Roundup
Lots of things to cover this morning.
1. Get well, Raffy.
Obviously, we’re all nuts about the Mariners, and we take this team way too seriously. But it doesn’t take much to remind you that this is, after all, just a game, and the line drive off Rafael Soriano’s head brought that perspective back to the light. I don’t care if the M’s go 0 for September, as long as Rafael Soriano is okay and is able to lead a long, healthy, productive life. We’re all pulling for him.
2. Doyle!
Need I say more?
3. The Price of Pitching Just Went Up
Yesterday, on his 29th birthday, Roy Oswalt agreed to a 5 year, $73 million extension. While Roy Oswalt is a legitimately terrific pitcher, a five year commitment to any starting pitcher is borderline folly, and when he’s a year away from becoming a free agent… well, lets just say I see a lot of downside in this move. It also helps set the market for pitching this offseason. If you thought Jason Schmidt had any chance of being a bargain, that just went out the window.
Eventually, teams are going to realize that these kinds of contracts are not good ideas. They’re just not going to realize it this offseason.
4. Game Ball
If you haven’t been following, the Rainiers staff has been decimated lately, between callups and injuries, and they’ve barely been able to field a team. Jason Snyder was called up from rookie ball to start on Monday, and he lasted just four innings before a shoulder problem forced him from the game. Baek and Huber are in the majors, Clint Nageotte is out for the year, and the team’s rotation is a giant question mark.
So, last night’s performance from Rich Dorman was just what the doctor ordered. 8 IP, 3 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 14 K. He’s 27 and not a real prospect, but for one night, he was Tacoma’s savior.
5. Hello flaws
Remember when Michael Wilson was killing the ball in San Antonio, and I begrudgingly added him to the Future Forty because he just wouldn’t stop hitting?
Yea, that seems like a long time ago. He’s hitting .162/.207/.333 in August with 6 walks and 41 strikeouts (!) in 105 at-bats. I think Double-A pitchers have finally found the holes in his swing.
99 – I think Dave does 1/2 on radio and 1/2 on TV. Usually the 5th is where they switch with Ron F. doing play-by-play on the radio. I think it is done to keep people’s heads from exploding from having to deal with Rizz for 9 innings in a row.
101 – yep, Dave does the first 4 1/2 innings of the game on TV, then switches to radio after taking the bottom of the fifth off. It’s all about getting him on both TV and radio broadcasts, given his local popularity.
He’s way better on radio, in my opinion. That may be because I don’t have to see how wrong he is when making calls. But he’s just so much more enjoyable when he’s having to describe everything.
#88
You know, I hadn’t thought about that before, but I suppose that part of that 73m goes toward the right to sell Oswalt jerseys for the next five years, and to continue to sell seats on his start days even if the Astros are a joke (funnier than now). Even if he gets injured and doesn’t quite recover, or simply succumbs to attrition they will still sell tickets to his starts because he’s been around and the locals like him. During the first half of the season, I saw a lot of new Johnson jerseys around NYC, and his starts were still exciting for the local fans (until they started) even though he was throwing more ‘Mr Snappies’ than sliders. Not that Johnson’s been around New York for a long time… In any case, the contract makes a lot more sense to me now.
104, OTOH, I think there is a mental downer for the fans when they see their team paying an eight-figure salary to a guy who’s contributing little or nothing. See Cirillo, Jeff.
It also tends to make managemnet try desparately to squeeze blood out of a turnip, See Jarvis, Kevin.
Nice line about Rizzs Jed C., but my head usually explodes from about 1/2 an inning of his play-by-play…….
Speaking of pitchers available in the offseason, what are the M’s chances of signing Daisuke Matsuzaka? It looks like he will probably be posted. The Yankees, Mariners, and Angels are considered the most interested.
Mariners reliever Rafael Soriano, who was struck by a line drive in the eighth inning of Tuesday’s game vs. the Angels, has been released from Harborview Medical Center, the club announced on Wednesday.
Soriano was kept in the hospital overnight for observation and a pair of CT scans, among other tests.
Mariners team physician Dr. Edward Khalfayan reported prior to Wednesday’s game that both “CT scans looked good, and we are not concerned at this time that he has a brain injury other than a concussion. … We expect him to recover from this injury with no long-term residual effects.”
Soriano will be monitored by the Mariners medical staff over the next 10-14 days and will be rechecked by a neurosurgeon in approximately two weeks.
it’s not as much entertaining/fun as cringeworthy right now.
I find it incredibly fun actually.
My favourite is when Dave has to read the Pepsi promo.
At least his voice isn’t completely shot at this point. Some of the older announcers have gone on a bit too long, though I can’t blame them. Jack Buck, great as he was, was not easy to listen to for his last five years or so.
+For instance, here’s the top 25 pitchers by DIPS ERA for 2001:
Randy Johnson, Mike Mussina, Greg Maddux, Curt Schilling, Andy Pettitte, Matt Morris, Javier Vazquez, Terry Adams, John Burkett, Roger Clemens, Mark Mulder, Brad Penny, Randy Wolf, Kerry Wood, Freddy Garcia, Barry Zito, Al Leiter, Tim Hudson, Russ Ortiz, Darryl Kile, Glendon Rusch, Brad Radke, Jon Lieber, Kevin Tapani, and Tim Wakefield.
How many of those pitchers are $15 million per year pitchers this year, or even last year?
Clemens, Mussina, and Schilling.
How many of thsoe pitchers are $10 million per year pitchers this year or last year?
Andy Pettitte, Brad Penny, and Barry Zito.+
Of the 25 names above, how many had anything remotely as strong as Oswalt’s track record?
10? Probably not that many.
Of those fewer than 10, how many were likely to be in their prime performance years for a 5 year contract? A few?
Now, of course, the three who performed the best are all older than the “prime years” Oswalt has just been signed for.
The failures of Freddy Garcia, Tim Hudson, and Mulder are all very strong data points for your argument that 5/$73 to Oswalt is foolhardy. (all three have accumulated substantial value over the past five years, if nowhere close to $73 million. They haven’t been total losses.)
The retirements of Kevin Tapani and Leiter, and the troubles of Adams, Burkett, etc. don’t strike me as terribly relevant.
(Darryl Kile was a fluke situation that, I assume, didn’t create an outstanding contract obligation.)