Willie Bloomquist started at shortstop today and had three hits in three at-bats. I can see the thinking now… “See? All Wee Willie needed was regular playing time! He just couldn’t get into a groove sitting on the bench. He needs to be out there every day.”
My was that a quick game. 2:13? Almost unheard of these days.
Yup, it came down. Strangely, even the transaction on MLB.com contains a justification:
Activated OF Raul Ibanez from the 15-day disabled list. To make roster space, INF Rich Aurilia was designated for assignment.
That’s a little weird. Motivation doesn’t usually make it into the transaction.
Scott Spiezio at first for the first time as an M! It’s crazy, but it’s just the kind of flexible thinking I like to see out of Melvin. Against lefties, it makes sense to shift Spiezio over and play Leone at third — you get two guys who’ll bat better against lefties, Olerud’s available when/if the lefty gets chased out of the game, and you don’t have to use Cabrera’s limited supply of magic hitting dust.
Garland’s a righty? Whaaaaaaaaaaaa?
See, this is the frustration of Melvin for me, more than anything else — the thought that Melvin’s working out weird job-sharing arrangements, willing to consider positional shifts based on the game situation, but picks the most bizarre ways to trot them out, when they don’t make sense. It’s like coming up with some amazing way to cook chicken and then busting it out on a Hot Pocket.
Seven games is a lot of games to lose in a row. I know that’s an obvious thing to write, but that’s it for the hope the team had built some momentum in that interleague play cake-walk.
Also, in the PI, Hasegawa’s got some choice quotes about how much harder it is to pitch when the team’s behind. It totally cracks me up — the premise of the article is so flawed from the start. Is Hasegawa struggling because he’s pitching when the team’s behind or is he pitching then because he’s been struggling? You could, I guess, do some research, look up when he came in early in the season. Maybe talk to Melvin about when he started to shift roles. Or even Bryan Price, who’s said more or less that success drives the roles the relievers take on.
John Hickey does a pretty good job as a beat writer, though, so I’ll knock it off.
But there’s this great Hasegawa quote that says a lot about the state of the team:
“It gets to the point where you can’t think about winning and losing because we’ve lost so much.”
Incidentally, I want to present this nugget we didn’t mock yet from Finnigan’s article on Aurilia — “There could be some interest from National League clubs. Aurilia hit .316 in interleague games at NL parks. “
I don’t want to be mean, but — first, only the Mariners would bite on that kind of thing (see: Raul Ibanez). And second, does what kind of desparate Hail Mary plea is that from the team? Does anyone really think that there’s an NL team out there in contention with a need for a shortstop that’ll fall for this?
“Boy, Assistant GM, what a terrible market for shortstops this year. If only there was some hidden gem, who might do better with us than wherever they currently are.”
“Have you considered Rich Aurilia, GM?”
“Aurilia? He’s old, and hasn’t hit for good power in years. His hitting’s almost collapsed this year.”
“Has it? He hit .316 in NL parks during this year’s interleague play.”
“Three sixteen! Holy mackeral, I was all wrong about thiskid. Get me Bill Bavasi on the phone and quick, which top prospects could we give him for such a tremendous player?”
And a more general question: why are the Mariners willing to release Aurilia to spite themselves, but unwilling to consider things that might actually help them that require them to, say, fire their manager? Or dump Bloomquist to make roster space for better players? Or…
The continued fixation of the team on “fixing” problems is bad news. To focus on a guy like Aurilia, or Guillen before him, and blame them for their contributions to the state of the team, even if removing that player means the team gets significantly worse demonstrates that the big lessons they should have learned from the Gillick years and this disastrous offseason, like “pay attention to the big picture”, have not been learned at all.
I’d like to now open speculation on who the problem focus will be if they dump Aurilia. I don’t think it’ll be Spiezio, it’ll be another player they can piss off and still trade, or who isn’t under contract for next year. I’m betting it’ll be Bret Boone, and the line will be that they were counting on him, and Boone’s drop in production led to the offensive collapse of the team.
Folks, we have a new leader in the clubhouse of extreme stupidity. John Kruk’s introductory two sentences today:
There are tons of dumb clichés in sports that everyone uses, and most of them make you look like you don’t know what you’re talking about. But there is one that seems to apply when it comes to evaluating a player: If you haven’t played the game, you just don’t know.
An editor for ESPN.com actually approved those words. Unbelievable.
Thanks to everyone (and I do mean all 413 of you) who responded about the cordless phone/wireless connection issue. You guys rule. I’m not sure how to convince my roomate to make the cordless go away, though.
Replacements for Aurilia, pros and cons:
Bloomquist. Can play short, sort of, can’t hit much
Leone. Can play short, sort of, can hit a little more than Bloomquist
Santiago. Can play short, can’t hit at all
I agree with Dave here: ditching Aurilia for the sake of ditching him doesn’t do the team any good right now, unless you play Santiago for the sake of backing the younger pitchers up with a bit sturdier defense.
Which reminds me — if you’ve been paying as much attention to this as I have, the M’s have been creeping back up in the defensive measures. Because the nature of defensive stats is so… bad… I don’t want to pin anything on anyone, but one possible cause is that when Ibanez went down Melvin (and I think this is pretty cool) went to that triple-headed OF platoon and started to swap Winn into left for defensive replacements in center late in games.
I still can’t get over hearing that guy say “Bloomquist has power. He just hasn’t shown it yet.” It runs through my head every time I post on Bloomquist. What could that guy have been thinking?
Ibanez is nearly back, but there are conflicting reports as to what the M’s will do to make room for him. The Times says it’ll be Aurilia: The Mariners are expected to move shortstop Rich Aurilia to make room for Ibanez. Aurilia’s agent, Barry Axelrod, called the club yesterday to find out their intentions. He was told that Aurilia could be involved in the transaction, with Seattle preferring to trade him over designating him for assignment to release him.
PI, though, says Leone. The Mariners are leaving open the question of which player will be moved off the roster when Ibanez is activated. The logical choice is rookie infielder Justin Leone, who started last night and had a couple of hits.
The real obvious choice here, if you’re not going to move Aurilia, is of couse Willie Bloomquist. Leone makes Bloomquist more than expendable — hell, a bag of baseballs makes Bloomquist expendable — due to his playing the same positions and having a much better bat.
Also, Matt Thornton starts today. Yay.
“Hey now, Get all of it” has been a disaster as a slogan. At this point, the M’s should switch to something like “We are your father’s Mariners”, “Creating new ways to lose on a nightly basis”, or my personal favorite, “Justin Upton, here we come”. Upton is, by most accounts, more advanced than his older brother B.J., who is currently whacking the baseball in Triple-A Durham as a 20-year-old shortstop. The M’s are currently in 4th place in the Justin Upton sweepstakes (sounds much better than 32-51, doesn’t it?), behind KC, Arizona, and Montreal. With as awful as Kansas City looks right now, we should probably count on picking no higher than second next summer. But, hey, Mark Prior went #2, so we’ve got that on our side.
In other news, Randy Winn is on fire. Since June started, he’s hitting .318/.390/.540. 17 of his 43 hits are extra base knocks. He has 16 walks and 19 strikeouts in 135 at-bats. Sell Sell Sell! Seriously, are the Phillies not the perfect fit for Winn? They have a gaping hole in center field and could definitely use Winn’s stick. They have a brand new park and can afford to take on his medium sized contract. I’d gladly take Andy Machado, a slick fielding shortstop with some pop, in exchange.
Rumors in the Times today had the M’s beginning to get more serious about dumping Rich Aurilia. Personally, I don’t see the point of releasing him. There isn’t a player in the organization who can play a quality major league shortstop right now (or, likely, at any time). You’re not opening up playing time for a blocked prospect or giving an opportunity to anyone knocking on the door. You’re giving fans a prolonged look at Ramon Santiago, the daily reminder that Carlos Guillen got traded for one of the worst players in major league baseball. If someone wants to take Aurilia off our hands, great. If we have to pay half his salary, fine, but releasing him and eating the whole contract is pointless. It’s change for changes sake. There are plenty of actual changes that should take place; no reason to waste time on needless ones.
Anyone have any idea why my wireless network cuts off at home when the phone rings? Cell phones don’t affect it, but if the landline rings, I can kiss my connection goodbye.
I loved the moment of helplessness and then relief when Bob File came in and they were late in putting up the stat line Fairly’s so used to reading.
“I’m sure we’ll see the numbers for File here in a second… [long pause as Fairly starts to look around the booth for the day’s game notes] uh, ERA about four point three–[stat box appears on screen] oh, there you go, 4.30 ERA…”
Shallow fly in the outfield, Winn’s there, Phelps is ready to run (and not that swift)… Winn’s throw arrives at the plate after the commercial break, having taken a couple hops before Wilson fields it a couple yards up and off the plate.
That’s embarassing.