Kapler v RHP this year: .234/.270/.298, three year .268/.334/.393
Opposing hitters v. Hasegawa this year (3-year)
RHB: .300/.383/.420 (.228/285/.362)
LHB: .237/.326/.368 (.252/.326/.351)
What you make of [...]

Apparently good old New York Vinnie mentioned the USS Mariner today on channel 13’s post-game show… so, welcome aboard if you’re just now finding us thanks to him. Have a look around, stay as long as you like, and we hope you’ll be back often.

I liked today’s game. Sure, you’re not going to see Myers strike out three guys in an inning’s worth of work (!) but they were patient with Wakefield and took their walks where they could get them. Knuckleball guys, even when they’re on, are likely to give up baserunners on walks and hit some guys, [...]

Why would Melvin mess with the rotation, Jason? He’s got to set a record for only using 5 starters for two years. History’s at stake here. He didn’t take Meche out last year or start giving him more regular time off when Meche was clearly gassed, why start now?

Nageotte’s up, but you probably already know that. Melvin says he won’t mess with the rotation — c’mon, Bob, Meche is awful! — so it’s off to the bullpen. If this really is just a move to get Mateo some rest, I would have rather brought up, say, Scott Atchison instead of Nageotte. No reason [...]