Game 92, Mariners at Athletics
Dave · July 10, 2008 at 11:00 am · Filed Under Mariners
12:35, Dickey v Smith.
Cairo plays first base today, but Vidro will take over as the 1B vs RHP and play most of the time. Rejoice!
For what its worth, though, Riggleman’s comments about releasing Sexson because he wasn’t interested in having a player complain about not being in the line-up are nice to hear. We had to deal with a year of John McLaren coddling the veteran egos rather than putting the best team on the field, so it’s nice to see the organization finally telling the entitled group of suck to shut up.
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Please tell me the Streak is in the lineup! These days I watch for Ichiro! and the Streak. And to watch Adrian flip the ball across the diamond and get more on it than most pitchers.
Well, go Dickey. Today might have been a good day, except we now have no 1Bmen, we can so longer trade Bedard for a while, and Vidro is still on the team.
RF-Willie Boom-Boom!
2B- J Lo
LF-Ibanez
3B-Not Vidro
DH-Vidro
C-Johjima
1B-MiniVidro
CF-Reed
SS-Betancourt
WFB batting LEAD OFF! Today is awesome…:S
#3 – I sure wish we had a whole team of hitters like today’s 3rd baseman.
I thought Ichiro didn’t want a day off. That’s dumb.
They should also release Cairo and Vidro, to get a look at some prospects. Maybe LaHair?
This is the sorriest lineup I have seen in quite some time, and it’s not even close.
So, we’ve called up Baek and Broussard.
Sigh.
#4 – Obviously the M’s coaches are still reading this site, and decided to put Willie in the leadoff slot after his team-leading OBP was recognized.
hansk – LaHair’s got turf toe problems. Niehaus just mentioned on the broadcast that he thinks LaHair’s the 1b as soon as he can play, and until then, it’s 1b by large committee.
I found myself seeking consolation in the fact that the stretch of the lineup from 2-4 wasn’t horrifically awful.
Anyone want to play Guess-the-Attendance?
I must say that in spite of Riggleman’s comments when looking at Sexson’s splits based on merrit he still had his uses against lefties and on the road meaning that from now onwards two thirds of the at bats for 1B will likely go to less deserving players, two of which (Vidro and Cairo) are also veterans.
Why Clement isn’t playing everyday is freaking beyond me. This is ridiculous. I’m glad you can find playing time for sucky veterans, instead of your best hitting prospect. Great managerial decisions being made.
It’s official! Tug Hulett (sp) is scrappy!
Richie Sexson leaves the Mariners with 105 homers leaving him tied for 9th on the Mariners All-Time list.
Willie:
087 – Consecutive games without an XBH
170 – Consecutive at bats without an XBH
196 – Consecutive PAs without an XBH
101 – 2008 season ABs with no XBH
120 – 2008 season PAs with no XBH
Unofficial records:
100 – Consecutive games without an XBH – Greg Gross
223 – Consecutive at bats without an XBH – Jose Valdivielso
266 – Consecutive PAs without an XBH – Larry Lintz
124 – Full season ABs with no XBH – Dwain Anderson
144 – Full season PAs with no XBH – Dwain Anderson
I think they put Willie in for Ichiro to make Cairo look better at first.
sheesh, completely forgot it was early-early. I missed Tug’s scrappiness.
dumb that he doesn’t want a day off, or dumb that he got one?
you know I thought sexson was starting to turn around, but that;s a little hopeful. But why haven’t they cut VIDRO!!!
6:
LaHair really isn’t a prospect. He’s not very good…
..but I suppose I’d still rather watch him than Turbo and Cairo.
Ichiro has a tight hammy, says Blowers.
There’s one way that this makes sense; the team knew about the MEGAVIDRO nickname and didn’t want us to be disappointed by not having some Vidro variant at first.
Vidro strikes out. So much for his skills as a contact hitter… Okay that was just snark. But suppose that we get LaHair up. We know that LaHair is not a prospective star or even a prospective regular in the major leagues. But I hope that he gets called up for a while at least. He’s probably a better hitter than Vidro or Cairo, might be better than Sexson, and it’d be nice for the guy to fulfill his dream of playing in the majors, and the only way it’ll happen is for an awful team like this.
On the other hand, if he is better than Vidro, he could end up costing us Strasburg.
I didn’t know that there were possible worlds in which Ichiro had tight hammies!
At this point in the season I don’t see the point of releasing Richie Sexson…
Let’s face it…as sucky as he has been at hitting..he was still our best option at first base…if you’re not going to play Raul there…which the M’s obviously won’t. Not only that but Richie was starting to hit a little better and if the improvement had continued maybe we could have found someone to eat the contract or part of it…
Just another dumb move by the Mariners 2008.
Why the hell is Vidro still with this team AND in the lineup daily??
I am a little bit surprised that Sexson ends up as high as 10th on the Mariners all time list in OPS at 808.
Well, Sexson was released today…
yay WFB first pitch swinging foul out. Great contribution
I think that Willie’s OBP has fallen behind Ichiro’s again now.
Ichiro’s three hits last night put him in the OBP lead.
Richie was starting to hit a little better and if the improvement had continued maybe we could have found someone to eat the contract or part of it
No he wasn’t, and no they couldn’t.
Last 7 days (25 PA): .158 / .360 / .368
Last 14 days (41 PA): .219 / .390 / .438
Last 28 days (85 PA): .224 / .365 / .343
Assuming you believe small sample sizes mean anything, I don’t see an improvement there. Even if Sexson returned to his career peak for the remainder of July, I don’t think you’d be able to find anyone who would pay anything to take him off the M’s hands. Even free, as he is now, I wouldn’t be surprised if he sits out the rest of the season.
Ichiro’s three hits last night put him in the OBP lead.
So clearly Ichiro is sitting out today in favor of Bloomie to give him a chance to get back into the lead, and also to keep the Bloomster’s streak alive (a streak which Ichiro was creeping up on). It’s a nice gesture by a clubouse leader.
Will either of these teams be able to score a run today?
Stuff like that keeps me tuning in.
I’m banking on Raul hitting one out – no particular reason. Of course, it will be a solo shot.
For those not watching – why was R Sweeney taken out of the game?
I think he fungled something on the slide into second.
So is anyone actually paying attetion to the game?
Jammed a finger on the SB attempt.
Sure, I’m half assedly watching between work and drywalling
Those were some deep flyballs, uhg. He gonna get burned if he keeps it up.
How did Cairo walk on four pitches?
What pitcher would pitch around him leading off an inning?
Does anyone think that Sexson might sign with another team? Arizona could take a flier on him, if he is willing to go to AAA and work on his swing.
Oh, he walked him so he could pick him off.
Just for fun, I guess.
@ 31
I’d actually be surprised if nobody picks him up. I already know some Yankees fans who wouldn’t mind having him on the bench to deal with lefties, or to provide a defensive option off the bench over Giambi.
so besides being one of the most unpopular players here, Cairo gets picked off
If Sexson is willing to fulfill a role on the bench, then he could be valuable to the right team.
On the other hand, it sounds like he wasn’t too happy with sitting on the bench here. So that might be a factor too.
I guess the defensive option part is either amusing or a symptom of how badly Giambi is in the field. BTW, to go back to my earlier post, I can’t blame Sexson for being upset when being benched in favor of Cairo or Vidro.
I was just perusing oninon “articles” to cure my boredom today and ran across this one on the Giants.
Very funny and appropo for our good old ‘08 Ms.
can anyone quickly tell me the salaries of visro and cairo?
so, anyone watching, is Smith’s pick-off move really that fabulous? Dave was thrilled.
check here
Vidro 8.5 mil with vesting option for 09
Cairo .85 mil
geeze, i didn´t vidro gets that much! being sexson i would be upset too if he would be filling my spot
of course, i didn´t know
I know it has already been said…. but that line-up is sorry beyond belief. I’m flabbergasted that it is actually being used in the majors.
Bloomquist
Cairo
Vidro
Johjima
Reed
Betancourt
…all in one line-up? That’s hilarious.
That line-up is actually really balanced. It has:
3 players with an OPS between .700 and .800
3 players with an OPS between .600 and .700
3 players with an OPS between .500 and .600
Also known as:
9 players with an OPS under .786
Also known as:
9 players with an average OPS of .659
so is this a game of stupid baserunning?
I hope nobody is wondering why this game is still a scoreless tie. It certainly doesn’t have anything to do with Dickey or Smith.
Yeah, both of these offenses are terrible. First team to score probably wins.
Nice one Joh *cringe*
Can we give up on Johjima bunting yet?
Good lord. Those were some terrible bunt attempts.
Perhaps Dickey worked on his mechanics.
Or maybe he ate his wheaties today.
now we don ´t know how to bunt…
C’mon Yuni! One time!
go yuni, show them it is worth keeping you
Thinks the Mariners know how to do today:
Run the basesBuntScore a runWell, at least Yuni is taking pitches!
let’s see if Yuni can hold the bat and actually get a walk.
Yuni didn’t walk the entire month of june.
HA! Loaded bases for ICHIRO!!
Oh wait…
wow, its his 6th walk of the year.
not that this hasn’t been a scintillating game thus far, but
Betancourt: BB
In other news, hell freezes over.
10 bucks WFB will send it to a orbit!
You wouldn’t want to pinch hit Ichiro in this situation, would you?
-0.815 RE for Willie
orbit= weak grounder…
Vlad – does a sky high pop-up count?
73: That was the smallest orbit I’ve ever seen. I guess it kinda was. From the mound to the batter to SS back to the mound haha.
if anyone wants to collect, i will be in edmonton 23rd july to august 4th in junior world championship
Three lefties on the bench and the bases loaded in a tie game, and you let Bloomquist bat against a righthander. Results as expected.
Did you see all that grit?
that is the closest i will ever get to seattle
You know, just for kicks I decided to see what player in MLB matches best with the M’s BA, OBP, SLG, OPS (as shown by Yahoo! and includes everyone that’s been on the roster).
M’s – .255/.313/.373/.686
Brendan Harris (MIN) – .256/.313/.361/.675
Whee…
That is hill-air-eee-us.
so, what is the ‘real pitcher’ equivalent for a knuckleballer reaching 100 pitches? 40? 50?
so how many pitchers will be used today till Burke will get another shot on becoming a proved winner?
Gee, way to hustle Lopey….
So, it’s a pitchers’ duel, but with squirt guns?
if anyone please not Vidro
interesting if they do go out looking for a 1B, as Hickey speculates
Lopez runs funny.
Oh, nice. Mr. GDP is up.
Ichiro could PH for Vidro here.
Ah, there goes Riggleman’s excuse about Vidro providing protection.
Seriously, aren’t you supposed to score like 39.7% of the time you get the first man on first base and 64% of the time the first man gets to second?
Granted, those assume you have an average offense. Duh…
Wait. What was Vidro’s job in the lineup again, according to Riggleman?
wonder if his knee is still bothering him. Anyone get an answer as to why he stopped at third yesterday?
Honestly, why would you ever pitch to Beltre with Vidro behind him?
i would put clemet on, NOW!!!
Dave,
“Entitled Group Of Suck” = “EGOS”. Was that intentional, or just unequivocally, unintentionally awesome and totally spot-on?
Why isnt Clement pinch hitting?
Ahh, I missed those Vidro infield hits from 2007
LOL, now Vidro will be forever our clean up hitter. What a “professional” hit there
Yeah! That’s why you don’t issue the intentional walk to pitch to Vidro. Riggleman was right!
Now they pitch hit!?!
Nice call #93.
damnit!!! and why is beltre at third on WP with Vidro resting at first?
Good squeeze call. Too bad it didn’t work out.
Wow. A PH and new pitcher in mid-AB, and a suicide squeeze on the first pitch!
foul bunt??? was it for base hit?
Can I get a squeeze… they always make me happy. It may be irrational, but I love them.
I figured it was just hard to double up Ichiro, hence him as the PH, the squeeze caught me totally off guard.
ZOMG bases loaded for Cairo WIN!
105 – Don’t you know? We’re an NL lineup. Riggleman is going to do a double switch, put Clement to replace WFB and catch while Ichiro goes to RF.
Pinch hit Felix!!!
I thought taking the first pitch after a walk to load the bases was one of baseball’s cardinal rules… ugh.
LOL Bloomquist to 1st, Ichiro to RF and Clement to catch if you pinch hit for Cairo…why would the mariners want a superior hitter here tho?
was it too shallow?
Gotta love it.
Yeah it wasn’t deep.
Good call Dave. Ladies and Gentlemen, your Seattle Measlies.
Wasted Days and Wasted…
That’s a great story. No doubt about it.
so three more out till morrow
Referring to the link, of course…not the comment.
What’s the minimum number of runs a team can score while sending 7 batters to the plate in a single inning?
Yep, the M’s break-out inning
It’s getting to the point where I check the box score and if I see WFB has a hit I think “Oh NO!” and hurriedly go to the game log to verify that it wasn’t for extra bases.
As if!
I fixed this for you:
Oo, the new 3D Gameday is neat.
I can watch Cairo fail from multiple angles.
I just check games in progress usually just to see how Ichiro is doing. He just came in as a PH and walked, there being a base open with men on 1st & 3rd and one out, with Cairo and Reed coming behind him.
This is the worst lineup I have ever seen since 2001, and the most idiotic use of a pinch hitter in years and years.
Riggleman is a huge improvement over the last imposter. Improvement in the most relative meaning of that utterly dissatisfying term.
127 – Amen to that!
Sean Green can field his position. That was a beauty of a grab.
How about bringing up Raben to play 1B rather than the Vidro/Turbo futility? He’s raking in Everett…
Uff. I was worried there that Dickey might have stayed in one batter too long.
Have you ever noticed that only pitchers get the phase “can field his position” used about them?
Boringest game. Ever.
Every time I see Morrow get up to warm up I think, “What a waste. He could’ve been a starter by now.”
RoninX:
Position players get it, but you have to listen to other games to hear it.
dammit.
HISTORY!!!!!!!
Jack Howland …. time to change the XBH countdown watch from WFB to Ichiro.
Our long national nightmare is over.
Is it at all possible that the sarcastic posts about the lack of extra base hits are now done?
I was trying to get this in before Willie’s XBH…
I watched the Everett game yesterday. Raben’s line didn’t look that great with two strikeouts, but the guy has an enormous amount of power. I’ve seen lots of guys get out in front of a pitch and pull it a mile foul, but Raben was just a hair behind one and ripped it foul opposite field over the wall in a big stadium in Pasco. I can’t say that I’ve seen that many times. He’ll be in Seattle soon enough.
I think his average dropped yesterday… to .688 I think.
WILLIE BROKE THE STREAK!!
Morrow is a couple days away from breaking Hasegawa’s record for best era before the AS break for a bullpen guy in Mariner history.
WFB ends the streak……
Crap
Actually, nothing compared to a 1979 game between the sixth and seventh place A’s and Mariners at the Kingdome, 1-0. I think half the crowd in the outfield (about 100 of us) was asleep by the sixth.
It shouldn’t count! It’s a GROUND RULE double!
so now morrowis going to scrrew this up?
Uh Oh! Morrow is a bit wild today.
151: why not? isn’t it his turn?
Morrow is a couple days away from breaking Hasegawa’s record for best era before the AS break for a bullpen guy in Mariner history.
Now you know what being the guy who mentions a no-hitter only to see a hit immediately after feels like.
Things come in threes;
-Sexson is released.
_Willie XBHs.
-Morrow gives up run.
Since when is 1 for 24 an average of .152?
i can´t believe it
That Cust HR increased Morrow’s ERA by nearly 50 percent. The Suzuki HR increased it another 33%. Depressing game all around.
Clearly not Morrow’s afternoon.
Now was not the time to give up 2 goffer balls. RA would have been the winning pitcher. Do it with Silva or Washburn or Batista.
I’m going to cry
Fucking hell
Is Morrow gonna cry?
it had to happen some time, then again, we are 20 games out and this game matter not so much… still I liked seeing morrow so dominant
There are days I hate being right..
And this is one of them..
Well, Riggleman, way to use Ichiro wisely in this game. Now he can’t come in to pitch.
I hope putz can come back soon good enough so we can experiment with morrow in the rotation
Wont happen until next season, unfortunately
Why isn’t Bloomquist’s double* in the list of clips I can watch on Gameday?
Doesn’t MLB recognize the significance?
Man, if both teams revert to form, we could well have another 15-inning marathon here.
Neyer: “But there is no excuse on earth for any team, let alone a team as bad as these Mariners, to waste so much playing time on so many players who aren’t a part of the franchise’s future. Dumping Sexson makes sense. You have to wonder, though, about an organization that employs a manager who actually believes that Jose Vidro represents “protection”. I mean, that’s so laughable that you wonder if Jim Riggleman is some sort of Bizzaro Manager who says exactly the opposite of what we know is true.”
well, hopefully BBTN realizes the importance.
dammit
Nice quote there, killer ewok.
Re: Bizarro Manager Riggleman:
Is anyone else getting really bad McLaren flashbacks? If nothing else, it’s easy to see how Riggleman got his gig..
Argh. The M’s need to make Street throw a lot of pitches. The A’s have burned up most of their pen. It would be dumb to let their best reliever get extra innings if he only has to use a few pitches to get through an inning.
Finally.
Bleh.
P.S. I propose “Bizarro Manager” as Riggles’ new nickname.
well, that was anticlimatic.
Anticlimatic? Or anticlimactic? The former being the act of refusing to aknowledge or preserve the climate?
Dangit. I thought we might get another shot at seeing Jamie toe the rubber and show off that 84mph heater.
Every loss today is a win for the future. Sort of.
From the Times Blog, comment of the day:
“I don’t see what’s so bad with this lineup.Willie will provide plenty of pop and speed at the top of the order.”
Well, apparently Willie showed some pop today with that double*!
The only pop that Willy could provide would be some Diet Coke at a family barbecue.
In the race to last place we have.
1) San Diego Padres 36 56 .391
2) Seattle Mariners 36 56 .391
3) Cleveland Indians 37 53 .411
I was working on an Atmospheric Sciences thesis– it must have slid over from that
A loss is really a win for Mariners fans. As acknowledged above, we are in a heated race for the #1 pick.
Each win, at this point, pains me.
Drayer on the post-game points out the team has a terrible reputation over the last few years in making trades.
Also saying that Pelekoudas is talking like it’s a long-term rebuilding process, and not in the “sign a vet to put us over the top.” And seems less inclined to follow the vet-fetish. Learning from mistakes finally?
Also mentioned someone from Oakland asking if anyone ever tried Sexson as an outfielder…
If the organization didn’t grasp this concept at this point, there would be no hope.
That being said, I will remain skeptical until we see hard evidence.
Hmmm, further thoughts from the post game suggested that either Wells or Hulett would be send down tomorrow to make room for Felix to come off the DL. The bullpen wasn’t really blown out (at least by any normal standards), so the didn’t need Wells.
That would be idiotic. Why bring two guys up today and send another one back down tomorrow instead of just waiting a day to retroactively put Bedard on the DL? Well, I wouldn’t but idiocy past the M’s, but I think it’s more likely they’re doing move someone else off the roster tomorrow.
I was all ready to say Vidro might be DFA’d, but that would leave them with 13 pitchers, so, probably not going to happen. Maybe Batista goes on the DL, or else Corco or Jimenez goes back down.
188
Sexton played some leftfield and a few in right in Cleavland when he was blocked by Thome.
112 games in the OF, 0 errors. Wow!
Probably a good indication of the relevance of fielding percentage in evaluating outfield defense.
I don’t care what this Sexton guy did, I’m askin’ if Richie Sexson ever played any OF? Okay, okay, sorry, just kiddin’. One last jab at the mis-spelled name.
Well, makes sense. The weakest part of Sexson’s defensive game was diving for sharply hit grounders. Not much need to do that in the OF.
MarinerDan:
Well, given the Wilson deal, can you scoot over and make some room on the skepics bandwagon?
What a weird day.
Sexson is released… Apparently for sulking not sucking.
Ichiro doesn’t start.
Betancourt gets a walk.
Bloomquist gets an extra base hit… and also leads off.
Morrow looks terrible and blows a save.
The Mariners were actually in a position for Morrow to get a save in the first place.
Vidro gets two hits.
Am I missing anything?
It has been upgraded from a bandwagon to an aircraft carrier. Plenty of room.