Jason’s Quick Take on the 2005 Season
People seem upset about the pitching staff. Well, duh. You could have seen this coming all winter, and now it’s gotten worse with the injury to Madritsch. It’s also amusing to me how people (I’m talking fans, here) were picking the M’s to win 90+ games before the year started and after the first game, but suddenly they lose two straight and they’re worse than last year.
So here goes — they’re not going to contend this season, but that’s Ok. You don’t magically go from 99 losses to division champs without something dramatic happening (and you certainly don’t do it with this pitching staff). If they can get back to around .500, we should be thrilled.
This winter they addressed the anemic offense by signing Beltre and Sexson, but ignored the pitching staff. Next winter, they’ll do the opposite and sign a starting pitcher. Put that starter in with a healthy Piniero, a healthy Madritsch, and King Felix and presto, you’ve got a pretty good rotation. And then we can talk about contending. But that’s next season, not this season.
Minor League Scores
Anybody know of a good source for minor league scores, or more specifically, boxscores? It bugs me to no end that this stuff is so hard to find — my usual sources are coming up empty. Baseball America still has scores up from the last day of the 2004 season (“Note: We are working dilligently to have our scores and stats for 2005 ready as soon as possible.”). ESPN.com’s minor league scoreboard says no games were scheduled yesterday (a lie). Minorleaguebaseball.com, my former favorite site because they had archived boxscores, says the season hasn’t started yet. And USAtoday.com at least has linescores, but no boxscores. Argh.
Watch Felix’s Tacoma home debut with USSM!
If you’re reading this, you’re aware of the phenomenon that is King Felix Hernandez.
Currently, Felix’s first home start for Tacoma is scheduled for Monday, April 18. As you can see from this fine schedule, that game is slated to begin at 6:05 p.m.
We’re planning a USS Mariner meetup to eat, drink and make merry as we watch Felix (hopefully) mow down Fresno. Join us, won’t you?
As we all know, in this wild game called baseball, things can change as quickly as Chris Snelling can hurt himself. So please note that this date may change, too. Watch the ‘blog for updates in case our gathering is OTBE’d (OverTaken By Events). I think all of us would like to coordinate the meetup around Felix’s debut, so to the extent that’s possible, we’ll do it. Details inside … Read more
Minor League Highlights
The full season minor leagues kicked off last night. Here’s a few of the notable lines:
Tacoma:
Jorge Campillo: 6 2/3 IP, 3 hits, 1 ER, 1 BB, 4 K
Jamal Strong: 3-5, 2 runs scored, stolen base
San Antonio:
Bobby Livingston: 6 IP, 5 hits, 1 ER, 0 BB, 6 K
Inland Empire:
Adam Jones: HR
Wisconsin
Matt Tuiasasopo (SS): 2-4, double
Asdrubal Cabrera (2B): 2-3, double, walk
Fever Pitch opens
I’ve heard it’s good. I won’t be seeing it, though I own the book it’s (not at all) based on and I’m a big fan of the author, who is loosely connected to this adaptation.
Allow me to recall an episode of “Alf”.
Alf: Hey Willie, come here, listen to this. let me know when this gets irritating, okay? (opens mouth, emits crazy high-pitched chirping noise accompanied by weird harmonic tone)
Willie: Enough! Enough! (Alf stops) It becomes irritating… almost at once.
Jimmy Fallon is like that sound to me.
(You can download the audio of that from this helpful person’s page)
Sele v. Benoit (or Park, whichever) today
As the pride of Poulsbo prepares to take on one of his former teams today, MLB.com’s profile on Aaron Sele has some items of interest.
Multiple times, Sele says that inducing ground balls is the key to success for him. That may be true, but if so, it’s not a good thing. Check out his ground ball/fly ball ratio for the last few years compared to the rest of his career.
This is a flyball-oriented staff, and Sele is still more likely to induce a ground ball than Ryan Franklin or Jamie Moyer. But if Sele is hinging his hopes on returning to Jake Westbrook death-to-earthworms territory, I’m not sure that’s in the cards.
We all need confidence to succeed, though, and the veteran curveballer still has that. Here’s how he summarizes his fortunes last season:
“You can’t pitch more than five innings if the manager won’t let you,” said Sele, who was 9-4 for the AL West champions last season. “Mike (Scioscia) does things his way and it has worked for him. But I threw the ball real well (in 2004) and the team won 16 of my 24 starts.”
So 214 baserunners in 132 innings, an ERA over 5.00 and a one-to-one strikeout-to-walk ratio constitutes throwing the ball well? From where I sit, Scioscia pitching Sele no more than five innings at a time wasn’t a bad decision, it was a favor.
With Joaquin Benoit (Edit: actually Chan Ho Park) going for the Rangers, runs should be scored. Let’s hope they’re mostly Seattle runs.
Forbes on the Mariners
Forbes has an interesting article on the Mariners worth reading for some perspective on the team’s economic situation.
A lot of it won’t be a surprise to long-time USSM readers, but there’s still new information in here, particularly about the local economic impact of Ichiro-related tourism. Also lots of good stark figures about how huge their media deal with FSNW is, and how amazingly sweet their stadium lease is.
And fun facts like this, just after Armstrong is quoted saying “We don’t make money”:
By not bragging, maybe Armstrong hopes his players won’t ask for more money. The Mariners’ payroll last season was only $85 million, or just 50% of revenue. Teams with similar revenues, like the Dodgers, Cubs and Mets, all spent at least 57% of their revenue on players last year.
Two bits stuck out to me — “Ichiro trinkets adorn cell phones in Japan, where the Mariners’ theme song is a popular ring tone.”
The Mariners have a theme song? And not “The Mariners are playing hard-ball! Hit it again and again and again — hit it again!” What is it?
And in the sidebar, it sayd “For a small-market team, the Mariners do very well.”
I know it’s probably hard to believe, being out in New York and all, but there were three million people in the Seattle metro area last time the Feds published stats (check it out in my favorite Census publication ever in Excel or PDF). If you want small-market, you’re looking for Kansas City, or better yet Milwaukee (1.5m).
Anyway, check it out.
Jim Caple Has A Posse
Jim Caple’s first book, “The Devil Wears Pinstripes,” gets a glowing review in the Post-Intelligencer.
Given that Caple used to work at the P-I before he started hanging out with co-eds and dressing like Tigger, it’s not a shock that they liked the book. I’m sure that the positive review is an honest one, though, because Caple is a gifted writer. It sounds like he’s pulling no punches, either: the shots start with the title and continue from there. He calls Yankee Stadium “a garbage dump,” to name one example.
The one critical line in the piece echoes the only beef I’ve ever had with Caple’s work: the tendency to use quips as an end in themselves, thus hitting narrative high spots too quickly and without enough building. In reviewer John Marshall’s words, the book delivers “such an onrushing onslaught of one-liners that the reader’s funny bone suffers comic shock syndrome”
One quality I admire in Caple is his ability to tell the unvarnished truth as he perceives it. I will always remember the Baseball Prospectus pizza feed a few years back where, during a group Q + A session, I asked Caple who he thought the most likely Mariner prospect to make a real impact would be.
Caple gulped, considered his audience, and went ahead anyway with: “Well, I think they really should give a serious shot to Bloomquist.”
Sure, he was met with immediate sneers, harrumphs and gasps. But he knew he would be, and he said it anyway.
Caple’s a witty fellow who isn’t afraid to say what he thinks, qualities that I expect will make this book a good read — and possibly force him into the Witness Protection Program once Yankee fans get ahold of it.
MLB has a cap! It does! ARGH!
From this AP article:
While the NFL and NBA have salary caps, baseball does not. The current labor contract expires after the 2006 season.
Baseball has a cap as much as either of those two sports do. In baseball, there’s a hard number with severe and escalating penalties if a team exceeds it. Teams are free to exceed that number if they’re willing to eat the penalties… which is exactly as it is in the NBA and the NFL, though in each league the ways teams work it, and the penalties that they pay, differ.
I don’t understand why baseball has this widespread perception. The Yankees are the only team that violates the cap, and they’re paying a huge price to do so that gets higher every year.
Off-day Mariner fix
Times notebook: Pineiro feels great but his return won’t be moved up, Franklin doesn’t want to be in the pen, Hargrove doesn’t think Ibanez is bad in left (which sort of misses the point) and will continue to play him out there, Pokey update, other stuff.
PI Notebook: Madritsch injury could move up Pineiro’s return, Dobbs is enthusiastic, Pokey update, “Yesterday’s crowd of 25,580 was the seventh-lowest in Safeco Field history,” a lot of other stuff