M’s and Nintendo expand Fan Network features
I’m a big fan of what Nintendo’s attempts with the Fan Network. My expectations aren’t that high, and I’m a little concerned about having fans at the games watching tiny LCDs instead of the event before them. But man, some of the stuff they’re fooling around with is really, really cool. Check out this Kotaku write-up.
Minor League Wrap (4/9-12/09)
From the shores of the Pacific Coast League (where applicable), to the chilly Midwest, this is your weekly Minor League Wrap-Up.
I’m still trying to nail down a form for these to take, so we’re still in the experimental phase. I’ll try to keep going with most of the features where applicable, but in certain cases, I won’t be including every feature. The news clippings, for example, don’t work if the press is especially spotty. It’s pretty ambitious on the whole. We’ll see how long it can stay that way.
To the jump!
Read more
Bush reg, feds end Metro special service to games
Absolutely outrageous. Here’s the Times article.
So the Bush administration put in this amazingly horrible regulation that public transportation agencies can’t (can’t) operate a charter like Metro has if there are private operators who can. Can’t compete… can’t operate. And, as I pointed out last time we talked about this, the way they did it meant that any moron with a school bus could claim they could serve the games and Metro would be entirely barred from trying.
The Seahawks already got hosed over this.
This is a great thing the M’s have done for ten years, and I love them for it. And now it’s dead. The M’s got a waiver last year. But now you’re screwed, because they can’t, soooo… So let’s talk about how this regulation’s working out.
The Mariners say Starline’s costs would have been around $15-20 per passenger. Fares would have paid $5 and the team would have paid $300,000 or more to defray the rest, Hale said.
Last season, the team got a temporary waiver from the Federal Transit Administration (FTA) to hire Metro, which charged $3 a ride, while the Mariners paid a $159,000 subsidy, said Hale.
That’s great! So Metro can provide cheaper service to fans and to the M’s, but they can’t. Because they’re barred from doing so. Oh, but here’s the money quote.
Starline argues that if Metro were to charge for its full costs, including the buses themselves, the bill would be much higher than what Starline seeks.
“The Mariners want the taxpayer to pay for it,” said Gillis.
Screw you.
This is the whole point of public transportation. The system’s in place. The incremental cost for Metro, which has buses, drivers, maintenance, and all that infrastructure in place is low. For Starline, which has to pay people like Chief Executive Gladys Gillis to make objectivist arguments about the societal cost of bus systems, it’s higher.
Unless the choice is “abolish Metro and have the smoking remains bid against charter providers” the clear and obvious winner of that competition is Metro. And because of this ridiculous reg, and the Obama administration’s baffling decision here, now everyone loses.
And it just got a lot harder to go to games — Hale said that shuttles served 300-500 last year, but here’s the thing: the shuttles provide greater value the higher attendance becomes. If there’s four people going to the game, it doesn’t hurt congestion downtown if they drive or not. But the more people and cars we try and stuff in, it doesn’t get +1 annoying for +1 driver, it quickly becomes +2 annoying, +3, and on and on. The shuttles are a huge, huge help there. I’d love to see numbers on how many people were taking them every day in 2001, for instance.
Write the FTA via this form.
Write your Senators (Cantwell, Murray)
Write your Congresscritter (don’t know who they are? hit the “find your representative” link at upper left)
Game 7, Mariners-A’s
Wrapping up the road trip, going for the sweep of the division rival. Bedard v. Cahill.
Three more days until Ichiro’s back.
DMZ adds: another rookie starter for Oakland, which is another great reason to tune in. Cahill’s a rightie and a second-round pick (by the A’s!)
M’s lineup:
LF-L Chavez
CF-R Gutierrez
RF-L Griffey (come back Ichiro!)
3B-R Beltre
1B-L Branyan
DH-R Sweeney
2B-R Lopez
C-R Johnson
SS-R Cedeno
Oakland:
RF-L Sweeney
SS-R Cabrera
1B-L Giambi
LF-R Holliday
3B-L Chavez
C-R Suzuki
2B-R Ellis
CF-R Davis
Just Curious
4-2 without Ichiro and with Morrow having his spring training in April. Bedard looking completely healthy in his first start. The outfield defense living up to their advanced billing. Junior drawing walks and hitting homers off of LHPs. The middle relievers slamming the door in close games.
The first six games couldn’t have gone much better for the M’s. There’s a pretty good chance they head into their first day off at 5-2, and look at adding Ichiro to a first place roster.
I’m curious to see how long it takes Seattle to get excited about this team. There was so much cynicism about the M’s ownership, and expectations were low heading into the season. How long do they have to play well until people start to realize that they may have underestimated this group?
A week isn’t long enough, obviously. But what if they’re still in first place at the end of April? At what point do the people who thought this team would win 70 games say “hey, you know, they aren’t bad”?
Felix Day
Game 6, Mariners at Athletics, 1:05.
LF – Chavez
CF – Ferguson
DH – Sweeney
3B – Beltre
1B – Branyan
RF – Balentien
C – Johjima
2B – Cedeno
SS – Betancourt
Thankfully, Griffey sits against the lefthander.
Triunfel Fractures Tibia
Bad news from West Tennessee tonight – Carlos Triunfel suffered a fractured tibia tonight. That pretty much guarantees he’s out for the year.
Game 5, M’s at A’s
The season’s first start for Ryan Rowland-Smith against the A’s. The A’s have Brett Anderson pitching. A couple months ago, I had absolutely no idea how they were going to pick their rotation.
So far, we’ve seen
Dallas Braden, 24 career starts
Dana Eveland, 36 career starts
Trevor Cahill, 0 career starts
Today, Brett Anderson in his first major league game.
By contrast, the M’s first four starters:
Washburn, 272
Silva, 153
Bedard, 126
Felix, 104
The M’s starter with the fewest major league starts, and who is 23 this season, has more career starts than everyone the A’s have fielded through today.
The A’s are certainly not afraid of going with their evaluation of who’s got the best chance to succeed, no matter how short their major league track record may be.
Dave adds the line-up and his first criticism of a Wakamatsu decision.
LF – Chavez
CF – Death To Flying Things (TM – Niehaus)
DH – Sweeney
3B – Beltre
RF – Griffey
2B – Lopez
1B – Branyan
C – Johjima
SS – Betancourt
Brett Anderson is an LHP. Ryan Rowland-Smith is an extreme flyball pitcher. Griffey’s starting in right field, and Balentien’s not playing. This line-up does not give the Mariners the best chance to win tonight. It might make the clubhouse the most harmonious, but there’s no need to have Junior in the OF on a night when RRS starts and the other team is throwing an LHP. You have a built in excuse to play Balentien out there. If you have to use Junior in the OF in this series, do it tomorrow with Felix on the mound. You can hide Junior with a GB/K pitcher. You can’t do it with RRS.
I’m still a fan, Wak, but this line-up hurts the team.
Opening Day In The Minors
Last night, the full-season minor leagues began. Jay has recaps of all four games over at his blog, but here are the highlights for those who want a short summary.
Tacoma:
Jason Vargas struck out 7 over 4 innings of work. Mike Carp went 3 for 5 with a double in his Triple-A debut. Bryan LaHair and Chris Burke both played the outfield, as the team tries to find room for everyone on the roster. Michael Saunders is probably a month away from joining the team, by the way.
West Tennessee:
Carlos Triunfel went 0 for 3, but did draw a walk. Adam Moore homered, probably as a protest to being back in Double-A. Josh Fields’ pro debut didn’t go well – he walked four in 2/3 of an inning, and three of them scored.
High Desert:
Michael Pineda struck out 7 in 5 innings, but hit three guys and walked two others, so command wasn’t exactly his strength. Tyson Gillies went 2 for 3 with a couple of walks and stole a base. Alex Liddi doubled as well, as he tries to re-establish himself as a prospect. Phillippe Aumont pitched a scoreless inning in relief.
Clinton:
The M’s weren’t very nice to the LumberKings, so the prospect cupboard is a bit bare down here. Steven Hensley gave up three unearned runs, so his ERA is sparkly, but one strikeout in five innings isn’t very exciting. Denny Almonte went 1 for 3 and drew 2 walks, which is a nice improvement for him.
Anyway, we’re not going to do this every day, but since it was the first games, I figured we’d highlight some of the better performances. For regular coverage of the games, check out Jay’s blog.
Washburn’s Change
You know how every year, half the pitching staff shows up to camp and claims they’ve learned a new pitch/improved grip/better motion/magic secret? And you know how, every year, it turns out to be hogwash, and they pitch like the same guy they have always been?
Well, it doesn’t always turn out that way. Just most of the time. However, throughout spring training, Jarrod Washburn kept talking about how he’d worked on his change-up and how he thought it had come a long way. Today, he had a chance to back it up – and he did.
Of the 96 pitches he threw, 20 of them were change-ups, all of them to right-handed batters. He got the following results:
Balls: 6
Called Strikes: 4
Swinging Strikes: 2
Foul: 2
Single: 2
Groundout: 3
Flyout: 1
Just watching on MLB.tv, his change had more movement than I ever remember seeing. He did a good job of keeping it down in the zone, and it was a quality off-speed pitch for him today. The Twins line-up isn’t very good, especially against LHP, so don’t go overboard in extrapolating from this, but so far, he’s provided at least some glimmer of hope that his off-season fix might actually be true.