Game 96, Mariners at Royals
DMZ · July 13, 2008 at 10:10 am · Filed Under Game Threads
Silva v Davies. 11:10 our time
It’d be great to head into the break with a quality win.
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Not likely with Big Chief on the mound. Is this one of the worst seasons in baseball history, considering all the factors?
It’s game 95, actually. You skipped 93, it looks like.
Derek just wants the season over soon.
Bloomquist batting 6th! I’m surprised he’s not batting cleanup.
RF Suzuki, Ichiro
DH Lopez, Jose
LF Ibanez, Raul
3B Beltre, Adrian
CF Reed, Jeremy
2B Bloomquist, Willie
C Clement, Jeff
1B Cairo, Miguel
SS Betancourt, Yuniesky
Yeah, when you have games like this you want the season over asap. The M’s aren’t even in a good position to play spoilers to anybody, since they’ve been playing equally badly against everybody (other than .500 against the NL, and worse against the AL Central than the East or West).
You know, just for fun, they should bat Bloomie lead-off and have Ichiro bat 3rd, with Ibanez 4th.
At least they have Reed up in the order.
Must be that great body language.
Hey…barbequeue! Is that the M’s season he just took out of the brick oven?
I don’t hate that lineup… sadly that is about the best they can put up there I think.
Oh, no…Turbo’s not in the lineup. Without his extra “protection”, we’re doomed!
be nice if they rested Ichiro! some more.
ah, the last game before the All Start break. Remember 1999?
Let’s go Mets! Let’s go Mets! Make that phone call!
Ya gotta love our DH. At least he’s consistent
Oh, yeah…I think that was also the game where Lou later used Freddy Garcia as a pinch-hitter.
Good times!
It’s kind of hard to believe, but so far July is still their best month since April. Not that April was anything special, it was just their least-below-.500.
Sitting at 36-58, the team has 370 Runs Scored vs 434 Runs Against, giving them a Pythagorean W-L of 40-54. So they’re on track to take back the extra 9 wins they had over their pythag last year. Longterm averages are a harsh mistress, and regression to the mean is a bitch.
Looking at 1-run games, they’re just 10-19, despite showing 112 RS vs 121 RA in those games (they should be about 13-16).
SO…badly run and unlucky? Or do you make your own bad luck? If “good luck favors the prepared,” are we looking at its corollary?
Oh, and to add insult to injury, I just noticed the B-R Mariners team page is sponsored by someone from Halos Heaven. I guess it’s good to know an outsider was willing to waste money on this team too.
Who is going to buy a $5000 dollar Seattle Mariners 8 foot statue of liberty? I also like the idea that Toronto has one.
Jose Paniagua found someone’s head with a sucker punch….Seattle reliever Damaso Marte pumped up the emotions with a sweeping right hand on the run to Hundley’s head…David Segui stirred things up again by seemingly challenging the entire Dodger dugout.
Ah, good times. (Domaso Marte? He’s still around?…oh, he’s in Pittsburgh, so I’m not sure that counts).
Normally I hate fights in baseball because they’re usually stupid and, with a few exceptions, the players (and coaches) are so bad at it… leave player fights to hockey, where they belong. But the way this season has been going, that’s about the only entertaining thing left. However, Felix has shown an eagerness to get mixed up in them, so my secret desire to see Vidro get DL’d in one is hugely overshadowed by my fear Felix will be instead.
Which is kinda ironic, in a way. Then again, the Hon. Rev. Halofan must just be tickled that the M’s are about a zillion games behind his precious Angels this season.
The sponsor tag on B-R that cracks me up, though, is the one on Juan Pierre’s page. I mean, it’s always such a platitude when the party sponsoring your page tells you you’re “probably the worst regular in baseball”.
Wow, Jayson Stark calls out five Mariners as “LVP” or “Cy Yuk.”
Of course, weigh that against him mentioning Troy Tulowitzki as a runner up LVP — yeah, he’s hitting .166, but he’s hurt and that’s a small sample size. And he’s top-notch defensively.
Still…ugh. The world knows the M’s have a lot of washed up players.
Yeah, Heyman has two M’s as LVPs (which is all his LVPs for the AL)
Though I don’t know why he twists himself up trying to justify his MVPs just because they’re not on winning teams. A team with a roster top-to-bottom full of good players can regularly beat a team with just one fantastic player, but it should be obvious that one fantastic guy is more valuable than any of the merely-good guys, whatever the records of their teams. Every year I read columns where some commentator tries to justify factoring the team result into his MVP vote, and it never makes any sense to me.
Wow…Willie B. with some heads-up ignition baserunning!
Meanwhile, back in the “game” — Cairo drives in Bloomquist. I tell you, this lineup is genius!
Now, will Ichiro be the first batter up in the 6th because Cairo became the 3rd out without Ichiro causing the play (Cairo was CS on a pitch in the dirt;) or will Ichiro be bypassed in the 6th without the AB in the 5th becoming an official AB?
Ichiro will be first up in the 6th. He was never out at the plate.
Clement is being eaten alive by the baserunners.
Wow…Niehaus just mentioned that KC was last in the majors in attendance, with under 900k so far this season. Boy, you know you’re in trouble when you’re looking up at the A’s and the two Florida teams (both of whom, of course, should be drawing based on their records).
Ichiro wasn’t out so he gets a new AB.
Note that the A’s are getting a new stadium, and both Florida teams are on track to get new ones eventually too. KC is updating theirs (and who knows if that has been suppressing attendance), but they probably need a winning team to get people to come to games (take note, M’s ownership). Though the Indians have demonstrated the past few years that even that isn’t always enough.
It can’t be easy to draw crowds to a place that is hot as a couple of members of the genus Rattus fornicating in a sheep’s hair foot garment.
Why doesn’t any announcer ever say after a smoked line drive, “Well tomorrow in the box score that will look like a weak bloop single.” Shouldn’t it go both ways?
FUNK BLAST!
Take that, Riggleman!
0 for 16 THAT Royals announcers!
I think that move to Fremont (the city, not the neighborhood), when it eventually happens, will help the A’s attendance quite a bit. Tampa and Miami remain kind of strange sports markets, however…”fans” will come out in droves during ST to watch games, then hole up all summer and wait for the Bucs and Dolphins to start playing football.
As for KC, I’d love to see the game survive there. Kauffman Stadium, like Dodger Stadium, has aged remarkably well…and back when the Royals had their “dynasty” in the late-70’s to early-80’s, they had a very supportive fan base. Given the rich history of the game in that city, it’s been kind of sad to see what’s happened there in recent years — though equally sad, of course, to see the way the ESPN/Fox axis treats “small-market” teams the way they do as well.
BTW…CLEMENT!!!
Clement making his case to be the real cleanup hitter in this lineup.
(Oh, but wait, he “EARNED” a trip back to Tacoma because a small sample determines everything).
Is this team even capable of such?
Ahh, nope.
The acorn-Qwest commercial is just so perfect for this team.
Can Betancourt even hit the ball on the ground?
Gotta have those routine plays, Yuni.
Yeah, those Dodger fans will boo you mercilessly if you make plays like that down there, Yuni.
Well, a lot of those people showing up for ST are northeasterners who are just down on vacation; or, if they live in the area, who go back to watching their favorite teams long-distance on TV during the regular season. But given the huge latin population in Miami (and especially the baseball-mad Cubans) it’s only by malign design that the Marlins don’t have a big fan base (especially with two WS titles in less than a decade). They have Evil Genius Loria for an owner, who ran the Expos into the ground before flipping them to the other owners so he could do the same to the Marlins. All while fielding a team with a payroll lower than what they received in revenue sharing, so he could pocket the difference. That’s certainly one way to turn a profit while simultaneously pleading penury to get government to give you a sweet stadium deal. (And when Giardi showed Loria up by having a winning season despite a minuscule payroll — earning NL Manager of the Year in the process — Loria rewarded him by firing him). I have no idea why the other owners put up with Loria, but perhaps now that they have a stadium deal (for which the Marlins are only putting up a third of the money) maybe things will improve and the fans will show up. Though Loria’s poison will linger for a while, and they could use some smart marketing too.
The Rays are just a great story, and an example of what can happen when good ownership takes over after bad and makes a series of smart decisions. But I wouldn’t want to see a game in Tropicana, even with the current Rays team, and I don’t think many others do either. They’re not going to get the crowds until they get a new place to play.
And yes, the Alameda A’s of Oakland (or whatever they end up calling themselves) should see a major jump in attendance when they move into Cisco (which looks no sooner than 2012, setting the window for the M’s before they have to compete with a divisional rival that isn’t just smart, but also rich). It’s a much better location to draw from San Jose and the surrounding cities, a larger and richer market.
KC might be a small market team, but they’ve had a decent payroll in recent years. But, just like the M’s, they haven’t made smart use of it.
For once, I have to agree with you, Rizzy…that was a pretty heads-up play by Beltre.
Whoa…we might accidentally get this one!
I don’t think this will count as a quality win.
Dear M’s,
Please WIN this game. We insist.
Sincerely,
the Royals
Holy crap. Whenever there’s a rundown I always think “keep going, you never know, somebody could screw the pooch on a throw” but you never see that happen. I was always expecting that when it finally happened the M’s would do it, not benefit from it.
IGNITION!!!
Five total stolen bases (and one caught) in this game so far?
That was gritty!
I don’t think I’m being sarcastic, but sometimes I can’t tell.
I’m still wondering if the legal system in Quebec could’ve gone after him for the money that he scammed off of Expos season ticket holders all those years.
You’re right…I don’t know why the other owners tolerate his shenanigans. Though I’ve mentioned it before, it’s kinda sad that Shoeless Joe was banned from the game for something far less egregious.
Oh, and just to finish up my Loria rant, it’s rather suspicious that the Marlins suddenly are able to get a stadium deal six years after Loria bought them, when the money that MLB loaned him to buy the team didn’t have to be repaid if they didn’t get a stadium deal within five years. Who didn’t see that coming. Besides MLB, I mean. Though it appears Loria is going to have to repay 40% of the loan anyway (over ten years) though he’s fighting that, too.
Seriously, as a businessman he’s an evil genius; as a team owner, he’s simply evil. As much as we complain about the way the M’s are run, things could be much, much worse.
Brandon Morrow-
Fastball, Fastball, Fastball, Fastball, Fastball, Fastball, Fastball, Fastball, Fastball, Fastball, Fastball, Fastball.
Soooo, the boys get back the game they gave away yesterday. Still don’t know if it could really be considered a “quality” win, but I’ll take it.
Now, time to go to the beach.
\o/
I’m still wondering if the legal system in Quebec could’ve gone after him for the money that he scammed off of Expos season ticket holders all those years.
Law in Quebec is weird, being based on French Civil rather English Common law, so I wouldn’t even try to hazard a guess. It’s an interesting question, though. But I suspect that even if he lost there would be nothing they could do, since he no longer had any assets in Canada and going after him in the US would probably fail.
quality win. ha!
a win is a win though.
Brandon Morrow
Strike,Strike,Ball,Strike (out), Ball,Strike,Foul,Ball,Foul,Ball,Foul,InPlay (fly out)
Granted, that was against Buck and DeJesus (though they would qualify as two of the better hitters on the M’s) rather than, say, Manny and Ortiz. But in a closer, I’ll take it. It’s not like Mariano Rivera surprises people with his pitch selection.
But if he’s going to be a starter, yeah, he needs more pitches.
That win required one Royal dropping a pop-up and another airmailing a ball during a rundown. . . but, what the hell. Let’s take it.
So true. As far as “evil genius” types go, I have a lot more respect for the Steinbrenners…since, whether you love ‘em or hate ‘em, they always (or usually always) seem committed to at least putting a quality product on the field for the fans as well as adding to equity of the franchise. If Loria ever tried to pull his crap in NY, he’d have a freakin’ lynch mob after him!
I wonder what kind of butt chewing the Royals are getting right now…
We’ll take the win, ugly ball and all…
At least the brooms were put away for another series.
I think this would make a great cage fight: Jeffrey “The Evil Genius” Loria vs. Willie “Pure Evil in Spikes” Bloomquist.
Clear Eyed Managerial Quote of the Weekend; Riggleman in saturday’s Times:
“I just reminded them that we do not have an offensive club out there right now that’s going to overcome a lot of mistakes”
If taking solace in at least not getting swept by KC isn’t a sign of being in the vicinity of rock bottom, then I don’t know what is.
Hey, speak of the devil
I’ve seen him throw a pretty wicked breaking ball for strikes (this year anyway). The fact that he chooses not to use it in a closing situation doesn’t mean he doesn’t have it.
Of course he is young and has a lot to learn about pitching. But I assume if he was a starter, and seeing batters more than once, he’d mix it up more.
Anyone see Hargrove is managing again?
Also this is interesting: