Sunday
DMZ · March 26, 2006 at 4:17 am · Filed Under Mariners
Today’s game against the Angels is televised, noonish.
Articles worth reading: Beltre’s lighter in body and in spirit [TNT]. Borchard’s the new center fielder (probably) [TNT].
Also available in the Times: Lawton. Borchard in center, maybe.
TIF (#47)
As much as spring training stats are 99% a waste of time, this year has been even worse because of the WBC and other factors that mean the “team” as we expect to see it has rarely played together all at once.
The large majority of the *really* ugly pitching has been from minor leaguers or fringe bullpen guys in the later innings.
Really, it will be interesting to see how the team shapes up when it all comes together.
The starting lineup looks OK relative to expectations – there are no massive negative flameouts and with Lopez getting the nod at 2nd, WFB doesn’t get to start – something that was never really going to happen anyway.
Based on:
+=better than expected/high end of expectations
~=about what was expected
?=who the hell knows?
-=worse than expected
Johjima +
Sexson ~
Lopez +
Betancourt ~
Beltre +
Ibanez ~
Borchard ??
Ichiro +
Everett ~
really, nobody has performed worse than expected.
Starters:
Moyer ~
Pineiro ~
Washburn ~
Meche ~
Felix ~
I think the pitching from the big guys has been pretty much what you’d expect (not exactly a good thing with JP and GM, though).
The big flameouts have been the guys that could have had a chance, like Foppert, but he obviously isn’t ready.
Look at it this way. Our pitchers are getting a lot more ST work than our opponents’.
From the MLB article:
“Bloomquist, deemed too valuable to start at any one position, will resume his super-utility role.”
Good gravy Gracie.
And Metz… Why should Lopez necessarily be batting 8th or 9th?
He’s got a career OBP of .335 which is not what I want to see in my #2 hitter. He’s also got a ton of pressure on him to succeed this season or be shipped back to Tacoma. I think it would be better for him & the club to not expect him to hit int he #2 spot.
From the TNT:
Joel Piñeiro gave up two home runs – one of them on a foul ball…
What the heck does that mean? A bad call, perhaps?
Jeff Nelson just got released by the Cardinals. Yeah…exactly.
G-Man, apparently the game Joel pitched was umpired by high school umpires instead of minor league umpires due to a potential minor league umpire strike.
55: I wondered the same thing, but eventually realized that it was probably a reference to the fact that high school umpires were used in the game (as mentioned above in #2.)
It does make me wonder, though: if Jeff Clement set the record for career HS home runs, how many were hit fair ? Will we eventually hear quotes from Pentland or his replacement, bemoaning the fact that Clement got into bad habits in high school and needs to work on keeping the ball between the foul poles ?
So high school umpires can’t figure out what those big yellow things mean? Are you sure they weren’t cricket umps?
Cricket umps would have made someone play silly mid-off.
At least they enforce the concept of not getting points by throwing your body in front of the ball.
That’s right. Batsmen are required to get out of the way, aren’t they?
or hit it. You can’t block the wicket with your body, that’s a LBW and it’s an out.