Fun While It Lasted
Dave · April 23, 2008 at 10:07 pm · Filed Under Mariners
The Mariners offense drew at least one walk in each of their first 15 games of the season. Despite still having a team of lifelong hackers, the team was taking free passes. The newfound patience was fun.
Was.
In their last seven games, the Mariners have failed to draw a walk in four of them, including tonight, when they let Daniel Cabrera get through 8 innings on 95 pitches. Daniel Cabrera.
Regression to the mean sucks.
The M’s need to make a home/away platoon for Sexson, and then employ the lefty/righty platoon while on the road.
I don’t think you can call this small sample size “regression to the mean.” I think it’s more likely orders. “Be aggressive.”
You got to establish hacking at the fastball…
It might help if anyone in the lower half of the order had any bat speed.
How about “establishing the walk”… The ‘free base’ (not the Rick James sort)…
Regression to the mean?
More like, straight regression. The ‘mean’ is that the philosophy is not to take walks… how many walks “could” this team take if they were not helmed by the current regime?
was at the game tonight – it was really brutal watching that anemic offense. what are we going to do guys?
Perhaps a dose of Jeff Clement at DH should be in order.
Walks or hits, I don’t care how they do it, but these guys need to get on base and stop making so many outs.
Give me a O! Give me a B! Give me a P!
What does it spell? Not Mariners!!
I’ve heard the Reds are shopping Adam Dunn. Don’t the Ms have to be a leading candidate to trade for him? It would be like getting Richie Sexson 4 years before we did.
Dunn is more patient than young Sexson, though. By a considerable margin.
If you guys are right about the projections for 2008, I assume that this just means the numbers are just evening out. It would’ve been nice for Sexson and Lopez to defy all the negative predictions of them and stay as patient as they were, but I won’t write them off just yet, its still only april. I assume nothing will permanently change about this offense though until they add and remove players from the roster.
At this point, why are we asking if the Mariners are going to trade for X player or pick up Y off waivers? If the Mariners were serious about wanting to win this season, they’d recognize the real weaknesses we have and act on them.
Oh yeah.
Maybe we can get Johan Santana to hit DH for us:
.231/.462/.748
I read somewhere that the vast majority of doubles are hit when there is a runner on base.
To be fair the zone was generous last night but they looked terrible no matter how you cut it.
Wow, the Mariners are making league average pitchers look like Santana in his prime. The stench rolling out of the dugout on the firstbase side is palpable.
My only hope is this season gets so embarrassing, there will be no other option , but fire Lincoln and Bavasi. Call it an early Christmas present. Though if I were a betting man, I would believe Bavasi will be arround long enough to do more unreversable damage to this team. A hit man would do just fine for our situation…
Derek’s February 100-run simulation of the 2008 Mariners:
Average record: 77-85
Average runs scored: 716
Average runs allowed: 759
After 22 games, Ms are on track for:
Average record: 81-81
Average runs scored: 736
Average runs allowed: 663
Interesting to see how that tracks as we play more (and better) teams.
Didn’t Hargrove make a comment last season about how he really wants to guys to take more pitches and work the count but so many of them have been free swingers through the minors/career it’s been really hard to make any changes.
Now, I don’t know if the current coaching instructions include ‘SWING AWAY!!!’, but that is the M.O. of many of the guys in the line-up. I’d argue the real problem lies in minor league instruction.
I was thinking that maybe this new patience at the plate was a McLaren idea, and was giving him some credit for doing something good.
But I think what it was the team was collectively slumping, in particular Sexson, Vidro, Wilkerson and Johjima, and as a result weren’t hitting their pitches, and as a result they seemed to be working the pitcher. Once they starting hitting a bit (especially Richie Sexson) they stopped walking.
The team walked 60 times in the first 15 games, 12 times in the last 7 games. Richie Sexson walked 13 times in the first 15 games, and once in the last 7.
And seeing Willie Bloomquist starting games is bad enough, but to see him hitting the first pitch (as he did at least twice last night) is unbelievably bad.
4/24: Manager John McLaren said Wednesday that Willie Bloomquist will replace the injured Mike Morse (shoulder) as Brad Wilkerson’s platoon partner in right field.
That’ll help the offense out. So far this year, here are the results of Willie Bloomquist’s at bats:
4/4: Pop out to 1B
4/10: Pop out to 1B
4/15: Single to RF
Single to RF
Walk
Walk
4/17: Walk
Ground out to 2B
Ground out to SS
Walk
4/18: Ground out to 2B
Ground out to 1B
Ground out to P
4/20: Ground out to SS
Single to CF
Strikeout looking
Ground out to 3B
4/22: Ground out to 2B
Ground out to 1B
4/23: Ground out to 2B
Strikeout looking
Fly out to RF
To summarize, Willie has put the ball into play 16 times this year. Only twice has he pulled the ball. Only 4 times has the ball left the infield. Why would anyone in their right mind put this player into a platoon situation?
I’ve been saying it for 4 years now….no team that has a Willie Bloomquist on the roster has a roster capable of making the playoffs.
Sorry, miscounted. Willie has pulled the ball 3 times.
I don’t think they’ll let him ride around on the pony while playing the outfield either, which further diminishes his value.
But honestly, I think people need at least one player to illogically say “if he only gets his chance, he could be awesome!” about, so it makes sense to replace Morse with Princess Willie now that Morse is injured.
Although I’m sure next year we’ll be hearing about how awesome Morse was doing until he got hurt and how he deserves another chance…
Regarding the change in patience at the plate…is it not possible that this is a result of the pitchers being more willing to challenge the hitters? If you are confronted with Vidro, Sexson, Wilkerson, Johjima all hitting around the Mendoza line or below, wouldn’t you want to make sure you didn’t walk them?
More Willie! Yeeeeeeessssss!
And here’s the really stupid part:
Brad Wilkerson’s lifetime stats against LHP: .265/.363/.456
Willie’s lifetime stats against LHP: .264/.311/.360
You have to wonder what kind of analytical process John McLaren is going through to reach decisions like this.
Incidentally, Wilkerson historically has hit LHP’s better than RHP’s. His lifetime line against RHP’s: .244/.350/.445. If you really insisted on platooning, you’d probably want Wilkerson to hit against the lefties!
As April draws to a close, the Mariners have played the following teams outside the AL West: Baltimore, Tampa Bay, Kansas City. They are 5-7 against these powerhouses. Our remaining Apr/May road trips feature visits to Cleveland, Detroit, and twice to New York.
Anyone giving odds on a .500 or better record by May 31?
This gives a whole new meaning to ‘Get on your horse, Willie!!!’ from some Yankee fans in RF at some point.
Wilkie’s left-handed. Willie’s right-handed. Willie plays hard.
Analysis complete.
Oh jeez. What if he DOES start in RF in Yankee stadium? What if some fans there have noticed USSM and the pony? Oh, poor Willie.
The brutal part is I know that Willie is a great piece to any contender – as a guy who can play defense in the late innings and come in as a pinch runner here or there. It’s sad to see them platooning Willie because he is NOT an everyday player and I don’t want to start booing him – but if something doesn’t change soon we are in trouble.
[there’s a link button]
maybe the pony would help out there– from our pal Jim Street:
“The super sub has longed for more playing time, and it interestingly comes at a position that ranks among his least experienced. In the past three seasons, the Northwest native has just 15 at-bats as a right fielder and his arm lacks the gusto that most right fielders possess.
“I would expect [opposing third-base coaches] to challenge me because I’m not proven out there,” Bloomquist said. “I have always been from the school you have to prove yourself, and I expect people to try and run on me. I hope they do because I have confidence in myself.”
Oops, sorry ’bout the link button…
This is worth reading, as is remembering that Bavasi’s Angels team’s typically had late season collapses… However, maybe the story below is worth rereading.
Here’s hoping we get our line-up figured out. I am in favor of giving Clement a shot sooner rather than later.
I’m sure you all know this by now, but it looks like the A’s landed The Big Hurt.
16: Even a vaster majority of doubles are hit right before there is someone on base.
I listened with interest during the past few days to the discussions on the question of whether the M’s should pursue Frank Thomas. Many were of the opinion that Frank wouldn’t have been a good investment because he’s so past his prime. As far as I was concerned, the only question was whether signing him would have improved the team. Would the Mariners have a better offense with Frank Thomas as the DH instead of Jose Vidro? Uh…I really think so.
The valid question is whether Jeff Clement or Frank Thomas would be the better DH. Hopefully, the M’s have decided that Clement would be a better choice. I can live with that. What I can’t live with is keeping the status quo.
What’s everyone talking about? We have the least amount of strikeouts in the ENTIRE LEAGUE
Whatever they learned, they’ve quickly forgotten it.
Lopez is still taking a ton of first pitches though, which leads me to wonder if, via coaches signs/gameplan, they’re telling Lopez to take the 1st pitch, and maybe even assorted pitches in each at-bat on a situational basis. If that’s indeed the case, maybe they ought to do the same for the other batters as well.
Richie punctuated the game, and the team’s descent from their patient start last night, by swinging at and popping up the first pitch of the final AB of last night’s game.
Mariners are 19th in MLB in walks. However, they are 2nd in MLB in intentional walks. If you take those out of the equation, they are tied for 23rd. 14 of their total 72 walks (20%) have come against Texas who have walked more batters than anyone in MLB. There’s even less optimism that their hacking approach has changed than seen at first glance.
Lame rickrolling your readers like that. Disappointed in you guys.
Is this another example of sarcasm I’m not getting?
Because, if you’re serious…wow.