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Reference Material
The Future Forty 3/19/09
Evaluating Defense Evaluating Pitcher Talent
Evaluating Managers
Bugs Bunny, Greatest Banned Player Ever Selected for Best American Sports Writing!
The Attrition WarDisclaimer, Copyright
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Felix Day
O Felix Day
O Felix Day
You come too seldom
Felix Day…
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Twittah
Felix vs. Meche. Excitement!
We need at least 7 innings today big guy!
Dave inspired me to write a Haiku.
Felix Hernandez
Precision, Poise, and Power
Equals Victory
bigred, I hope you have another job
bigred you’re my hero.
Dave inspired you? Maaaaaaan.
At least bigred hit the 5 – 7 – 5.
Go Felix.
That was the best Felix haiku I’ve ever read.
Hopefully it’s the only Felix haiku you’ve ever read.
Floors of ancient seas
Bear the scars of cleated feet
Felix Rex steps up
Which is not actually a requirement of real haiku. I’m not sure how it became an English-language standard, while most of the real rules of haiku got left behind.
Spring brings us new hope
Flame-throwing ground ball machine:
Felix Hernandez.
Meche may no longer be a mariner but can we still play the Gill Meche pitching count game?
Meche will hit 100 pitchers in what inning?
3rd
4th
5th
6th
7th
I’m taking the 5th inning
Dave can inspire, even when he isn’t there.
especially when he is On Fire(TM)
Meche hits 100 pitches in the 5th with any team other than the free swinging M’s. It will be the 7th.
Can anyone fill me in on what’s going on with Billy Butler?
If 5 – 7 – 5 is the only standard:
Haikus are easy
but sometimes they don’t make sense
Refrigerator
Which is why 5 – 7 – 5 shouldn’t be the only standard.
Meche will hit 100 pitches in the 7th or 8th. Remember, he is pitching against the M’s.
Don’t worry Derek, you inspire me.
woohoo…I’m working in Kansas City and get to go tonight!!!
dmz
Any good book signing stories?
OT but hopefully allowable.
can I take 4th and say he didn’t make it to 100?
It’s a thread of the day, there’s really no OT here.
Is HoRam suppose to make his next start or are we getting a spot starter for a game?
is ramirez heading back early to see the team doctor, or are they going to wait until they get back after sweeping the angels?
Go Felix!
Meche (2.44), Soriano (2.49)…but no. HoHum (6.47). Weaver (59.81).
Go Felix!
Does that count?
They’re trying to figure out if they’re better off putting Weaver out there, and if so, what mysterious, open-ended injury they’ll stick HoRam with
how about bringing up lehr…his AAA numbers are pretty good…
Instead of Weaver can we just start the game 5-0 in the 3rd and pretend he was out there?
God yesterday’s loss is frustrating. We’re the first team all year to score 12 runs and lose. There will be others, of course, but being the first just makes me sigh and shake my head. Only my Mariners could be the first team to do that.
But when you look back on that loss, it’s easy to find a couple of places where we could have saved just two runs or scored two more runs. For the latter… FIRE CARLOS GARCIA! The guy was responsible for a 14% drop in Win Expectancy by himself! Coaches rarely impact the day to day outcomes of games, but god DAMN.
Now, of course, baseball is a linear game. One sequence of events leads to the next. We can’t go back and say if Lopez had been held up both times that he would have scored in other ways both times, or that the outcome of the game wouldn’t have been better or worse for the M’s. But you absolutely have to try to win the ballgames, not be out by 10 to 20 feet at home plate.
Good News: King Abides;
Mateo gets second chance.
Well, I was half right.
Did anyone hear the KJR Mitch/Mike Blowers interview this morning. On the whole, it was rather maddening…so I had a few questions and thoughts.
1) To clarify. Blowers is paid by the Ms to be their color guy, right? I wasn’t sure if he was being paid by the network that carries the games. Does anyone know how that works?
2) If the answer to number 1 is that he’s paid by the Ms, then I’ll understand where to file his “analysis” (that is, in file 13)
3) Mitch’s question (paraphrased) “casual fans love Ichiro and think he’s a great player, but people who look at the game with more sophisticated eyes like….wait for it….Bill Krueger have pointed out that his deficiencies (see Dave’s post re: Ichiro) don’t make him a big $$ player.”
First, I love that Bill Krueger is considered a serious analyst, seriously…I almost spit my coffee out when I heard that. Second, Blowers does nothing with this question other than to recite the pablum that Ichiro creates value when he’s hitting the ball and running like crazy (logic debunked by Dave a few days ago). What is weird about this is, if Blowers is indeed working for the team his answers seem off the mark.
His options to answer Ichiro’s critics within the context of the interview seemed to be either 1) Pump Ichiro up, tell the listening audience that indeed he is a great player and that people should come down to the ballpark, tune in on TV, etc. to watch him. 2) downplay him, as sort of a way to let him know through the media that his leverage is not what he thinks it is.
Blowers really did not choose either option. So maybe he was speaking from his own opinions. Does anyone have any thoughts on this?
Derek, you did inspire the Tek Jansen theme song filk last Felix Day.
That apparently no one even noticed.
There is really no reason to care or become upset about anything said on KJR about baseball. But, yes, Blowers is a Mariners employee.
Can anyone fill me in on what’s going on with Billy Butler?
Billy Butler’s got his hands in his pockets
Staring over at the neighbor’s, knickers down.
He’s got his knickers down.
Oh wait, that’s Billy LIAR….
Meanwhile, Rafael Soriano has a 2.49 ERA with the Braves, 5 saves and 20 strikouts. In the last month he has given up one hit and tow walks, none in the same inning.
We’re the first team all year to score 12 runs and lose.
We were also the first team all year to give up 11 runs and win. In fact, it looks like there have been only two games this year in which the losing team scored double digits, and the Mariners were involved in both of them. Not sure what that says about anything, but an interesting bit of trivia.
Anyone got stats on our runners put out at home? Is Garcia in effect losing us any more games a year with poor decisions over at 3rd then your average 3rd base coach? Kind of like a VORCoach stat?
How many times can we say it? DON’T LISTEN TO KJR. There’s nothing of value to be heard there. It’ll only make you needlessly crazy.
Felix on the mound
Twentyfour retired batters
Hand the ball to Putz
36- trading soriano for starting picthing wasn’t a bad idea…our starters are terrible and our bullpen was our biggest strength…it was the exection of the plan that was bad…should have gotten much better than ramirez for raphy…
41 We got Ho-zed.
40- second line has too many syllables…but hopefully the outcome of the game today…
42- we did…but it was because of what we got in return…not by trying to improve the team…
re: HoRam… it’ll either be Jake Woods or Weaver taking his place. They would have to knock somebody off the 40 man to get any other SP from Tacoma in, IIRC.
Meanwhile, WOO FELIX.
from what i read, woods has had good numbers lately…i never thought he should have been in AAA anyway…
I pronounce “retired” with two syllables. English is mutable like that (I’m always amused when I hear an Irishman say “New powers” with two syllables in the first word and one in the second). But if you’d rather, you could subsitute “sent down” or “struck out”
Yesterday, as in all road games he’s started, it was the Rocky Horam Pitcher Show (”The Horam, the Horam…“)
Meanwhile, Mariners third base coach Carlos Garcia blamed himself for the loss.
”We got beat by one run,” Garcia said. ”That was the difference. That’s what (made me mad). Those guys battled their hearts out all day long. One decision turned it around.”
Interestingly, that was Ichiro’s 1000th game, and his 1,414 hits is the second most since 1900 by a player in his first 1,000 games. Hall of Famer Al Simmons (1924-44) had 1,443 hits during his initial 1,000 games.
re: Blowers– last he was employed by KOMO, this year by the Mariners. In both places he seems to speak his own opionions (ones that often come from the position player point of view) and colored (or blanded, if you will) by an unwillingness to throw players under the bus. He has always fallen into the ‘Ichiro must hit 330+, and steal 60+ to be of value to a team so you don’t overpay him’ camp.
Baker’s blog discusses HoRam and that he is scheduled to the doc in KC.
16 – Looks like Butler went back to AAA. You’d think KC would be able to fit him in their lineup somewhere…
What about Ryan Feierabend? Can he pitch better right now than Weaver or HoRam? If not, how long before he’ll be able to?
oh, and Ken Rosenthal is floating the “finally both Griffey & the Reds are both willing to look at the trade deadline” rumor …
Willie can pitch better than Weaver.
53: with the added benefit of making his bat unavailable.
Jim, for the record…I don’t listen to KJR to actually glean baseball (or any kinds of sports) analysis, but its funny sometimes so I listen.
What can I say…I’m a creature of habit.
and sometimes, when you are sitting at work and you’ve heard both hours of Morning Edition all the way through, and pretty much your only other options that come through at the desk are KOMO, the two polar-opposite political stations, or the Channel That Never Plays A Song I Don’t Know ….
Remember back in the early ’90’s when the rotation was Randy Johnson and 4 other guys they could find to put it over the plate? Does anyone feel like we’re back there again?
bakomariner – (re: posts 41 and 44) Your point assumes that Soriano could not have been turned into a useful starter. You have to consider the potential likelihood of Soriano being a useful starter (factoring in injury risk and lack of substantial prior starter experience) against the chance that HoRam would fail as a useful starter for the M’s (factoring in injury risk and the apparent higher quality of American League vs. National League hitters).
It seems more likely to me that the Soriano for HoRam trade was made more for personality reasons (I suspect Grover disliked Soriano – but have no evidence) than for straight future performance projection reasons.
Remember back in the early ’90’s when the rotation was Randy Johnson and 4 other guys they could find to put it over the plate? Does anyone feel like we’re back there again?
Deja vu!
i do think it was the personality conflict (soriano supposedly not wanting to take the hill), but i do think that they could have gotten more in return…and i don’t think soriano will be a starter…various reasons…
How sad we’ll all be
If Meche beats Felix tonight
With Grover to blame
loki- worst one yet…no negative thinking about the KING man!
We do not contend.
But we dream of the future.
Long Live King Felix.
Grover taking out Felix after 8 innings of a 1-1 tie game, with his pitch count at 95, and losing in the twelth because our good bullpen pitchers ran out an inning too early says nothing negative about the King.
Yes, I should be deleted, post 61. I’m just reeling with pessimsism after yesterday’s loss, and the 2-1 loss to the Padres when Felix pitched. It’s just a bitter irony I’m not emotionally prepared for…..so let’s see the King with 10 K’s and a Meche meltdown….please?
Hopefully the M’s habit of having quiet bats the day after a lot of scoring…is de-habitualized tonight.
I haven’t read it but I heard excepts from it – if I ever finish reading Derek’s book, this is next on my list:
Baseball Haiku
Weaver out with an “injury”. Ramirez out with a possible “injury”. Mateo out because of legal troubles.
Well, being passive IS working.
As for starters we could call up, Dave has gone over this before. Feierabend is not ready, Woods sucks, Campillo is nothing to write home about, Lehr is not high on the organization’s food chain, and RRS / Mackintosh are career AAA starters. Is there anybody here that we really want? Not really. Would they be better? Maybe, but would you trust the season to them?
Fact is, we’re going to have to look elsewhere if we want an effective starting pitcher, which is why the M’s were scouting BH Kim. Not that I agree he’s an effective starter, but you get the idea. It’s either AAAA scrubs or someone else’s 4th starter.
haha, who would’ve thought that Felix Hernandez vs. Gil Meche would be a marquee pitching matchup right now.
Um, I hate to be a party pooper but…If every day was Felix Day, wouldn’t he go WAAAAAY over his 200 innings for the year? I’m just asking.
I seem to remember an article in the beginning of the season where Hargrove said that Felix didn’t have a limit on innings this year.
My apologies Derek
haha, who would’ve thought that Felix Hernandez vs. Gil Meche would be a marquee pitching matchup right now.
It’s only a matter of time before Gil’s honeymoon with KC ends and they discover what their money is really paying for.
Still, I’d take Meche over 3 of our starters…not for 5 years and $55million, but for one year at $11 million or 2 at $22 million
#67 — I agree that Feierabend might not be ready, but I would hazard to guess that he would be better than any of Weaver, Woods, or HoRam. I also think Lehr would be better as well, but since he is not on the 40 man, Ho would have to have a serious, season ending injury to allow them to add Lehr without letting anyone go.
And its nice to see the Griffey rumors circulating once again. Those and Memorial Day signal the beginnig of summer.
But, but… I talked to a guy to talked to a guy who overheard somebody talking about reading it on the Internet. So it’s GOTTA be true! Griffey is coming back! The glory days can’t be far behind!
w/r/t Rafael Soriano:
Go look up Soriano’s minor league career: he was a starter all the way through the minors. He’s done it before. The starter/reliever thing wasn’t some personality conflict: it was a combination the M’s being super cautious about the arm for a while, seeing him being effective in the role, and then not really finding a good time/way to get him back into starting – and Soriano, as long as he was in the pen, wanted to either start or close, and given the team’s needs and nagging health concerns, they kept him at it.
That’s overly simplistic, of course, but that’s the gist of it.
Where’s Peter again?
Mister White was the greatest
Master of Haiku…
#56:
That’s when you calmly get up, go into the office restroom and duct-tape a bag of dry-cleaning plastic around your head.
I swear this is true: Dave is out, because he’s photographing Pete White’s wedding.
Would a woman really want a man who chooses a woman over baseball?
Even if Meche is inconsistent, and on average, pretty…. average, I would still love to have him on the team again. He gets his share of dubs (3-2 so far), and he’s 50k’s vs 17 walks. Better an inconsistent decent player than a friggin consistent HORRIBLE Weaver with a noodle for an arm, or a 18BB/14K Horacio. The walks kill us every time.
On an also unrelated note, are there any parks that will toss you out if you throw a HR back onto the field? I’ve only caught one, and it was against the Giants… so eh. I’d definately throw back any yankee/bosox HR if I got my hands on it, but isn’t that construed as throwing something onto the field? I don’t know how tight ballparks are about throwing a ball back on the field… Thanks.
Be careful…
Fact is, we’re going to have to look elsewhere if we want an effective starting pitcher, which is why the M’s were scouting BH Kim. Not that I agree he’s an effective starter, but you get the idea. It’s either AAAA scrubs or someone else’s 4th starter.
This is how we ended up with Batista, Weaver and HoRam.
Woods… he’s actually been getting pounded since getting sent back down, with an ERA in the 6’s and an xFIP to fit. He would only get a callup because he’s on the 40 man and would require the least hassle.
RRS has been working out of the bullpen all year, and it looks like that’s gonna be his future.
Feierabend has been hit and miss, effective, but not dominant in AAA. He’s had enough meltdowns to lead me to doubt his ability to competently perform at the MLB level right now.
The other Rainiers are not on the 40 man and would require someone getting knocked off it and exposed to waivers for any of them to get added.
I swear this is true: Dave is out, because he’s photographing Pete White’s wedding.
… ? Like… as in Venture Brothers Pete White? I’m not hip and need some help here.
June flowers in sight!
Seattle’s Latino hope
Versus flop of yore!
Meh . . . why not:
Kaufman yawns aglow
Lord Gilgamesh and The King
Hurling spheres of rage
by the way, today’s haiku collection is saved for posterity…
Felix misses bats
Meche impersonates an ace
While Weaver just blows goats.
Grover at the helm
Garcia over on third
We are in trouble