Game 14, Mariners at Red Sox
8:05 AM. Radio only. I don’t think I’ll even be able to get this on MLB Extra Innings if I skipped out on work (not that I’d consider staying home from work to watch a Meche start, or anything. I’m totally happy with my job. No, really. Don’t send me job openings for program managers or anything.)
I understand that this bizarre start time is due to Patriot’s Day, which celebrates the April 19, 1775 Battle of Lexington and Concord. British Army troops were ordered to capture a strategic Dunkin’ Donuts franchise in Concord that was supplying colonial troops with delicious circular fried dough rations, hot coffee, and was a bastion of local outrageous accents.
The British were confronted by a small group of hardcore punk groups at Lexington, but their numbers were too small and they were forced to flee and nurse their anger. They were finally turned back at Concord by Minutemen and hassled by the Mighty Mighty Bosstones and other ska bands, inflicting heavy casualties and emboldening future generations to do the running man free of the tyranny of Liam and Noel Gallagher.
Also the Boston Marathon is today. Sacrifice your knees while suffering excruciating pain masked by the conflict between your body’s fevered attempts to shut you down and your brain’s manic release of endorphins to mask the torture you’re going through. If you can run a seven minute mile, you should be running, not reading this. Unless you’re reading this just before the race starts.
After the game ends, the crowd is let out to the finish line, where they tell all the runners what a great game they missed, and relate the exploits of the beleoved hometown team.
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Maybe because, as crappy as everett is hitting, it’s still better than borchard has ever done.
If everett is sitting out petagine should get his at bats. Seriously.
Look folks. 1 month is obviously a “small sample.” But guess what, its also the ONLY SAMPLE. The guy came up, tore the cover off the ball, played decent (at best) d, and hit with power and with risp. Right now the M’s need a couple of sticks, he should get a shot. Some guys can capitalize on “a shot.” And by the way, I don’t say they should play Rivera over Johjima, I said they should both be in the lineup, unless Everett’s sub .200 ba is too valuable to lose. Cmon people. Stop defending Guardado, he was weak last year, and he’s older now than he was then. It’s Soriano’s time. Mateo-Putz-Soriano isn’t exactly Nelly-Rhodes-Sazaki… but it’s a whole lot better than anything with Guardado.
An outsider’s point of view regarding Guardado. I’ve never quite understood how he gets people out. I guess he hides the ball a bit, but he clearly has no intention of throwing a ball to the inside half of the plate to a righty hitter.
I remember back around ’93, the S.F. Giants were facing Tommy Glavine of the Braves. And the Giants, as a group, (all the righties, anyway) stood on top of the plate and closed their stances and lined hit after hit to right center field and center field. I was tremendously impressed. I don’t understand why guys don’t do that to Guardado. I mean, there’s nothing in particular that seems wrong with any one pitch, 88 mph on the black outside. But when that’s all that a guy seems to throw, it starts to seem odd that hitters don’t adjust to him more often.
Oh well. Anyway, there was no chance of Guardado being around for when the M’s are real contenders (when he could have been traded last July) was there? And he could have been traded for someone who would be, right? So . . .
everett had a month last year where he hit .350 with 6hr. i have no idea how we could ever pull him from the lineup.
Geesh, you people have a disgusting lack of appreciation for intangibles….without Everett’s leadership in the clubhouse, this series would’ve been a sweep by an average of 5 runs a game. Do you honestly think Moyer would’ve looked that good in Fenway last year-geesh didn’t anyone notice how well the chisox pitching staff did last year with everett in the clubhouse?
And for all of you Morse bashers, his .400 average during his first 20 games in the big dance is far far more important than his sub .550 OPS for the rest of the season. As for his poor defensive skills at short, the M’s have a great bunch of flyball pitchers, so truthfully, hiding him at short may be the best solution. Finally, just think how well Morse would be doing in Tacoma if only Everett was there providing leadership in the clubhouse…… The kid has a heart of a warrior. A warrior people…..
War to your #3 hitter sac bunting in the second inning. War to calling a hit and run with bases loaded and no outs with your pitcher batting. War to intentially walking the potential winning run in the bottom of the ninth….
#384-385; regarding a trade last year; remember that Guardado has a 10-team no-trade list, primarily teams on the East Coast and according to him, he was never asked to waive the no-trade last July.
Various reports at the time said that there was some interest in him, but that most teams — whether they were leery of the shoulder, the no-trade clause, the $6.25 club option for ’06 or the fact that if they got him and he wasn’t used as a closer the team would have renegotiate an incentive clause in his contract that pays $1 million if he finishes 55 games — most teams didn’t want to give the M’s what they wanted for him, but would only offer a prospect.
Look folks. 1 month is obviously a “small sample.†But guess what, its also the ONLY SAMPLE.
Only if you don’t understand the predictive power of minor league performance.
The guy came up, tore the cover off the ball, played decent (at best) d, and hit with power and with risp.
He was actually the worst defensive shortstop in baseball. And he didn’t tear the cover off the ball after his brief two week fluke hot streak. If you think a season line of .278/.349/.370 is tearing the cover off the ball, well, you’ve got really low standards.
Some guys can capitalize on “a shot.â€Â
Prove it. Find me a guy who didn’t hit at all in the minors but did in the majors.
I said they should both be in the lineup, unless Everett’s sub .200 ba is too valuable to lose.
You think Rivera should play ahead of Everett, Lawton, and Petagine? Seriously?
Stop defending Guardado, he was weak last year, and he’s older now than he was then.
Guardado had a 2.72 ERA and was 36 for 41 in saves last year. The last time he posted an ERA over 3.00 was 2001.
just to be specific, re: Morse.
in Tacoma
2005 182ABS .253AVE .317OBP .407SLG .724OPS
in Seattle, 2006
June 84ABS .357AVE .423OBP .464SLG .887OPS
July 71ABS .282AVE .338OBP .380SLG .718OPS
Aug 47ABS .170AVE .264OBP .255SLG .519OPS
Sept. 24ABS .250AVE .308OBP .292SLG .599OPS
back in Tacoma
2006 35ABs .200AVE .243OBP .371SLG .614OPS
Apparently, the popular wisdom in this thread is minor league stats magically become completely irrelevant in the majors regardless of the sample size, so Morse and Rivera = greatest hitters alive, Borchard = worthless.
Oh, and what you’ve done in the last two weeks = what you will for the next 24, so Guardado = worthless.
Good to know.
[Morse] was actually the worst defensive shortstop in baseball.
Doesn’t Derek Jeter have that spot nailed down pretty well?
Knowing of the Carl Everett love here on USSM, I can’t resist copying this exchange today from the Sons of Sam Horn:
Post: Did anyone else have a problem with the amount of booing Carl Everett received? I think the guy, while obviously a little off the beaten path, is not that bad of a guy, and his outbursts occurred a few years ago.
Reply: Personally, I had a problem with it. I thought there was way too little booing of Carl Everett. If any Red Sox player in my lifetime is “that bad of a guy”, it is Carl Everett. If I had unlimited time on my hands, I would go on tour following the Mariners around to every stadium they played just to get the opportunity to boo him. That man is a disgrace to the sport.
Link
Check out Morse’s defensive ineptitude in the play-by-play metrics. It’s all small sample size theatre, of course, but he was awful awful awful. Which pretty much goes with every scouting report ever offered on the guy, and the M’s decision to move him to the outfield.
Morse’s defense would have to improve 10 fold to be in Jeter’s class of futility.
Morse’s Fielding Runs Above Replacement, 2005: -2
Jeter’s Fielding Runs Above Replacement, 2005: 38
Morse’s EqR at SS, 2005: 25
Jeter’s EqR at SS, 2005: 119
(Jeter actually had the best defensive year of his career according to the advanced fielding stats.)
Sorry, but when I refer to play-by-play metrics, I’m not talking about BP’s, which I deem mostly worthless. Check out his PMR, which can be found on David Pinto’s site. He was an abomination.
I went with the BP stuff because it was at hand. I know it’s noisy, but it was that or fielding percentage.
Aaah, here we are:
http://www.baseballmusings.com/archives/012856.php
Michael Young is below Morse, but Young hit .331/.385/.513, so you have to find room for that.
Betancourt’s far better than Morse. I’ll take Hoover-esque and .250 every day and twice on Sunday over .270 and airmails the ball over a 6’8″ first baseman.
Dave 407. “Show me a guy who didn’t hit at all in the minors but did in the majors”
How about John Olerud?
All right, I’m just being a prick here…
Touche. There actually are a few examples that I’m aware of, but I’ll see if TheBig is actually aware of any before I give them away.
Well, with Eddie, there are a several possible explanations for his suckitude:
1) Still getting his spring training licks in (or should that be Mark Loretta’s spring training licks?)
2) Still broken up over the whole Kirby Puckett thing
3) Arm has, in fact, fallen off and merely being held on by daily applications of superglue.
I’m leaning towards mostly #3, with #1 and #2 as aggravating factors.
The Eddie G career deathwatch is officially on. I’ll be shocked if he makes it to July in any fit state to be traded.
#417 – how about Rene Rivera? 😉
#417: Dave Winfield?
[deleted, name calling]
Shorter thebig708:
I got nothing.
Thanks to whoever was wielding the magic erasor there. Reading this thread just reminded me how blessedly free this site is of the usual internet trolly-posturing-aggressive nonsense. It’s appreciated.
This is a very weird team. At least this year they are interesting-baddish instead of just bad bad.
That was me. If only we got paid by the comment deletion: we’d be on a new server and drinking only the finest sports drinks while watching over the site.
I second that John. Thank you to all you guys that make this a decent place to come talk/read/learn more about baseball. You guys do a great job of keeping major arguments from breaking out.
“interesting(ly)-baddish” – thats a cool phrase, I’m going to have to figure out a way to include that in a conversation sometime.
I think the earlier comment about Eddie being one decent pitch away from having a terrific outing, as opposed to what has mostly been termed as disasterous, is right on. He’s by no means perfect. Few closers are. Rivera let one go yesterday too. It’s one game, one pitch. Let’s see how they rebound.