Keep feeling elimination…
Reader Mack Shultz writes:
I haven’t seen this in the news but a friend and I have been tracking the
M’s playoff elimination and they were eliminated from the AL West title
chase after yesterday’s results. There’s 20 games left between OAK, ANA,
and TEX and there’s no way to allocate the wins in those games to have all
three teams end with 81 or fewer wins (since 81 is the most the M’s can win
now). So, assuming all scheduled games will be played, the M’s have been
officially eliminated.
Then he goes into a lot of math and thoughts about potential four-way ties I’ll skip.
Hopefully with all the pressure of this division race off, the Mariners will relax and play better. Unless you think Melvin’s too lax a manager now… then things might even get worse.
Comments
23 Responses to “Keep feeling elimination…”
as much as it was not surprising, it was somewhat jarring to read the BP playoff expectations report today. to see it in black and white, that 0.0000% next to the Mariners. hell, even the Pirates have an 8-in-a-million chance or some such thing. of course, they do have 10 more wins than the M’s…
offtopic- the Name field on this Leave a Comment form inserts slashes in front of a single-quote character. three of them, to be exact. too many calls to addslashes()… when this php page outputs its html, it should have the value attribute of the textbox double-quoted, and the content should be run thru htmlspecialchars(), not addslashes(). (php programmer by day…)
Well, I for one am both sad AND glad at this development, and I actually have to thank the USS Mariner staff for the reason I’m glad.
At the begining of the year, I posted a bet to the local diving board I participate in (you can read the post here) that if the M’s won 85 games this year, I would buy everyone dinner at the restaurant of their choice. Needless to say, I won’t be buying anyone dinner this year.
Fire Bavasi.
Jimmie
I was ready to blame AJ Zapp’s HR (the first ever to clear the CF wall at Cheney) for capsizing the USS Mariner and causing today’s outage. Now that “it’s over” bring him up and let him and Bucky go for some target practice at the Section 101 patrons.
CF at Cheney… damn. Now that’s a shot. Has it occurred to anybody that guys like obviously Zapp, but more to the point Bucky and Atchison and whoever- that they might want to stay in Tacoma where they have (er, had) a shot at winning something? Does that possibly cross a minor-leaguer’s mind?- I could go to the show and play on a terrible team for the next month, or try to win a pennant right here in AAA ball. What would you do?
offtopic- speaking of interesting Raniers happenings this season. when the Raniers were down here in good ol’ Portland the other week I caught this weeknight game. Jeremy Reed comes up with 2 outs, runners on 2nd and 3rd, it’s maybe the fourth inning, and singles to center. The Beavers SS heads out to take the relay throw, but the 2B, in an impressive display of no concentration, fails to cover the bag. So Reed takes second- no throw. Now, this is funny, but ultimately not all that interesting… until he notices that the 3B was coming toward second in a vain attempt to beat him to the bag, and is now standing somewhere near the mound. The SS is still holding the ball in center field. Hesitating for about half a second, Reed takes third as well.
First time I’ve ever seen somebody take two bases while a defender was holding the baseball.
* assuming you’re a minor-leaguer who’s surely going to get called up after roster expansions anyway. this conundrum does not apply if you’re Mickey Lopez.
“Hopefully with all the pressure of this division race off, the Mariners will relax and play better. Unless you think Melvin’s too lax a manager now… then things might even get worse.”
Not to nitpick, but I rather fancy the M’s quit shooting for the division title well before the All Star Break.
I was in Tacoma last night and Zapp’s home run was impressive. I didn’t read the paper today but they called it at 505 feet last night.
Rene Rivera started his first game in Tacoma and went 1-4. His defense was very impressive.
Reed had a very similar play to the one you describe. In Tacoma a few weeks back, someone failed to cover third base and he just kept going after the play appeared to be over.
Does that possibly cross a minor-leaguer’s mind?- I could go to the show and play on a terrible team for the next month, or try to win a pennant right here in AAA ball. What would you do?
I can give you 3 quick reasons why Zapp, BUcky and Atchison want to be in Seattle instead of the AAA playoffs:
-Playing in the majors is dram come true. They may never get another chance.
-They want to show what they can do so that they might play in the majors next year, if not for the M’s, for another team.
-The MLB minimum salary means you make $50,000 for the month, which is probably over ten times their AAA pay.
1. If I’ve never been i
From the PI’s M’s Notebook:
“LHP Matt Thornton has been held out of action the past few games because of a slight shoulder problem.”
If I were Madritsch or Meche, I’d be wondering why I keep hearing the theme from Jaws…
Is Mack Shultz from Issaquah? If so, he is WAY to into math. If it is Mack, “hello” from TK.
PS- So, is it New Wave 80’s Night on the USS Mariner?
Me:
“Hopefully with all the pressure of this division race off, the Mariners will relax and play better. Unless you think Melvin’s too lax a manager now… then things might even get worse.â€
Kent:
Not to nitpick, but I rather fancy the M’s quit shooting for the division title well before the All Star Break.
I was joking, since they were out of division contention almost immediately this season and clearly haven’t felt any pressure to play hard all year.
this is about the comments message, as long as you guys don’t go ban crazy, i think it’ll be fine.
i’m just happy you guys set them up.
Actually, a full seasons worth of AAA salary is $50,000 — which is one-sixth of the major league minimum salary. Also, A.J. Zapp will not be recalled, because Mariner management is upset with the amount of times he has struck out this season in Tacoma; he will not be back with the orginization next season. THe Tacoma Rainiers and Everett Aquasox have done what the Seattle Storm did last season, and that is pull a Greg “Shark” Norman esque collapse, which is pitiful. Brett Evert, Rett Johnson, Aaron Taylor, Greg Dobbs and B.J. Garbe ought to be called up immediately. By the way, who have they put on the 60-Day DL to make room for Brett Evert and B.J. Garbe?
While that may be the AAA minimum, many players in AAA make more than that. If you’re a minor league free agent of some value, you could get a split contract or something that pays you much, much more than $50k/year.
I don’t think A.J. Zapp has one of those.
ok, i can see the money thing being a motivating factor. i don’t know hardly anything about how that works. and yes, it’s their dream to make the majors, i think that’s taken as read.
but as far as “proving yourself” my point was- those guys will be up at the roster expansion anyway. they have a team that’s contending for the PCL north title, and i just think they might want to stay and win that, help their teammates that don’t necessarily have the chance that they do to make the big squad.
The REAL Trent:
Wow, I never expect “real” life and my internet musings to intersect and am endlessly surprised when it happens. “Hello,” to you too, TK. Hope all is well. If you want to email me offline, drop me a line at squooshed@earthlink.net. I generally ignore that address, but I’ll monitor it for a little while.
Meanwhile, the M’s wildcard chances are also fast dwindling. That was the math and four-way ties part that DMZ wisely dropped out of my post. Suffice it to say that the dream officially dies this weekend, barring a miracle.
I didn’t mean to be blunt with my 3 reasons for guys wanting out of AAA, so my apologies if I came across that way. I was thinking of the whole month of Septmeber, not just the week of AAA playoffs.
Are you sure that AAA pays $50K minimum? I was told about 2 years ago by Mike Curto, the Rainiers broadcaster, that some guys get that sort of money, but that’s not typical. He mentioned Juan “The Large Human” (was Thomas his last name?) as that type, which sounds like Zapp. He said someone like Jim Horner was getting less than half that. True prospects like Reed, I’m not sure about. Sure, this could have changed in the last couple years, but I know that the MLB labor contract does not dictate minor league salaries.
Upon learning that the Mariners had officially become mathematically
eliminated from earning a division title or wild card berth, I’m please to announce that fans can now enjoy their Safeco experience in relaxing comfort, as it was meant to be.
No more overly-excited fans jumping up and spilling their beer in your lap just as you were putting the finishing touches on that Mariner dog. No more leather lunged fans hurling expletives at the field when things don’t go their way, forcing you to clamp your hands around your 5-year old’s sensitive ears. No more annoying eruptions of thunderous cheering every time a run is scored by the home team(we’ve made improvements to the lineup that minimize this tendency). No more visiting-team fans throwing peanuts and insults at the well-behaved Mariner fans who merely want to politely watch the game while indulging in fan-fare. No more seething arguments with umpires from the Seattle field manager, who now shows proper respect for authority figures, setting a good example for our youth.
Thank you, Howard Lincoln, for finally removing the last obstacle to the proper enjoyment of “The Safe,” the contending baseball club. It’s place that is now “safe” from the rabble-rousing, obnoxious, beer-swilling, rabid-fandom that has always been a detriment to proper Seattle baseball viewing! Congrats!
Ken Hanselman
Seattle, WA
Looks like comment of the week material to me.
Put yourself in the cleats of a Jeremy Reed or Bucky Jacobsen. You’re reasonably certain that you will be in the big leagues in ’05 and beyond. You’re going to get paid. You don’t need to worry about much in this department.
Here in 2004, you’ve got a choice between one month of major league rookie pay with a platoon job where you sit on the bench half the time and lose more than half the time, or you can play every game, win them most of the time, and try to take home that AAA championship. Well, I suppose it’s not really their choice… but imagine for a moment that the M’s gave you that choice.
I honestly think I’d choose to play out the AAA season and forego my August in the bigs, join the club in September and know that I’m probably on the club starting in spring training. Of course I have no idea what it’s like to actually be in that situation, but if you love playing the game as much or more than you love getting paid…
Neither Jeremy Reed nor Bucky Jacobsen can be “reasonably certain that you’ll be in the big leagues in 05 and beyond”.
No way you stay in AAA Tacoma. Not a chance. It’s “The Show” and once you get there, you don’t ever want to leave.