Felix first, Guillen’s grudge

DMZ · March 24, 2007 at 1:39 am · Filed Under Mariners 

Felix will be the Opening Day starter. Hickey considers historical precedent and gets Felix’s reaction:

Since 1970, the only other Opening Day starting pitchers who were younger than 21 were Fernando Valenzuela (Dodgers, 1981) and Dwight Gooden (Mets, 1985).

“I never saw either of those guys pitch,” Hernandez said Friday, about an hour after manager Mike Hargrove named him to start the opener. “I don’t read much baseball history. But I’ve heard both of those guys were pretty good.”

That cracked me up.

And Felix offers this on being the starter:

“You are like a leader of the pitchers,” Hernandez said. “I want to be a leader for my team. This is one of the greatest things in my life.”

Baker’s got the same story for the Times.

Jose Guillen doesn’t like Mike Scioscia.

Greg Johns on Tui’s struggles.

But the Tuiasosopo name comes with more than just extra vowels. Things like leadership, work ethic and a stubborn pride have the youngest of Manu Tuiasosopo’s sons champing at the bit to get things turned back around this season.

Includes a rare Greg Hunter quote.

After a strong performance that may not be in his long term interests, Morrow is stunned to find Hargrove serenading him with “You Shook Me All Spring Long” in an attempt to woo him to break camp with the club.

Comments

47 Responses to “Felix first, Guillen’s grudge”

  1. PhilKenSebben on March 24th, 2007 5:58 am

    How can I not like a guy who is 5 months younger than me and says funny things like that. Ive just always had a bad feeling about Hernandez.

  2. Spanky on March 24th, 2007 7:26 am

    You’ve forever ruined that AC/DC classic for me with the link you posted. Come on!!! Celine Deion singing AC/DC?!?!?!

    I think I’m going to be sick!

  3. Boss! Boss! LaHair! LaHair! on March 24th, 2007 7:52 am

    On the way from Peoria Stadium back to the clubhouse Friday, the Mariners encountered a particularly persistent group of kids pleading for autographs. Utility man Ben Broussard went into the clubhouse and got a box of broken bats, signed them and slid them under a fence to the kids.

    “Oh boy, a broken bat signed by a utility player! I’m gonna bring this to school on Monday and show all my friends!”

  4. morisseau on March 24th, 2007 8:02 am

    that youtube link is flat wrong.

  5. msb on March 24th, 2007 8:22 am

    “I never saw either of those guys pitch,” Hernandez said”

    oh, baby, everything was before you were born.

  6. msb on March 24th, 2007 8:39 am

    Arnold updates on Sherrill & Putz

    when did Greg Johns move to the PI?

  7. dw on March 24th, 2007 8:55 am

    Since 1970, the only other Opening Day starting pitchers who were younger than 21 were Fernando Valenzuela (Dodgers, 1981) and Dwight Gooden (Mets, 1985).

    That would suggest that Felix is about to have a year that will be talked about by the baseball elite in voiceovers while The Natural soundtrack plays in the background.

    Or he’ll end up like Bobby Madristch. Damn you, Melvin.

  8. JI on March 24th, 2007 8:59 am

    Oh, man that link was funny!

    I always thought that song needed more cowbell.

  9. msb on March 24th, 2007 9:02 am

    I see that the distaff Tuis, Leslie and Ashley are keeping busy, too.

    as for it being something that Felix never thought about … from Drayer this morning:

    “I asked Felix Hernandez early in spring training if he wanted to be “the guy” this year. My definition of “the guy” was the pitcher who took the ball and could be depended on to put an end to even the ugliest losing streak. Felix said he did want to be “the guy.” I wasn’t sure if he was thinking the same thing I was thinking so I asked him what “the guy” was and he replied, “The opening day starter. I want to be the opening day starter.”

    Brash words for a twenty year old and he knew it saying it quietly with his head down just minutes after he told a pack of reporters that he didn’t even think about the possibility of taking the ball April 2.

  10. induced entropy on March 24th, 2007 10:12 am

    I always thought that song needed more cowbell.

    Heh heh. Good times there. More cowbell. Don’t Fear the Reaper, nor the cowbell.

    Honestly though, the fact that DMZ knew of that link is only superceded in horror by me now having Celine playing air guitar ala Angus ingrained in my head.

  11. Rain Delay on March 24th, 2007 10:13 am

    Morrow is stunned to find Hargrove serenading him with “You Shook Me All Spring Long” in an attempt to woo him to break camp with the club.

    OK, maybe it was my mistake to actually click that link. But now I think I need to A. Go take a shower, I feel unclean B. I’m resisting the urge to puncture my eardrums with a sharp stick.

  12. wfan99 on March 24th, 2007 11:11 am

    ANY IDEA IF THEY WILL START WITH A 4 MAN OR 5 MAN ROTATION???

  13. Dave in Palo Alto on March 24th, 2007 11:30 am

    #3 — really? I think Broussard was pretty cool. Everyone else blew the kids off. Broken bats are way better than bupkis.

  14. mike on March 24th, 2007 1:24 pm

    Dear DMZ,

    Please stop including links to horrifying YouTube music videos. I want to make it to Opening Day alive.

    Sincerely,

    A Concerned Reader

  15. colm on March 24th, 2007 1:32 pm

    wfan99 – I hold no inside information, but I’d be stunned if our cowardly, too-conservative management made the 07 Mariners the first baseball team in a couple of generations to go into a season with a four man rotation.

  16. colm on March 24th, 2007 3:01 pm

    Just thought of a better song for Hargrove: “Someday I will treat you good”, by Sparklehorse. No youtube links unfortunately.

  17. David J. Corcoran I on March 24th, 2007 3:03 pm

    Linking to Celine Dion singing AC/DC is why I stuffed the ballot box for LL. Don’t ever, ever do that again.

  18. terry on March 24th, 2007 3:19 pm

    Randy: ” Dude, man that just wasn’t good for me…the guys just aren’t bringing it tonight….

    Paula: Celine, you look great tonight! You look like a star!

    Simon: Simply dreadful…. I see that performance and I think of the titanic… This is a singing competition not an air guitar competition. That was hotel bar karaoke….

  19. Karen on March 24th, 2007 3:31 pm

    #3. Yeah, really??

    I remember about 20 years ago being THRILLED (at age 42) getting a fresh-used broken batting practice bat from one of my favorite players, complete with pine tar (which promptly got all over my white jeans).

    Ah, the jaded youth of today, with their WIIs and 42″ flat screen HDTVs…

  20. terry on March 24th, 2007 3:36 pm

    Forget 20 years ago….I’d love taking one of those broken bats home with Ben’s signature on it….. game used anything is just pretty cool…. what a class guy….. *HI FIVE* to Broussard…

  21. Dylan on March 24th, 2007 3:50 pm

    19 and 20:

    It’s cool to be negative.

  22. DKCecil on March 24th, 2007 4:50 pm

    Right-handers are hitting .625 off him this spring, a number that could be considered meaningless for a left-handed specialist. However, Sherrill faced right-handed hitters in 64 of the 141 at-bats against him last year, so the notion that he rarely faces a righty isn’t valid.

    The notion that he’s facing right-handed batters that much sort of takes away from him being a “left-handed specialist”, now doesn’t it?

    Sigh, Hargrove.

  23. Thom Jimsen on March 24th, 2007 5:10 pm

    Greg Johns was added as a P-I sports columnist after his previous paper, the King County Journal, folded. Apparently the P-I was concerned that they were running short of boring middle-aged white-guy columnists.

    Little-known fact: Greg Johns is the brother of U.S. Sen. Patty Murray. Look closely … they both share that marsupial look.

  24. Panev on March 24th, 2007 5:40 pm

    “He’s a big, strong kid. He struggled with the bat last year in Double-A, but he’s looked very good this spring. It’s a matter of making adjustments, and I think he’s starting to do that. He’s a good makeup kid, so he’s not going to get down on himself. He’ll work through it.”

    I saw him take a ton of BP with Pentland and he never looked good. A bad swing with no confidence is a bad combination. I hope it works out for him, but he is a long ways away.

  25. DMZ on March 24th, 2007 6:21 pm

    Hey Corco, it was your ballot stuffing that inspired me to link to that video.

  26. terry on March 24th, 2007 6:28 pm

    The notion that he’s facing right-handed batters that much sort of takes away from him being a “left-handed specialist”, now doesn’t it?

    Sigh, Hargrove.

    I think it’s more important for a guy to get his pitches in during ST than to worry about matchups per se…

  27. terry on March 24th, 2007 6:29 pm

    Hey Corco, it was your ballot stuffing that inspired me to link to that video.

    But why punish the rest of us?

  28. B_Con on March 24th, 2007 6:54 pm

    Ben Broussard likes Pearl Jam guys! I hate Tree Man SO MUCH.

    What is wrong with having a mediocre firstbaseman? Broussard doesn’t jack 500 foot bombs, but he also won’t be a total failure at all other aspects of baseball.

  29. dw on March 24th, 2007 6:59 pm

    The Will Leitch Q-and-A at SXSW is finally up. USSM reference buried in there.

  30. JI on March 24th, 2007 7:33 pm

    Ben Broussard likes Pearl Jam guys!

    I say keep him. Obviously, he has good taste.

  31. JI on March 24th, 2007 7:34 pm

    But why punish the rest of us?

    Punish? That was the most entertaining thing I’ve seen on a screen in weeks.

  32. DMZ on March 24th, 2007 8:42 pm

    In all seriousness, that Dion video fascinates me for several reasons:
    – it’s the worst, most soul-destroying cover I’ve ever heard
    – I can’t believe that anyone, even Celine Dion, would decide to do it. This rivals Duran Duran doing “911 is a joke” in scope of conception
    – I can’t believe any producer would show it rather than, say, a test pattern
    – There are people in the audience who are trying to act like they think people who enjoy concerts should act

  33. induced entropy on March 24th, 2007 8:50 pm

    The Will Leitch Q-and-A at SXSW is finally up. USSM reference buried in there.

    DW, are you a deadspinner? If so what is your moniker? I am the T-Dawg, coo coo ca cho!

  34. JI on March 24th, 2007 9:14 pm

    It’s the worst, most soul-destroying cover I’ve ever heard

    I dunno. That one obnoxious, talentless guy tried to sing Jeremy on American Idol. It was comedic gold.

  35. JI on March 24th, 2007 9:16 pm

    …On second thought, Celine Dion singing (in a duet with some other chick no less) about rockin’ some dude– well, it paints a mental picture like no other especially when you consider that her significant other is, like, 140 years old. So that was worse.

    Strike my previous post.

  36. David J. Corcoran I on March 24th, 2007 9:18 pm

    If I promise to become totally 100% loyal to USSM again and never ever support LL (or other blog/medium/anything) in any competition v. USSM, would you never put up links like that again? Because I’ll make that sacrifice

  37. Gomez on March 24th, 2007 9:38 pm

    Every time you watch that video, it shortens your lifespan by 7.8 minutes. Also, having the sound on causes ear cancer.

  38. Gomez on March 24th, 2007 9:44 pm

    I dunno. That one obnoxious, talentless guy tried to sing Jeremy on American Idol. It was comedic gold.

    Referencing the ‘obnoxious talentless guy on American Idol’ is like referencing ‘that one tree in the forest.’

  39. Goose on March 24th, 2007 9:57 pm

    I don’t know what bugs me more about that video. The fact that it exists, or the fact she changed the lyrics from woman to man. And from she to he.

  40. frankb. on March 24th, 2007 10:51 pm

    I had read about that Celine Dion performance. I don’t know who wrote it, but it said, “…her Canadian thighs pranced around in that horse-that-can-do-math kind of way.” Now I understand what the author meant.

  41. Johan Garpenlov on March 24th, 2007 10:55 pm

    I think DMZ would rather not have you on his side, Corcoran.

    If CD had not changed the lyrics from she to he, would that make the song just weird, or hot?

  42. Thom Jimsen on March 24th, 2007 11:24 pm

    #38: I keep waiting to hear that Sanjaya has been euthanized at the county animal shelter.

  43. DKCecil on March 25th, 2007 2:52 am

    I think it’s more important for a guy to get his pitches in during ST than to worry about matchups per se…

    I was referring more towards the fact that, as a pitcher who is far more effective against righties than lefties, he faced quite a few righties last year. Really, it’s just more complaining about Hargrove’s bullpen management. Sherrill was fantastic against lefties last year, and pretty awful against righties. Yet the disparity of batters faced from each side isn’t that great. It’s disconcerting.

  44. DKCecil on March 25th, 2007 2:53 am

    More effective against lefties than righties, that is. Kind of needs to be that way for my argument to make any sense!

  45. msb on March 25th, 2007 8:46 am

    well the mental image of Celine dressed in a schoolboys outfit is a stopper, but back to Felix– Baker had a nice digression on youthful pitching in his blog yesterday

  46. msb on March 25th, 2007 8:46 am

    it’s here

  47. dw on March 25th, 2007 8:47 am

    DW, are you a deadspinner? If so what is your moniker?

    I’m a lurker. I went for the spectacle (and because I figured Bruce Sterling’s rant was going to be podcast the next day).

    Leitch, when you talk to him person-to-person, doesn’t sound like he’s on coke.

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