Game 22, A’s At Mariners
Vargas vs Cahill, 6:10 pm.
After getting shutout by a couple of power right-handers, the A’s will get something entirely different tonight in Jason Vargas. Vargas is off to a pretty nice start this year, posting a 3.40 xFIP through his first four starts. Interestingly, his strikeout rate is up significantly while his swinging strike rate is actually down over his normal mark – the cause appears to be his big jump in first strike percentage (69.8% so far this year), allowing him to pitch ahead in the count and allocate most of his whiffs to two-strike situations where they’ll result in a knockout. Vargas doesn’t have the stuff to keep striking hitters out at this rate, but if he keeps throwing strikes and getting ahead of hitters, he’s got a chance to have another good year.
Bradley’s out of the line-up again and Smoak won’t return to the team until Tuesday, but you’re probably used to this kind of line-up by now:
Ichiro, RF
Figgins, 3B
Kennedy, 1B
Cust, DH
Saunders, CF
Rodriguez, SS
Olivo, C
Peguero, LF
Wilson, 2B
Well, I suppose the good news is – with Bradley’s body reaching its annual falling-apart point, Saunders will probably get to stay up and even play a fair bit even once Guti is back.
The bad news is – Cust is our Designated Hitter.
Glad to see Peguero playing, I’d love to see him go yard
Seattle fans have been clamoring for a player who could take a walk, and now that we have one, we want to toss him right out. Cust’s BABIP is 60 points below his career average now, and his power’s usually cold in April according to Jeff/Matthew at LL. We can let the man play through May.
Just a heads-up for other Mariners fans scattered throughout the country, this game is tonight’s free MLB.TV game.
But the game isn’t free if you ALREDAY have MLB.TV.
Dave does have a point, Vargas is throwing a ton of first pitch strikes.
I’m really glad that Guti was diagnosed, especially with something like IBS which seems kinda manageable. But God is that embarassing that we have to broadcast that on tv
Dutch, stop trying to confuse me with stuff that doesn’t support my presuppositions!
WHy did we send Figgins? He keeps getting more worthless
Figgy, Figgy, Figgy… Pudding.
Bad send – out by a lot.
Bad idea to send him there, we can’t place all the blame on Figgins this time.
The Senator (I love that nickname) is still awesome though
we can’t place all the blame on Figgins this time
But it’s so FUN to! lol
*shaking fists in frustration*
I guess I can understand sending Figgins. I mean, c’mon, Cust is at the plate…
Peguero is freaking fast for a guy that big. If that’s tapped down the third baseline instead of right out in front that’s an infield hit.
It’s almost like they’re trying to not score.
I can remember when Mark Ellis was the Great White Shoed Hope. Whatever happened with that?
Ah, saved by Coco Crisp’s extraordinary peripheral vision…
Kids, you’ve now seen two entirely different ways to screw yourselves out of a run – being too aggressive and being too conservative.
Except, I think his BABIP is low simply because he doesn’t seem capable of hitting the ball out of the infield.
I’m a little surprised by Guti’s diagnosis. Either a) why wouldn’t IBS be one of the first things doctors test for, b) can we really find relief in this diagnosis. I could have sworn they had already written off IBS, so can we really believe this is it? Or will it be like the temporary relief ‘slow digestive tract’ gave us?
and woo, Saunders…
Condor needs to play everyday so he can do that consistently.
Edit: Er, I meant the double. Not get thrown out at 3rd.
The groundball rate is way high, I’ll give you that. Don’t know if he has enough PA’s to make it significant though.
and boo, Saunders…
*clutching head, tugging at hair*
Westside might not agree with me (we had this discussion before) but it is mighty irritating when you have someone not named Ichiro or Figgins going after stealing bases and getting nailed.
I mean (as a nonspeedy runner) if you completely catch the opposition napping and get it then fine, but if you have a good chance to make an out then it smells like irresponsibility.
Don’t go freaking “all out” in the game when it counts if you can’t reliably do it in practice!! Go “all out” in effort during preparation and practice, and then convert it in the game.
I’m following the game today on the internet and might not have the full picture but Saunders is a moron for getting caught stealing third with 2 outs and a 2 balls no strikes count.
Guti would have had that
:[
Oh…. Guti would’ve had that..
Why do the Mariners ALWAYS shit the bed on free MLB.TV night.
I don’t know if I can handle much more of that… Saunders is so close to ending this inning…. and then fit hits the shan…
Figures that the offense does something really moronic (Saunders) and then the pitcher just gives the game away right the next inning.
Man, we really needed that to leave the yard
The M’s owe it to Vargas to win this one for him when he hasn’t been that sharp tonight, but…
And, ugh.
I guess our “gas can” winner of the evening is Vargas… I guess that Lueke is trying to catch up fast. Odds on us getting another miracle 7th – 9th are slim and none…
Lueke sucks.
Lueke needs to go down to Tacoma and work on some things.
I fixed that for ya!
Gas, meet torch.
And the thread dies like our hopes and dreams.
Nope, not gonna disagree with you at all. It was dumb, doubly so with two outs.
I think this team has made a LOT of stupid running decisions, and they keep costing us. I’m tired of hearing people talk about it like it’s a positive. There’s smart baserunning and then there’s just being mindlessly aggressive.
Well said. Let’s hope they can take the series tomorrow.
I don’t know how often Fangraphs updates their stats – it’s obviously not nightly, since Saunders failed steal tonight wasn’t on there – but the Mariners’ overall are listed as having 17 stolen bases with 9 caught stealing. If you take away Ichiro’s 7SB/1CS, you’re looking at 10 steals and 8 failures.
I expect there are more advanced studies about this, but I believe the general logic has been if your baserunning success rate is under 70% (or thereabouts) you’re hurting the team not helping. Well, the bulk of the Mariners’ efforts are falling way, WAY below that – barely above 50%.