Last night’s game notes
I went to last night’s game, and I have a couple of random thoughts. Some of these are in the game thread, but–
– Pineiro’s done. I’m sure if you watched on TV you got even better looks at it, but the impression is impossible to deny: he looks like he’s just heaving stuff out there and hoping for good results. I saw one good-quality pitch all start. I don’t know if he needs rest or a minor-league stint or what, but the guy headed out to the mound every couple days looks horrible.
– Groundskeeper dancing is tired. Scale it back, please.
– Ichiro rocks.
– For all my complaining about Ibanez’s Dora-the-Explorer routes to fly balls (and when you have the wide persepctive of being there, it’s even worse), that was a really sweet catch.
– They went crazy with the music during the ninth. It’s a little ridiculous.
– I heard the radio feed when Reed was up, and in it, Niehaus and Fairly discussed pinch-hitting for Reed with Perez: You play Bloomquist in center. If they bring the right-hander in, you can even pinch-hit for Perez with Petagine and then play Bloomquist in center.
Consider that for a second: Niehaus and Fairly were able to think three steps ahead of the guy in the dugout in a couple of seconds.
– If Sexson’s turning it around and Beltre keeps hitting in the #2 spot, the M’s will have the best infield in baseball.
– It’s funny that as much as people say they admire baseball for being a team sport, they’ll argue on the way out over who the hero was (in this case, it was Ichiro v Ibanez, both players having made critical contributions to the win)
At the start of the year, we thought the Mariners were about a .500 team, and they certainly took a painful way to get there, but it’s hard to describe how great it was to be there yesterday, with 30k+ people out to see the Rockies and the Mariners contending. Two years, some of it amazingly hard to watch, and now there’s a bit of the buzz back, the people smiling on the concourses as they walk out, and that makes me really happy.
Also, the M’s are 9-3 since I turned in my resignation. I’m not a particularly superstitious man, but this might be a good time for the M’s to make sure my mortgage payments (and so forth) are taken care of so I can continue being a bum and they can continue winning 3/4ths of their games.
DMZ, I totally buy that the M’s streak may coincide with your resignation. I’ve been back in Seattle since last year and they’ve lost every game that I’ve attended. How else to explain one of the hottest teams in baseball getting shut down by Josh Freakin Fogg on the only game I attend in person this year. Perhaps the M’s can buy a new HDTV for me to watch the games at home and keep me away from Safeco.
Better than the Yankee infield?
There was a time in the middle of the game, I believe, with a couple runners on, two down, where Everett came up vs. a left hander. Of course, Everett failed and popped out to end the inning. I believe the pitcher was Ray King, not sure if there was a righty up in the pen.
Why not Perez there? If they swap to a right hander, you can always put Petagine in, or later on in the game for that matter.
I feel the Cabrera for Perez deal just won’t be worth it because Hargrove won’t use him correctly. It’s not a bad trade from the GM point of view, but it can be made bad via poor use by the Manager.
I could be dead wrong because Perez isn’t in town for some reason yet, but it had been over 24 hours, I’m sure he’s in uniform on the bench.
Have you seen what they’re throwing out there lately? Phillips-Cairo-Jeter-Alex. That’s half a great infield and half a horrible one.
By time Woods was brought in I felt like calling my mother who was at the game. I was going to tell her to start drinking if she hadn’t already. I turned the game off and went to a movie.
It sounds like my mom was the lucky one after all.
I’m excited about going to today’s game.
The Met infield is pretty damned awesome too, though Valentin is obviously playing over his head.
It also amazes me how the team has gotten zero national recognition from what I can tell over their recent resurgance. We’re a game back from first place and Sexson and Beltre are finally justifying their contracts, Felix starting to live up to the hype, etc. I believe some recognition is due. I haven’t seen any ESPN article, or even any mention in a Hardball Times “Ten Things I Didn’t Know Last Week”, or anything really.
They announced before the game that Perez was there and available.
DMZ: I saw you for a few seconds in the lobby of the Renaissance yesterday as you and Jonah and some other guy I didn’t know were heading off to Safeco. I was going to come over and introduce myself, since you and I share at least 1 similar viewpoint (about Mr. Everett) but you guys raced outta there before I had the chance. I shepherded one of the 3 busloads of SABRen down to the Tacoma game (where we witnessed the Shin-Soo Choo inside the park home run, and, something perhaps even more rare – Dave Brundage waving a runner in).
Maybe it’s a combination of you, me, and Martino that explains the Ms recent behavior. Friday night was the only game I attended and will attend all year at Safeco. And they lost. In record time. My presence does not seem to bode well for them. You on the other hand, well, you can at least keep attending the games!
It also amazes me how the team has gotten zero national recognition from what I can tell over their recent resurgance. We’re a game back from first place and Sexson and Beltre are finally justifying their contracts, Felix starting to live up to the hype, etc. I believe some recognition is due. I haven’t seen any ESPN article, or even any mention in a Hardball Times “Ten Things I Didn’t Know Last Weekâ€Â, or anything really.
I happened to be up late last night and wasn’t able to sleep, so I turned on the TV and SportsCenter was on. They had some little blip about the West being wide open and had shots of the A’s followed by the Angels. *chuckles*
Oh, and the recap of our game? Awful. It was like [whoever was on the air] had sharp pains in his abdomen and was trying to get through as quickly as possible. They showed Ibañez’s catch (but not his home run), then showed PiñAAAro giving up a bunch of singles. Then he said something to the effect of “after that, it was all Ichiro” while showing Ichiro’s homer.
That was all.
There’s a reason I normally don’t watch that, though.
I see the first to go poll has swung mightily in favor of PiñAAAro after last night’s disaster.
BTW: The SABR convention kicked an incredible amount of ass, and thanks to the main dudes in the NW chapter – Anthony, Mark, Jeff, Dave, Steve, Maury – for pulling it off. Anybody has any questions about the stuff I saw, I’d be happy to share my observations, FWIW. My 3 favorite things: 1) attending the Scouts committee meeting only to be surprised to have the opportunity to ask Bob Fontaine questions for well over half an hour, with his assistant Jim Fitzgerald also in attendance, as well as Bill Bavasi. Fontaine is a sweetheart of a guy, and SABR honored him with the Roland Hemond ‘Scout of the Year’ award. 2) the PCL player’s panel was hilarious (so was the Seattle Pilots Panel, but I preferred the PCL guys, and 3) Sean Forman gave a great presentation on how to evaluate catchers’ ability to block pitches, how to measure it, what it means. Those are just the top 3 for me, in an incredible weekend (about to continue with the Shin-Soo Choo Choo giveaway I must now leave for). Y’all should have been there.
DMZ, what’s the move to make with respect to Piñeiro? I’d say Cruceta should be the callup, but there’s an argument for a trade or using Soriano as a starter if it’s possible, or making a trade and banishing Piñeiro to the bullpen or DFAland.
Re: #9
Choo’s inside the park ‘shot’ was very cool to witness!
As soon as it cleared the center fiedler’s head it was obvious he’d make it around. Fresno had some odd defensive positioning in the 8th inning…
Also… Delgado/Reyes/Valentin/Wright/LoDuca is awfully tempting, but our IF is younger overall. I’d probably take ours if it was a GM-style swap, but the Mets have outdone ours so far.
Valentin isn’t THAT far over his head, really- he’s had 6 20+ HR seasons.
13: In no way can the Mariners afford to start Soriano with the roster as is. He’s the most reliable righty in the ‘pen with the exception of Putz. If the Mariners decide they want to start Soriano, they should trade for a quality right-handed reliever.
British Columbia Mariners fans will share frustration with having to wait for Blue Jays games to end before the Mariner’s games are televised. No respect for B.C. Mariners fans from our sports channel (Rogers Sportsnet, owner of the Blue Jays). Looks like I’m going to miss the first couple of innings of this afternoons game (@#&!)
Any other Canadian Ms fans out there?
#14. Yeah, as Choo stepped up to the plate, my friend Oscar said to me ‘their center fielder is playing awfully shallow, don’t you think?’ and I said ‘yeah, that’s kinda weird’. If he’d been playing where he should have been, it would have just been an F8. But it was much better to watch the way it unfolded.
Valentin’s been good before, but he’s slugging a hundred points over his career average.
Yeah, if Phillips is playing first it drags down the overall Yankee infield value considerably. I wans’t counting Cairo though, cos Cano is just on the DL.
Yeah, the bullpen’s a bit short behind Putz. That’s why “if that’s possible” is a big caveat.
RHP for the ‘pen might be available for pretty cheap talentwise…
For all my complaining about Ibanez’s Dora-the-Explorer routes to fly balls (and when you have the wide persepctive of being there, it’s even worse), that was a really sweet catch.
While I find the poor routes more noticable in person, what I find most noticable in person is just how slow Ibanez is running in the outfield. It’s like he’s running in sand or something. If Ibanez keeps hitting like this, he’s still a net positive in the outfield, but I still wonder what it would’ve been like with Dave’s suggestion of Jacque Jones (current VORP 14.4, even while playing against LHP) patrolling LF rather than Carl Everett (current VORP -1.9) manning DH.
Adding in defense, that could’ve been something like a 4-win upgrade over the course of the whole season, which could easily be the difference in the race this year.
I second the DMZ Mortage payment giveaway. Betting on luck has got to be a better investment than paying Washburn $9.375 million.
Or paying Pineiro…. whatever he’s getting paid.
#10, at least the online folks are giving them a little bit of love – http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/powerranking . From 21 to 9 in a week isn’t too shabby 😉
The “national media” still thinks the A’s are the obvious cream of the division, Putz is just a temporary fill-in until Eddie returns as the regular closer, and the M’s infield consists of two corner guys who can’t hit and two middle guys who essentially don’t exist. In other words, stop worrying about what the national media thinks (or writes). I’d rather have an unheralded team that surprises everybody than a team that has to live up to (and live with) national media attention and expectations.