Let Me Get This Straight
This is the sequence of events the M’s saw happen today.
1. Erik Bedard’s hip continued hurting, so he got scratched and his next start is up in the air.
2. Adrian Beltre’s hamstring kept him out of the line-up, so he was replaced by Miguel Cairo.
3. Mike Morse embarrassed and then injured himself playing right field.
4. Eric O’Flaherty got pounded again, likely purchasing his bus ticket to Tacoma.
5. The Angels beat them.
That’s a bad day right there.
This team essentially has five good baseball players on it – Bedard, Felix, Ichiro, Beltre, and Putz – and three of them are now hurt. If Bedard is out for an extended length of time, this team is done. The entire concept of the 2008 Mariners is that those five guys would carry a substandard supporting cast to a division title. Well, you take Bedard and Putz out of the equation, and this isn’t even a .500 team.
The Mariners cannot make the playoffs without strong seasons from their entire core quintet. Right now, whether they’ll get that or not is up in the air. The first two weeks couldn’t have gone much worse for the M’s.
I had the unfortunate luck to be at yesterdays game. As we were walking through Safeco taking in the sights we hear over the P.A. that Bedard is out and will be replaced by Baek. I sigh. We take our seats and they announce the lineups. No Beltre instead we get Cairo, and Morse gets a chance to stumble around in Right. I put my head in my hands and moan softly to myself. That was pretty much my position for the rest of the game, with occasional winces as Morse would misplay a ball and Cairo would pop-up weakly in the infield. At least I could console myself that it was beautiful day weather-wise. Oh, wait… No, the weather was crappy too.
Not exactly the vision I had in my head as I wended my weary way to the Park.
40 – I’ve fully dislocated my shoulder 6 times. It is very true that after it happens once, it easily becomes a repeat injury. I’ve done it swimming, playing softball, and even rolling over in my sleep. So I can understand your sneeze injury. 🙂
Through spring training and his first starts this season, Bedard has not looked like a healthy, top of the rotation pitcher. Did Bavasi know about Bedard’s hip problem and roll the dice anyway?
Bavasi’s evaluation that O’Flaherty was ready to fill Sherrill’s shoes reinforces the belief of some that he is a horrible judge of talent (aside from that great trade for Huber, ha, ha). Meanwhile, Sherrill has five saves, and is sorely missed in Seattle. It will be interesting to see if Sherrill can overcome his August swoons, however.
Morse had one really bad defensive play, but has played better than I expected in RF this season. It is likely that Balentien would have caught the ball that Morse trapped, however, not to mention the ball Morse broke the wrong way on.
It was also disappointing to see Morse strike out with two on and nobody out. However, it was equally upsetting to see Morse injured, no matter how it occurred.
You see the power in that Angels line up, batter after batter, and you wonder how the Mariners can compete with them. If Morse getting injured means that Balentien gets called up I think I’d take it.
I saw that Adam Jones struck out four times yesterday, that can’t have been good.
I would gladly take Adam’s strikeouts, in exchange for his range and arm in RF.
50 – No, that’s called Suckluxation
I’ve only dislocated knees (about 6-7 times), so I know how uncomfortable it is, especially right after it happens. Much like it made it hard for me to run in football, I expect it can’t make swinging a bat or fielding a ball very easy for Morse.
I see no humor in making fun of a player’s injury.
I would argue that the Betancourt should be added to that list of “good players”.
Other than that, agreed on all accounts.
Regardless of what happens with Adam Jones, remember that there was another player in that trade. A guy who might turn out to be the best closer in the league at this rate.