Game 115, Mariners at White Sox
Weaver vs Danks, 11:05 am.
Jones starts. Yay.
Game 114, Mariners at White Sox
4:05. Batista vs Floyd.
Check out that M’s lineup. Wooo-wheeee, that is nice. Good work there, McLaren, don’t strain yourself thinking too hard or anything.
True Tale of Moderation Glory
New user posts for the first time. It’s two paragraphs, one of which is a series of disconnected thoughts on the site and whatever, and the second is “my thoughts on the M’s are: Blowers is… Bloomquist is…” the whole thing badly written, with a ton of spelling errors, weird capitalization, punctuation, whatever.
Gets tossed into the mod queue, right, like all first-time comments in the new world.
Second comment:
“THANKS FOR MODERATING MY FIRST POST! FUCK YOU DMZ!!!”
Which is nice to see when I’m checking in on the site remotely.
So yeah, thanks for stopping by.
New Comment Policy Experiment
Okay, so, we’re going to try an experiment. As of now, everyone who has not added a comment to the site before will have their posts added directly to the moderation queue. They will have to be approved by an author before they become readable on the site. This will act as a de-facto trial period for new commenters.
To get your comment approved, you should focus on adding something substantive to the discussion and showing some degree of understanding of what has already been discussed. Think of your first comment as an audition.
To those who have been commented in the past, this change won’t affect you.
John McLaren
You suck at baseball strategy. And evaluating talent. And dealing with egos.
But other than that, you’re great.
To paraphrase someone, “My mom always told me if I didn’t have anything to say besides [Expletive] John McLaren, then don’t say anything at all. Is my mom great or what?”
Game 113, Mariners at White Sox
Washburn vs Vazquez, 5:11 pm.
John McLaren hates us. And winning, apparently. Sexson at first, Ibanez in left, Jones and Broussard to the bench.
If the M’s were an NBA official, we could convict them of throwing games with ease.
Scheduling Change
If you’re planning your day around listening to my weekly segment with Groz on KJR, well, first off, that’s rather sad, but secondly, you’ll want to move your listening time back a few hours – this week, we’re doing it at 5:05 pm pacific time to accommodate… I don’t know, honestly, but something else.
So, we’re still doing the USSM on KJR gig today, but just a few hours later than normal, and it will almost overlap with tonight’s first pitch. So just start your baseball listening a few minutes early tonight.
Hi John
Mr. Manager Sir,
In case you didn’t notice, I just went 3 for 4 with a double, a walk, scored four runs, and added an outfield assist just for fun. Please play me more often.
Thank you.
Adam
Game 112, Mariners at Orioles
Ramirez vs Cabrera, 4:05 pm.
So, the line-up is today’s story, as it’s essentially a rehash of the one they ran out there on Sunday against Josh Beckett.
The good: Adam Jones in left! Ben Broussard at first!
The bad: Jose Vidro at second! Raul Ibanez hitting cleanup!
The M’s vastly improve their outfield defense by sticking Jones in left… and then give it all right back by putting Vidro at second. Turbo should never take the field in any scenario that doesn’t involve an 18 inning game and multiple injuries. He’s that bad defensively. The Lopez-Vidro downgrade might actually be larger than the Ibanez-Jones upgrade. Despite Adam Jones being in the line-up, the defense isn’t any better, and we’re throwing a contact pitcher who has been destroyed outside of Safeco. That’s not good.
Look, obviously, we’re all happy that Adam Jones is playing today, and this might be the best offense the M’s have put on the field this year. But they’re still punting defense behind a guy who needs defense to succeed.
Let’s hope AJ has a huge night offensively and Turbo makes a few painful defensive plays that don’t cost us any runs but highlight his inability to field, allowing future line-ups that include Adam Jones to also include Jose Lopez. Hitting or not, the M’s need Lopez playing second base, especially if the alternative is sticking the potted plant known as Turbo out there.
In Other News
Edit: Mariners have acquired John Parrish from Baltimore, reportedly for non-prospect outfielder Sebastian Boucher, and optioned Mark Lowe to Tacoma. This is probably a good move for Lowe to get more regular work in low pressure situations, but Parrish won’t help this team. He’s now their worst reliever and they’re very unlikely to realize that.
And, if you wanted an alternative, the Indians released Fernando Cabrera today. Cabrera > Parrish, and he’s now available to anyone for a minor league contract.
Here’s a new thread for discussion of the team before the game thread goes live later tonight. However, this thread comes with rules. The following topics are off limits:
1. Jose Vidro
2. Chemistry
3. Clutch Hitting
If you want to talk about any of those things, your thread is below. Call it segregation if you want, but we’re serious about trying to get this place back to being something better than what it has been lately.