Game 51, Mariners at Rangers
Kevin Millwood vs. Matt Harrison, 5:05 pm
The M’s face lefty Matt Harrison this evening for the 15th time. As you might expect, the M’s have the lowest OPS of any team that’s faced Harrison more than once (ha Pirates). Harrison’s win over the M’s on the 22nd came with 12 swinging strikes, his season high.
The M’s are coming off a disheartening sweep at the hands of the Angels, which is all but expunged the positive feelings so many had after the M’s took the series against Texas. This remains a streaky, inconsistent team, and it’s not clear when or if that’s going to change. Kevin Millwood’s been as streaky as any of the young kids (well, at least his results have been), and he gets the start tonight, trying to extend a scoreless innings streak that’s reached 17 innings.
Miguel Olivo caught three of the four games in the Angels’ series, so we haven’t seen much in the way of a new/altered role for the veteran. Part of this may be due to John Jaso’ nagging injury, and it’s possible they wanted the better catch/throw guy to deal with the steal-happy Angels, so this series may offer a chance to see a bit less Olivo and a bit more Montero and Jaso. The M’s send their right-handed line-up to the plate today with Liddi at 3B and Dustin Ackley getting a day off. Ackley’s 2 for his last 19 with no XBH and 7 Ks, though to be fair, Liddi’s 0 for his last 11 with 8 Ks, so, uh, turn it around, Alex. So who gets Ackley’s spot in the line-up? John Jaso will DH and lead off against a southpaw, which isn’t what I expected.
The M’s now have the 2nd worst team wOBA in the American League, ahead of only the hapless Athletics. Let’s go Arlington park effects?
1: Jaso (DH)
2: Figgins (LF)
3: Ichiro (RF)
4: Montero (C)
5: Smoak (1B)
6: Seager (2B)
7: Liddi (3B)
8: Saunders (CF)
9: Ryan (SS)
SP: Millwood
Erasmo Ramirez is on the hill in Tacoma today, hoping to erase the memories of his 11-R disaster start in Iowa.
Danny Hultzen’s currently throwing against Pensacola. ROOT sports is apparently sending Jen Mueller to the game, so we’ll see if they show highlights or interviews during the M’s broadcast.
Go M’s!
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48 Responses to “Game 51, Mariners at Rangers”
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Oh no Figgins again the (human smile machine). Well there is a 0-4 already and we haven’t even played the game yet.
So much go Figgins going away. I’m looking forward to the day he’s gone. Maybe we could start an anti-figgins referendum?
Is it possible to make a law that no major league club in the state can employ Chone Figgins? Or is that a bill of attainder?
Another day off for Ackley already? He just had Friday off. This is somewhat interesting, mildly alarming and probably very necessary. It almost feels like the dog days of August have arrived early?
I noticed something this season. There are way more day games around the league this year than there normally are, what is up with that?
During last night’s game, Jen Mueller mentioned she’ll be working on some special piece called “on the farm” or somesuch. I imagine we’ll see a few teasers, but we might not see too much of her work until the program airs (6/10, if I recall correctly).
I would like to see more of that sort of stuff – I always enjoy Jay and Marc’s insights they post here regarding the minor leagues. I also want to see if Jen uses the term “Cerberus”. đ
Wedge clearly has a man-crush on Liddi, basically trying to play him every day even at the expense of Ackley.
Ugh. Figgins. Well, at least Olivo is sitting today.
Did Clay Bennet buy this team and we just didn’t hear about it?!?!?! I swear the current regime is doing their best to piss every real M’s fan off!…… Figgins twice in less then a week……… Wow… I’m glad he earned his way back for doing absolutely nothing. I want to play in LF! Is that all it takes? Oh… that’s right… (smile)… there, how about that?!
Thanks, but I doubt that would happen, as just about every major media outlet is using the same old bland “Big Three” moniker we’ve seen everywhere since the early 2000s Oakland A’s.
Figgins is 10 for 80 since the first week of the season, and is .143/.226/.179 against lefties so far this year. I can’t understand why you would have him in the lineup at all, but batting 2nd?
Hey, one can always hope, Jay – if the right producer has been reading USSM at the right time.
Tonight’s lineup versus lefties this year (small sample size warning):
Jaso (.111/.167/.111)
Figgins (.143/.226/.179)
Ichiro (.264/.270/.319)
Montero (.362/.400/.617) *WOW*
Smoak (.224/.240/.306)
Seager (.282/.317/.538)
Liddi (.238/.304/.333)
Saunders (.256/.341/.538)
Ryan (.209/.271/.326)
So lineups may not count much, but given these numbers, why would you start a lineup with Jaso/Figgins? Just wondering….
They say lineups don’t affect results — I beg to differ. Pretty sure this lineup is going to affect the result of winning the game. đ
Figgins, seriously? What. On. Earth. For.
don52656, your last question would insist commonsense is involved when creating the lineup… and that was your first mistake.
Come on guys, we’re only yahoos! What would we know about playing Figgins?
Slats, I don’t believe Wedge used the term “yahoo”.
Tonightâs lineup versus lefties this year (small sample size warning):
Figgins being useless overall and Jaso being useless against LHP is established with a pretty decent sample size.
The one time you could actually justify playing Olivo (hitter’s park against a LHP), and we’re playing Jaso (who’s completely hopeless against lefties).
Oh, and good thing we have Figgins instead of Wells on the roster.
Seriously, Jaso and Figgins at 1/2 against a lefty? Un-freaking real.
Figgy forgot how to run the bases.
It’s been a while.
Good news – Figgy doubles… Bad news – Figgy gets caught with his pants down between second and 3rd….
Figlet double lol.
Jesus!
– B. Ryan struck out swinging
– J. Jaso struck out swinging
– C. Figgins grounded bunt out to pitcher
I can’t think of a more representative inning than that to define what Seattle Mariners baseball is.
I dunno, henryv – I thought Figgins doubling then getting caught off base the very next play was rather representative as well.
If only the Mariners had some righty hitting left fielder, somebody who was a good fielder, and had some upside to his hitting.
Gee, wherever could they find someone like that?
Are we even trying?!?
I’m hearing lots of UZR comments coming from Sims/Blowers… must be looking for that one lone ray of sunshine when they have to talk about Ryan…
Move those fences in!
Ouch.
Move those fences out!
I have been watching the Hatfield-McCoy mini series, but tuning in to the game every so often. It is nice to see that Delabar continues his mastery of right handed hitters with pitches that break into a same handed batter. I did not see the home run pitch … I am just guessing on the “process” used.
Yeah, go for the inside the park homer – down by two. Good idea to hitch that bear to your back when you rounded third, too.
Brilliant.
Ryan trying for an inside the park homer!
Datz has another error. That makes 3 base running errors tonight.
I have no idea why Ryan trying to score was even a thought for Datz.
Well, they shouldn’t have waved Ryan in.
Datz has never really been that good.
He’s one of Wedge’s buddies though.
Datz held a runner last week, and waves one tonight, both times causing runs to NOT score.
BeLEAGUEred
Maybe it’s just a case that the M’s are getting runners to 3rd, he’s out of practice… he see’s a M’s player running at him and momentary confusion gives way to buck fever…
Great throw, Olivo. Oh, right.
Good throw by Monty!
To be fair, throwing is one of the things Olivo does well.
Oh, and baserunning too. I suspect that’s just because he’s almost never on base, so his legs stay fresh.
And immediately thereafter, Montero hustles up the line and beats a throw after a double clutch.
And immediately thereafter, Smoak weakly GIDP.
Yes, definitely Datz’ fault. He didn’t account for Ryan’s legs being gone by the time he got to 3B, obviously. Whatever it takes, this team seems to find ways to hurt itself. It’s not a process. It’s an epidemic.
Delabar has given up 7 home runs this year. ALL have been hit off of him by RH batters. He has pitched 11.1 innings verses lefties and 13 innings verses righties before todays game.
His numbers against lefties are unbelievably good. His numbers against righties are unbelievably BAD!
Why doesn’t Wedge know this and act accordingly?
http://www.ussmariner.com/2012/05/18/more-on-steve-delabar/
Awesome USSM write up on Delabar…
Why doesnât Wedge know this and act accordingly?
Does the statement “Eric Wedge is a moron, and doesn’t really need ‘facts’ and ‘numbers’ to justify his managing” answer your question?
Fun* fact: over their last 162 ballgames, the Mariners are 62-100.
This is a period of time where the Mariners have been “playing the kids”, largely (Ackley, Seager, Smoak, Pineda, Montero, Noesi, Saunders, Wells, Beavan, Peguero, Robinson, Liddi, Furbush, all getting some playing time).
At what point do we start thinking things aren’t going as well for this organization as we thought they were after 2009, with an 85 win team, and GMZ fresh off the fleecing of the Mets in the JJ Putz deal?
Because Dave wrote some time back that one of the goals of the organization should be not to be miserably bad while they’re rebuilding, and I don’t think we can honestly say they’ve come close to that goal- this team has been bad, and is still missing answers at a number of positions, with nothing really in sight down on the farm for all the holes, and while we’ve recovered from the Bavasi/Gillick era of having a spectacularly unproductive farm system, having some farm system productivity is just getting us to the starting line. It’s not even close to the end game of contention.
This organization has just kind of gone sideways from 2009 into being in the perpetual rebuilding cycle teams like KC and Pittsburgh always seem to be in, complete with a manager who is locked into managing by a book written 15 or 20 years ago. All the while, Ichiro and King Felix’s free agency clock keeps ticking…
So what needs to happen next?
*for sufficiently un-fun values of fun
^ yeppers!
I agree with everything you have stated, except for the age of the book from which Wedge is working. It’s a much, much older book IMO.
I heard a saying a long time ago (the exact wording esapces me). Regardless, the gist of it appears to be fairly appropriate in regard to the Mariners:
“Occasionally losing makes you want to win. Losing all the time makes you a loser.”