Game 67, Pirates at Mariners
Gorzelanny vs Batista, 7:05 pm.
The Pirates aren’t very good. Tom Gorzelanny is succeeding through the Jarrod Washburn smoke-and-mirrors philosophy of stranding runners and not having flyballs go over the wall. He’s also a lefty, and you know that the M’s hit lefties well. Put it all together, and let’s just say there’s a good chance that we’ll have some regression to the mean going on tonight.
Also, Adrian Beltre is back. Huzzah!
However, I do have to make one request. Mr. Hargrove, I know you don’t believe in platoon splits or think it’s worth your while to set different line-ups against RH and LH pitching, despite the fact that there’s an overwhelming amount of evidence that shows that you’re leaving runs on the table. But, do you think you could consider not hitting Raul Ibanez clean-up against lefties?
He’s hitting .250/.257/.306 against southpaws this year with a whopping 4 extra base hits in 72 at-bats. His .573 OPS vs LHP is 36% below the league average. He hit .243/.301/.362 against LHPs last year, and he’s a career .261/.313/.395 hitter against pitchers that throw from the left side.
Raul Ibanez cannot hit left-handed pitching. This isn’t a new development. Maybe, just maybe, he shouldn’t be hitting clean-up when the other team throws a southpaw? I won’t even mention the fact that the Mariners best left-field option is stretching down in Sacramento. Just, you know, take a look at reality and realize that Raul Ibanez has no business hitting 4th in a major league line-up when a left-handed pitcher is on the hill.
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marte has been an exception to the pirates terrible bullpen so far.
he also appeared in 5 games for the mariners back in 99
not bitching, just complaining
201: Thanks, Dave Sims
that would be the cherry on top. End the game with Damaso Marte closing it out for the Pirates 31st win.
Is it wrong that I’m rooting for Vidro to GIDP?
#200– How much blacker could this be? The answer is none– none more black. …
205: Yes. Yes it is.
i just jinxed him, clearly, by saying he’s been pretty good this year.
Now I probably jinxed us by saying that.
Yeah, I thought it was. But my Dad is convinced Vidro is a
goodgreat hitter, and really obnoxiously rants about it, so I root for him to failDamaso Marte gives me memories of Josias Manzanillo.
who I recall as being effective (the numbers don’t seem to back that up) before getting nailed in groin by a Billy Swift style comebacker (that also recalls Kirby Puckett’s ground rule double off of Swift’s forehead… which then turned billy in a near or 20-game winner in Colorado.
Turbo probably did get all of that one.
c’mon, guys, it’s Shawn Chacon! You know him! You can hit him! Really you can!!!
Now might be a good time for a Broussard PH?
#206
But you know where you stand in a hell hole
Shawn Chacon is a guy I totally forgot about. What a career he’s had.
Holy ****! Junior is coming back to town! Wow!
213– if he hadn’t already had one?
too late for broussard, this is kind of a funny move by pittsburgh to go away from probably their best reliever (and a lhp) with Raul on deck? Or maybe this is just how you get to manage a pen that isn’t completely spent.
No more snippy Junior quotes!!! I mean, COME ON!
sigh.
I’m living in a hell hole
Don’t want to stay in this hell hole Don’t want to die in this hell hole
Girl, get me out of this hell hole.
Whoops, sorry guys. I tried to pay attention to this whole game, I just couldn’t.
crap…
Well that ended with a whimper.
Beaten by the Pirates.
The columnist for SI online on baseball, Heyman, suggested Bavasi and Hargrove were off the hot seat. I don’t think so, somehow.
Wow! Back to back strike outs by our awesome corner outfielders! I’m sure a AAA outfielder couldn’t do that! nevermind.
At least we didn’t lose any ground, except against Detroit and Minnesota.
Time for a haiku:
Now six in a row,
is Hargrove starting to sweat
or am I wishing?
Will it take something symbolic to finally force something, such as losing five more to make it eleven?
Seriously though, what’s with the Junior promotion backlash? I mean, shouldn’t we all be at least as excited at Dave Sims? Do we need to mock the celebration?
I saved this until the game was over. Mr Cocoran, in case you’re still reading:
It’ll be cheaper if you buy the crab and cook it yourself. Anything frozen is already cooked, so all you really need to do is steam it until it’s warm enough to eat. (Which is why frozen tends to give you inferior results). It’s really easy, and one crab can feed two (with a salad or something on the side) so it makes a “I’ll cook for you†date meal that seems far more impressive than it actually is. Note that everybody gets messy eating crab out of the shell, and that should be a plus for a date too, though maybe not a first date.
You can buy dungeness live at the Pike Place Market but other places are cheaper (some of the bigger QFCs have them, and Uwajimaya always has a good selection). Cooking is about as basic as it gets: you get a pot big enough to submerge the crab, fill it up with water and some salt, get the water absolutely boiling, and then throw the crab in (grab it from above, along the sides of the shell above the legs). Yes, you literally boil it alive. Make sure your pot has a lid. (It may sound like it’s screaming, but that’s just the steam coming out of the shell — it dies quick). Cook it until it looks orange-red like a cooked crab should. (There’s a formula for time per pound that I’m sure you can find on the web). Then clean it — just pull the main shell away starting at the rear and wash away the gooey bits — and eat. There’s a fair bit of meat in the body, as well as the legs.
If you try crab at a restaurant it’s going to be expensive, but it’s a great “special occasion” meal as long as it’s a casual meal — shelling a crab is a messy business even if you know what you’re doing. Make sure you dine at a place that specializes in fresh seafood and doesn’t dress the crab up — you just want the animal cleaned in its shell and some butter to dip it in. McCormick & Schmick’s used to do a good crab dinner, but I haven’t been there in several years.
Also, winter is crab season — you’re not going to find fresh live crab in the summer (anything you find now has been frozen for at least a month). Local dungeness starts showing up about October (the Dungeness Crab Festival is the second weekend) and runs until about January; anything earlier than that is from Oregon or California; anything later is from Alaska. I often have it for Thanksgiving.
Say, having written all that, don’t the USSM authors count some kind of culinary genius among their august ranks?
Awesome Joser. Truly awesome. If we can’t see the M’s win, at least we can all be better humans.
Joser, you are my hero.
and the season is even better, as I’m not in the area during the summer
Keep losing. People need to GO and changes need to be made. The only way that’s going to happen is if we tank hard.
At what point does the current team ‘funk’ get labelled a full-fledged ‘tailspin’? Losing 7 of the next 10? Losing 8? Losing 9?!?
msb,
you are truly a hero. A Spinal Tap reference could have gone unacknowledged if it wasn’t for you.