Game 47, Mariners at Nadir…uh, I mean Nationals
Ariel Miranda vs. Gio Gonzalez, 9:05 am (?)
ESPN’s Tim Kurkjian passed along this fun fact on twitter this morning:
Mariners joined 1887 Washington, 1969 Padres as teams to score no more than 1 run 5 games row, and opponents scored at least 40 total runs
— Tim Kurkjian (@Kurkjian_ESPN) May 25, 2017
It’s one of those highly specific, carefully-worded jobs, but it sums up what it’s felt like to follow this team this past week. I’m trying to keep a more even keel, and remind myself that they’re simply not as bad as they’ve looked: no one’s as bad as the M’s have looked. But they are clearly flawed, and that’s setting aside their obvious and important injury woes. The team felt like a team that could compete for the playoffs if they got a few lucky breaks. All the breaks they’ve gotten have come to important players’ soft tissue, and I acknowledge that, but it’s still harder to see them as a serious challenger to the Astros. The second wild card has reduced the threshold for “competitiveness” of course, but I’m just not sure it would’ve been enough. Before they sell or re-tool or whatever Dipoto wants to do with this group, they need to take a serious look at what they are and how 2017 happened. Is something amiss in how the pitching staff attacks hitters? Is there some way to ensure that command lapses don’t happen/spread to teammates like the flu?
1: Segura, SS
2: Heredia, CF
3: Cano, 2B
4: Cruz, RF
5: Seager, 3B
6: Valencia, 1B
7: Motter, LF
8: Zunino, C
9: Miranda, P
The Tacoma Rainiers have the PCL’s best record, and have an astonishing 18-4 record at Cheney Stadium. They beat Fresno last night 5-3 thanks to a solid start from Kyle Hunter and a HR by Tyler O’Neill, who’s starting to pull out of a long slump. Andrew Moore starts for the club tonight.
Arkansas lost to Midland 7-5 in a game in which both starters (Tyler Herb and Joel Seddon) struggled. Midland’s bullpen was great, while Arkansas’ was so-so, and that proved to be the difference. Tacoma-native and Carson Cistulli favorite Max Schrock went 2-3 for the Rockhounds, while Nelson Ward homered for the Travelers.
Modesto got a run in the 8th to edge Rancho Cucamonga 7-6. Joe DeCarlo and Jay Baum homered for the Nuts, who lead their division by 4 games and have the best record in the Cal League. Rancho leads *their* division, and have the league’s 2nd best record. Reggie McClain leads Modesto against Rancho today.
Clinton beat Cedar Rapids 3-2 after a great start from Brandon Miller and a HR from SS Rayder Ascanio. They scored the winning run in the 9th on that most anti-climactic of scoring plays, the run-scoring-GIDP. The two teams are back at it tonight; no word on Clinton’s starter.
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4 Responses to “Game 47, Mariners at Nadir…uh, I mean Nationals”
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It’s astonishing how much this general sense of dread and malaise has come to characterize my fandom (and many others, I’d wager). What’s more frustrating in some sense is that unlike in past years, when you could look at the GM position and at least understand why things had gone wrong, this current iteration of hopelessness seems more random, at least when decoupled from the poor decisions pre-Dipoto.
Given the current state of the team, I don’t really even have a strong feeling about what they should do. If a big offer came in for Cruz or Cano (or hell, even Seager), they should probably take it, but we all know that’s unlikely. Selling Segura seems like a mistake, as there just isn’t enough other young talent in the system for this to make sense.
In the end, it feels like we’re still paying grievously for the sins of the past administrations. The savaging of the farm system under Bavasi coupled with the endless player development failures under Zduriencik can’t just be put behind us, baseball doesn’t work on that time scale.
“Nadir” implies this can’t get worse. You know better, Marc.
Sins of our fathers is exactly right. It’ll take at least three more years to dig out from under the (mixed metaphor alert) steaming pile of Hail Marys buying us a Stairway to Heaven in 2014 and then onwards with the sort of contracts which would have even kept Junior permanently in Seattle … maybe even Randy, in his time and (as noted above) added into the mix the failures in handling prospects … either by pushing them forward, and then overexposing them as though somehow the sheer weight of endless games played would turn things around.
Dipoto can’t do a fire sale. Because even though hard core fans would understand, and have the patience to walk across the coals with him for two or three years, management won’t. Cano, Seager, Felix, Cruz … are worth in themselves 20,000 seats. For hard core seamhead fans …
near .500 ball would be enough in the end, if moves seemed sensible in the long run. But for Joe Sixpack, — as much as we make fun of him here, with his love of bobbleheads and commemoration/induction nights — who represents the real cash flow for the club, a long, obscure rebuild means nothing.
Jack Z. always saw dingers as the answer to any and all problems. That is baseball barbarism, although it tends to work in terms of certain aspects of the business model. But the glow from that is fading fast.
Leaving Dipoto with one huge mess. Because you don’t go from Dingerland to Moneyball 2.0 in one fell swoop.
There, I fixed it. Dingers!
It’s all subliminal.