Momentum Is Tomorrow’s Starting Pitcher
Dave · August 11, 2005 at 7:56 am · Filed Under Mariners
From last nights game thread, and funny enough to go up on the main page:
dw said:
August 10th, 2005 at 7:15 pmLast night was like going to dinner at a posh steakhouse, running into Bill Gates, and having him buy you dinner and a bottle of $1000 Bordeaux.
Tonight is like going to dinner at a fast food place, running into your ex, and having her throw a $1.29 cup of Coke in your face.
Indeed.
Comments
33 Responses to “Momentum Is Tomorrow’s Starting Pitcher”
I watched all the Mike Cameron game and was hoping for the same last night. Not cool.
Did anybody catch the headlines change on seattlemariners.com? The latest before last night’s game was something like “Unstoppable Eddie”? Today when I looked that story was gone from the list and “Notes: Guardado’s streak ends.”
OK, what is the deal with Joel? He seems to have magically found his 92 mph fastball all of a sudden? Right after Felix shows up? Is this a mental thing, or can a (previously) mechanically lost season finally just come together? He has looked good for two straight games — like what we all had hoped for since April. I don’t get it.
Obviously, it’s his velocity returning. His mechanics were severely different last night, too. He doesn’t look so awkward in his delivery. His arm slot is adjusted, positioning his shoulders better to deliver the ball to the plate. They’re not perfect, but his command should improve with repetition of the new delivery. I was ready for them to punt him to Tacoma, but this is a pleasant surprise. And now, onto the Gil Meche riddle…
my favorite headline of the day is from the Times:
“Hernandez evokes Cloude memories”
um, what? turns out Finnigan thinks that “For many longtime Mariners faithful, Felix Hernandez’s gem Tuesday supplanted Ken Cloude’s major-league debut as the best initial home start they ever saw in Seattle.”
gosh, I’m afraid I had sort of forgotten about Kenny’s first start….
oh, and although several local writers printed a flat denial by Moyer this morning that he talked to the Yankees or to management about a waiver deal, Finnigan appears to have missed out on that clubhouse conversation and so didn’t include it in his baseball notes.
2. Price worked with him on holding his hands higher and seperating them sooner in his delivery. Since then, he has been much more effective.
3. Meche has physical problems. He suffers from arm and shoulder pain because, like many pitchers in the organization, he doesn’t have very good mechanics, throwing too much with his arm and putting strain on his elbow and shoulder.
Let’s not overlook that Bloomquist is the goat, made the error that put the tieing run on 2b, had 2x to win the game and didn’t. Willie “Goat” Bloomquist.
I blame Hargrove for setting up that whole mess last night. Joel was cruising, 1 out away from finishing the 8th, and Hargrove pulls him for no apparent reason. Hargrove totally disrupted the rhythm of the game and the team. So if Joel was left in, he gets the third out. Then Willie’s fool throw and Eddiee’s makes the score 3-2, and we all get home with a win and a sweep.
Then watching Willie and the rest of the team fall flat on their faces, what a terrible night.
to quote Bob Klapisch from a piece of Pavano: “It’s a fallacy that every pitcher who takes the mound is necessarily healthy. As one Yankee veteran pitcher said recently: “There’s no such thing as pain-free at this level. If you’re asking me the last time my arm felt really great, it was probably in high school.””
7. Not only the error throwing the ball into the stands and putting the tying run in scoring position but a chance to redeem himself in extra innings and popping up a bunt…total loss of fundamentals.
Yes Bloomquist may have been last nights goat but there are several other caprines for this game as well. For instance the last pitchers. Anybody think nelson did us any good or Shiggy!!! How about Raul’s strike out after Willie botched the bunt. Eddie did not pick up Willie after his error! Sherril did not get the job done either. Several batters had opportunity to hit with RISP but failed.
So Willie may be the main goat but we had a pasture full of them last night!
“So if Joel was left in, he gets the third out.”
You sound pretty certain.
Taking Joel out for Mauer made sense (who already had two hits off him last night). Sherrill has been automatic so far.
I understand second guessing but that actually was the right move.
Hargrove gets a goat trophy as well. He is overplaying the L/R pitching match ups. Where was he going if the game went much farther. He used everybody until he was left with Nelson who even though he has had some sucess this year he has not been able to command his spots all year. Every time he comes in you must wonder what you are going to get. And then Shiggy, who is done, pop him up out of the toaster he is done, he is toast. Both these guys were great relievers at one time but their time is gone!!
Blaming the pitching in a 14 inning loss is silly. Blame the offense. If you never score, some pitcher on the M’s will eventually give it up.
That’s right. It’s not like the Twins have some incredible bullpen that we couldn’t possibly score against. If we’d just managed one run off Jesse Crain we’d have had the sweep.
Richie did almost have that one.
>>Eddie did not pick up Willie after his error!
The hits were just grounders that found holes in the infield (or deep in the hole to The Sparkplug). I have a tough time blaming Eddie for those.
Once again, we saw how embarassingly feeble this offense is.
Thanks for the shoutout, though it worries me that I called this game in the first inning.
Don’t call it silly when a post talks about how the pitching failed and assume that is all I was thinking. Go up to the post above I made which blamed the offense as well. That is the problem with blogs people sometimes go off on one post instead of taking into consideration all comments made by one particular person. Yes the offense sucked!! They had many opportunities to win the game and did not!!
Agree, #11, Willie made a really stupid decision to attempt an impossible throw. Props to Cuddyer for working Eddie for that single up the middle, BTW.
But our bullpen gave the offense 4 innings to win it, and the 2-6 hitters (Bloom-Ibañez-Sexson-Beltre-Reed) went 0-10.
And seriously, it must have been way past Grover’s bedtime. That is the only reason I can see to pull Thornton for Nelson, thus committing to his final reliever, Shigetoshi “The Ignitor” Hasegawa.
People can make all the excuses they want for Stinkquist but he was the main reason why we lost the game last night. First the airmailed throw to first in the 9th and then possibly the two most hopeless ABs I have ever seen back to back. As long as the Ms continue to bat that fool behind Ichiro teams will continue to pitch around Ichi to face him. I won’t even waste more time talking about that pitiful bunt attempt. My girlfriend could do better.
Agreed. Willie does some good things, and I’ll admit that there have been times during this stretch of exaggerated playing time for him that he has impressed me. However, in the final analysis, he is a solid bench/utility player that is a good pinch runner. He should be the #24 or #25 guy on the team, and should be used that way in order to get the most out of him for the team. That airmailed throw to Sexson cost us the game, period.
#19,
you assumed I was only responding to you. various people have blamed the loss on Shiggy/Nelson. just because my comment followed yours in sequence it was not necessarily a response to yours
calm down a little
I’ll be satisfied with the loss last night if it teaches Hargrove to quit batting Willie 2nd. He was exposed last night on multiple fronts as a hapless clutch hitter. No way should he bat 2nd again. Move him down to 8th or 9th where he belongs.
OMG! Not only that, Willie burned my crops, stole my daughters, and killed my livestock! I saw it with my own two eyes!!!
We must stop him before he pillages again! He is the anti-christ, I’m sure of it!!!!
24
You mean the bench, right?
Also, Morse is hitting about .230 over the past month. This is not surprising. Why is he still around? We have a better defensive shortstop whose been hitting marginally better, or at worst, the same, and even WFB at 2B is hitting better than he is.
#26. Bench would be even better, but I’m trying to take baby steps here — I know a full-on benching of WFB is about as likely as me taking his place on the 40 man roster.
With a 7-man pen and a spare catcher, you can only bench 3 guys at a time. Morse, Speizio, and Hansen belong there more than Bloomie, I’m afraid. Barring waivers or options, that is.
Although having Bloomquist available on the bench could be handy. Last night after Hansen pinch-walked, we pinch-ran the new catcher. Pinch-running a CATCHER, ferchrissake.
Anybody else notice that Bloomquist tried to bunt and popped it waaaaaaaay up in the air in ALL 3 GAMES against the Twins?! These are not the fundamentals of a number 2 hitter (or any full-time major league hitter).
“With a 7-man pen and a spare catcher, you can only bench 3 guys at a time. Morse, Speizio, and Hansen belong there more than Bloomie, I’m afraid. Barring waivers or options, that is.”
I think I’m going to cry.
“These are not the fundamentals of a number 2 hitter (or any full-time major league hitter).”
If he were Albert Pujols but couldn’t bunt I don’t think anyone would complain. It’s just that it’s the most you can expect from him… so you expect it.
Re 21: Wow, a *girl* could have done better? That MUST have been a horrible bunt.
*scowl*
Apologies, Lauren, you’re right. Didn’t mean to be sexist. But it was a pretty crappy bunt. 😀
Well, to be fair, maybe your girlfriend has one arm or something. But still. :>