Starting Suckitude
Dave · August 20, 2008 at 1:39 pm · Filed Under Mariners
Mariners starters versus White Sox this series:
11 1/3 IP, 24 hits, 21 runs, 7 walks, 0 strikeouts, 6 home runs
Washburn, Hernandez, and Dickey faced 63 batters – they didn’t strike out a single one. That’s only slightly worse than the weekend series in Minnesota, when Silva, Rowland-Smith, and Feierabend combined to strike out a whopping two batters.
The M’s starting pitchers have combined for two strikeouts in their last six starts. The odds of that have to be astronomical.
But this team was built around it’s starting pitchers! Can the M’s seriously just forfeit the rest of this season?
Ug. In the immortal words of Anakin Skywalker: I wish I could just…wish it all away.
Which brings me to my next question- Which is a worse run franchise: Star Wars or The Seattle Mariners?
Man, the suck is so pervasive it is infecting Felix.
Meet your Mariners rotation, purveyors of the Two True Outcomes.
Whatever else happens, I think Stottlemyre needs to go. I don’t think any of our starting pitchers have exceeded expectations this year. Felix, while good, hasn’t really stepped up to his throne yet (been more of a Duke than a King). Bedard got hurt, and when healthy pitched more like an above average pitcher than a Cy Young candidate (in particular, his GB% and K rate are way down while his BB rate is up). Silva went from a badly overpriced +2 Wins average guy to a replacement level punch line for fat jokes. Batista fell off a cliff and should retire, and Washburn, well he had that “great stretch where he won a couple of games” which about sums up a typical Washburn year.
Then you add in the crowd of teammates with tire marks on their jerseys from being thrown under the bus by the pitchers, and it sure seems like Mel ought to go.
Sure, what the M’s really need is better talent on their staff, and firing Mel won’t suddenly make Washburn an ace, or take ten years off Batista’s age, but at this point I worry that any new talent we bring in might implode the same way Bedard and Silva have.
It’s a good thing we started the season hearing about this team’s “5 Number 1 Starters”. I only regret that we couldn’t have found more playing time for Burke at 3rd this year. His fielding percentage is way better than Beltre’s, and he can pitch short relief and catch some games too. That’s got to be worth Kevin Slowey, right?
“The M’s starting pitchers have combined for two strikeouts in their last six starts. The odds of that have to be astronomical.”
You seem to forget that these are the Seattle Mariners, Dave.
Wasn’t our rotation supposed to be a, well, you know, strength?
mkd – They’re both terribly run franchises adept at rolling in the big bucks through hype.
Lets not get all worked up.
Its not THAT bad.
well, there is more wood in the acting in Star Wars than there is in the Mariners bat rack…
Speaking of Anakin Skywalker, this team’s respectability is legless, nearly armless, and breathing through a respirator, too.
The Mariners have been playing some really god teams as of late…and getting beat badly!!
This should give the morons that run this franchise an idea of just how awful this team really is. It is no longer a matter of filling in a few holes here and there…this team needs a complete overhaul starting with the Front Office. Hopefully someone in charge is smart enough to realize this…but I doubt it…
Go Seahawks…
Oops I meant GOOD teams…What? No edit feature??
The only thing that is going to wake up management is a drop off in season ticket sales. After 8 years I am going to pass on the 2009 season. I hope many more season ticket holders give the m’s management a vote of no confidence. A dip in revenue should wake them up.
Yeah this is the first summer since 1994 that I won’t be making the long trip to Seattle to watch the M’s…I’m gonna go see the Seahawks beat the Rams instead and not even bother to stick around for the Mariners/Angels series….
But back to the topic…
Gee our starting pitching is brutal..
Re: # 8
Lets not get all worked up.
Its not THAT bad.
Hmm! How bad is it?
The Mariners are on a pace to become the first team with a $100 million payroll to lose 100 games.
I miss going to games, but I feel not going is the only way to send a message to ownership that Lincoln and Armstrong ALSO need to go. I haven’t been to a game since the Griffey/Seattle make-up games. I would’ve went to the Niehaus tribute game, but I had family visiting. I won’t be returning to the Safe until some big changes are made. Hopefully that will be soon.
Note to Mr. Owner: Get rid of Lincoln and Armstrong and hire someone that USSM approves of I’ll buy an 81 game season ticket package. I won’t be able to go to most of those games (I work the graveyard shift) — so I’ll end up giving quite a bit of them away to charity.
There’s got to be a better way to send a message that takes less time than this going to 1 or 2 games in 3 years 🙁
please let Chris Larson become the majority owner, and let him show Howie, and Chuck the door…. As long as those two ass-clowns are running the show, it’s not going to matter who the GM is or anybody else…
Forget the grown ups, go Mill Creek in the LLWS!
Good news! The rotation’s in for a boost soon:
I’m hoping that the emphasis here is on COULD — meaning he *could* start, but we’re not so stupid as to do that to ourselves, our fans, and our franchise’s future. But that would imply that our team was smart enough to have faked Silva’s injury for the sake of keeping him from pitching in the first place. Which is probably unreasonable to expect from them.
But remember, the Mariners have Two Aces(tm)!
That seems like a long time ago, doesn’t it?
Ahem, we have FIVE aces!!!
Speaking of the starting rotation, there was supposedly a Carlos Silva to the Mets rumor out there…
Notice how almost nobody talks about Bedard anymore? Was he ever really a Mariner?
Ahem, we have FIVE aces!!!
Yes, and apparently the powers that be discovered this, realized they had to be cheating to have a hand like that, and have punished the team accordingly.
“Notice how almost nobody talks about Bedard anymore? Was he ever really a Mariner?”
Who is this Bedard you speak of?
“Ahem, we have FIVE aces!!!”
That might be…but at this point, I think I’d settle for two pair instead.
25: I picked up a quart of milk the other day…and, son of a gun, if I didn’t see Erik Bedard’s picture on the side of it! 😮
Yea, the Mariners suck so what’s new?
Team USA Womens softball wins and move on!
The suckitude will continue in one form or another until the fans stay home and sit on their wallets. What we need is an organized boycott complete with t-shirts, bumper stickers and a banner trailing a plane flying over Safeco that says, “Just Say No!”
Write to John McGrath and Geoff Baker and start pushing the “hell no, we won’t go” campaign against supporting a team that’s all about hydro races and $7.50 beer. 2009 needs to be the season when management finally finds out that despite Safeco, it’s what happens between the lines that fills the seats.
“The suckitude will continue in one form or another until the fans stay home and sit on their wallets.”
Easy to say, harder to do. My love for baseball supercedes the mismanagement of this organization. I can’t say that I won’t go to a game or watch one on TV. I would be kidding myself if I made that promise. Call me part of the M’s problem if you wish. In the end, shouldn’t the team’s performance and not revenue dictate the direction of the franchise? Maybe this is a utopian or naive view of how an owner should run a team. Either way, I’m not going to let Lincoln, Armstrong, or Bavasi’s legacy deprive me of following the team I grew up supporting. Do I want a better product on the field, hell yes! As a season ticket holder of 18 years I believe I deserve better.
The problem isn’t that the M’s are unwilling to make changes, the problem is they won’t make the right changes. Except for 2007’s slight uptick in attendance, the M’s have been in an attendance decline since 2002. Boycott if you’d like, but it’s pretty clear that attendance isn’t going to impact the jobs of the people responsible for this meltdown. And based on our finishes in the AL West over the last 6 seasons I don’t think team performance will either. I’m convinced the only way we rid ourselves of Lincoln and Armstrong is their voluntary resignation or ownership change.
I’m not going to renew my season tickets this year. I’ll still go to the occasional game, watch on TV now and then, and listen to the Daves on the radio (Niehaus on KIRO and Cameron on KJR if he still does the gig), but there’s no point being a season ticket holder. The games don’t sell out, and there’s no real chance of going to the playoffs any time soon.
It’s not just losing lots of games, it like RallyFried said, they won’t change their approach. Sisyphus is it, alright. Same old failure, year after year. I’m tired of signing washed up guys to big-money, long-term deals. I’m tired of seeing the kids from AAA jerked around, playing every third thursday and shipped out the first time they hit a 2-20 slump or boot the ball on defense. I’m tired of being on the losing end of butt-stupid trades even your drunk brother-in-law wouldn’t make in his fantasy league. I’m tired of listening to the manager-of-the-moment blather about how we just have to get after it, buckle it up, or mouth some other over-the-hill cliche that completely ignores how bad the team really is.
If they sign Antonetti, DePo, Forst or Ng as their GM, I’ll re-up to see what happens. If they hire Krivsky or Phillips (or Pelekoudos), forget it.
and apparently it will be even longer before we speak of him again.
oh, well.
The good news is that Silva should return by 31 August to stablize the rotation.
…but the bad news is that Silva should return by August 31st to stink up the joint again.
Tek Jansen said, “The good news is that Silva should return by 31 August to stablize the rotation.”
Like an anchor on a row-boat!
They should seriously shut him down along with Bedard.
Go with Felix, The Bus, RRS, Dickey, and Feirebend…
Bring up Morrow in September, if he’s ready, and put Dickey back in the bullpen. He probably needs a full year in AAA if he’s going to be the #2 or #3 we want him to be.
I know that rotation doesn’t strike any kind of fear, but I cannot stand to watch another Silva or Bautista game again this year.
The Mariners have allowed 93 runs in their last 10 games. I’m sure that isn’t any sort of team record, but it is an awful lot of runs.
They’ve allowed 11 or more runs in 3 of their last 4 games.
I think this is the 3rd time this year they have had a 6 game losing streak. Both of the previous times ended up being 7 game losing streaks. So there is something to look forward to — can they avoid a third streak of 7? And if so, can they avoid going to 8 for the longest losing streak of the season?
38- They suck real, real bad…
I can’t imagine a worse team, then always see the Nats with a worse record…
Wow…
Paul B,
Something to look forward to at this point, eh? That is definitely a glass half full…of hot garbage and curdled milk.
36 – Anchored to the bottom is very stable.
Can someone please remind me how to do a link here? My link, bold, etc buttons have vanished. I assume that is a site wide issue.
In case anyone was wondering exactly what the Mariners hand of FIVE, count ’em, FIVE aces looks like, here it is.