Game 143, Athletics at Mariners
I love baseball, I really do. There’s no way I’d have written a book about it otherwise, obviously, but I tune into watch HoRam get slapped around knowing he’s almost certain to get slapped around as regularly as I see Felix.
But I have to admit – we’ve seen a couple funks like this the last couple years, and it takes a lot out of being a fan for me to see the team go through this. I want to shake my head and ask “When does it stop? Can I step out for a while and have someone wave me back in when it’s over?”
And yet here I am, making dinner and waiting to see Jarrod Washburn. And there, on the lineup card, in left, is USSM-endorsed left fielder Adam Jones. Vidro plays first, Ibanez DHs. Not, uh… how I would have done it, but hey, if you’re going to upgrade the outfield defense, Washburn’s a good pitcher to go for it.
Oakland fields… Dallas Braden. I don’t even know much about Dallas.
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Preview of 2008 lineup?
AAAAAHHHHHHRRRGHHHH!!! They just announced on the pregame that Mac slept on it, and decided to give Horam his next start instead of giving it to Feierabend! ARGH!! (One ARGH! wasn’t enough)
I think I’ll go bang my head against the wall until the game starts.
[see ya!]
I’ll follow the M’s to the bitter end of the season, but at this point it’s more about my love of the sport. You never know when you’re going to see something spectacular, even if some nights it’s only a couple of Yuni catches, or an Ichiro infield single.
The season record doesn’t matter to me anymore as I watch. I just try to enjoy the game in front of me. With a little voice in the back of my brain screaming periodically, “That’s why you should have done [fill in the blank], you idiotic manager [GM, owner, etc.]!”
#2
At least now M’s fans can boo really, really loud at HoRam next time. Like an 11 on Spinal Tap.
There are more ballplayers than fans.
The great thnig about baseball is each game is special. I have partial season tickets to the Portland Beavers. Not because I’m excited about them winning a AAA title (which they won’t) but because I love to watch baseball. It makes me feel and act like a kid again. The Mariners being in a playoff race for a while this year only made it better. Growing up in Pittsburgh we had some good years and a whole lot of bad. But I always loved going to the games. Go M’s and go Washburn. If they win tonight I’ll feel a little better.
We’re still deleting the steroid accusation comments, right?
Has Washburn been much of a different pitcher since the all-star break? From a cursory look, it appears as though his strikeout and walk rates are up, but his homer rater is really high. Still, the results haven’t been pretty.
Does anyone expect Mac back for next year?
9… did anyone expect Bavasi back last year?
As long as the M’s win 81 and keep my Vegas bet alive I am fine. But they way the M’s are playing my money is going to a guy with a hip replacement playing Keeno at 2am.
The recent ills make me a lot more glad that Ichiro re-signed earlier on. Before that contract, I lived my M’s fandom in absolute fear that if they didn’t make the playoffs, he’d be gone. But now, falling out of the playoff is just normal fan angst.
OBS?
Last night was buffalo butchering, tonight is salmon spawning. Dave N. has officially run out of things to fill the air with.
OBS? To describe this team, I think you mean IBS.
Thank god for the Ichiro signing. By himself he guarantees me keeping my Mariner loyalty so long as he’s there. I don’t think I would stop being a fan without him — it’s a compulsion — but by himself he makes me happy to be a Mariners fan. He may be my favorite baseball player ever by the time he retires.
they have the Groz & Gas-a-thon charity auction items up. I’m not sure if these count as Treats or Torture..
Watch
the Mariners at Nellie’s House
Watch a M’s Game in the Owners Suite with Howard Lincoln
[four errors]
#14– well, on the radio side, Rizzs is reminicing about the Bucky Glory Days
17, well at least you can watch the game and not be so concerned about your other surroundings, ha- haa.
so, I think that makes saturday’s match-up HoRam vs Kazmir.
Thank god for fish tanks. When the game wants to make me break something I have five other points of interest in the room (four tanks, one laptop) to distract me. Good thing I’m not watching in the bedroom, where I only have two tanks and the laptop to distract me.
18, I guess Felix is the ace (3.88 FIP) with Washburn (4.79) and Batista (4.80) battling it out for #2. It certainly isn’t Weaver or HoRam.
Sorry for double posting, but I realized that Weaver has a 4.98 FIP which isn’t so far behind Wash/Beluga Tits. But I still assert that no seasonal “ace” is allowed the start that Weaver had.
Some catch.
On FSN, we were reminded again that last night’s two grand slams only happened once before in A’s history. Special.
I’m thinking Ichiro might not win the batting title this year.
oooh, that was a majestic shot.
I just want to fast forward to the Lincoln-Bavasi press conference in which they declare, “Mac’s doin’ a heckuva job.”
you know, if you watched a game at Nellie’s house, you might be served some of Collette’s baking … that could be a good thing.
I get back from vacation and find my Mariners 2-14??
No, I’m not surprised. Unfortunately I was still keeping up with them…
I’m the big Mariners fan of my friends, and my friends ask me “what happened?” I usually tell them that our management sucks and cite a couple of examples. Then they’re like “oh.” Or if I’m really frustrated I just tell them that they’ve always sucked and gotten lucky so far. =/
At least Mac has learned one thing from Sweet Lou…
The M’s have gotta be intentionally trying to lose games at this point
“Compounding matters, the Yanks have already won and the Angels have won tonight.”
I don’t think that word ‘compounding’ means what you think it means.
Nothing says “The season’s over” more emphatically than 32 posts in 3.5 innings. You can almost hear the crickets in the empty stadium…
Screw it. Put the moose in.
Washburn has been getting squeezed this entire game. I’m surprised he hasn’t lost his cool (although he really did lose his control there for a little while).
Jones really looks like my favorite player of all-time: Eric Davis.
Hopefully he puts up some of the same numbers.
5- I don’t think even Harry Shearer and Rob Reiner could put a spin on this month for us.
In terms of irritating factors and assuming the team’s pitchers and the Ms’ inability to get runners in from second or third with less than two out get highest billing, I nominate the following:
The Geico commercials featuring the annoying Loren Wallace go-kart brat, and–
The fans camping and mugging for the cameras behind who is at bat (can’t cameras just mask their ‘on’ lights so fans can’t tell when they’re being filmed?).
Blowers has just said for the Nth time that if a Seattle pitcher can just get through THIS hitter that the top of the Ms lineup will be up next inning…and they will do what?
17: Let’s fund raise around here to get Dave and Derek into the Suite with Lincoln.
That, would be sweet!
You should make sure to raise bail money in case I’m hauled in for disturbing the peace.
Just getting a game update. Seems like the A’s just finished playing musical bases. Washburn, thou doth sucketh mightily. Same with the M’s offense. Dallas Freakin’ Braden? The guy’s been consistently clobbered all year. This team has officially cried “uncle” it seems.
37. single, line drive out, balk, rbi single, it’s a start
39 hardly could stop laughing at that post. Very funny.
Everyone is so gloom and doom. It’s not so bad.
JMac even got himself tossed to show “Team Spirit” tonight!
OK, it is so bad. It was a good ride this season and more and more
there is a chance that JMac will be gone and perhaps some higher-ups
too. Maybe, just maybe they will get some new blood in there, new ideas
to reconfigure the team.
Some Randy Johnson clone starters would be nice!
The team hasn’t cried uncle. Several teams that cried uncle as early as July have had hot streaks recently.
Baseball is capricious – luck veils reality for some teams every year.
The fans camping and mugging for the cameras behind who is at bat (can’t cameras just mask their ‘on’ lights so fans can’t tell when they’re being filmed?).
That’s why Ankiel is my favorite player ever. I still maintain that he wasn’t losing control, he was trying to throw the ball through the netting to hit the assholes waving on their cellphones in the prime seats.
Noooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo
Great Vidro…so even YOU have to start the “swinging @ the first pitch garbage” and in the process injure one of our other dp specialists.
Wow great play by Joh but sadly I think he broke something.
That looked really, really painful.
Well, at least him taking a few weeks off to heal the broken bones in his hand won’t really hurt the team.
It kind of looked like Johjima was trying to do that. Then again, watching the replay, maybe not.
was that “Rise” by PiL that they played a minute ago when Raul walked up to the plate?
Way to “earn” that RBI Vidro (eyes rolling)
Kenji should get that one
37. tie the game, does that work for you
What’s everyone’s consensus on which manager was/is worse, McLaren or Hargrove? Personally, I think McLaren is much worse but he is more entertaining when he gets ejected.
JR—amazing.
45–LOL.
39–YOU are the exception…at least you hold up excellent stuff!
Give Washburn credit…he’s still in there.
55 McLaren. By far. Hargrove was old school, but he wasn’t awful. He could do a little bullpen management.
McLaren seems to be actively trying to be the worst manager in history.
Hey, the A’s gave their rookie our batting secret: swing at the first pitch and hope you’re lucky. I thought we trademarked that.
55. i get tired of the “just play consistent baseball” comments, wtf, last time i checked this is the win league, not the play consistent league. that league is 30 miles down I-5.
44 is spot on.
Will someone explain to me why we do so much ’situational’ pitching changes? Seems to me that one of this team’s problems is that no one has emerged as a true mid-game reliever and that having a pitcher come in for just one batter may do more harm than good, particularly when the pitchers appear to be ‘aiming’ instead of pitching from the stretch.
sheesh, apparently I missed a lot the last few innings … tossed? for Guccione’s strike zone? Kenji’s hand? what?
you pin Howard in the corner, and start in on the Snelling & Sori deals, and we’ll sic Dave onto Gas, to try to get the notion that ’stat’ guys obsess about the wrong things out of his brain.
How many A’s batters have had the bases loaded in the last two games? It’s beginning to seem commonplace in this series.
that was a error on Jones? That was definitely a catcher mistake.
Error on Jones? Ridiculous.
Jones’ assist turns into an E-7. Nice.
so, can anyone see? is Nellie browbeating the official scorer into changing that one yet?
Well at least Braden didn’t beat us, our bullpen did…again
Does anyone know the record for the biggest swoon at the end of the season? If we haven’t set that record we must be close to it. Sigh.
what happened with Kenji’s hand? was it the same one he has the screws in?
I keep reading on other sites about what a let down Kenji is after Dan Wilson. I like Burke as a backup catcher, but if he’s in for long, there may be a new appreciation for Kenji.
#72– huh? where?
71 – Kenji’s injury:
Seattle Mariners catcher Kenji Johjima left in the sixth inning of Tuesday’s contest against the Oakland Athletics with an apparent left hand injury.
Johjima suffered the injury when he was hit by Oakland shortstop Donnie Murphy trying to break up a potential double play at second base.
http://sports.yahoo.com/mlb/news?slug=txmarinersjohjima&prov=st&type=lgns
I can’t remember which hand has the screws.
have the Mariners ever played a series with Guccione umping that went smoothly? No one tossed, no blown calls, all quiet?
#74– other hand, then:
“Catcher Kenji Johjima took a ball off his right hand Tuesday … the ball hit a screw on a small metal plate”
65—I agree. Looks like Burke wasn’t even blocking the plate and it’s almost impossible to catch an incoming throw if you’re not in front of it and someone is barreling down on you.
I keep reading on other sites about what a let down Kenji is after Dan Wilson.
That’s like saying Gehrig was a disappointment after Pipp. Or that the Flying Fortress was a dissapointment after the B 10.
78
Or ANYONE W/ A PULSE was disappointing after Ayala
78 – Yeah, I’m new to blogging and boards and all that, so I wander around quite a bit. Every three weeks or so I hear the same argument and I pull out actual statistics on Kenji instead of hazy memories of Wilson. And I know I don’t need to go back to those sites.
gotta love the way they are working the pitcher to get some baserunners & get back in this game.
I’m so glad, you know, that we left Washburn in so long. He totally rocks from 86 pitches onward… which coincidentally is the amount he was at after his nice little 4th inning walk-fest.
Yeah!
Just joined the game in time for the “lone bright spot” in Jones’ double.
Good thing AJ hasn’t been in the lineup. Wouldn’t want any of those pesky things, whadda ya call ‘em, hits, showing up.
Wow, someone is watching the game? And posting?
Incredible.
This is where the offense restarts.
85 – Even in Qatar for some reason, although it’s not on television.
Aaaaand this is where it ends.
oh, nice strike call there, Chris.
Seattle is 7th in runs scored. They’ve scored 706 runs. (Cleveland is 6th with 731 runs.)
How many of Seattle’s 728 runs allowed are caused by bad defense? The league average is 692 runs allowed.
How many of Seattle’s 728 runs allowed are caused by bad defense? The league average is 692 runs allowed.
Even with playing Vidro at second and Ibanez/Sexson constantly I think we’re above average defensively. Blame the awful starting pitching.
It’s caused by terrible starting pitching and below-average defense.
How many of those 728 runs are caused by Raul Ibanez’s bad defense?
I thought so. I wish that we had gone with a 4-man rotation back about Sept. 1. Weaver would have been my choice to be benched.
There’s no way that we’re average defensively. Lopez, Ichiro, and Beltre are all above average this year, but the rest of the team is average/below with Sexson, Betancourt (errors), Ibaniez, and Guillen being quite detrimental.
94: Approx. 20-25
Even with playing Vidro at second and Ibanez/Sexson constantly I think we’re above average defensively. Blame the awful starting pitching.
You’re right that the pitchers should bear a good deal of the blame, but this team is not above average defensively.
Ichiro, YuBet, Beltre – above average.
Guillen, Joh – average
Lopez, Sexson, Ibanez – below average.
Broussard – slightly below average.
Any disagreements with this?
I guess I can accept that we may be below average overall, but we really do have some great points out there…and I think there are a lot of teams with bad defense throughout. It’s hard to average defense, hell it’s hard to even quantify it for even one player.
I think it would come down to ranking the teams for defense. and having enough raters to average positions.
Lipreading class was always my favorite.
woooooooooooooooo! another stunning foray into the sucktitude that is the M’s.
#101 What did the ump say to Guillen? Looked like he knew he got the call wrong, or else there’s no way Guillen shouldn’t have been thrown out after staying there and talking about it.
Before the game started, I really thought we had a good shot at winning this one. I’m not so optimistic about tommorrow. DMZ told me winning wasn’t inevitable. I didn’t think the M’s would go to such a length to prove his point.
guccione’s last ten game as HP ump vs mariners
08/21/07 MIN 2 – SEA 7 S. Baker J. Washburn -114/8.5 08/03/07 SEA 7 – BOS 4 H. Ramirez J. Lester 102/10 Home 07/03/07 KC 17 – SEA 3 J. De La Rosa R. Feierabend -04/29/07 SEA 5 – KC 1 C. Baek B. Bannister -151/9.5 Home 03/20/07 ARI 8 – SEA 1 E. Gonzalez J. Weaver -125/- 08/20/06 LAA 3 – SEA 2 E. Santana J. Woods -160/9.5 Home 08/09/06 SEA 2 – TB 0 J. Washburn J. Shields -159/9.5 08/13/05 SEA 1 – LAA 9 R. Franklin B. Colon 148/8.5 Road 07/29/05 SEA 5 – CLE 10 A. Sele K. Millwood 133/8.5 Road 09/22/04 LAA 6 – SEA 16 B. Colon G. Meche -250/9 Road O
2-15, wow. I think I’m actually numb to it now. Hey, if we win our final 19 games I think we can still make the playoffs (actually, I figure we could go 18-1, which is good because I doubt we’ll win tomorrow).
wow. Do you think the M’s have grounds for filing a formal grievance or protest about the umpiring they’ve recieved lately?
Between this game and the one where Ichiro got hose on a couple of bad calls make me wonder if the umps have been out drinking beers with NBA refs.
Admittedly, the M’s have lost quite a few games without help from the umps.
We know managers don’t make a lot of difference, but how badly does a team have to play before you blame the manager or axe him just to change things up? I know there are less than three weeks left in the season, but from leading the wild card to a 2-15 run is bad by historic proportions.
The last three weeks of the Mariners, summarized in a single short YouTube clip.
108-When it comes to making the lineups, the starting rotation, and utilizing the bullpen, the manager does make a difference. Mac has failed in all 3
I think the hitoric fall of the mariners can’t be linked to Mac. I mean look at what he did with Rick White….Heck even bavasi can be linked to that blunder. Mac states he has expert knowledge as a coach by being a scout, but his game time decision seem to be a slow learning curve. I think he is great bench coach and should remain in the position with a new coach brought in like Joe Girardi who is available and is good ith young players. More i think about it, I would take him in a second and fire the whol mariners coaching staff to get him
Well I am hoping this 2-15 run will get McLaren and Bavasi and FO fired. I am just being optimistic. I mean since the Mariners aren’t making the playoffs, might as well hope for a complete melt down which will result in some major firings. I doubt they will fire McLaren before the season ends though. I am thinking the day right after the season ends both him and Bavasi get axed. Can’t I hope. I mean to be in playoff contention for so long and then break down like this. Man.
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/mariners/2003880197_marinotes12.html?syndication=rss
Uh, how does he do that without getting the playing time? And what kind of convoluted sentence and logic is that, anyway?
Who else is surprised that Ozzie Guillen got a 5-year extension? I personally can’t believe that any MLB manager could get a 5-year deal, especially aft
Stupid laptop. Anyway, it surprises me that Guillen would get that length of a contract extension after finishing in last place, and considering his hot headededness and sometimes controversial statements.
#112 By the way, the quote over at the Seattle PI is “I’d like to play him a little more,” the manager said. “I just really haven’t had the opportunity. We’re trying to go with guys who have been doing it, going with the experience. (But) if he gets hot, it’s going to be tough to take him out of there.”
Yep, those guys with experience have been doing great this whole year. I’m starting to think that Sexson isn’t even hurt and he’s taken one for the team by “injuring” his hamstring. He obviously knew that McLaren would never have the balls to take him out. By the way, Ramirez is getting the start Saturday because “he really hasn’t pitched that poorly” just missing his spot a few times. Which is obviously why the league is hitting .333 off him for the season.