Ichiro: ‘The Best Part About Playing For My Country Was Not Playing For The Seattle Mariners’
March 23, 2006 | Onion Sports

SAN DIEGO—In an interview following Japan’s 10-6 victory against Cuba in the World Baseball Classic championship game Monday, Ichiro Suzuki called the tournament a “great opportunity to represent anything besides the Seattle Mariners.” “Playing alongside my countrymen on the world stage was nice, but the highlight of the event for me was not having to watch helplessly from the on-deck circle as [Seattle outfielder] Willie Bloomquist pops out for the fourth time in one game,” said Ichiro, who has been contemplating a return to his non-Mariner roots since late 2003.

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http://www.theonion.com/content/node/46647

There’s a theory — can’t remember whose, might be Sickels — that players often decline when repeating AAA out of frustration. Borchard has now spent an amazing four years at AAA and has to be more than a little bit frustrated. I’m normally not a big believer in this sort of thing, but this might be a case where “change of scenery” really does make a difference.

Not that I’m expecting much. But if he can repeat that AAA line in the majors while playing a good corner and occasional CF, that’s a useful player.

Each AB ended in a strike out. Bad, bad form.

I wonder how a guy who’s averaged 260/330/490 in the International League, can’t stand a chance against a breaking ball or can’t draw a walk unless it’s intentional, and hasn’t shown jack in three major league call ups with the White Sox, warrants having a bench slot practically handed to him.

What I found particularly interesting in the article on Nageotte and Blackley are the remarks from the Ms developmental staff to the effect that they were ’shocked and demoralized’ at how poorly the two pitched when called up. Now, that shocks _me_. Nageotte was pitching damn poorly down in Tacoma before he was thrown into the fire; he should never have been promoted at the time. Blackely threw well, then spent several games throwing for all the world like he was hurt big time. They didn’t mention that Thornton was also throwing miserably, but was _twice_ promoted. The performances shouldn’t have been that shocking, and it wasn’t the minor league development guys who were doing such a poor job; the _senior_ management thinking was what still grates, to me. I might add that several of those senior figures subsequently talked about how ‘talent poor’ the organization they had inherited was. That latter position might be defensible to a degree, but poor decisions about the talent they had didn’t reflect well on their own thinking regardless.

Has Hargrove hinted at the rotation order yet, or has there been anything postulated? I am looking at tickets for April games, and I want to see Felix.

So the misdiagnosis might be partly Blackley’s fault.

Maybe. But there’s been a lot of discussion here in the past (which is what EC is alluding to) about the “suck it up” culture in the pitching staff under Bryan Price, where any complaint was apparently treated as an indication of softness, lack of mental discipline, and generally used as a basis for criticsm rather than cause for concern — and in several cases that continued right up until the player’s “softness’ put them on the DL or into the operating room. In such a culture (if such it was), would you expect anyone (especially a young guy trying to break in) to do anything but hide a problem?