Game 156, Indians at Mariners
DMZ · September 25, 2007 at 6:26 pm · Filed Under Game Threads
Felix Day! Woooo! The Indians are playing for the best record of any playoff team, and the Mariners are playing for the honor of.. uh… not being eliminated from the wild card race today? Veteran pride?
I don’t know, but check it out…
CF-L Ichiro
2B-R Lopez
LF-L Ibanez
DH-R Guillen
3B-R Beltre
1B-B Vidro
C-R Johjima
RF-R Jones (WOOO)
SS-R Bloomquist (IGNITION)
Comments
122 Responses to “Game 156, Indians at Mariners”
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.
USSM uses and recommends
I have to admit, I’m happy for the Indians winning their division. They spent a few years down and out like the M’s, developed thier talent wisely, then came roaring back to contention.
I can only hope the M’s front office is paying attention to how to rebuild a team the right way!
Go M’s!
I’ve been sitting here in Pioneer square debating whether to do to one last game this year.
With Hernandez and Jones playing, and Tampa Bay’s offense coming alive threatening to keep the Mariners from elimination for a few more hours, I think it’s worth it.
Where’s Wlad? We’re out of it, can’t they toss him a few AB? Just to, you know… see what happens?
Prepare to be ignited!
2-King Felix is pitching. What more do you need?
djw: Plenty of good seats available.
That Marlins-Nats game that drew 400 a couple weeks ago? It’s about that bad.
Yankees up 5-0 until a guy named Jorge Valendia hits a go ahead grand slam in the 7th for the Devil Rays. I’ll say this: If there is a 0.01% chance of the Mariners winning 7 while they lose 7, it’s when stuff like that happens.
*Sobbing* I just want to believe but I’m too old now…*sob*
Uhh, there really is no one there. Geez.
#1: I can only hope the M’s front office is paying attention to how to rebuild a team the right way!
After the 2004 season Howard Lincoln said that the Mariners didn’t believe they needed to do an Indians-style teardown-and-rebuild (and he specifically mentioned the Indians). He stated that the Mariners could rebuild and contend at the same time.
Of course, in a Geoff Baker article this spring, Byran Price commented that it was obvious going into spring training in 2005 that the Mariners weren’t a contending team.
That looked like such a lazy swing but the ball just kept going.
I’m really looking forward to tomorrow. A real double-header! WOOOO!
7:
Pretty sure it’s impossible to hit a go-ahead grand slam when the score’s 5-0.
Pretty sure it’s impossible to hit a go-ahead grand slam when the score’s 5-0.
The Yankees would find a way to do it, I’m sure. When it’s a team playing against the Yankees, probably not.
And the Yanks tied it up again. The Fangraph is fun, though. Meanwhile, the White Sox giving it away against KC. Think there’s anybody at that game?
Pay no attention to the deep-pocketed man behind the curtain
It’s open season on the Indians’ front office, and the prize of the bunch is still there. Just saying…
3 – It’d be fun to see an outfield of Ichiro, Jones and Vlad. I don’t know if Vlad’s ready or not to play in the bigs everyday, but the outfield above would be a lot better defensively than Ichiro, Guillen and Ibanez.
I hope McLaren’s not going to use the fact that Cleveland’s playing for home field advantage as an excuse not to play the youngsters. Our top priority should be what’s good for our organization, not worrying about who gets to play an extra game at home in the playoffs. Oakland played a bunch of youngsters against us last week when we were (cough) still in the playoff hunt.
Actually, that 6th inning for the D’Rays when they scored 6 runs looks like they were facing the M’s recent bullpen: fresh reliever opens the inning with a walk, pop-out, double (run scores), another walk, and that’s it for him; new reliever gives up a walk (loads bases), another walk (run scores), grand slam. Ron Villone comes in to get the final out.
It definitely would be fun to have Ichro and Vlad in the outfield, and I wanted the M’s to go after him in the ‘03-’04 offseason in spite of his price and back problems but they let the Angels get him instead. Oh, you mean Wlad. Yeah, it would be fun to have him out there too, but Bavasi wouldn’t want that because it might give people expectations about what’s in store for next year.
so let me get this straight.
Felix has already given up 3 runs.
The M’s are baffled by a mystery lefty.
Pat O’Day was in the KOMO booth.
huh.
well, of course he is.
I think my favorite pre-game remark tonight came from KJR:
“with 22 errors, Betancourt needs to work on that. Of course, Jeter has 18, so maybe that isn’t as bad as it looks.”
So, is there an upside to Jones playing winter ball?
It seems unlikely offensively, but given his relative inexperience in the outfield, would seeing live balls off the bat benefit him?
That mystery lefty (with the 5+ ERA) is throwing a 1-hitter. Thank goodness for Beltre, or we’d be worried about a no-name no-hitter. And the M’s continue their streak of making marginal guys look like Cy Young candidates.
Ichiro needs to turn it on if he wants to catch Mags….
#17–Do you mean Wlad, not Vlad? I don’t think the Angels are interested in giving up Guerrero, unfortunately.
A difference in the two organizations is illustrated in Dave N’s comment about the Indians giving the kids a chance because they’d already clinched. Clearly, the Indians are still playing for home field advantage, so if they are playing younger players it is because these players give them the best chance to win.
I wish they hadn’t closed the roof. It’s cold here.
There are these two drunk Indians fans a few rows below us. Everyone is indifferent to them. Sad.
Er, *opened* the roof.
I think Felix is ok with AJ playing out there.
NEXT HITTING MILESTONE:
• Julio Franco needs 2 G to reach 2529
(40th all time, passing Ernie Banks)
Projected date: September 26, 2007
NEXT PITCHING MILESTONE:
• Miguel Batista needs 2 SO to reach 1000
Tony Pena is 4-4 with 2 doubles and a HR. When’s WFB going to do that?
Veteran presence!
Blowers: “The kids, of course they understand why they aren’t getting playing time, the team was still in it and trying to contend”..
Navarro homers to beat the Yankees, we’re still alive!!!!!!!!!!!! (for a few more innings)
Blowers, of course, is a complete fucking moron.
Has Hafner been playing through an injury? His OPS is like 300 points below last year.
We don’t have a “staff of aces” GAAHHHH!!
Anyone know the record for DPs by one team in a game?
I guess we won’t see AJ on Raul Ibanez magnet night.
Even though we will have been eliminated.
All this veteran leadership crap makes me want to be an NFL fan.
If it were this way in football, Elvis Grbac would still be starting this weekend against Rick Mirer.
41: yeah, Shaun Alexander probably won’t be starting next year, and it probably won’t be that big of a deal.
19, 25 – Oops, Wlad, not Vlad. My apologies. Although an outfield of Ichiro, Guerrero and Cameron would have been cool in 2004.
TB wins! We’re still alive! More veteran playing time!
Shouldn’t we uh I don’t know, pinch run for Turbo here?
I always thought that he was called “Turbo” for un-ironic reasons? Didn’t he just leg out another infield single?
Didn’t he just leg out another infield single?
Mike Redmond has seven infield hits this year. That does not make him fast.
People right across the aisle got the rally fries. I told them to dump them on the drunk Cleveland fans.
They dropped them on the woman in front of them. Oops.
What was the injury delay? Did EOF get hurt?
I just noticed that Ichiro’s having a remarkably similar season to his 2001 MVP year, with just slightly less power and speed.
let’s get Georgie another win, here.
Beltre!!!!!!
King Awsome!!!
Borowoski!!!
I was hoping for a little Red dance there
Why not Jimerson to PR?
Maybe I should say – why Johnson?
I’m not trying to be antagonistic or anything, but I’m interested to hear the play Adam Jones crowd responding to him going 0-6 now in his last two starts? I know its a small sample size, but it seems he isn’t making the splash we hoped for.
I have to go with Neihaus here:
“how about an Adam Jones extra base hit here for a win … which won’t happen as we have a pinch-hitter”
#58 um, pretty much the same way they viewed the 4 RBI day, that it is all a part of a season with just 55 ABs since he came up?
I took a couple days off watching the Mariners and now I feel less jaded. I’m actually rooting for them now instead of rooting for the largest collapse in history to cause a major management overhaul.
Jones got some nice ovations from the 8,000 people there after his defensive gems.
may I just say that if I never hear Rizzs say again “it’d be a great time here for [fill in the blank] to hit a home run” or with the bases-loaded “[Blank Filled]’s last grand slam was …”
I don’t agree with it, but I can at least understand that veteran entitlement is a theory. I don’t get this quote from Mac at all:
“I think we owe it to the other clubs to run veteran players out there against [the Indians[,” McLaren added. “That’s only fair, and I would hope they’d do the same for us.”
We certainly wouldn’t want to do anything to make the Angels mad at us for not playing our best team against the Indians. Because it’s really important to us who has the best record this year.
http://seattle.mariners.mlb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20070925&content_id=2229781&vkey=news_sea&fext=.jsp&c_id=sea
Gameday’s having a tough time.
well, gosh, you can’t disrespect the Indians. They might not let us have Antonetti.
I wonder about replacing Jones with Broussard, given the marginal offensive upgrade of Broussard over Jones, and the low chances of scoring with two outs and a runner on first. Now we can’t use Brousard to pinch hit in a more important situation, such as if Lopez or Willie were up with RISP. Also, the difference between Jones and Morse in RF has to count for a lot.
msb, I’d consider that a fair trade. I suspect Mac wouldn’t.
That was a pretty sweet inning by Morrow
It makes no sense that Mac would still run the vets out. Maybe they are still holding hope for the wild card.
63: At least I can’t remember him saying “Well, we gotta get behind the [blank -- though in this case, Angels] for the post-season, because they’re carrying the banner for our division” yet this year, like he often has in the past.
Morse time?
Hell yes Morse time!
They are still holding out hope for the wild card (”When and if something happens and we’re not [mathematically alive], we’ll take a look at a couple of the kids,” McLaren said.”), which drives me nuts. And he’s going to let Beltre and Guillen get their 100 rbi, and Ichiro play for the batting title.
Okay so now we can pinch hit Broussard for Green right?
doh!
why not PH Balentien?
instead…a 3 pitch strikeout…
nice job Nick Green. (Sarcasm)
That was pathetic.
I’ve seen better at bats than Green’s from a lot of NL pitchers.
#77… I second that emotion. Where’s Wlad? Are there no more infielders left to take over for Green if the PH for him?
another shotty performance of managing by Mac
RRS is thinking… note to self: pickoff move to first isn’t the time to show my nasty slider. Must remember that next time.
Asdrubal Cabrera making the Mariners regret trading him. But the Mariners got like half a dissapointing season of veteran leadership out of the trade, that’s priceless right?
I don’t understand not putting Balentien in, either. Hey, he’s .500/.500/1.000 in his 2 at bats!
I’m guessing that McLaren thinks we’ll be more likely to win if the vets are playing, and that the more wins the M’s finish up with, the more likely he’ll be back next year. It doesn’t matter if the wins mean anything or not. Of course, even if they win the last seven, they still won’t reach the 93 wins the M’s had in 2003, before Bavasi took over.
Gee, Mac, if you were going to dink around for 12 innings and LOSE anyway, you could’ve at least done that an hour ago…it’s almost two in the morning in St. Pete’s, and the bars will be closed by the time the Yankees’ guys get there to celebrate.
I don’t know what could possibly be more perversely poetic than a former Mariner – now an Indian courtesy of a hideous trade for an aging veteran who is no longer in the majors – would apply the final nail to the coffin of the Mariners hapless season.
After that special guest appearance by Pat O’Day earlier tonight, I just knew we were going to hear an ad at some point for Schick-Schadel.
it is finally official…”no playoffs for the M’s this year”
Time of death? 11:02 pm Tuesday September 25, 2007. Cause: Veterenitis
Yep…
Yanks, Red Sox, Angels, Indians…
i.e. gallows, lethal injection, electric, firing squad…name your poison…
I say…GO CUBS!
*Make that electric CHAIR…
I’ll root for BoMel and the kids.
94: You know, it really wouldn’t be all that bad to see the D-Backs go deep into the PS, either. It’s kinda poetic in a way that BoMel got that team that far after Lincoln and Armstrong treated him like crap then dumped him.
OMG…Sandy on KJR was just saying that, unless Johan Santana is gettable, he doesn’t want to see “any of our young prospects go away” — and Nellie was agreeing with him!
Gah, better look out the window and see if the apocalyptic asteroid is heading toward Earth!
The season’s not over. The M’s are playing for draft position.
True — though, unfortunately, they would’ve gotten better picks had they lost more games.
“I think we owe it to the other clubs to run veteran players out there against [the Indians[,” McLaren added. “That’s only fair, and I would hope they’d do the same for us.”
That tears it. McLaren is beyond all hope — he’ll pull any lame justification out of his ass to play the vets. “I think we owe it to the giant purple spiders nesting in my brain to run veteran players out there.”
Hey, Mac: the season’s dead, the kids need to play, and if the vets don’t like it, well you just need to grow a pair and act like — you know — a manager instead of a cowardly pile of mush. I’ve given up on you having a brain, but it sure would be nice if you found a spine, you pathetic sack of faeces.
I still like seeing Beltre Play I’d like to see if he can get close to 30 dingers and 100 RBI’s. But your right the kids need some playing time.
Connie Mack: “It’s more profitable to me to have a team that is contention for most of the season but finishes about fourth because that sort of team draws well enough in the first part of the season to guarantee a profit for the year and you don’t have to give the players raises when they don’t win.”
In terms of vets, you play ‘em because you’re paying ‘em… and maybe some of the deadwood can improve their stats enough, even if by some tiny whisker of a point, to be worth trading….
Just a thought… (or hope)
101: Nowadays, ironically, Connie Mack would still be stuck eating salary on guys who turned out to be underachieing million-dollar crybabies
101: Since my PC unfortunately spazzed out on me just now, please allow me to finish my thought…
Ironically, if Mack were around these days, he’d still be stuck eating millions in salary on underachieving crybabies — like every other GM in the majors has had to at one point or another.
Interesting how much the game has changed over the years.
104: Yeah, the irony isn’t lost on me. Mack didn’t have to deal with free agents or people like Scott Boras, either. On top of that, I can’t help feel that Mack would be astonished by the Seattle Paradox of the club’s having (owning?) fans who come in droves even in years where the season’s not only basically over by the third week in April, but the team itself is deeply inflicted with the Zombie-Man (better known as Ayala)Syndrome which makes the games themselves an excruciating experience. Go figure.
#96 I don’t think that was Sandy tonight on KJR with Nellie. Unfortunately, I think it was Dick Fain. I heard Nelson come up with some absolute nonsense tonight, about how we should be going after Eric Bedard or Scott Kazmir this winter. When Fain told him that the O’s and Rays aren’t going to give up those kind of guys, that those are #1 starters, the guys those teams are building around, Nellie showed his ignorance, saying something like “those teams can’t afford to pay those guys in a couple of years so they’d probably just take a couple of prospects.” Yeah, the big market Baltimore Orioles with all of Peter Angelos’ money can’t afford Eric Bedard. What an idiot Nelson is.
Fain was no better in discussing what a great year Raul Ibanez has had. When a caller called in saying that Ibanez had had half his HRs in a two week stretch in August and said he liked his cleanup hitter to be a lot more consistent than that (and pointed out that Raul can’t hit lefties), Fain called the guy an idiot and bemoaned that “there are people out there that are that ignorant”…
irritating though it might be, Mac isn’t different than any other manager in MLB when it comes to the arcane rules of “respecting your opponent” and/or “respecting baseball”
I don’t know about the other teams, but Mac’s job is to manage the Mariners, not to do what might please the Angels or Yankees.
Plus, it’s not as if we’re suggesting running out a lineup of scrubs. We don’t want to see Nick Green and Rob Johnson, we’re talking about (hotshot?) prospects like Jones, Wlad and Clement. That’s no more disrespectful of baseball than the Yankees running out Joba Chamberlain in the chase, or the Mariner’s running out Sexson for 5 months of this year.
“The Mariners were forced to make some odd decisions in the extra innings because of a shortened bench. After the game, McLaren said that shortstop Yuniesky Betancourt could only pinch hit, not run, and that his elbow needs a “precautionary” MRI today. Wladimir Balentien has an injured right hand and Charlton Jimerson has an injured back.”
Some real gems from Baker’s column today:
“We’ll run the consistent lineup out there every day,” [McLaren] said.
Sticking with Ibanez and Vidro paid off for McLaren, despite the defensive argument for Jones, with both contributing high second-half numbers. But standing by Sexson, while Ben Broussard rotted on the bench, was an organization-wide gamble that failed miserably.
For his part, McLaren has strived to remain true to his core beliefs as the season drags mercifully to a close. No team in baseball history that was 20 games over .500 so late in the season ever lost as many games as quickly as this one did.
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/mariners/2003903198_mariwrap26.html
Funny that. I would define, “paid off” as having made the playoffs.
in one of the better stories this season, vote JJ for DHL delivery man
OMG:
http://www.latimes.com/sports/la-sp-plaschke26sep26,1,1875248.column?coll=la-headlines-sports&ctrack=3&cset=true
The kid gloves are off.
After watching their youth movement crash and burn against a wall of reality last week, the Dodgers are quietly mulling a slight change of direction.
The kids are no longer untouchable.
…
The Dodgers wouldn’t offer specifics, but insiders say they have reached the conclusion that they can be contenders quicker and longer if one or two of these kids are traded for more developed players who could help them avoid a repeat of this September’s meltdown.
Unbelievable if this is true. Are the Dodgers really hoping to find a couple of “consistent vets” for Kemp? WOW.
Plaschke’s track record is pretty bad.
Plaschke is a nut, for sure. But it sure sounds like things are backwards down in Chavez Ravine…
Oh yeah, I’d agree entirely. But there’s a fair chance that he’s just exaggerating something a marketing intern told him.
“his unwillingness to use Class AAA call-up Adam Jones on a more regular basis.”
apparently, this is AJ’s new name.
What are the Dodgers hypothesizing as the cause of their meltdown?
Come to that, what IS the cause of the Dodgers’ meltdown? It’s not Kemp, Loney or Martin. It’s not Jeff Kent either. Oh I see, lots of ABs for Juan Pierre, Rafael Furcal and Nomar; and quite a few to Mike Lieberthal, Olmaedo Saenz, Ramon Martinez, and (for Gawd’s sake) Shea Hillenbrand,
If that’s Jones’ new name, we should make a concerted attempt to change it, in the same way the blog created “King” Felix. Wasn’t he “Baseball America’s Highest-Rated Prospect Adam Jones”? He’s certainly “Best Unplayed Player Adam Jones” and “Criminally Under-employed Adam Jones”
All the other teams with hot prospects brought them up and gave them regular playing time long ago — including the teams that are going to the postseason.
I am now, BTW, officially more pissed off at McLaren now than I ever was at Hargrove or Melvin at the depths of their worst decisions. This guy doesn’t need another year. He needs to go.
As a manager, he looks like a great bench coach.
106: Yeah, unfortunately, I heard Dickie Fain dress down that caller and thought he was way out of line for doing so, too. Fain often shows his moronic side on the air…as for Nellie, while I do give him a point or two for: (a) telling (or, attempting to tell) Lincoln and Armstrong where to go back in ‘03; & (b) saying what’s on his mind, whether I agree with it or not (unlike most of those yuts who do the post-game show over on KOMO — who are such FO yes-men it’s not funny), he’s clearly NOT the greatest analyst I’ve ever heard — and has come up with some real “gems” himself.
Guess I was being more sarcastic than anything when I said that, since I’m so used to hearing nothing but total nonsense from most of these so-called radio “analysts” that I’m utterly shocked when they DO have a fleeting where they almost make sense.
*fleeting MOMENT