Game 134, Angels at Mariners
Hernandez vs Santana, 1:05 pm.
Happy Felix Day, and also Happy Fox Blackout Rules So Hardly Anyone Can Watch This Day! MLB’s deal with Fox has made baseball on Saturdays suck.
In news, the M’s called up Erasmo Ramirez and Carlos Peguero today, and will make a few more moves when Tacoma’s season ends on Monday. Expect Casper Wells, Shawn Kelley, and Mike Carp to return, and maybe Alex Liddi if they want another third base option besides Chone Figgins on the bench. Hector Noesi is also a possibility, but given how poorly his season has gone in Tacoma, it might be best to just shut him down and tell him to start over again next spring.
Ackley, 2B
Gutierrez, CF
Seager, 3B
Jaso, C
Montero, DH
Thames, RF
Smoak, 1B
Robinson, LF
Ryan, SS
Update: With a holiday weekend and beautiful weather in Seattle, posting may be a little bit light. Feel free to continue using this game thread for Sunday and maybe Monday against the Red Sox, too.
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137 Responses to “Game 134, Angels at Mariners”
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Olivo!
Hahahaha!! Boston just gave us TWO outs!
I’m gonna keep talking trash to Olivo, it’s working!
Also, yes, we’re on the same page with catchers.
This is awesome. I just wish it’d happen vs. the Yankees.
Woo hoo! Okay, Boston managed to finally make a play, but…
I think Lavarnway has got to find a way to stop that ball, but we’ll take it!
Speaking of game thread hosting, the next time you do it ” Westy” could you simply post a “Game 135” and “Game 136” in advance. No lineup. No insight … Just a worm hole to peek through – for the commenters. In theory, that could be done for all 162, but that wouldn’t be any fun.
Hehe Mike.
Has Cody Ross ever played any 1B – and is he a FA after this season? He could be an extremely useful player for the M’s (and their payroll) if he has the ability to cover a couple different OF positions as well as 1B.
Fangraphs doesn’t show him with any games at first, Mike.
Olivo has two hits today! More confirmation for Wedge’s voodoo matchup skills! (since I’m sure he ignores all the times it doesn’t work out, and only remembers the few times it does)
So Peguero watches a strike go by, then swings at a pitch that’s within 6 inches of his feet – both very low and very inside.
Where’s this supposed “improved discipline” some people talk about? It’s pretty obvious he has no idea where a pitch is.
And yes, Ross is a free agent after this season.
BTW after a not-great first inning, Vargas has looked darn good today!
I don’t know if I send him out in the 8th though.
Wedge read your comment, Waco.
Yay
Well, even if Ross cannot play 1B, he could help strengthen the OF for next season – IMO. There will be some teams interested in his services, and he is not the kind of talent to get into a bidding war over, but he could help provide some above average production. It would be better if he could have the IF/OF positional flexibility, though. Apparently, he does not have it.
Wouldn’t you think, with some spring training reps, he could be good enough to play first in a pinch?
I’m not saying he’d be particularly good… just that he might be able to not embarrass himself at first.
I wonder if there is any hope/chance for Figgins to approach the team in the offseason and ask to be bought out of the last year of his contract? If he asked for 50% of what he is owed next year – to walk away free and clear – does the team do it? At some level, Figgins must have enough pride to not want to waste away and simply cash checks. Right? If he was a FA, he likely would get nothing more than a minor league deal, but to just sit there …… It has got to bother him.
Speaking of spring training reps, maybe we could have sliding drills?
What, G-Man, you didn’t like Seager almost sliding into left field? 😉
Urgh, SMOAK.
Why pinch-hit Robinson for Thames? Wedge’s preferences for certain guys just baffle me.
Hot hand. Thames has sucked lately and Trayvon’s hit well.
Westy, that and Montero’s 2 outs yesterday. Jaso was only slightly better there.
Good AB by Trayvon. Which leads to Me Clutch.
And there it was
Okay, I unfortunately have to run. GO MARINERS! DON’T BLOW THIS!!
Good to hear Voodoo Child. But I’d like to hear Fire.
So, is anybody going to order the Felix perfect game bat? I have an Ichiro bat from his 9th consecutive 200 hit season. I am still not sure why i had to get it, but i had to – so i did. Someday, I will pass it along.
That play happens (Ackley’s) when you intentionally backhand a ball that you could have gotten in front of. I am not sure why, but I think it is a rule.
Good win – and with a brutal looking lineup. Nice game by Vargas. I hope Carp and Wells come back with some fire in their ass – and make a case for themselves. I will be able to make it through the winter just fine – without seeing another Smoak or Peguero AB.
Definitely, mike.
Westside:
Shannon might well have been repeating what Wedge and Willis told her, or she might have witnessed it herself. I wasn’t there, so I can’t tell you. But she referred to “what we saw in the bullpens, side work.” If you take that to mean what she saw personally, and if that is in fact what she meant, then is there even a chance in hell that she might know what she’s talking about, or do you have some solid evidence to the contrary?
I’m not claiming to know. I’m just wondering how it is that she can describe in detail what Iwakuma was throwing in the bullpen, and on what basis you dismiss that automatically as “insider” stuff, and imply that she’s just repeating what Wedge and/or Willis told her.
Ivan,
As I said in the comment, she might be right. But I have read (and usually enjoyed) her stuff for as long as she’s covered the Mariners, and I can’t think of a single time she’s made comments that haven’t fallen right in line with what a manager or player says – at least while they are with the team. Never a “Wedge said X, but that doesn’t really explain Y or Z”. So when she says “we saw” I always assume she’s just going with what was filtered through Wedge or another team person.
But analysis isn’t her niche, so I’m not going to ding her too much over it. Drayer is best when she’s providing insight into the locker room, give behind-the-scenes stories about the players, that sort of thing – and she does that very well.
For that matter, we don’t know what kind of leeway she really has with regards to saying what she really thinks, deep down, anyway. If she did say things that went against the company line, she might very well lose that closeness with the players and managers – and that’s her bread and butter. These baseball guys are extremely touchy – look at how LaRue got ostracized after writing about Griffey’s naps and lack of participation. Players weren’t even allowed to talk to him for weeks (enforced by other players, not the club)! Do you think a LaRue or a Baker could develop that same “in” Drayer enjoys?
Drayer’s access is a peripheral issue, and all it does is cloud the real issue, which is why Wedge didn’t use Iwakuma earlier in the season That’s what I’m trying to get at.
Drayer’s report is the first SPECIFIC mention I hear about how Iwakuma was actually throwing in spring training. If there is other information that I have missed, I hope someone will set me straight.
Is Wedge making shit up after the fact to save face now for having misused Iwakuma earlier, and feeding it to Drayer? Maybe he is, but other than circumstantial evidence, what hard evidence do we have from which we might draw that conclusion?
It’s clear from your comment that you don’t trust Wedge, or Drayer. I’m not saying you should, or that anyone should. I’m not saying I do.
But what access, or what leeway, Shannon Drayer has, or Larry LaRue has, or any other reporter or blogger has, doesn’t have any bearing on how Iwakuma was throwing in the bullpens in the spring.
All I have read here on USS Mariner boils down to: His NUMBERS didn’t justify his benching, therefore Wedge is horseshit, and Wedge does enough other things that are horseshit that we feel safe in drawing that causal inference in the case of Iwakuma.
Once again, if I am misrepresenting, please set me straight. I don’t mean this as putting anybody here down, or even disagreeing, necessarily, with anything I have read here.
What I have read from Drayer is information I haven’t seen before, and all I’m asking is if we shouldn’t re-examine the mysterious disuse of Iwakuma earlier in the season in the light of apparent new evidence.
Carl Willis mentioned today the great job that Rick Griffin and other trainers have done with Iwakuma, helping him build strength and velocity that was lost with his shoulder surgery. Wedge has done an excellent job bringing Iwakuma along and hopefully he will be back in the rotation next season!
Ivan, I think you do have a point, at least in my case. I do have a tendency to judge Wedge’s decisions through a filter based on my perception of previous decisions he’s made. In my mind, he’s not a good baseball manager (however I do think he is a good clubhouse guy, and is very protective of his young players – those are important traits, and he deserves credit for them). And if Drayer is accurately relating something that they all knew from the get-go… yes, we should re-examine it.
And as far as Iwakuma’s spring numbers go – they were bad. No one has said otherwise. What people here and elsewhere have said, though, is it was silly to judge Iwakuma and Jaso based on spring training numbers, because they are essentially meaningless. And up until recently, the Mariners narrative appeared to be that the lack of playing time for both those guys early on was because they didn’t do well in spring training.
The problem I’m having with this apparent new information is – why is it just coming up now? Very early in the season, people were questioning why Iwakuma wasn’t being used at all – if this new issue (Iwakuma’s supposed lack of readiness) was known to Drayer and to others back then, why didn’t they bring it up before? Or did they do so, and we all just missed it?
(Seriously, does she have older articles talking about this? Because if she does, I really should just shut up right now.)
Please note that, even if the new info is not 100% valid, I’m not claiming Wedge is making up lies or trying to cover up anything. It’s the way human minds work – most people’s memories aren’t as accurate as they think they are, because our minds are constantly adjusting memories in an attempt to maintain a consistent internal narrative.
Of course MY memory is perfect. 😀
Also, I agree with Don – hopefully the team can bring Iwakuma back. The only reason we’re going back and forth on this at all is because he’s turned into a valuable guy.
I could swear that I’ve heard the radio play-by-play team talk earlier this year about Iwakuma’s lack of arm strength in spring training. Rizz saying what a great job Willis and Wedge have done slowly bringing him along and letting his arm strengthen, etc.
Okay, I will defer to the cumulative memories of several people here. 😀
BTW I did find a quote about Iwakuma from Wedge when they broke spring training. He didn’t refer to any lack of strength (but I wouldn’t expect him to, honestly) – but he did refer to Iwakuma’s previous year’s health as a reason he was starting off in the bullpen.