Game 18, Mariners at Angels
Seeing a knuckleballer pitch is a whole different kind of entertainment. They’re a weird breed of pitcher, where the results can be determined as much by the environment as the person throwing. I’m always interested in watching games like this, or the Moyers, pitchers making their living through some other way besides the standard low-90s fastball and one or two plus pitches. It’s like watching a high-wire act, where I know they’re not really supposed to be able to get all the way across, and I’m pulling for them to do it anyway.
It’s like the extremely boring Mariner singles-only offenses of the horrible first couple years of the Bavasi era: even if they won, the only player on offense who was consistently interesting to watch was Ichiro. If you’re going to lose, at least make it good viewing.
So maybe Dickey gets shelled tonight. It’s happened before. But it’ll be worth watching.
I’m betting that Dickey’s fastball is praised repeatedly during the broadcast. Just a hunch.
Tonight’s Mariner OMFG lineup:
CF-L Ichiro!
2B-R Lopez
LF-L Ibanez
3B-R Beltre
DH-B Jose Vidro, Professional Hitter ®
1B-R Sexson
C-R Johjima
RF-R Bloomquist
SS-R Betancourt
Ugh. The Angels respond with this wreck:
3B-B Figgins
RF-B Matthews
DH-R Guerrero
LF-L Anderson
CF-R Hunter
1B-R Kotchman
2B-B Izturis
C-R Napoli
SS-B Aybar
Heh. Time to play Would You Swap ‘Em?
C: Ennhhhhhhh… maybe. Kenji’s contract is up after this year, Napoli’s a good bat. Nah, I like Kenji. Maybe.
1B: Yes.
2B: Ennhhhh maybe. I’ve always liked Lopez, though, as readers are well aware. So probably not.
SS: No.
3B: No.
RF: No.
CF: No way
LF: No
DH: Abso-freaking-lutely.
A Question
Okay, so, watching the last two games, there’s one glaring question that comes out of this series – why on earth haven’t the A’s signed Barry Bonds yet?
Unlike the Mariners, they don’t have a fan base to offend. No one comes to their games anyway, so a decrease in attendance isn’t really a worry. They have hit six home runs all year (Mark Ellis is the only guy on the roster with more than one), and they’re slugging .339 as a team. If they’re willing to stick Jack Cust’s absurd defensive inabilities in the outfield to squeeze the last drops out of Mike Sweeney’s career, then it’s safe to say they have an opening for the DH position.
As we mentioned prior to the start of the season, the A’s aren’t a horrible team. They have some decent arms, they can play defense, and the bullpen is good. They just need to figure out how to score some runs if they’re going to do more than float through the year as a .500 ball club that wins 2-1 games a few times a week.
We know he’s not coming to Seattle (no, seriously, it has zero chance of happening – give it up), but I can’t really come up with a reason he’s not already hitting cleanup for the A’s yet. It makes too much sense.
22 innings of baseball goodness
Padres-Rockies last night was pretty great.
Here’s my favorite part of the AP recap:
Manager Clint Hurdle noticed that his players were a little tight.
“This was a good game to get outside yourself,” Hurdle said. “About the 16th inning, I said, ‘Hey boys, no matter what’s in front of us, there’s a world of people out there who’ve got harder rows to hoe than we do. No matter what happens the rest of the night, have some fun with this thing.’ ”
His players listened. It just took them six more innings to score a run.
I’m not sure if that’s sarcasm or not, but it sure seems like it. Six more innings for the speech to get a result? Listening would be joking around followed by a HR the next at-bat.
Game 17, Mariners at Athletics
Carlos Silva on the road against Lenny DiNardo. DiNardo, unfortunately for the M’s, is a lefty, which means we get the anti-lefty lineup, and Silva’s pitching in front of a one-fielder outfield. (Dave adds: Bloomquist in right is way better than Morse, so it’s not that bad)
Could be ugly. On the other hand, it’s only DiNardo’s second start this year, so maybe he uh… won’t be able to pace himself.
Dave adds again: Also, Carlos Silva, remember when you talked about throwing a split-finger to neutralize LH hitters. Well, yea, you haven’t thrown any so far this year, and lefties are torching you for a .327/.365/.531 line. The A’s run out a lot of LH bats. If you have a splitter, throw it tonight please.
Pimping My Fangraphs Work
I mentioned last week that I had been invited by David Appelman to join his staff and begin writing for the invaluable FanGraphs website. I’m having a lot of fun blogging over there, in an arena where I have a chance to explore some things that interest me that aren’t really Mariner related. Plus, I get to make use of the tremendous data that FanGraphs hosts.
I’m posting twice a day over there, so if you’ve missed any of the first eight posts, here’s your chance to catch up:
Have You Seen Justin Verlander’s Fastball?
A-Rod and Clutchness: Part 894
Several stories in there that I find interesting, as well as a few notes on guys who are performing better or worse than we would have expected out of the gates. Anyway, check them out if you’re so inclined, and add FanGraphs to your daily readings – there’s a lot of good stuff being written over there, and it’s worth checking out.
Woo Felix Woo!
Felix is ours and you can’t have him.
Game 16, Mariners at Oakland
Felix! Against Blanton, who is not Felix. Heh heh heh. Supposed 7:05 start time.
No lineups up yet that I’ve found, so I’m going ahead with my
I know generally speaking my view of the AL West (and Dave’s, which is different but substantially similar) isn’t at all widely held, but the season series against the A’s is almost certainly going to be as important as their success against the Angels. It’s going to be much harder to win a division title if they drop games to either of those two.
So win. Having Felix start is a good way to begin.
Felix Day woooo Felix Day!
Do I even need to write anything here? Really?
The Return!
Bottom 9, Phillies trail 3-0, their Win Probability stands at 4.4%. And then this happens.
Chris Snelling hits a home run to right field.
Doyle Lives! The Phillies go on to win the game, and we all know why. Long Live Doyle!
Game 15, Royals at Mariners
3:40 start time. Batista, you’re the stopper — go!