Doyle day recap, balk wins game

DMZ · May 11, 2006 at 8:29 am · Filed Under Mariners 

TNT on the return, including this sad bit:

Snelling has heard wide-ranging advice in his attempt to bounce back from another serious injury, mainly suggestions about altering his headlong approach to playing.

“For me, holding back, it’s tough to do,” Snelling said. “But I have to do it. I’m getting hurt for a reason.”

Yes, but the reason is that the universe is a harsh and cruel place where no hope can survive for long. For a lesser example, the Mariners lost 1-0 on a balk (which David Andriesen examines at the PI) in a game where Moyer went eight innings, struck out five, and didn’t walk anyone. Good job, offense.

Sexson and Everett will use pink bats on Sunday (Times,

Carl Everett bails Moore out, in a way:

Lawton has never played with Bonds and wouldn’t say whether he was pulling for him or not, which could only mean that this was yet another Go 2 Guy column idea destined for the waste. Then Carl Everett showed up.

Even Moore knows his columns are garbage? Wow. That’s a remarkable leap of self-awareness for someone who refers to himself in the third person.

Also in the PI, a column on Lopez achieves almost Steve Kelley levels of padding. The PI Notebook has some interesting tidbits, like this Hargrove quote

“There’s a lot of baseball to be played. Where this team is going to settle in, we’re still determining that. That’s why I said at least three weeks ago that it’s usually 40-50 games into the season before you can start making predictions about what’s going on and start projecting things. It’s still early in the season. It doesn’t feel like it’s early, but it is early.”

40, 50 games, huh? I guess we’ll talk to you again in a week, if you’re still around.

Comments

61 Responses to “Doyle day recap, balk wins game”

  1. Rick L on May 11th, 2006 2:15 pm

    Our pitchers have held the other team to two runs or less five times. We have lost all the games. Softy and Groz on KJR suggest having Bloomquist bat leadoff and moving Ichiro down to the three spot, followed by Ibanez. That makes some sense to me. If you followed them with Johjima, Beltre, and Betancourt, and had Petagine play for Sexton, we would have a better offense.

  2. Dave in Palo Alto on May 11th, 2006 2:36 pm

    50 — You must be new to the Mariners. You should have lived through Argyros and Smulyan. They cared about winning like Don Knotts cared about bodybuilding.

  3. msb on May 11th, 2006 2:49 pm

    how about this:

    “The St. Paul Saints, long known for their quirky, irreverent promotions, have a new name for their team mascot: “Bud Squealig.”
    The Saints have used a pig for several years, assigning duties like leading a motorcycle pack into the stadium for a pregame ceremony and serving as a ringbearer for a wedding on the field. Last season’s mascot was named “Ham Solo.” Bud Squealig lives on a farm in Hudson, Wis., according to an announcement made by the team Thursday.”

  4. Jack Howland on May 11th, 2006 2:49 pm

    Softy and Groz on KJR suggest having Bloomquist bat leadoff and …blah blah blah blah blah

  5. Grizz on May 11th, 2006 2:58 pm

    If we are going to throw out all consideration of OBP for the leadoff spot, why not get a real centerfielder and bring back Brian Hunter? Hunter is only 35 and edges Bloomquist in career OBP .313 to .311.

  6. Dave Clapper on May 11th, 2006 3:07 pm

    51: Huh?

    April 6: Seattle 6 Oakland 2 (W)
    April 14: Boston 2 Seattle 1 (L)
    April 15: Seattle 3 Boston 0 (W)
    April 21: Detroit 2 Seattle 1 (L)
    April 22: Detroit 2 Seattle 0 (L)
    April 26: Seattle 5 Chicago 1 (W)
    May 1: Seattle 8 Minnesota 2 (W)
    May 6: Seattle 4 Cleveland 1 (W)
    May 7: Cleveland 2 Seattle 0 (L)
    May 9: Seattle 8 Tampa Bay 1 (W)
    May 10: Tampa Bay 1 Seattle 0 (L)

    Our pitchers have held the other team to two runs or less considerably more than five times. Our record in those games is 6-5. Should it be better than that? You bet it should. But 6-5 is a lot different than 0-5.

    Hints to be taken seriously:
    1) Get your facts straight.
    2) Don’t quote any of the jocks on KJR. They’re idiots.
    3) Learn the names of the players.

  7. msb on May 11th, 2006 3:18 pm

    hmm, in the AL the M’s are 4th in era, 1st in s.o., 2nd in fpct, 3rd in fewest errors… dang that pesky hitting.

  8. gwangung on May 11th, 2006 3:32 pm

    Most MICROSOFT and high tech execs.

    Smulyan was too hamstrung by perceived financial shortfalls to spend effectively [way too leveraged to have bought the team].

  9. Brian Rust on May 11th, 2006 4:23 pm

    Before folks get too uptight about Bloomquist’s playing time, they should consider that yesterday’s debacle against Kazmir left the Mariners dead last in the AL in OPS vs. LHP at .575, behind KC at .589. The team simply has to do something to win, and although Bloomquist’s .394/.429/.424 against lefties is “empty,” what else ya got? It only makes sense that Bloomquist is getting 9.4% of the team’s PAs vs. LHP. He gets only 1.7% of the PAs against RHP.

    Everett, meanwhile, is second in OPS vs. lefties at .717 OPS (thanks to a couple of dingers), so that tells you where the team is at against LHP. Heck, even Ibañez’s .571 OPS lefty split is ahead of Sexson, Johjima, Beltre, YuBet and Reed. In fact, with so many right-handed hitters dropping off significantly against southpaws, I wonder if there’s not something systemic going on here. Coaching, scouting, what??

    If Bloomquist is the answer, someone’s not asking the right question.

  10. John in L.A. on May 11th, 2006 5:12 pm

    Two games ago Willie’s OPS against lefties was 120 points lower.

    The fact that 4 hits and a walk in two days could make it jump so high should not make anyone believe he is suddenly an .850 OPS guy, even against just left handers. It should make everybody realize that we are dealing with a small sample size and valuing it more than all the other data we have on him combined.

    So while arguing that he should crack the line-up against lefties is less absurd than is a general statement “he should bat leadoff”, it still is a decision based entirely in the short term.

    And by short term I mean based on the mistaken belief that he is “hot” and that there is good reason to believe this will continue.

    I don’t care if i knew for certain he was going to bat .850 against lefties all year, I would still want him on the bench because there is nowhere for him to play without sitting someone who needs it more – and that the team needs more.

    Additionally, the bench is poorly designed as is… if Bloomquist starts it becomes comically badly thought out.

  11. Brian Rust on May 12th, 2006 1:33 pm

    Even at 120 points lower he was STILL hitting lefties better than anyone else on the team. My question is why is everyone else hitting them so poorly. Especially Sexson and Beltre.

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