Cactus League Game 7, King Felix vs. Chone Figgins
Felix Hernandez vs. Brian Wilson
It’s hard, even after being without baseball for many months, to really care about spring training games. There’s really not a whole lot of point in trying to, frankly. You know about the stats, and how little predictive value they have. You know that the games are finished by (and sometimes started by) guys will never actually play for Seattle. For those of us not in Arizona, it takes something more specific to really capture the imagination or interest – the young prospect facing big-league hitters, the new shortstop prospect playing on the big club or facing a big-name pitcher.
This game has neither of those things, but it has something better. This game is Manichean. This game features good vs. evil. You can try to tell yourself that games vs. the Yankees, Red Sox or, yes, the Dodgers carry a similar tinge – the scrappy local team facing the titans who are trying to buy a pennant, etc. It feels a bit forced given how much the M’s themselves used to spend, and frankly it’s more fun to laugh at the Yankees aged roster than to get all high and mighty about spending. But this…this is pure.
1: Miller, SS
2: Seager, yay
3: Romero, LF
4: Smoak, 1B
5: Morrison, DH
6: Gillespie, RF
7: Jones, CF
8: Zunino, C
9: Marte, SS
SP: King Felix
Happy Felix day!
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10 Responses to “Cactus League Game 7, King Felix vs. Chone Figgins”
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I find it funny that a team basically trying to buy a pennant is giving Chone Figgins a shot.
Is anyone else unable to get the audio stream for this game? MLB.com is telling me “audio is available once the game begins”, which according to the box score on their site happened some minutes ago.
Nope, not just you, Westy. Damn.
Maybe we should go with the Spring Training glass is half full… And put all our marbles in attaining the Spring Championship!!! Take what we can get. It’s fun to be in first place and scoring runs, anyhow anytime…
I know it doesn’t mean anything in real baseball, but dammit, it’s fun to be the best at something. I’ll take it. (And then maybe sleep through the regular season.)
It’d be fun if somebody down in Spring Training could chime in sometime with how the defense is looking. I’m skeptical of praise from local media, or interviews with skip McClendon, about people like Cory Hart… It does seem like the infield has been playing well, though, just by watching Gameday.
Corey Hart was a not-so-great outfielder who played the majority of 2012 – meaning BEFORE his knee surgeries – at first base. Expecting him to be our starting right fielder just seems like another boneheaded Zduriencik decision.
I am wondering, though, if the move out of the outfield was a failed attempt to save his knees rather than because of his defense – he’s not at the Morse/Ibañez level of suck, anyway.
I guess we’re overloading the left side of the infield with this lineup.
Z:
I sort of had the same thought. It’s a mental ejection seat, at this point, swapping out Cactus League for the regular season. In terms of sheer baseball happiness inanity and non-meaningness, we could take this, and pray something would stop what we all know is coming… like some total disaster… uh like a Full Monty general strike on Opening Day. Or not.
Go M’s (Felix)
So… what’s wrong with Alex Castellanos? Nobody seems to want him.
Marc, regarding the defense, it looked OK today. I noticed Vanslyke consistently moving the OF’s positions for each batter all the way thru the 9th. Marte looked decent at 2b. He was pretty good on the DP pivot. As for the hitters, Zunino’s doubles were well hit and it was great to see one one to left and the other to right center. Jones seemed adept at taking the ball to the opposite field.
And it was awesome to boo Figgins!