Brutal
In the past two days, the Mariner bullpen pitched 11 innings, almost all of which were extremly high leverage situations where failure would equal an immediate loss. The distribution of those innings, thanks to the amazing Mike Hargrove:
Julio Mateo, 2 2/3 IP
Emiliano Fruto, 2 2/3 IP
Mark Lowe, 2 1/3 IP
George Sherrill, 1 1/3 IP
Rafael Soriano, 1 IP
Jake Woods, 1 IP
J.J. Putz, 0 IP
The Mariners can talk about his leadership, his experience, his motivational skills, whatever they want. However, this series was bullpen mismanagement of catastrophic levels.
Seriously, just an absolutely awful piece of managing by Mike Hargrove. Major League franchises don’t penalize their managers for poor in game strategy, but when a guy lacks basic understanding of fundamental principles, he simply can’t be allowed to continue to perform them.
Mike Hargrove is the in-game strategist equivalent of General Custer. I, for one, can’t wait for the last stand.
Nah, what’s done is done. The edifices are there, so everybody (public and private) need to maximize the income from them. I wish the deals hadn’t been done, and I’m quite happy to wave goodbye to any team that wants another handout (at the rate the Sonics are going — the last rebuild of KeyArena was just a decade ago — they’re going to want money for new luxury boxes every other year and KeyArena will be in a permanent state of expansion, like some kind of kudzu or cancer engulfing Seattle Center).
But I would be quite happy if Seattle became the first post-pro sports city in the US. Seattle has finally managed to get itself off that terrible “most livable city” list; this would seal the deal. Just imagine the improvement in traffic!
Heck, we’re not that far away from photorealistic renderings in video games: have all the players show up for spring training, motion capture them, and then just render the games on the internet over the season while they all sit back and collect their checks. It’ll be just as entertaining for the fans and just think: no blown calls!