U.S.S. Mariner

Well, that’s what a bad King Felix start looks like. Ill control, weird pitch selection, hassled by inconsistent umpiring. I don’t particularly care if you want to call a wide or a small strike zone, though I’d like to see someone call the rulebook strike zone once… but if someone puts the same pitch in [...]

The dust is settling around my house. Boards and plaster have settled down like warm snowflakes, and a new room is taking shape.
We’re doing a tradition long enjoyed by my favorite baseball team, the end-of-summer remodel.
Remodeling inherently involves destruction, sometimes painful. You throw away a part that’s outlived its usefulness, you tear down [...]

Whet your appetite for King Felix vs. Randy Johnson with Jim Caple’s ESPN.com preview.
The over-under on game thread comments tonight is 600. I’ll take the over, even if Corco doesn’t show.

The Pacific Coast League’s news item is here.
Hernandez becomes the first pitcher as well as the first player from Tacoma to receive the award.
Congratulations, Felix.

RHP Jeff Harris vs. RHP Shawn Chacon, 7:05pm, FSN & KOMO.
RF Ichiro
CF Reed
DH Ibanez
1B Sexson
3B Beltre
LF Morse
2B Lopez
C JoeJessica
SS Betancourt
There’s much to like about tonight’s lineup: Reed hitting second, Bloomquist’s absence, Lopez’ presence, Morse in left, Ibanez back to DH, Betancourt in there to haul in everything hit his way, and so on.
Chacon has been [...]

Willie “the Igniter” Bloomquist was placed on the 15-day DL with a strained left hammy, suffered yesterday while running out what turned out to be an RBI fielder’s choice. 2B of the future Jose Lopez, who was hitting a robust .319/.354/.509 at Tacoma with ~41% XBH, has replaced Bloomquist on the 25-man roster.
Here’s hoping Lopez [...]

7:05. Your lineups:
Ichiro, RF-L vs Jeter, SS-R
Ignitor, 2B-R vs Matsui, LF-L
Ibanez, LF-L vs Sheffield, DH-R
Sexson, 1B-R vs Rodriguez, 3B-R
Beltre, 3B-R vs Giambi, 1B-L
Dobbs, “DH”-R vs Williams, “CF”-B
Betancourt, SS-R vs Lawton, RF-L
Reed, CF-L vs Posada, C-B
Ojeda, C-R vs Cano, 2B-L
Aannnd in the biggest matchup of the day… RHP Mike Mussina v RHP Ryan Franklin. Not even [...]

“Once is happenstance. Twice is coincidence. Three times is enemy action.”
If I might borrow the words of James Bond’s nemesis Auric Goldfinger for a moment, let me apply them to Seattle P-I columnist John Levesque’s unhealthy obsession with Willie Bloomquist. The malady manifested itself again today, marking a trifecta of tedious homilies to Seattle’s most [...]

Remember the school cafeteria’s mystery meat, the mysterious mishmash of flesh that might have once been a cow, a pig, or some combination thereof? That’s your starting rotation next year. It ain’t quite a box of chocolates, but you sure don’t know what you’re gonna get.
Especially with the news about Jorge Campillo, the 2006 Mariners [...]

Homer #33 today, the 534th career and good for a tie with Jimmie Foxx for 13th all-time. Also his 1000th career extra base hit. Oh, and a 14-game hitting streak to boot. Season line: a robust .302/.371/.578 with 45% of his hits going for extra bases.
We still love ya, man.