King Felix Pics
Hey guys and gals — courtesy our good friend Jon Wells of the Grand Salami, who’s down in Arizona, we’ve got a pair of pictures of Felix Hernandez tossing the old horsehide today.
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Translated cartoons for your amusement
This totally cracked me up, so I’m sharing this email from Jason Mastaitis:
Hey Guys,
I write the Always Amazin’ Mets weblog and a reader of mine, Frank Lee,
graciously translated a bunch of Choi Hoon’s baseball cartoons,
including the Mariners. I thought you might be interested in posting
them or sending them to another Mariners blog. Just give him credit for
the translation.Four weeks ’til opening day!
Cheers,
Jason
Seattle Mariners
Speaking of changeless teams…
Panel 2
Ichiro Suzuki
[Numbers]: bat avg., hits (the new record!), HR, RBI, SB, OBP (2nd), runs
The Ichiro Shift!
“You’ll never get past us!”
Panel 3
Randy Winn
In the shadow of others…
“How am I ever gonna get noticed?”
“Now who are you?!?!”
[it says in the arrow underneath, “There’s even Raul Ibanez…”]
Panel 4
Bobby Madritsch
The diamond in the rough… [or literally, “Pearl among mud”)
“This mudpack treatment is great!”
“Heck! Who are you?”
Panel 5
Bret Boone
Playing with his worthless brother… [if too harsh, then “his stupid brother…”]
“Okay, I have to go practice now.”
“Wait! Just one more round!”
Panel 6
Edgar Martinez
The best DH ever…
“Must I now say goodbye to my magnum too?”
“Not THAT DH!!!”
Panel 7
Ryan Franklin
“Why! Why! How can you guys NEVER score when I’m pitching?!?!”
“Well you know, you give up so many runs early on that we kinda lose the motivation…”
Panel 8
Jamie Moyer
King of homeruns allowed (44)
“I have three!”
“Oh man, I only have two! You win.”
“This isn’t the home run derby!”
Today’s articles
Finnigan in the Times on Felix Hernandez. Lots of quotes on the team’s plans for the King.
Finnigan also notes that Richie Sexson checked a swing without tearing his shoulder up. Spring training, this is news.
Hickey’s in the PI on Jeremy Reed and Olivo’s arm impressing Hargrove.
Is there anyone Hargrove hasn’t been impressed with so far? I half expect him to be quoted praising the hot dog vendors at this rate.
Position Roundtables: Starting Designated Hitter
Jeff: Starting Designated Hitter: Raul Ibanez and/or Bucky Jacobsen
Dear St. Patrick:
Are you there, St. Patrick? It’s me, Jeff.
Look, I know I don’t take much time to reflect on my Irish heritage, probably because all we know of it is that my great-grandfather fled from some trouble he got into, changed his name, and forbade anyone in the family from ever speaking of The Old Country again. But I come to you two weeks before your namesake holiday to ask a favor.
You’ve got to help Bucky Jacobsen out.
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Spring Training games on TV, Radio
Radio schedule here.
and the TV schedule is, as always, available on the MLB schedule page.
Spiezio at second, in OF?
“As we sit here today, he is one of our bench guys,” manager Mike Hargrove said. “He’ll play first and third, a little in the outfield and we can also use him at second base.”
Toonces nooooooooooooooooo! (explosion)
On the other hand —
“I’m not going to say he’s locked into the bench,” the manager said. “If someone gets injured, or he has a tremendous spring and someone else doesn’t, we’d look at him being a regular.”
That’s a pretty generic spring training comment, but still — pretty much that means that either Beltre or Sexson has to be hit by a bus that also hits Leone or Ibanez (respectively) and that careening bus would probably also have to get Dobbs if he’s having a hot spring.
And yet… Scott Spiezio, super-utility player? I can’t bring myself to see him in left.
Special note: I’ll be deleting all comments that get names wrong. No, really.
One Thing to Watch This Spring
A friend of mine is writing for a new site called Seattlest, a sister site of a popular New York site called Gothamist. Basically, it’s a one-stop shop for Seattle news (or New York news, in the latter case). In any event, Seth’s on sports and has a quick piece up today about the M’s and Felix Hernandez. Check it out, and give the rest of the site a look as well.
The draft, Moyer
My column this week in the PI is on this year’s draft, and probably should have just been written by Dave.
Moore writes about Moyer’s attempt to come back which attempts to put part of the blame on Questec.
More than most pitchers, Moyer is hurt by QuesTec, a computerized monitoring system in use at selected ballparks. Though Safeco Field is not one of them, umpires’ strike zones are affected everywhere by the system, entering its third year.
Here’s a thought, Moore: perhaps you could actually look up Moyer’s splits and figure out if he was significantly better or worse in Questec parks.
Tropicana Field 7.11 ERA in 6 IP
Jacobs Field 1.29 ERA in 7 IP
Edison Field 4.50 ERA in 6 IP
Network Associates Coliseum 5.29 ERA in 17 IP
Yankee Stadium 10.13 in 5.1 IP
(no stats: BOB, Fenway, Miller, Minute Maid, Shea)
That’s about an even 5 ERA for his time in those parks.
Which– whoops, it’s lower than his season total.
How hard is that to check? Really. There’s another point here about there being different strike zones, which has been refuted elsewhere — aaaaaaand update, I’ve got the URL.
The numbers above suggest that 0.21 percent of pitches are called differently between QuesTec games and non-QuesTec games. That works out to about one altered pitch call per 475 pitches thrown — roughly one every other game. Using the strict standards that are favored by the scientific community, the differences above cannot be said to be statistically significant.
The article’s here. Note that there are umps who call more strikes in Questec parks, which would be to Moyer’s advantage. At that point, though, you’re looking at other factors potentially having a much greater affect on the lines than Questec would, and those should be taken with a huuuge amount of skepticism. Any ump, like any pitcher, could show dramatic variations in their calls given any 10-stadium selection for splits.
Good stuff from Jeff Sullivan
I know we have Lookout Landing linked as part of the blogosphere, but I wanted to throw Jeff Sullivan some extra love here on the main page. He’s been doing some terrific stuff lately, and if you don’t check over that often, you’ve probably missed some of it. The most fun reads have been his evaluations of each starting pitcher. If you haven’t checked them out yet, go now:
Enjoy.
I (heart) Willie
Many, many column-inches on the wonder of Mr. Bloomquist and his new family.
Update! As long as we’re talking about generic spring training stories, check out one of my old BP articles offering a spring training update.