Game 13, Angels at Mariners
DMZ · April 13, 2008 at 11:20 am · Filed Under Mariners
I sure would like to see three in a row against the Angels. Oh, that would be sweet.
1:10 our time, Bedard Baek v Saunders. (Dave adds: Bedard is scratched again. There are rumblings that his hip problem is a serious issue, and this just adds fuel to that fire. Commence panic… now)
Also, the line-up today is hilarious. And by hilarious, I mean depressing.
CF Ichiro
2B Lopez
LF Ibanez
1B Sexson
DH Vidro
RF Morse
3B Cairo
C Burke
SS Betancourt
Cha Seung Baek on the mound, Miguel Cairo at third base, Mike Morse in right field, Jamie Burke behind the plate… and you thought spring training was over.
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235 Responses to “Game 13, Angels at Mariners”
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You don’t. Not that bad, no way.
Any particular reason for Speier to be pulling that crap with an eight-run lead?
One very disturbing trend….
The Mariners win the first two games of a series and mail in the finale….
We saw it in Tampa and now we see it vs. the Angels….
And for the life of me, I don’t understand why McLaren is treating the lineup likes it’s Aug. 13….
Most of all, though, it’s disappointing that this team seems scared to stare success in the face. If they had come out today and pounded Saunders and finished off a sweep, the city would have been pumped.
Instead, they looked lifeless from the first pitch.
This team is short on talent and toughness.
Long way to go, let’s keep it up!
The only thing I can think is that he got angry at Ichiro’s indifference at his first pitch. Ichiro had his bat on his shoulder and watched it… Maybe this guy got a little angry and wanted to prove his mettle… That he was/is ‘dangerous’
Captain Caveman Pop Fly
You know, “‘I’ll make him pay attention let’s buzz his…uh, ‘thigh'”
190 Baek got screwed. He left with two outs and runners on first and second. EOF let in his third and fourth runs.
Baek left with one out in the 5th.
So, I went away to get dinner with the M’s behind 7-2, thinking that the game would likely be over when I got back.
I certainly never dreamed that this would happen. UGH.
Uhm…Nevermind. I was fooled by Yahoo, which claimed that it was 19-4 in the 7th.
Sims seems to be quite a fan of the Angels.
And K-Rod gets to shut the door. Great.
62 – OBTW — komo just did a mojo commercial with Bedard
Random suspicion/thought – for the sake of ticket sales, does the FO wait as long as possible to announce Bedard is out, keeping up the hype of our new ace left hander completing the sweep?
I only thought it interesting because of how the Mariners PR machine tends to dumb down fan expectations. They spend the money on commercials, as if he’ll have an impact on every game, well, because we’re told he’s our new ace, and we won’t question that.
9-1-2 has never failed yet. Everytime we start an inning with Bettancourt Ichiro! Lopez the team has scored at least one run!
At least Sexson managed to get theMariners ‘left on base’ number up to 20 with his final out. You take pride in what you can in this game.
215 – It failed in the 3rd inning of this game.
AHHHHHH. Maybe O-flaherty could use some time in the minors… maybe bring in Dickey? a knuckleballer would be neat
203–I don’t think “toughness” is the issue here, it’s a simple lack of talent. This team wasn’t all that good last year, and it’s a year older this year.
I hope nobody is freaking out about this. Sometimes, I think that some people forget that this is BASEBALL, not football. One loss is not the end of the world. There is a bright side to this game, a really good one: with Morse hurt, probably on the DL, the M’s can bring someone up…Who could this be? *ahem Balentien* If they take Reed…..ugh. Shudder.
Just got back from the game. I want my money and the last three hours of my life back. How long after you realize that EOF is still pitching the way he has all year do you pull him? If you’re John McLaren that would be eight runs later. Morse and Ibanez were running a clinic on why OF defense matters. The offense the team put out there today was a joke.
And I got to watch Baek instead of Bedard. If his hip’s fine we’ll still need an explanation for the way he’s pitched so far. He hasn’t been worth Sherrill and Butler, let alone all five guys we traded.
220 Based on the analysis over at Lookout Landing it looks like EOF is having control problems with his fastball. He basically has two pitches, a fastball and a slider, and his slider is as successful as it was last year, but his fastball is all over the place. Hopefully he can fix this. If he does, there is no reason to think that he won’t be effective again.
But maybe they should relegate him to mop-up duty until he gets that fixed.
219
I’d rather bring up Wlad if he would play everyday, but if it’s just to fill Morse’s role, than Reed makes more sense imo. Ichiro would have help in the OF.
I paid $44.00 to see this game. No one said word one about Bedard being scratched. What a joke.
They’ll probably call Wlad, seeing as right handers that can play the outfield are in short supply on this team.
I’d rather see Reed over Wlad also. He’d instantly and easily be the 2nd best outfielder on the team, and would (if Mac understood the value of defense) add value in the late innings of a lot of games. Unfortunately, he’s a lefty so he doesn’t fit into the “platoon Wilkerson” role, and until McLaren can get his head around another “role” that pretty much is the end of that, I’m afraid. Safeco will make Wlad suffer the same way it punishes Johjima.
As for the bullpen, assuming EOF gets a little minor league action to get his, uh, head together, my bet is they pull up Morrow again. Not because it makes sense, but because that seems to be what they do. Personally, I’m hoping for Dickey.
BTW, Lincecum’s line today:
6 IP, 6 H, 2 ER, 1 BB, 11 K
Just wait for Lincecum to destroy his arm
Yeah, he’s the whitebread Pedro Martinez. Small guy, throws hard, looks like he’ll blow up eventually. And like Pedro, he probably will. But what would you have given for those prime years of Pedro?
Has anyone ever done a study on what mechanics are coupled with what injury risks? I ask because it seems like so many people talk about avoiding a pitcher because his mechanics aren’t good, but it seems to me as though it’s almost random as to what pitchers get hurt. Prior, with his supposed perfect mechanics can’t stay healthy, etc. Anyway, I just wonder if the whole “his arm is going to fall off because of his mechanics” thing it overblown.
And yes, I would give anything to have taken Lincecum over Morrow considering it probably would have kept us from doing the Bedard trade . . .
What makes me mad about today is the fact that we are playing a game that DOES matter. It’s against our division rival and we didn’t put a team on the field that could compete. Instead of doing some damage to the Angles, we gave up before it started. I understand resting guys, but why not on Tuesday when you are playing a team you still might beat? Way to go Mac.
Lincecum is already showing signs of fatigue and strain. He only lasted six innings today, and his ERA has shot up to 2.25. By the end of the season, his ERA is going to approach, or exceed 3.00. I bet he’ll barely exceed 200 innings pitched, and his xFIP will exceed 3.25. I think it’s clear that Morrow was the right choice.
The thing that bugged me the most about this game was using O’Flaherty with 2 on in a 2-run game. That’s not a “soft landing”, or a chance to get some easy innings for a guy who’s struggling. Instead, it was probably the highest leverage situation in the game today.
But Mac, in his wisdom, has decided that RRS is his late-innings lefty, making EOF his early-innings lefty. Who cares what the situation is, the ROLE called for the early-innings lefty!
Mac’s slavish use of roles, rather than context, to define usage once again cost the team.
managing the Home Depot in Vail, Colo.
so, what, they should have called you on the way to the stadium? he was pulled about 30 minutes before the game. It was on the radio, and everything.
hey, no dissing Roy, the King of Slaughter, La.
225/228: Given Lincecum’s size and how hard he throws, I have a feeling that if his career’s to have any longevity, he may eventually wind up being used as a closer. After all, could anybody imagine Billy Wagner trying to start games all these years?
One thing that does seem to correlate to breakdowns in pitchers is overuse. I don’t know that anybody’s been able to make a case for small stature, though it seems reasonable; but over the last few years Verducci at SI has presented a case (the “Year After Effect”) for not giving a pitcher more than 25-30 innings over and above what he pitched the previous year. Lincecum had 146 last year, plus 31 in the minors; I don’t know what he had in 2006 (64 in the minors but he also pitched at the UW that year). So I’d hope he doesn’t get pushed past 200 this year, and also hope 2007 wasn’t such a big increase over ’06 that it bites him this season. (Yeah, I want the guy to succeed — like Ichiro, he’s about my size, and I enjoy seeing guys like that out there, plus I want all the “bad mechanics” folks to have to come back, year after year, saying “Ok, but this year he’s going to break down…”)
We attended the game yesterday, and I could see the game was going to go into the toilet as soon EOF got called in from the bullpen. This guy needs a short trip back to Tacoma. Given the final score, I suspect if Mclarren had called in almost anyone else, the final score might have been a bit closer. The Mariners should give Arthur Rhodes a shot at replacing him. After all he’s a lefty and looked to be pretty well back to throwning decent stuff during spring training.
From our season ticket seats on the aisle in Section 115, I have probably seen at least 100+ games with a great view of whoever is playing in right field. Morse looked weak at that position. Not enough speed to cover the territory and possibly not the skill set to track fly balls well at that position. Time for Jeremy Reed to get a call.
231-
It’s totally valid that I’d feel ripped off by going to that game, but seriously, thanks for the snide remark. You’re sarcastic wit is enthralling.