Game 59, Mariners at Orioles
Mike Snow · June 10, 2009 at 4:07 pm · Filed Under Mariners
Betancourt is back in the lineup. On a more positive note, Happy Felix Day! And game threads are back after a one-day hiatus, because there really wasn’t much point in discussing yesterday’s abysmal offense anyway. Hernandez v. Guthrie, 4:05.
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96 Responses to “Game 59, Mariners at Orioles”
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Nice to see Beltre hitting better.
If Lopez could come up with a runner in scoring position every time, he just might be an all-star, despite his defense. 🙂
At least the offense is waking up.
Apparently Lopez doesn’t want you to.
I cracked up when I heard Wakamatsu joke the other day about how a two run win “felt like a blow out.” 🙂
Well at least Jose got the message from Yuni’s benching.
Thank you scott19
Just to play a little bit of devil’s advocate to my sarcastic comment above: I’ve been reading for years on this site about how Felix’s pitch selection leaves something to be desired, yet he’s “doing the same thing he’s always done”.
At what point do you say that Felix is wasting his talent as well?
When he drops bellow replacement level. Let us pray that never happens until is 52 and retires in an M’s uniform.
Practice makes perfect.
I can’t believe we have to wait 2 months for the next USSM get-together.
I’ll be surprised if Felix finishes his career in an M’s uniform. If he doesn’t start piching better he won’t be worth the money he’ll be able to command. I do hope we are able to buy out 1 or 2 years of free agency, however. Felix at 75% is better than 90% of all pitchers.
So far, by Gameday, Felix has thrown about 10 change ups, 1 curve, a handful of sinkers and sliders, and 70 4-seam fastballs.
It does seem as if he’s determined to macho his way through this, no matter what the smart-arses think his best pitch is.
That exchange about that guy’s sweater and rain poncho was priceless.
They’re 689-665 this decade. We haven’t had it that bad.
I love Beltre’s happy feet after he almost swings at a bad pitch
76 games over for 2001, 42 under for the other years combined.
Okay, that’s looking at the glass half empty, I know. Winning records in 5 out of 9 seasons since 2000, isn’t it?
Doesn’t feel that way though.
Felix went 7 innings and threw 79 fastballs, 58% for strikes. He threw 24 other pitches, 83% for strikes.
But there’s nothing to be learned from that so we’ll just move on.
Can Sean White start?
Considering there were 99 and 101-loss seasons in there, 24 over for the decade isn’t that bad overall.
But, I agree, Colm…it does feel like the long, miserable stretch has been a lot longer for some reason.
From Drayer’s blog on Yuni: “One thing I did see was Yuni taking ground balls during batting practice with more focus than I have ever seen. No hot dogging or half assing it. He really attacked the balls that were hit to him. Seen the same thing on the field tonight. Didn’t like the first pitch out after a 7 pitch hit by Lopez in the fourth, but he has shown a little something extra in the field tonight. Moving like he is 15 pounds lighter.”
Good to hear.
Boy, they’re dogging on that guy in the sweater and clear plastic coat.
But I must say, living in a place where I must routinely see tourists wearing plastic garbage bags as clothing, that guy has them beat. K Street dweeb staying dry.
Also from her blog:
Hilarious
The Double Play Twins come up with a win.
“Do you believe in miracles? Yes!”
The run prevention this month has been awesome. 14 runs allowed in the first 8 games of the month.
The M’s are going to start winning again. Mr. Z. is finding hungry, skilled players instead of just hungry for the post game buffet. Finding talent with character counts, as we have lacked this equation for the past few years in the infield. Most winning teams are good up the middle with their shortstop and second baseman. Yuni had his turn and blew it. Next!
If the M’s had any kind of offense at all, they’d be a winning machine.
Wow, Pittman with a nice tip of the cap to the “blog community” on the postgame show for the analysis of Felix and his fastball tendency.
Matt Pittman thinks Felix throws too many fastballs.
Heard Pittman. One more guy for Felix to ignore until he grows up. (what a day that will be)
Please be back soon Guti.
FSN is trying to get Felix the Cat to catch on like King Felix.
Did I fall asleep yesterday and miss that the M’s now have 3 catchers and one less relief pitcher?
If true, why do the M’s need 3 catchers if none of them can hit?
Not gonna happen. Soon, they will learn the mighty power of the blogosphere!
Well, since the M’s seem to be going through catchers so far this season like Spinal Tap did drummers or the Grateful Dead did keyboard players, I guess they figure it’s not a bad idea to have a couple of extras around just in case.
FSN is trying to get Felix the Cat to catch on like King Felix.
KJR had tried to do the same thing–finally gave up.
(Reminds me of that scene in Casablanca where the German soldiers were trying to over-ride La Marseilles with Deutshland Uber Alles , and finally gave up.)
[Today’s game showed why the title KING is appropriate.]
I dunno.
I think El Rey Felix was a touch lucky tonight.
7 Hits and 2 walks usually racks up more than one run, even with a bunch of grounders mixed in.
We have 3 catchers because one of them (Rob Johnson) is hurt, but not bad enough to be put on the DL, apparently. And you can’t really play with 1 catcher… It seems obvious that the M’s should have put Johnson on the DL at this point, before handing Stark his DFA papers… But maybe they were concerned about the MLB noticing that a bunch of their “not very good” players were getting sent to the DL with injuries.
And Matt Pittman absolutely tore into Felix, or as much as he could on the M’s network broadcast after a game where he gave up 1 run.
But if Felix can pitch like an idiot and give up 1 run, god bless him. I’d be curious to know how many times Felix shook off Burke.
And also, I’m curious how Jeff Clement’s knee is doing.
After his 27-game hitting streak came to an end last Friday, all Ichiro Suzuki has done is gone 8-for-15 in the last four games.
Too bad he’s so lazy and selfish, otherwise he would have been willing to end his hit streak long ago so he could have a four-game stretch with eight hits.
What a jerk that guy is.
=oP
Redundancy is crucial to mediocrity.
Shannan Drayer seems to imply (from some of her recent comments), that the impression she is getting from the clubhouse/front office is that if this team has a good road trip right now, they will go shopping for a bat to add to this lineup quickly.
So on that note, if the M’s do go shopping (whether you think that’s a good decision or not), who is likely to be available, gettable, and a good fit for us right now?
mariners splits against left and right handed pitching are pretty much exactly the same. Which makes me less worried about the fact we are facing 13 right handed starters in a row. I know that ichiro and Branyan tear up right handed hitting and skew the #’s a bit. But we are still statistically a team that has equal success, or more appropriatly lack there of, against left or right handed pitching.
I don’t know how “gettable” he would be, but if the M’s are going for a bat, Brad Hawpe would be a very good fit. He is in the prime of his career, is a left-handed power bat, and can fill in for the Chavez/Wlad combo of pain in LF. He would only cost pro-rated $5.5 mil this year, plus is under contract for $17.5 mil over the next two years (he has a $10 mil club option for 2011 that becomes guaranteed if he is traded). When Ackley is ready, he slips right into DH, if not sooner. Oh, and he is hitting .339/.411/.611 this season at age 28. I am sure it would cost a lot to get him, but if the M’s are going for it this year, Hawpe should at least be part of the conversation.
Any thought on the possibility of trading for Jermaine Dye(.276AVG, 15HR and 39RBI)? He has limited no trade protection(Northeast teams for the most part) and could be a fit for the M’s in LF. The M’s would only be responsible for about 4.5M this year and there is a mutual option for 12M for 2010. He can be expected to hit around 30HR and would be a solid fit for the M’s.
If #34 is Felix the Cat, any chance we could make Bill Krueger into Triumph the Insult Comic Dog?
Or maybe that is reserved for someone else. . .
Corner OF, DH, 3B, SS, 2B, C all could use some help at the moment offensively. . .
Let’s start there.
Well, since Triumph is occasionally funny whereas Bill Krueger never is, I seriously doubt it.
Hmmmmmmmmm, think of it as a “Evil Rick Rizzs” moniker. . .
Or maybe that’s a little bit of a stretch.
Well, from 2004 to 2008, we’ve averaged 72 wins, and averaged 12th in the AL in both Runs Scored and HRs. The team has been awful and boring.
But things are looking up! Maybe not this year, but soon.