Game 98, Indians at Mariners

DMZ · July 20, 2008 at 12:10 pm · Filed Under Mariners 

Lee v Silva, 1:10 pm.

M’s activate Putz from DL, option Rowland-Smith to Tacoma. There’s two possibilities here – either the club is sending him down in order to stretch him out and bring him back in August as a starting pitcher (woohoo!) or the M’s are the worst organization ever. I’m going with A, but this year has made B much more believable.

Comments

79 Responses to “Game 98, Indians at Mariners”

  1. CC03 on July 20th, 2008 3:21 pm

    Johjima is so ridiculously bad.

  2. abender20 on July 20th, 2008 3:23 pm

    Johjima should be required to bunt no matter the situation he steps up in, unless there are two outs or no one is on. Otherwise, he bunts every time.

    Advancing a runner is always better than getting him doubled off.

  3. BlackHaloBender on July 20th, 2008 3:31 pm

    He Ibananezed it.

  4. Breadbaker on July 20th, 2008 3:35 pm

    Jim Street is starting his “Cairo is a serious power hitter” column.

  5. Breadbaker on July 20th, 2008 3:47 pm

    Is there a term for hitting into three double plays akin to the silver sombrero?

  6. killer_ewok18 on July 20th, 2008 3:59 pm

    A nice, solid loss.

  7. itea on July 20th, 2008 4:06 pm

    galaxieboi said:

    Speaking of Johjima, his BABIP is still sitting at .220. With an 18% LD that’s stupid unlucky, my friends. He’s either going to pick it up this year or have a decent come back next.

    Even if his BABIP was .292 (like the last couple seasons), he’d be having a poor season. His line would be something like .275/.319/.370 (giving him 15 more hits with a couple doubles). He probably has been a bit unlucky, but he’s also had a complete power outage this season, and he’s never been a walker.

    The extension is looking really, really terrible. Johjima has hit worse than Vidro, Cairo, and much worse than Sexson. He’s at the age where a bounceback probably isn’t as likely as the possibility that he’s never going to be league-average again.

  8. bdunn02 on July 20th, 2008 4:07 pm

    A and B are not mutually exclusive. Just sayin’.

  9. Sports on a Schtick on July 20th, 2008 4:18 pm

    Willie, Vidro and Cairo combined for eight hits? F that S.

  10. scott19 on July 20th, 2008 4:36 pm

    Not sure if anyone else was listening to the radio toward the end of the game, but Rizzy got into talking about Red Sox Nation, mentioning how there are Red Sox fans who follow the team all over the country because they “often can’t get tickets in Boston”.

    Um…yeah, Rick. While it’s true that there’s always a contingent of fans who do follow their team wherever they go on the road, I think probably the bulk of Red Sox “Nation” who shows up for this upcoming series will most likely be from such faraway “New England” locales as Everett, Federal Way, or Kirkland…

    …And most of them were “die-hard” Yankee fans five years ago! >:(

  11. James T on July 20th, 2008 4:44 pm

    If you can verify previous yankee affiliation, please report those people. We don’t want ’em as Red Sox fans. Jumping on the Red Sox bandwagon is bad enough. Hopping off the yankee bandwagon to get there is heinous.

    And, yes, it’s not easy to get Sox tickets. The games are all sold out. But the ticket agencies have plenty of tickets and you can still buy ’em for less than the cost of plane tickets. That “I had to fly out here to see the Sox” excuse is a load of crap.

  12. galaxieboi on July 20th, 2008 5:08 pm

    He probably has been a bit unlucky, but he’s also had a complete power outage this season, and he’s never been a walker.

    Agreed. But these two things say a couple of things to me. Like I mentioned, he’s been a little unlucky. Also, perhaps we’re talking about an injury here? He’s driving the ball almost the same(LD% last 3 years: 19.0, 20.1 and 18.3%), but his HR/F is down to 3.9%(!!). The last two years it was 10.8 and 9.2. That would seem that while he’s making solid contact, there’s some kind of arm injury preventing him from getting some serious extension. Hell, he’s even making contact at a slightly higher rate this season.

    He’s certainly not an old man, even by catcher’s standards. I will listen to any arguments either way at this point though. I’m not trying to convert anyone to the “JOH RULEZZZ!!!111one” bandwagone by any means.

  13. scott19 on July 20th, 2008 5:30 pm

    59: Totally agree, James. I know there are legit fans who will do just that, either because they: (a) actually are true die-hards who love their team so much (and have the time and money to do so) that they follow them around all season; (b) pick a city their team is playing in, and then plan their vacation around that particular series while also seeing the other sights that are there; or, (c) get tickets in another city because they actually are difficult to come by (the case of Maple Leaf fans “taking over” Buffalo’s arena every time the Leafs play the Sabres there always comes to mind — since it’s next to impossible to get tickets at the ACC in Toronto for home games during hockey season).

    With all due respect, Fenway probably now has the fewest number of seats these days of any MLB park — and given the ticket demand, I could definitely see where that would be an issue. But, yeah, I agree, it seems like it’d still be cheaper through Stub Hub or someplace like that to get tickets.

    And yeah, these idiots who keep jumping from bandwagon to bandwagon with absolutlely zero loyalty drive me up a wall as well. Just wait and see how many of these clowns will be on the Cubs bandwagon next year if they, heaven forbid, should happen to win the NL pennant!

  14. killer_ewok18 on July 20th, 2008 6:02 pm

    Speaking of wagons, the Rockies’ bandwagon sure derailed… (Do wagons derail?)

    Remember when the Rays were good? It seems like just yesterday they were in first place. Too bad they suck now. /sarcasm

  15. cdowley on July 20th, 2008 6:08 pm

    Oh, crap…and here I thought Silva might hurl a shutout today, too.

    Oh, he did hurl a shutout… haven’t you ever had a Shutout Dog? They come back up within three hours, guaranteed 😉

    Looking at the box score, not at all sad that I space cadeted the start time for this game…

  16. RallyFried on July 20th, 2008 6:40 pm

    Willie, Vidro and Cairo combined for eight hits? F that S.

    I smell contract extension!

  17. scott19 on July 20th, 2008 7:00 pm

    Willie, Vidro and Cairo

    Hey, that could almost be a name for one of Willie Nelson’s side projects. 🙂

  18. msb on July 20th, 2008 7:12 pm

    it wasn’t the best game, and it was dang cold up on the thrid level if you had no sunshine, but it was baseball.

    kinda. sorta.

  19. IHaveALittleProject on July 20th, 2008 9:02 pm

    Speaking of the Red Sox, I was at the game today and discovered there’s a new, well-stocked rack of Red Sox player t-shirts in the Mariners team store. When did this final blow to our team’s dignity happen?

    Why not just charge an extra few bucks for the average bobblehead-loving train-collecting Mariner fan at the gate instead of going for the prideless money grab of selling another team’s gear?

    I don’t know which is worse – the fact that they’re promoting a different, well run team in stark contrast to their own, or that the average Mariners fan will probably pick up a Big Papi t-shirt because he seems like a real good clubhouse guy?

  20. cdowley on July 20th, 2008 10:49 pm

    67: It was the same when I was there for the Tigers series last month (don’t ask me why I went to the Tigers series, I’m still not sure why to be honest…). I think they always put out a few things to make the visitors happy.

  21. joser on July 21st, 2008 10:41 am

    Yeah, there are always some opposing gear rolled out for the upcoming series. A buck’s a buck. Why should dignity have anything to do with it? (And when is there any dignity associated with a store anyway?) You do realize that the M’s make the same amount of money no matter which team’s logo is on it? When a Yankees jersey is sold in Nowhere Idaho the M’s make just as much money as the Yankees do.

    In fact, if people are going to buy Tigers (or Yankees or Red Sox or whatever) gear I’d rather they bought it at the team store rather than over the internet or in Detroit or wherever, since then the sales taxes goes to our city and state.

  22. IHaveALittleProject on July 21st, 2008 11:19 am

    To me, its like selling Omaha steaks at a mom and pop butcher shop. I would like the Mariners to be proud enough of their brand to not sell the competing team’s product, regardless of the profit margin.

  23. Jeff Nye on July 21st, 2008 11:20 am

    Every team in MLB does this.

  24. IHaveALittleProject on July 21st, 2008 11:22 am

    Not true. There isn’t another team’s gear in either New York stadium or at Fenway, for example.

  25. Jeff Nye on July 21st, 2008 11:34 am

    I’m pretty sure they’re all supposed to (as joser points out, merchandising is done on a pretty collective basis), maybe it’s not something that gets policed all that much by the league, though.

    In any case, I don’t think this is the integrity issue you want it to be; a lot of people who live in Seattle are transplants from other areas, and I don’t see anything wrong with them being able to buy a jersey for their “home team” when that team comes to Safeco.

  26. IHaveALittleProject on July 21st, 2008 11:43 am

    Shrug, difference of opinion then I guess. I just don’t like seeing more visitors gear being worn at Safeco than home gear, which seems to happen when the Red Sox or Yankees come to town.

  27. Jeff Nye on July 21st, 2008 11:55 am

    While I can sympathize with the sentiment, I’d imagine that very few of those people bought that stuff at Safeco.

  28. IHaveALittleProject on July 21st, 2008 11:59 am

    I think you’re right on that…there are plenty of overly passionate transplants who already have plenty of Red Sox stuff to wear to the game.

    I suppose what made me cringe when I saw the gear was that it seemed like a Mariners-sanctioned extension of the “invasion” that happens when those teams come to town.

  29. joser on July 21st, 2008 12:17 pm

    From my experience they’re mostly not transplants. The guys with the beat-up old “B” hats, sure. But the loudest ones wearing the most gear have probably never set foot in Boston, or did so only on a visit. And they have a bunch of Yankee gear in storage dating back to 1996-2000 (notice how there seem to be fewer NY fans at M’s games now, and more Boston fans?) If the Cubs win this year and go on to dominate the NL Central and return to the WS a couple of times and otherwise look like a “winner” these people will ditch their Red Sox junk for Cubs paraphernalia. They are obnoxious twits but I have no problem with anyone, including the M’s, trying to take as much of their money as possible and having their sales taxes pay for local things.

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