Game 32, M’s at Twins
DMZ · May 10, 2009 at 10:00 am · Filed Under Mariners
11:10 our time. Bedard versus Blackburn.
Edit by Jay:
Baker with the lineup. Gutierrez sits today as Chavez and Balentien both get starts.
RF Ichiro
2B Jose Lopez
DH Ken Griffey Jr.
3B Adrian Beltre
1B Russell Branyan
LF Wladimir Balentien
SS Yuniesky Betancourt
C Rob Johnson
CF Endy Chavez
Let’s go out there and win for the first time in a week.
So I’m translating your comment to mean that that M’s could ring up Tacoma, for instance, and get Chris Woodward (OPS .752) and effectively replace Betancourt?
That would work, but I don’t think it’s so specific as that. The M’s could ring up Tacoma, or find someone on the waiver wires, or go to the Mexican leagues, or send $50K to some team for their AAA non-prospect, or etc. and more than replace Betancourt.
Replacement-level is sometimes easier to achieve in theory than in practice.
Of course, we could just start Cedeno.
Seriously… if the M’s want to be competitive this year they need to find their happy thought for scoring runs. So far I don’t see who is gonna make that happen…
Griffey and Sweeney? not hardly…
Branyan? He’s a fence swinger…
Anyone else? The rest are all average hitters or worse except for…
Ichiro, the Only Good Batsman on the team.
78 wins is all I expect from this bunch and that will be take a bit of over-achieving.
Dear Brandon,
Thanks for making the end to this miserable six-game losing streak interesting. I appreciate it more than most M’s fans because I’m an anxious person with a low tolerance for stress.
Regards,
Mike B.
(Mostly) loyal M’s fan since 1980s
YEEEEEE-haaa! Streak over!
Stress? I need to go to my 10 hr. a day job and get away from that last inning. Has anyone found out why our shortstop plays almost behind third base and lets the soft grounders turn into hits up the middle? Lets hope the bats come alive in Texas.
Which was about the consensus estimate — by Dave and others here — going into the season. So, way to go out on a limb, I guess. That hot start got our hopes up but we have no reason to think they’re actually as bad as they’ve been this past week (nor perhaps as good as they were in April).
Brandon is trying to compile an insanely high leverage index in all his appearances. That last AB by Harris hit 6.98.
Juneau_fan Nice call on the mothers day HR. For once Bill Kroger and I agree. He said they should take the tape of the game calling to the league office it was so bad.
Yup, nice prediction by our Alaskan participant.
Did somebody say Mexican League? Need another LH bat? Doyle is .344/.465/.516 with 2 HR, 16 RBI, 21 BB in 25 G for Monterrey.
This will look like 20:20 hindsight, but I wasn’t by a computer at the time, so here goes.
After Aardsma pitched the perfect eighth, what was the justification for bringing Morrow in at all? I know he’s just off the DL, is “the closer”, etc., but he clearly had the heebie-jeebies about this stadium and this lineup and since we are never playing there again (unless by some double miracle we meet the Twins in the playoffs) it’s not like “learning to pitch in the Metrodome” was an important skill for Morrow to develop. I’d have given him his first taste of pitching in a blowout (either way) and let Aardsma finish this off. If Aardsma couldn’t do it, then you can bring in Morrow. Instead, he was backed up by nothing better than Denny Stark.
Why do you have Morrow throw? For the very reasons you mentioned. Because he’s off the DL and because he’s had issues in the Metrodome. You don’t undermine a guy because of one bad past outing. You have a 3 run lead, let the guy come in and work it out.
By the way, I read that this was Griffey’s 7th mother’s day home run.
New favorite hobby: Looking at the shortstops on the Baseball America Top 100 Prospects list and fantasizing.
Apparently the record is nine, but tons of folks have seven, including ex-Mariner Willie Horton.
I don’t think having Aardsma continue a great outing is undermining anyone. It’s thinking like this that gives the announcers fodder for the “can’t pitch the ninth inning/must pitch the ninth inning” distinction.
On the face of it, Breadbaker, I could see that as a valid point.
But the bottom line is, the M’s (especially with how tepid the offense has been lately) don’t know when the next “save” situation they’re going to be able to put Morrow in will come.
Me, I think it’s a good thing to nip any case of the yips a pitcher shows right from the start. Show him he’s the man, and nothing’s changed.
Get him in there.
If I’m in Wakamatsu’s shoes, I do the same thing. Of course, I have 20/20 hindsight and know that he gets the save.