Game 20, Astros at Mariners
marc w · April 22, 2014 at 5:30 pm · Filed Under Mariners
Erasmo Ramirez vs. Collin McHugh, 7:10pm
1: Almonte, CF
2: Ackley, LF
3: Cano, 2B
4: Hart, DH
5: Seager, 3B
6: Smoak, 1B
7: Saunders, RF
8: Zunino, C
9: Miller, SS
SP: Ramirez
With rain in the forecast, the M’s decided to give Hisashi Iwakuma a simulated game in Seattle as opposed to sending him to Cheney Stadium to pitch with Tacoma. Ryan Divish reported that he was throwing 89-90, and stopped at 58 pitches. Shannon Drayer tweeted that he’ll go up to 75 pitches on Sunday, and then perhaps 90 after that.
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How bout we fire the owner, and get Marc Cuban on the phone?
Abe, are you taking fielding lessons from Raul Ibanez?
(LOL at Mike’s “perpetual farter of rainbows” comment… I’m putting that on my gravestone when I die… Although my wife will probably scratch out the “of rainbows” part…)
Ichi –
Nah, I say we start by scapegoating some of the low-level coaching staff. That always works! And it’s a time-honored tradition.
I knew the outfield was going to be terrible. Definitely did not see this coming from Seager and Miller (I know it’s been 20 games but still)
Dennisss… Z probably needs to can some more people in the front office, first… Seems he got bad information again from the people smarter than him.
There must be a way to work your two talents into a new username. Positive flatulence? Gasositive? Fume fuel?
I don’t know, there really ain’t shit to talk about, is there.
Hello again rock bottom – sorry we left ya. Hey, rockbottomdevotee.
Westy,
In honor of your “I highly recommend yardwork over Mariners” comment a couple nights ago, I’m gonna put headlights on my lawnmower… Neighbors be damned, my lawn is gonna look fabulous by 9:30pm every night… Perfectly manicured.
Remember last year when we knew Z was getting fired. And then he didn’t. Wonder what happens this time around.
The Cano contract is a monster, but at least the Cruz contract never happened that we feared. Z did some crippling with the Cano contract but I feel like it could be worse for the next GM.
Kyle, taking a walk… that’s not getting on base the right way.
Maybe I need a new name for each series… This one is:
AndUThoughtHoustonWasBad
Hey, Smoaky! Freakin’ A!!
I love these guys! I told you not to be down on them… We’re still in this.
(Somebody shoot me…)
SMOAK BOMB HERE WE COME
****FAAAAAARRRTTTTTtttttttttttttttttttt****
Well Saunders had his two at bats, I guess that’s all he needs. No need to give him a chance to attempt finding a rhythm this season, our other outfield options have been doing so well.
According to this, there are about 600 tickets available for tomorrow’s game:
http://www.stubhub.com/mariners-vs-astros-4-23-2014-4402401?gcid=C12289x450&keyword=MLB+Schedule+Seattle+Mariners+20140423
I don’t know if there will even be 600 people at the game.
Danny in the 8th? Bartender’s arm must have fallen off.
Good thing Nick got so many outfield reps in Spring Training.
“Bartender’s arm must have fallen off…”
One can hope…
Cali-
Are you sure you read that right? That’s not “tickets sold”? Instead of available?
That’s what you’d think!
Of course Farquhar will do nothing tonight to make Lloyd think he’s the best reliever.
Ah, well, I think I’m going to wrap this up. If they somehow manage to come back, I can always watch the highlights. But I’m just not willing to really get invested in this team, given how much time I’ve wasted on them the past several years.
Mariners 2001: Two outs, so what?
Mariners 2012: Two on, so what?
Mariners 2014: In a slump, come play us!
Doesn’t look like I missed much.
Meanwhile, Howard Lincoln is probably working on another extension for Jack Zduriencik.
I’m already at Acceptance. Let’s see how far this rabbit hole goes!
Last season was the breaking point for me. Once I realized that exposure to the Mariners was dulling my love of baseball, corrective measures were necessary. This spring, I went to spring training in Florida, and watched the Marlins, Mets, Cardinals and Nationals play. The level of professionalism of the Cardinals organization is head and shoulders above the other clubs, but each had their (legitimate) prospects, and made off-season moves that made more sense than the Mariners (e.g. Mets signed several free-agents for the price of Robinson Cano). Now each of them has a better record than the Mariners.
So the good news for Mariners fans in despair is that once you develop an interest in other baseball teams there is nowhere to go but up – even the Marlins look great compared to the Ms.
So how many losses out of the next 20 games might it take to see McClendon sent packing?
Jack should have a one way ticket with him, but I don’t expect that.
Note to myself: I told you so. But then, actually, you already knew there was deep suck bubbling away under all this. Note from myself back to myself: Yeah, but before the deep suck welled up and vomited all over everything, which took a surprisingly long time to happen — two thrills and chills weeks — it was sort of fun. And even if they didn’t look great, at least they didn’t look like total shit.
Wow, where’s the heart in this team?
So how many losses out of the next 20 games might it take to see McClendon sent packing?
50.
In other words, it won’t happen.
Firing your brand new manager 40 games into a season when your organization already has a problem with organizational stability and perceptions of incompetence, that has been highlighted by Wedge and Blengino, as well as by continual losing, is not just confirming to insiders that you don’t know what the hell you’re doing, it’s announcing it to the world.
Zduriencik might not be a good GM, but he’s simply not that stupid.
That being said, if this team is in 4th place in late July and well under .500/out of the race, GMZ is toast, whether it happens then or at year’s end. You don’t get to commit half a billion dollars to Felix and Cano, have a worse lifetime winning percentage as a GM than Bavasi, not be anywhere near contention, and get to stay around for year 7 of being the M’s GM. At that point, McClendon is probably dead man walking, with at best an outside shot of staying on more than a year when the new GM comes on.
As for the team, they aren’t this bad, but it’s pretty obvious they aren’t good, with a number of the problems being “duh, we told you this in December” level:
– not enough pitching depth in the organization
– OF isn’t in good shape
– quit screwing around with Smoak and cut bait, he’s never going to be very good
What’s scary is this team’s offense has managed add some more problems on top of those problems; they’re the worst baserunning team in the league by a longshot right now (5 SB’s in 11 attempts), while having guys with decent speed like Almonte, Saunders, Ackley. They’re the worst set of hackers in the league right now (lowest BBs, worst BB/K ratio). Nobody on the team under 30 has an OBP over .300, save for James Jones and his one plate appearance.
Whee, managerial deck chairs on the USS Mariner, glub glub glub!
Right now, this is an uninteresting, station to station offense that does OK when it hits dingers, and shrivels up and dies when it doesn’t, combined with Felix being magnificent, and a bunch of guys who are 5th starters, plus an overworked bullpen.
Go M’s. Obviously Iwakuma and Paxton will help with this some, but this doesn’t look good.