Game 56, Mariners at Marlins
DMZ · June 7, 2005 at 3:29 pm · Filed Under Game Threads
RHP Ryan Franklin v RHP Brian “Scuffy” Moehler.
No matter which way Hargrove goes with the lineup tonight (sitting Ibanez or Winn or someone else) it seems certain that during this roadtrip to NL parks we’ll likely see both sit at least once, leaving the consecutive game demolition derby to Ichiro! (who rocks) and Boone (who does not).
Comments
154 Responses to “Game 56, Mariners at Marlins”
DMZ… good points but its a wild gamble any way you cut it. If your gamble is a loss, its a loss. Continuing to back a loser aint gonna make the M’s FO a winner. Keeping Cirillo around just because they were paying him tons didn’t make him produce. Its a dead loss any way you look at it. They probably had to eat more than crow when they let him go. Now if eating the loss is something they just can’t do in Beltre’s case, then thats that and its no use complaining because the ‘reason’ for playing him isn’t to win games any more. That reason to keep in in the lineup is merely the fact that they have all that cash invested in him. Its still a dead loss.
He certainly hasn’t been producing but it is ridiculous to call him a “dead loss”. Should they send him to AAA and play Dobbs? Should they bench him for Bloomquist? Should they release him and let another team pick him up for the major league minimum? What the heck are you proposing?
The wild gamble was made when they signed the contract. But for god’s sakes you’re talking about a 26 year old guy who hit 334/388/629 last year with 48 HR. Is it crazy to think he might come around?
The reason for playing him is because he’s a young hitter who had an MVP-level season last year. Not because of his contract.
Actually the first step I’d take with Beltre would be to drop him down in the lineup. Having him hit in the #3 hole is killing the M’s offense. Start by moving him down to 6th.
#152 – 0k, I says to meself, ‘patience, Old Grasshoppah’. So two years from now he’s still hitting .240-.250, 60-80 rbi…. thats when the M’s will have gotten their money’s worth? I’m not predicting that, I just wonder how the passing of time will help. Its the hope that he’ll just ‘get better’. How? For nine weeks the opposing pitchers have been teaching him that he can’t hit that outside pitch. Its a sucker pitch but he swings at it anyhow. I have to call him a slow learner. Things must not have been that way last year. I can’t recall who was hitting behind him last year in L.A.? That might have had something to do with it.
I won’t hammer this any flatter today. I recognize that folks want to wait and see… Hell, I have to do that too and, as many have pointed out, there isn’t much alternative. They made a decision, a gamble, they are committed to it and the only thing to do is hope that Adrian and Jeff Cirillo don’t share the same spirit guide.