Game 23, Mariners at Athletics
DMZ · April 29, 2005 at 6:32 pm · Filed Under Game Threads
Sele v Haren. Two .500 teams face off in a match of division rivals. Beltre, as the game notes tell me, is the only Mariner to have faced Haren before.
Which Mariner will get a day off first: Beltre, Boone, Ibanez, Ichiro or Winn?
I’m betting it’s Winn.
In other news, a rare DMZ @ BP appearance, second since the split, on how other sports have handled drug testing and what that means for baseball’s program and its reputation. Subscriber only.
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62 Responses to “Game 23, Mariners at Athletics”
Also, everyone’s raggin on Eddy because of a couple of bad games. Overall, he’s having a pretty good year, especially considering the way MOST closers have been faring.
Wow, I see lots of pessimism in this discussion. Where’s the faith?
Seems like everyone was expecting the worst from every player tonight.
Lighten up! We’re only 1 game behind the Angels and we’re over .500! :^)
So all you Eddy Bashers…if we lose him who do we go to? Personally I think he is (when healthy) one of the top closers in the game. He’s also a great clubhouse guy which actually means a lot (and something we haven’t really had since losing Cameron).
Is anyone else here completely UN-surprised at Beltre and Sexson sucking? I mean if they sign with any other team I bet they’re hitting the cover off the ball, but no, they sign with the beleagured M’s and can’t hit their weight! This is totally what the beaten down Mariners fan inside of me was expecting. The only free agent we ever get that does anything is Ichiro. Why can’t we just clone him and field 9 Ichiros? Man…can you imagine how glorious that would be?
Considering the other free agent signings this off season Beltre was a great deal. His glove is outstanding. It is comforting to see him anchor the infield at third. His hitting will come. Plus still the guy is only 25.
So all you Eddy Bashers…if we lose him who do we go to?
Putz. Heck, Sherrill. Mateo. Whatever. Closers are easily annoited.
He’s also a great clubhouse guy which actually means a lot (and something we haven’t really had since losing Cameron).
That’s weird… didn’t the team go out and sign Ibanez to be that? And Spiezio? And Aurelia? Isn’t Wilson supposed to be a team leader? And Moyer? Who stole their mojo?
This was the 23rd game of the season, which is exactly 1/7 of 161, the number of games Ichiro appeared in last season. This is also shaping up to be Ichiro’s best April yet. I believe he hit .336 in 2001 and only .255 last year.
So, projecting his current pace out to a full year (161 games) he’s on pace for the following season so far:
665 AB, 126 runs, 238 hits, 35 doubles, 14 triples, 14 HR, 70 Rbis, 343 total bases, 56 BBs, 49 K, 49 SB, 7 CS, .875 SB%, .358/.408/.516
That would be a really great year for anyone, and probably even better than Ichiro’s 2001 MVP season. And of course, April has historically always been his worst month, so if he gets even hotter than this and April turns out to be his worst month this year too, he could be in for a truly historic year. He’s hitting more extra base hits so far this year, and .516 would be quite a bit higher than he has slugged in the past. All in all, I think it’s an April that Ichiro’s fans should be quite excited about.
I’m excited about Ichiro’s performance early in the season, especially the fact that he’s been trying to hit for a bit more power the last several games. Do you think Ichiro’s trying to address the criticism that he mostly ‘just’ hits singles? I doubt Ichiro pays any attention to the critics, but hitting harder this year might be in his game plans. You never know with him. 🙂
#57. I think Ichiro was aware (especially that last game in Texas) that the strategy of him getting on base and being driven in simply wasn’t working. He was even quoted as saying he went to the plate thinking “home run” and I think he’s just stepping up, since no one else seems to.
Surely when he’s hitting in Arlington against the Rangers’ bullpen he’s always thinking HR? I believe he’s hit 9 of his, what, 39 career homers off the Rangers.
I was at the game last night at the Coliseum, or the McAfee Coliseum, or whatever they’re calling it this year. A few notes:
1. At the start of each series, the A’s pregame show has a nice feature where the A’s pitching coach gives a scouting report of the series starters and bullpen. Notable:
— Sele has “below average” stuff [no kidding] and tries to succeed by nibbling
— Pineiro has lost velocity, but improved his ability to get breaking stuff over.
— “We won’t see Thornton in any close situations”
— Mateo is looking very tough this year
— Guardado’s stuff has declined, but he is as aggressive as any closer
2. Sele just looked terrible from my seat behind first base. He had trouble throwing strikes, he was getting his changes up, etc. The only thing I thought he did well was change speeds. If he were facing a team that wasn’t in an abysmal batting slump, like the A’s, I think he would have been rocked.
3. They named one of the dot racers after Ron Fairly. His dot won. Fairly took a bow on the Jumbotron.
4. I would trade the Mariner pitching staff for the A’s pitching staff in a nanosecond. Where do they find these guys?
Re: (# 26 & # 28) LETTING THE PITCH HIT YOU – IIRC, the flagrancy caused RON to tell an anecdote about the DRYSDALE Streak–a “HP” instance where a ball WAS called.
You could see it in the guy’s eyes. “I’ll let it hit me. What the heck. The ump probably won’t notice that I didn’t try to get out of the way. Either that, or he won’t call it.”
Whatever. Anyay, it was definitely a time for the manager to go out there and argue.
People — including Hendu — make like it’s easy to move your KNEE out of the way. As you’re striding into a pitch you’re starting to push off that back knee and it’s not so easy to pull the knee out of your way when you’ve got weight on it. I don’t think he had time to shift his weight and get the knee back out of the way of the pitch.