Two Monday Links
Friend of USSM Jonah Keri has a story on Page 2 today about the No-Stars Team — ignoble counterpart to the All-Stars. A couple of Mariners make the cut. See if you can guess which two.
Also, in case you missed it, check out Kevin Goldstein’s “Future Shock” piece on Adam Jones from Prospectus on June 30.
The Time Has Come
Early speculation is that Jeremy Reed has broken his thumb and is going to miss at least 4-6 weeks. This leaves the Mariners with exactly one real outfielder on the roster. Ibanez is a DH masquerading as a LF, and Willie Bloomquist is a 2B who gets used in center because he plays hard. Carl Everett can’t run, and isn’t even an option.
Ichiro is the only real outfielder the M’s have in the major leagues right now. The internal options from Tacoma include Doyle (.287/.392/.434), Choo (.316/.391/.477), and unfortunately, Mike Morse (.233/.283/.421). None of these three should be asked to patrol CF in Safeco Field. Doyle and Choo would both be fine in a corner outfield spot, however, and both would provide significantly better offense than anything they could expect from Willie Ballgame.
So the team is in a situation where they need to open up a corner OF spot and they need a legitimate defensive center fielder. They’ve spent years dancinng around the issue, but Reed’s injury pushes it to the forefront – move Ichiro to center.
It’s the best move, and it’s not even close. Reed hasn’t been hitting for the last 18 months anyways, and the Mariners best 9-man line-up in a playoff push wouldn’t include him swinging the bat. The team is in playoff contention, and they’ve got to figure out how to maximize every advantage they can. Ichiro has publically stated that he’d move to center if asked, though behind the scenes, we hear all kinds of rumors about how he wants an offseason’s notice to train for the new position.
At this point, though, you can’t afford to let Ichiro’s personal preference take precedence over the good of the club. The team needs him in center field. Putting Ichiro in CF allows you to move Ibanez to right, which minimizes his defensive liabilities in Safeco, and Doyle or Choo in left. Or, you could just put Doyle/Choo in right, as both have the arm for it.
If the M’s have the guts to make the move, Reed getting hurt could be the a blessing in disguise. The Mariners best team has Ichiro manning center field, freeing up a corner OF position to add offense. They’re not getting the offense they need from Jeremy Reed, and they won’t get it from Willie Bloomquist.
Odds are the M’s won’t do it. It’d be a pretty dramatic move to not only change Ichiro’s position but essentially cause Jeremy Reed to lose his job to an injury, but he’s played his way out of the line-up on his own. The M’s have internal options who deserve those at-bats, and this injury creates a perfect chance to maximize the talent on the roster and get the best possible line-up on the field.
Ichiro to CF, Doyle or Choo to the majors. Whichever one doesn’t come up now can replace Carl Everett when the M’s finally tire of him.
Mariner All-Stars
So yes, the rosters are out.
Starters: Ichiro!
Reserves: Lopez at second.
That is all.
Ichiro clips on YouTube
The Catch
(one of several)
That’s an 8′ fence. He plants about halfway up, jumps/pulls himself about halfway over the fence and makes the catch at eye level. So that ball was going to clear the fence by 3-4′ at a height of about 11-12′ and Ichiro caught it. It’s hard to realize because he kind of does half and half, but Ichiro managed to catch a ball that required a jump essentially as high as he stands.
Other catches
A Yes Network perspective on a nice catch.
Ichiro makes an error in spring training and then cracks up about it.
David Ortiz is displeased by this catch.
The Throw
(one of several)
Ichiro throws T-Long out by a-long ways.
Alternate throws:
Nailing Barfield, who bowls over Johjima. See also here.
Ichiro-Lopez-Johjima to get Polanco (also, Ichiro-Johjima to get Inge)
Hitting
Ichiro’s home run in the 1996 Japan Series. Nice.
Ichiro gets five hits in a game against the Angels.
257. 258,
breaking the single-season hits record (also here)
Ichiro gets plunked by Nomo. Owww.
Ichiro gets a series of hits. Strange countdown thing.
Ichiro hits a home run off Jake Peavy in a World Baseball Classic game.
Running
Ichiro’s dance-around-the-catcher move.
Ichiro’s caught stealing and Jeter makes a play worthy of extended gushing (it’s on Fox, you see)
Baffling
Ichiro-Mondow: Two Chairs. (also here) There’s Ichiro, a figure skater named Asada Mao, and two chairs. I don’t know what’s going on, but it’s funny.
Ichiro vs Hirosue Ryoko in some kind of.. I don’t know.
Short, low quality clip, WBC-related, includes Ichiro grinning and cracking up in an interview.
Highlight Reels
Ichiro visits a school (with Ron Fairly and the Moose, to talk about drugs)(no really) and some highlights.
Ichiro interviews with some play clips. Aaand another one. Another one.
Ichiro highlights set to Linkin Park song and edited with some effects and stuff.
Somone likes Ichiro and Pujols enough to edit clips together.
World Baseball Classic
Japanese clips.
More of Ichiro jumping around and stuff here. Weird to see him so demonstrative.
Also World Cup related, I think: this segment features his selection and subsequent… conversation outside a hotel? (features him cracking up, too) Also: Ichiro pitching!
Ads, various
Ichiro grins at small child. Unless that was a computer-generated smile. Then there’s Ichiro pitching to a small kid, which is totally adorable.
For NTT. Sweating. Then there’s this one where he’s made up of jazzy fiber optic lines, I guess. And swinging.
Endorsing Nissan (I think) while shockingly young.
Ichiro likes to hit balls precisely to form shapes.
Ichiro commercial for MLB. “As an athlete, I’m drawn to the allure of trying to play this game as close to perfection as humanly possible.” (I would bet that lost something in the translation – draw to the allure?)
Unknown because I don’t speak Japanese
Something about Ichiro-Harimoto
Game 83, Rockies at Mariners
RHP Jennings v LHP Washburn. 1:05.
Day game after a night game means Johjima’s got the day off. Rivera plays, bats 8th (!) ahead of Betancourt (I sort of see the logic… you get a Betancourt-Ichiro turnover at the bottom, and yet…)
If Arizona can beat Oakland today (Webb v Zito) and the M’s win, well.. I don’t want to say anything.
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.
Game 82, Rockies at Mariners
RHP Byung-Hyun Kim vs. RHP Joel Pineiro, 7:05pm.
Kim has turned his career around after a disasterous 2004 season in which he posted a 6+ ERA (albeit in limited action). This year he’s at 4.31 through 11 starts, and despite pitching half his games at Coors Field, has only surrendered five home runs on the year. He’s also on something of a roll right now, having allowed no runs and nine hits in 13 innings over his past two starts.
Then you have Pineiro. It’s been a month since his last good start, when he held Kansas City to one run over seven innings. In the four starts since then, he’s allowed 31 hits, ten walks, and has fanned just 12 hitters in 21.2 innings, all good for a Boeing-friendly 7.47 ERA. Ugh.
Yes, the thread is up a bit early. Please play nice.