Opening Day Running Diary
What better day than Opening Day to continue the running diary tradition?
Stuck at the computer doing some writing, I’ll offer occasional observations during the course of the game. Others may well drop by and offer their thoughts as well.
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Big Board (sorta)
There’s a new Big Board up, but don’t get too excited — it’s only accurate at the major league level, as we don’t yet have rosters for the minor league clubs. So please, no complaints about minor leaguers or where they’re placed. (I will take complaints in the comments about bad links, guys who aren’t really left-handed, stuff like that.) It’ll all get updated again this week when rosters are announced. I did want the majors to be ready for Opening Day, however, so here you go. Oh, and remember to hit refresh after you open the page or you’ll probably be looking at the old version. No complaints about that, either.
Added later: Hey, the sun’s even coming out for the game!
Added Tuesday: We’re getting close, folks. All these suspensions (and injuries) have forced the M’s to move minor leaguers around, so they’ve been delayed in getting rosters out. I do have a Tacoma roster, a partial Wisconsin roster and what I believe to be a Inland Empire roster. Shouldn’t be more than another day or two before it all falls into place.
Opening Day
It’s finally here. Just a little over five hours til the 2005 baseball season kicks off for the M’s.
Hooray. Go M’s.
Moves aplenty
We’re down to 25, which is good, seeing as the season starts tomorrow. This Times article has all the scoop, but I’ll summarize here:
So the opening day roster is as follows…
Catcher (2): Olivo, Wilson
Infield (7): Beltre, Boone, Bloomquist, Dobbs, Sexson, Speizio, Valdez
Outfield (4): Ibanez, Reed, Suzuki, Winn
Starters (4): Madritsch, Meche, Moyer, Sele
Relievers (8): Franklin, Guardado, Hasegawa, Mateo, Nelson, Putz, Thornton, Villone
Yes, I’ll have a new Big Board up this week. I’m waiting for Derek to tweak something at the techie level before that can happen.
The extremely long and yet still incomplete Cooperstown write-up
People said they were interested, and here at U.S.S. Mariner labs we’re constantly striving to serve our customers, so — here’s my very long writeup of my week in Cooperstown, which still has gaps in it remaining to be filled (or not, I haven’t decided yet), and I need to go through and hyperlink stuff. So you can either brave it or wait until Monday, when I hope to have another chance at it.
Wilson Valdez
Claimed by the M’s today, in their attempts to acquire every scrub on the waiver wire. When I first heard the name, I thought, “Why would the Dodgers waive Wilson Alvarez? He’s been pretty good the last two years, is left-handed and doesn’t make much money.” Then I moved on and thought of Wilson Delgado, the middle infielder who’s managed just 542 at-bats over a ten-year career. But no, it wasn’t him either, although Delgado probably isn’t a bad comp — they’re both no-hit middle infielders, though Valdez is six years younger.
Anyway, this is the guy they picked up today. He’s now been waived three times in his career, and another time was traded for Billy Koch. Quality player here, folks. I suppose the positive is his career .302 batting average at AAA, but it’s a pretty empty .300 (.340 OBP, .368 SLG). Oh, and he has ten homers in 2422 professional at-bats.
To make room on the 40-man, Rafael Soriano was placed on the 60-day DL. Keep in mind, they still need to make room for Jeff Nelson and Aaron Sele… as Dave mentioned yesterday, they’ve done a pretty good job bungling the roster lately, and they’re not quite done yet.
Movin’
You’ll notice a new author link on the left nav… Derek alluded to this in the past, but now I’m ready for the announcement. In a few weeks I’ll be moving (along with my wife and son) to New York to attend the Culinary Institute of America in Hyde Park (about 90 minutes north of New York city). I’ll still post when I can, and of course will keep the Big Board updated as well.
No, this isn’t an April Fools joke. Yes, this is the first time in my life when I’ll be living someplace other than Seattle, and that bums me out. But attending the CIA is a great opportunity for me professionally, and we fully plan on returning to Seattle when I’m done with the program.
And if anyone wants to buy my car — which I love, but we’re only taking one car with us — it’s up on craigslist.
“This Baseball Season, Just Take Me Out”
I love articles like this. Weren’t people saying the same thing after 1994? And when Alex Rodriguez signed his $252M contract? Yeah, they were. And — I’m just guessing here, based on attendence numbers — most of those people either came back to the game or didn’t even give it up in the first place.
Seriously, though, I think the world is a better place with one less smug Yankees fan… so I say good riddance, Matt Villano!
Potpourri
With the season around the corner and today being a frivolous Friday, I figured now was the time to get a few general observations off my chest. I was going to do an April Fool’s Day post “arguing” that the Mariners should trade for Ryan Howard, but Dave’s under enough stress lately. For better or for worse, I actually believe everything written after the jump.