Game 96, Red Sox at Mariners
Lackey vs Rowland-Smith, 7:10 pm.
Happy Welcome Back Adrian Beltre Night.
Over the five years he was in Seattle, I made no secret out of the fact that I was a big fan. He was remarkably underrated during his time here, and Seattle never appreciated what they had – one of the game’s best third baseman. His success this year is perhaps my favorite thing about the 2010 season. I couldn’t be happier for Beltre, and hope he keeps on mashing until he retires.
Oh, and the Mariners sent Jack Hannahan to the Red Sox for cash or a player to be named later. Since Ackley was promoted, he wasn’t playing in Tacoma, so the M’s found a spot for him with an organization that has some playing time at Triple-A.
Ichiro, RF
Figgins, 2B
Gutierrez, CF
Lopez, 3B (not even a night off…)
Bradley, LF
Smoak, DH
Kotchman, 1B
Bard, C
Jack Wilson, SS
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At least they put up some what of a fight there. Kinda shitty they didn’t score with the bases loaded and one out but ya know Wak loves Lopez in that clean up spot. Why can’t he move em down or just get rid of em. He has in know way earned to hit clean up. Whatever not like it matters anymore this season but I just wish he would shake up the line up. Blahhhh.,.
MrZ-
Thanks, I needed the laugh.
Screw you Jose Lopez.
This game was pretty much a metaphor for the season… Moments of excessive hope broken up by crushing realities.
July 23 (AP) – The Seattle Mariners designated their entire roster for assignment today.
In related news, the entire roster of the Tacoma Rainiers was said to have chartered a bus so they could make it to Safeco Field before today’s game time, as they were all called up to fill the newly vacant 25-man roster…
Westside-
Not THAT was funny. Thanks.
I want to see the M’s do something this year… Breaking the MLB record for DFAs would be something…
RRS
Lopez
Snell – (call him up and DFA him just to make a point that we really still don’t want him)
Olson
Johnson
Bradley
Anyone else?
Also, kinda sh///y that they probably won’t score any runs for Jason Vargas tomorrow night when he goes and probably pitches his arse off again.
It is more than possible that if the M’s had just followed Dave’s advice today, they would have won today.
Dave’s WAR for this year should be 1.0
Hey while reading your previous post I was hearing the Hives “Tick Tick BOOM!”
At least we can still laugh about it, better than crying I guess.
Henryv, add Kotchman to the list.. and bring Sweeney off the DL just to DFA him too. Bedard? I dunno. It’s easier to list the players that shouldn’t be released.
Henryv: Add “Aardvark” and “Couchman” to your list and I would be happy…
According to Furniss on 950 today, yes, Wak is playing chicken with his job, making decisions because he thinks it’s impossible he’ll get fired.
If we up it to two DFA Lopez posts a day, do you think it will be more likely to happen? three? four?
Oh, how ’bout Rowland-Smith? Just about ALL these guys have ZERO value.
I know he’s coming off the DL soon whether we like it or not, but can we enact a one Sweeney limit per MLB team? That has to be in the CBA.
I hate Wak¡¡¡ And Lopez too, is the worst cleanup hitter in the MLB history…
Let’s sign Bobby Ayala, Jose Mesa, and Richie Sexson to one-day contracts just so we can DFA everyone who’s ever disappointed us all in one fell swoop.
In the future we’ll look back at “Bloody Friday” with awe and reverence.
The 2010 M’s are like a dearly departed fish. But rather than throw it away we’ve decided we have a tank, and we have to fill it with SOMETHING, so we just leave the fish in there.
It doesn’t matter that it stinks up the place, and no one wants to see it. It doesn’t matter that it’s depressing, and just reminds us of how much fun we had watching it last year.
Plus, we paid a lot of money for that fish. Who knows, maybe it could come back to life, right?
But no, it just sits there, molding, floating belly up… For no other reason than we can’t think of anything better to do with the tank.
I pray to god Milton Bradley is not on this team next year. Pay him his money.. but change the locks at Safeco and don’t let him in.
2001: A Mariner Odyssey
Followed by the sequel:
2010: The Year the M’s Can’t Make Contact
Best line of the year.
Oh man, Westside, that list would be way too numerous to mention here!
I think we have enough disappointments THIS year.
Perhaps if we believe hard enough. Oh, and maybe if we all clap our hands real hard!
And of course, Jamie Moyer for Andrew Barb and Andy Baldwin.
Matt Thornton for Joe Borchard.
Then Play On.
Or, instead of First Contact, they could have a movie called No Contact.
Just a couple more, then I’m done:
Bill Swift, Mike Jackson, and Dave Burba for Kevin Mitchell and Mike Remlinger.
Omar for Felix Fermin and Reggie Jefferson.
Mariners are the bottom feeders of baseball. Look at their overall history. We used to provide solid talent to other teams. Now we don’t even provide talent to other teams let alone ourselves.
We have been rebuilding for the past 10 years and we’ll continue to rebuild until we start to follow the NY Yankee model and buy players that are hitters and pitchers. This will allow us to get a better TV package. I would be open to have ticket prices raised if we can improve the talent on the field. We need more Felixs’ and less Jose Lopezs’
No, he’s an M’s fan and hates the Red Sox; he just loves Beltre more than either. But I’ll just let the man speak for himself.
Dear Wak,
I know you have your belief system. Here is mine. The other teams in the American League are on to Jose Lopez. Thus, when you have Ichiro at first and Jack Wilson at second and no one out, if you bunt with Chone Figgins, they will walk Franklin Gutierrez and be very, very comfortable that Jose Lopez will not drive in the winning run from third base with a sacrifice fly. That goes for the Red Sox, the Yankees, the Orioles, and the Kirkland Little League for that matter.
Just because you pencil someone into your lineup in the fourth position doesn’t make him a cleanup hitter. He is a washed up hitter.
Please believe me when I say this, no one else believes in him.
Sincerely,
Breadbaker
.
Dear Jack, please take Wak on an extended fishing trip -somewhere in the vicinity of 10 days sounds about right. Also see about getting a Marine drill instructor to serve as interim bench coach. Hopefully upon Wak’s return, either half the roster would ask for their voluntary release or have checked into a mental home for their nervous breakdowns post Marine drill-instructor.
Yes, that’s some substantial money offered by the M’s (“turned down an estimated 13M from the M’s in arbitration”) but Beltre wanted more, I guess.
Furthermore, I see a very interesting nugget posted by Hickey (http://mlb.fanhouse.com/2010/07/22/adrian-beltre-didnt-want-to-leave-mariners-but-red-sox-suit-hi/#cntnt):
It doesn’t seem fair to the Mariners to say, as I saw in Beltre’s interviews that “he didn’t want to leave the Mariners but they had no space for him”. This multiyear contract to Beltre would seem more than a fair enough offer, considering how mediocre he was with the bat here, despite being awesome defensively.
And it is likely he did not get offered anything close to the M’s deal from any other team either, considering the one year deal he wound up with.
The M’s made more than a generous offer to Beltre to try to keep him it looks to me.
Well, in any case, Figgins better get his head out of his arse and start playing better or this is really fucked up.
Figgins may go down as the most anti-Mariner player in the history of the league.
When he plays them, he dominates.
When he plays FOR them, he is horrible.
Anthony Rendon FTW!
samregens-
Agreeing with most of what you’ve written regarding Beltre/M’s negotiations… It makes me that much more impressed with Beltre.
Great team player, hard worker, amazing defensive player… Without ever saying it himself, it became painfully clear that he HATED playing in Safeco Field.
After years of murmurs of “he’s overrated…”, “overpaid”, “had one good year…” He then moves to a different stadium and is having an All-Star year.
He took way less money to go to a place that allowed him to succeed, after years of struggling. I respect that.
And it makes him a smart man, in my book.
In fact, knowing how well he’s doing this year… somewhere else… And then seeing him flail away again here at Safeco made me a bit sad. (That 18″-from-a-game-winning-homerun foul ball felt almost like Safeco taunting him again…)
But good for him for going somewhere he could a) win at the team level, and b) succeed at the personal level.
It also makes me admire him that much more, knowing that very early on he probably realized (at least in terms of batting) that Seattle was not a good fit for him… And yet, he gave us 100% while here (as far as I can tell), played out his contract, and I NEVER ever remember a single complaint from him, even as his time here hurt his career, and cost him money in terms of future contracts.
I tip my cap to Adrian Beltre.
(Seems fitting after spending years struggling in the right handed hitter hell known as Safeco, he now is playing somewhere you can almost reach out and touch the left field wall from the plate. Poetic justice, with a positive spin to it…)
Okay, I can’t resist just one more:
David Segui for Tom Davey and Steve Sinclair.
WRT Beltre, I’m sure Boras calculated that a one-year deal in a park perfect for his swing would ultimately pay off in a bigger and better deal later. It’s a risk, of course (especially with Beltre coming off a series of injuries) but he’s still young enough that it’s a risk worth taking. So regardless of his personal feelings towards the Mariners (and they towards him) the business side (ie Boras) may not have been interested in him staying in Safeco at any sane price.
Well, Dick Williams was pretty close to being one for all intents and purposes…but, unfortunately, he’s not in the game these days.
Adrian Beltre has a 1010 road OPS this season. I do not believe he came close to that while with Seattle. His Fenway OPS is 849. The H-A splits are typical for Beltre, as his career OPS is 100 points higher on the road than at home, even with LA this was true.
His average HR distance is 400 ft this year, only 2 of his HR have travelled less than 385 ft.
Whats going on with Beltre this year is clearly not limited to being out of SAFECO. Has all the marks of a contract year like 2004.