Game 122, Mariners at Yankees
Hernandez vs Burnett, 4:05 pm.
Happy Felix Day.
Let’s just get right into the story of the day. Starting in left field tonight – Matt Tuiasosopo. I’m one of the group of people who agree that he should probably play more often than not, given the current construct of the roster. Jose Lopez and Casey Kotchman have no chance of being on this team next year, and his best positions are the infield corners. I’d have no problem with the team running Tui out there at either position for most of the rest of the year. I don’t think he’s going to turn into a good major league player, but letting him try to prove his doubters wrong is more useful than just assuming we’re right and giving his opportunity to guys playing out the string.
However, Tui should not be taking at-bats away from Michael Saunders. Ever. Saunders is one of the core guys that this team needs to develop in order to have a long term winner, and he needs to play as much as humanly possible. I’ll give Daren Brown the benefit of the doubt that Saunders is still sore from his fight with the wall, and maybe he’s not ready to go yet, even though they just said it was “a day off” on Tuesday when Tui subbed for him and had the big night. Four days later, however, Sanders is still on the bench.
I’m really hoping that Tui’s display in Baltimore isn’t going to earn him regular time in left field. It’s not a position he should ever really play anyway, and he certainly shouldn’t be playing instead of Saunders. Kotchman or Lopez, sure. Saunders, no. Let’s hope that the good young left fielder is back on the field tomorrow, regardless of how Tui does tonight.
Update: Saunders is healthy. Brown chose not to play him. He’s officially eliminated from consideration for the permanent managing gig. Just a ridiculous decision.
Ichiro, RF
Figgins, 2B
Branyan, DH
Lopez, 3B
Gutierrez, CF
Kotchman, 1B
Moore, C
Tuiasosopo, LF
Josh Wilson, SS
Comments
89 Responses to “Game 122, Mariners at Yankees”
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.
Really? I thought everyone was over the “you jinxed it” nonsense.
Faceplant, it is permissible for people to have a little fun… 🙂
I’m sorry, but if the pitches could have been swung at with a rake, Lopez usually swings at them.
All the M’s have at least one hit, except Lopez.
Hey, you know, maybe that’s something he should try…
Jut got home, and, er.
Holy crap. Did I read the score right?
I’m with you on that one Carson. I just looked and score and I am incredibly confused
Un-Eff-ing-Believable…That’s PITCHING!!
K K!
Take that, Yankers!
Double play machine…
Muscle!
Way to hang that curveball!
Way to make him work, Lopez.
hillarious, Why Muscle???
Two for Branyan tonight!
Ron Fairly Master of the Obvious Award to Dave Sims tonight. “…Burnett is not sharp.”
Branyan has
54 RBIs tonight (and 2 HRs) – Brown better put him back in tomorrow! 😀Felix is dealing.
This really sucks for Wak, because now it really is starting to look like the team just didn’t want to play for him.
7 K’s through 6!
And for those of you who complain about our current commentators, here’s Dave Valle!
As good as Kotchman is with the glove – that’s how bad he is with the bat, much of the time.
Rhymes with Russell.
Another gem by Felix and RoJo is in Tacoma, Felix is great, the catcher doesn´t matter for him
So Branyan is in left field tomorrow.
Saunders is healthy. Brown chose not to play him. He’s officially eliminated from consideration for the permanent managing gig. Just a ridiculous decision.
Relax, it’s one game. Brown is playing the hot hand — that’s a dumb call because Tui isn’t much of a hitter and there’s no such thing as hot — but 90% of managers believe in “hot hand” and would do the same.
And if you’re going to play Tui, why not do it on a day where there won’t be many fly balls.
What’s with Figgins bobbling the ball? This has happened with consistancy already!!
The fundamental problem with this statement – and many of the comments that have been made on FSN tonight – is it’s based a false choice. Playing Tui does not preclude playing Saunders. The complaints are not really about choosing to let Tui start; it’s the fact that Brown chose to do so by sitting Saunders. Tui could play third, he could play first… heck, he could play second! He could DH.
There are plenty of options, and choosing to use in in the place of the guy who’s our most promising (second-most at worst) young player is just indefensible.
Somebody needs to hand Lopez an invitation to this party.
Westside guy really sums it up well. There is just zero excuse for Tui to be playing when Saunders is not, unless Saunders is injured.
Really. Go ahead and try to come up with some. Then we can explain to you why you’re wrong.
Check out the “Brock and Salk” thread from yesterday – for the more revealing insight. Jeff quantifies what an overwhelming majority of people believe. When the FO eventually acts on it – we will all be better off. If Tui is to play any kind of a meaninful role on your team, it means one thing: You have a bad team.
Good thing we signed Felix to that extension – the way he’s pitched against the Yankees, they’d offer him 10/350.
AND they might even get their money’s worth…
The only reason Saunders doesn’t play beyond injury is if he has been included in a trade for Agon or Pujols which isn’t happening.
Free the condor.
Great first basemen, to be sure – but do we really need to collect even MORE of them? 😉
There is absolutly no good excuse to sit Saunders for Tui.
However… there is the human factor, which, most of these players and coaches happen to be human, unfortunatly.
Brown doesn’t want to piss off the vets by sitting them. He believes having them on his side will help him in the long run, maybe even get him a big league job. What can you do? Play with robots I suppose.
I can come up with a good argument to play Tui instead of Lopez.
Heck, I can come up with a good argument to play a 25-lb sack of rice instead of Lopez.
As much as I love Felix, he’d have to be a ~9 win player every year for the length of the contract for the Yankees to just break even.
There’s basically no chance of that happening over a 10 year contract.
How rare is a 9 win season from a player?