Game 120, Mariners at Tigers
Mike Snow · August 19, 2009 at 4:04 pm · Filed Under Mariners
Snell vs. Verlander, 4:05.
Hall doesn’t arrive until tomorrow, which doesn’t matter too much considering you wouldn’t start him over Hannahan to face Verlander anyway. Josh Wilson is another story, though.
RF-L Ichiro
1B-L Branyan
2B-R Lopez
DH-L Griffey
CF-R Gutierrez
3B-L Hannahan
C-R Joh…jima
LF-L Saunders
SS-R Wilson
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Also, I wonder if this is the record for the shortest game thread in USSM history?
OK, Snell only got mentioned a couple of times here tonight.
He did pretty well. Still was a little wild, although not as bad as previously, one more walk than strikeout. He gave up fewer fly ball than he usually does.
Better. Hope he can continue to improve.
Game 77 earlier this year only had 39 comments.
Yeah, except Verlander doesn’t get away with cutting the ball. Or at least hopefully he doesn’t.
Great game by Snell. Got quite a bit of help from the defense. But he did get squeezed a little bit, compared to Verlander.
Angie Mentink just had a “I wanna punch you in the face, Bill Kruger” moment on TV.
Followed by the return (again) of Vinnie on the radio postgame.
sigh.
Well, not quite as sweet as if we were still in contention, but still….beating 2008’s win total while still in mid-August and with a winning records is pretty nice.
This has been a pleasant season. Not a tremoundous WHOOPIEE season, but, still pretty damn enjoyable.
I’m not sure that 62 wins is worth celebrating. The Mariners were historically bad last year and set the bar very low.
Speaking of the Tigers, I remember a few years back when Brian Moehler got suspended a couple of starts for scuffing the ball — during a season when he lost 16 games.
Even a friend of mine who’s a Tiger fan remarked about how if you’re gonna cheat, you should at least cheat to win — not cheat to lose.
I don’t know why some of youse is criticizing Lopez for not taking (m)any pitches, its not like he was facing a rookie/journeyman that has trouble finding the strike zone. He was batting against Jason fucking Verlander, he may not have hit anything but it’s hard to argue he is going to have a better chance working the count to 0-2, than swinging away at 0-0.
You might note that Branyan and Gutierez were a lot more patient than Lopez, taking 3x as many pitches, and they were also 0-4 with 4 and 3 strikeouts respectively. At least Lopez put the ball in play. You might also note that Ichiro’s HR was on the first pitch. So much for patience, when you can expect a first pitch fastball over the plate.
Taking pitches is great, but it is not a strategy that works against every pitcher. And a pitcher like Verlander with plus stuff that has no problem finding the strikezone is a perfect example of that.
I think it might be time to go with an experimental lineup;
Saunders
Gutierez
Ichiro
…at the top.
That would be experimental! Who is this Gutierez fellow?
Wese just noticing a pattern.
Granted that swinging early may be a valid approach against a given pitcher, but I’m not sure Verlander was the difference. It just seems like he saw a lot more pitches earlier in the season.
It’s especially frustrating to see him walk up after a four-pitch-walk and hack at the first pitch. (That’s an example, not an instance from tonight.)
Those damn rolling rr’s.
OBP/ISO:
Ichiro .395/.104
Gutierrez .345/.153
Saunders .297/.050
I think Ichiro at 1 and Saunders at 9 are good where they are. Franklin at 2 is fine, but I’m not real upset at 5.
I got confused because the criticism was in the game thread. But point taken, he is at 3.51 p/pa the second lowest of his career.
But as an example of the advantages of changing an approach, check out Griffey’s line in this game. He went 2 for 4 with 2 2b and 3 rbi’s against Roy Halladay. On 7 pitches in 4ab. We won 3-2.
Probably asking too much but what would it take to get Zobrist from the Rays?
His OBP and power numbers are there, plus he’s an above average fielder at 2nd. He also has played every INF position outside of catching, well.
Just saying.
What possible reason could the Rays have for giving up Zobrist? You’d have to pay them a lot to pry him loose. You’d have better luck asking for Iwamura, now that Zobrist has Wally Pipped him. (And yes, I know that’s a myth).