Wild Card Leaders
M’s are .001 ahead of the Tigers in the wild card race. Huzzah.
Congratulations to Jose Vidro on your recent hot streak. Congratulations to Raul Ibanez on hitting home runs in back to back nights. Congratulations to the Orioles for being a disaster of a franchise.
I had a few interesting ideas kicking around for a post, but I’ll save them for another day, because I have a feeling that no matter what we put up, the comments are just going to turn into more of the same tired arguments that I just can’t have again without putting my head through a window. So, if you really have to talk about how awesome Vidro is or how chemistry is the secret ingredient to winning or how Adam Jones can’t help this team or how Ibanez’s defense isn’t that bad, knock yourself out down below. The rest of us – we’ll resume intelligent commentary another day.
I think the last round of misspellings, missing punctuation, and random capitalization just dropped Villanova out of the Top 25.
You seem determined not to hear what others are saying.
Actually the opposite is true, which is why I apparently have to repeat things ad nauseum.
I’ve never said Vidro will continue to hit this way all year. I’m saying he’s been hitting that way for the past month which reduces the need to replace him in the lineup RIGHT NOW which is what some people are hellbent on doing regardless of what he’s currently producing at the plate.
And what I’m primarily challenging is the belief that it doesn’t matter what Jones does at the plate because he’ll be a defensive upgrade in LF. I don’t buy that if Jones produces significantly less than either Vidro or Ibanez could be expected to produce if they were in the lineup. And that’s not at all outside the realm of possibility.
“For all the Raul sucks, Richie is done, Vidro only hits singles, blah blah blah talk, The Mariners are 62-49, and are leading the AL Wild Card. No matter how badly everyone wants Raul and Richie to go away, WE ARE WINNING. Why can’t anybody enjoy this season? I know we could [probably] be even better if we played Jones every day, or didn’t pitch HoRam at all, but guess what? HoRam, Richie and Raul are here to stay til the end of the season and the least, and I for one am rooting for them to do well. Yes Broussard would be a better 1B option, but if Richie gets the start well then I need to suck it up and root for him to succeed. Do I believe Raul is back because of his back to back hr games? Not by a long shot. Am I pleased as punch that he did it? You betcha. Lets Go M’s”
It is an awful shame to wish for our playoff contending team to become better…
197 –
No, I’m not against stolen bases at all, in fact I wish Ichiro stole more of them than he does.
But with Vidro at DH it becomes a necessity for him to steal in order to even have a chance at scoring, and that means it’s more predictable when he’ll be going and he’s more likely to be the victim of a pitch-out situation or a pick off.
Even Ichiro can’t score off of a ground ball single by the shortstop, and Vidro loves to hit those. In fact since he does so so consistently virtually every opposing outfield will play him in, making it even more difficult for Ichiro to round third. If Vidro hit line drive singles that would be a different story, but he hasn’t been known to do that.
And when the grounder he hits isn’t fortunate enough to find a gap between 3B and SS for a single, it’s a groundball -to- the shortstop for a double play, way way way too often, further necessitating an Ichiro steal to prevent the double plays Vidro hits into more than anyone else, and further increasing his chances of getting thrown out.
I have to say, if we want to give the Vidro stuff a rest it would be advisable to just stop mentioning the guy. Let’s face it, most of the Vidro lovers are responding to the rather overboard level of criticism he receives and most of those who defend him are going to ridiculous lengths in the opposite direction. Even if you think he’s terrible – and I’m certainly not a fan – he hardly deserves this much attention. More lines of text have been dedicated to Vidro in 2007 than any other subject – more than Ichiro signing an extension, the Mariners pushing for a playoff spot, Weaver being possibly the worst pitcher the M’s have ever seen at the start of the year, a 14 million dollar first baseman hitting below .200 and whatever else. Let’s face it, he just isn’t that important, we’re caught in a self perpetuating cycle where the more he’s criticised the more he’s defended and so on until we reach a stage (I believe we reached it several months ago) where we’ve lost all track of reality and sincerely believe that the entire fate of the team rests on Vidro being or not being the DH.
You can legitimately believe that he’s either a slightly above average hitter or a slightly below average one, but nobody can credibly argue that he’s either going to win us the world series or that he’s killing the team. Why is Vidro so important?
rsrobinson
There’s a word or two missing in your concluding paragraph there. I don’t understand what you are trying to say.
I think the point I was going for is that anybody who follows the M’s knows what needs to be done to make the team better. Posting over and over and over and over (and over and over) again about Raul and Richie and Vidro has long ago been played out. We’ve all heard it, we all know about it. This thread is the definition of “beating a dead horse”. Wishing for our team to become better and whining about topics that have been hashed over for monthes are two different things. I for one would rather focus on the fact that our team is atop the WC and we didn’t get here by playing a bunch of stiffs. Enjoy this run instead of complaining about things we’ll never know would have been true
but to your earlier point
You’re saying that Vidro’s 3-for-4-with-a-homer performance yesterday means it is more likely that he’ll also hit well today – ergo the M’s should play him as much as possible.
I say it doesn’t and they shouldn’t.
And I still don’t see any evidence to support your assertion.
Oh man, I capatalized the M in millions when I shouldn’t have! What is going to happen??? Were you able to read what I wrote?? Where do/did you go to school Grizz? U of Montana?
You for one could start your own weblog, or talk about what you want to talk about somewhere else, instead of bitching about what the authors choose to talk about here.
ryano13 has been put in the moderation queue. No need to bother continuing a discussion with him.
210 – I don’t think I’m the only one tired of hearing those topics, as the authors of this site have declared those topics off limits in the other thread. and it would appear you are ‘bitching’ about what i chose to speak about, so you killed your own point. and in case anyone didn’t notice, this is the perfect game for our DH to play as he works counts, and Cabrera is as wild as they come. a win tonight puts a full game in front of the wild card, so I have no complaints.
Even if you think [Vidro]’s terrible – and I’m certainly not a fan – he hardly deserves this much attention.
Yes he does, if only because he was so obviously a bad decision when we got him. Sexson at least gave us a couple of good seasons.
Variations in performance by athletes aren’t just statistical noise
They aren’t all just statistical noice, no, but nor do they all fail to be statistical noice. You’re pointing to a very small sample (1 month of Vidro) and claiming that that data is so strong as to be devoid of statistical noice, and you have exactly zero reason to believe that.
ryano13, lame sarcasm doesn’t hide the fact that your lack of English skills hurts your ability to communicate and your lack of reasoning skills hurts your ability to argue. Even your mockery looks juvenile to others. You may well be intelligent, but it’s impossible to tell because you can’t display it in words, and words are the evidence of thought.
I am telling you this as a kindness, because even as late as college you can do something about it, if you care.
Sorry Dave, I hadn’t seen your 211.
I know scraps, I miss him already….
Wow, speaking of poor decisions, I actively decided to read this thread. I may need a drink….
I usually just read the site, because there are about 8,000 people who post here who know more about baseball than I do. But the above post was *so* awesome, I had to register, quote it, and repost it. For awesomeness. Shine on, you crazy diamond.
213 – I’m just not in the loop here, I’m trying to understand exactly why every single blog entry – regardless of what it’s about – ends up with two people trying to tear each other’s heads off over whether Vidro should be the DH. Talk about it by all means, I’m just struggling to understand why it’s the one defining issue. I can only assume the importance stems from Vidro’s trade symbolising everything some people hate about the M’s management philosophy, because he neither cripples us nor makes us a great team in his own right. If we took Vidro out of the lineup and put Broussard in his place we would be a slightly better team, that’s about as far as I go with that conversation.
Paserman, I can’t tell if you’re being dishonest or if you can’t read.
Here’s what Dave said:
Here’s what you said:
And then you try this piece of bogosity….
…pretending that the things that you are tired of hearing about — the things that Dave has been writing about (over and over and over) and that you are tired of people agreeing with Dave about — are the things Dave put off-limits. How short do you imagine people’s memories are?
As for this:
You have got to be kidding. I suppose you think we shouldn’t put kidnappers in jail, because we’d just be doing what they do.
Of course, if you were deliberately distorting the conversation and offering up transparent falllacies, you’ll just come back and do it some more.
Does anybody see the inconsistentcy in these two statements:
1) Vidro may be hot now, but he is going to regress to the mean eventually so he should be benched now.
2) Sexson is in terrible slump, and while eventually he is going to regress to the mean, he should be benched now.
I tend to disagree with 1, and agree with 2. I would like to see Vidro phased out, in the run up to the end of the season, but I think he could be a valuable pinch hitter off the bench in the playoffs. But it doesn’t make a lot of sense to bench him now.
Sexson would have been DFA’d already if this was the last year of his contract, but there is just no way they are going to give up on him completely while they still owe him north of 20 million (did I get the capitalization right?).
On the topic of spelling, I’m probably the smartest person here (after ryano13 got DFA’d), and my spelling is terrible. I’m a programmer, since we make up all our variable names we can call things anything we want, and leads into pretty bad habits when we lapse back into english. Spelling “is the hobgoblin of little minds”.
I’m sorry, you’re a programmer, and you don’t care about spelling? How does your compiler like it when you spell your variable names wrong?
“On the topic of spelling, I’m probably the smartest person here (after ryano13 got DFA’d), and my spelling is terrible.”
Given the way you started that sentence, I’m more than willing to bet that your faith in your own intelligence is somewhat greater than it should be.
“Spelling “is the hobgoblin of little mindsâ€.”
Emerson would disagree.
“I’m probably the smartest person here” is a bit of a paradox at the best of times.
As of now M’s are 1 game ahead of the Tigers YAY!
Speaking of Schadenfreude.
(Also, “Ace”: I’ve known a lot of excellent programmers. I’m pretty sure they were better than you and — based on what you have demonstrated here –I’m certain they were smarter than you. Each and every one of them had nothing but contempt for people who couldn’t spell and who couldn’t be bothered to make the trivial effort necessary to use the tools available to correct that problem. Misquoting Emerson, by the way, is not one of those tools).
Oooh, spelling arguments. How to be sure the thread will offer nothing more of value.
And, how to find the smartest guy in the room: eliminate all the guys claiming to be.
If you’re a programmer who “makes up anything you want” when creating variable names, rather than using variable names that make sense, then you’re a poor programmer and definitely not the smartest person here.
One is reminded of Homer…
“I am so SMART! I am so SMART! S-M-R-T…D’oh!”