Game 89, Mariners at Athletics
The Bus vs. Eveland, 7:05 our time.
I’m watching the Tour de France while I wait for the game to come on. Woooooo!
Pretty normal lineup, Johjima catches, Clement DHs and is protected in the order by Willie Boom-Boom Bloomquist.
Game 88, Tigers at Mariners
Robertson v Rowland-Smith. 1:10 our time.
Go team wooooo!
No pre-game chemistry report…. again. Sigh.
Lineups yayyyy
RF-L Ichiro
2B-R Lopez
LF-L Ibanez
3B-R Beltre
DH-R Sexson (okay, replacing Turbo with MegaTurbo, I get it)
1B-0 Cairo (wait, what?)
C-R Johjima
CF-R Bloomquist
SS-R Betancourt
Wow. I uh… if that’s who you’re going to play, that’s a reasonable lineup. And yet…
Game 84, Blue Jays at Mariners
7:10, in a thunderstorm if this keeps up. That’d be kind of cool.
Dustin McGowan v Jarrod “The Bus” Washburn
Game 82, Blue Jays at Mariners
Halladay vs Dickey. 7:10.
It’ll be interesting to see what Riggleman does with his lineup now that they’re back home. The road trip was a mixed bag but overall a decided improvement on McLaren. Here’s hoping Riggleman continues to put out serviceable units on the field..
No clubhouse chemistry forecast yet: you’d think that the San Diego sweep would energize the team and bring everyone together towards a shared purpose, but who can say? Only the experts, the experts tell us, and unfortunately, they’re not talking.
Game 79, Mariners at Padres
7:05. Jarrod “The Bus” Washburn v Randy Wolf.
Randy Wolf signed a one year deal with the Padres for $4.75m, with some nice incentive clauses for games started and innings pitched. He was with the team before for $8m and the Padres declined his option and re-signed him for $4m less than he was due.
The M’s are paying Washburn $9.85m to suck this year and will pay him $10.35m to suck next year unless embarrassment spurs him to retires or something.
Actually — that’s too harsh. Washburn, for his terrible record and terrible outings, has overall been a more or less average pitcher with some bad luck. Sorry.
Washburn: 5.87 K/9, 3.05 BB/9, 1.06 HR/9, and a .344 BABIP
Wolf: 8.27 K/9, 3.04 BB/9, 1.05 HR/9 and a .305 BABIP (which is still a little unlucky)
Eeeeeeeeeeeeeeyup. Good thing we locked Washburn up to that long-term deal, because otherwise there’d be no way to replace him.
LINEUPS!
RF-L Ichiro!
2B-R Lopez
LF-L Ibanez
3B-R Beltre
1B-R Sexson
C-R Johjima
SS-R Betancourt
CF-R Willie “Evil in Spikes” Bloomquist
P-L Washburn
That’s at least… more defensible than most McLaren lineups towards the end.
Game 63, Mariners at Red Sox
The Interview vs Masterson. 10:35.
9:35 for a game post? Bleagh.
Sunday lineup:
CF-L Ichiro!
DH-R Lopez (wait, what–)
LF-L Ibanez
3B-R Beltre
RF-L Reed
1B-R Sexson
SS-R Betancourt
C-R Burke
2B-R Bloomquist
I’m not quite sure what the logic is there. Or if there’s logic. But okay, not a huge deal, getting Lopez a day off. But now the team’s batting Reed at #5 ahead of Sexson and Betancourt? Does that mean Reed’s Tacoma stats mean something? If so, shouldn’t Clement be playing? And… I give up.
Game 57, Tigers at Mariners
1:10. Bonderman v Batista.
Both pitchers are playing pretty badly so far — Bonderman’s strikeout rate is way down and his walk rate is way up, and Silva’s in about the same place by having smaller declines. The thing is, Bonderman’s 11 years younger than Silva. Except for injury, it’s hard to explain what may have gone wrong with Bonderman — his 4.34 ERA conceals a year much worse than last year, aided by a higher-than-expected strand rate and a low .279 opposing batting average when they do put the ball in play. His G/F ratio’s about where his career totals are, too. He’s just not pitching as well, which is a big cause for the Tigers’ struggles so far this year.
Speculation continues around Sexson, who hasn’t played in a while — first there were the Hatteberg rumors (which is kind of classic rumor-mongering, as rumors became a note by Baker in the Times that there were rumors, a note then cited as confirming the team was after him) to fan-level speculation he’ll be DFAd or released. There’s been no speculation that he’s injured, and McLaren’s reasoning for starting Cairo grow increasingly unbelievable with each game. But this seems like a fine chance to play Sexson: Bonderman’s giving up walks and he’s always been a little above average in HRs surrendered, and his ability to strike batters out has been off this year.
Game 43, Padres at Mariners
What’s the use of holding out a work-sore hand to catch some when it turns up empty— what? Sorry, I was listening to something while thinking of Wlad. Oh, hey, lineups are out.
Are you ready for BATTLE OF THE WORST TEAMS IN BASEBALL?
Offense:
Seattle: 11/14 in the AL in batting average, 14/14 in OBP, 9/14 in SLG
San Diego: 16/16 in the NL in AVG, 16/16 in OBP, 16/16 in SLG
Pitching with some defense
Seattle: 6/14 in K/9. 10/14 in AVG allowed, 12/14 in OBP allowed, 10/14 in SLG allowed
San Diego: 9/16 in K/9. 6/16 in AVG allowed, 5/16 in OBP allowed, 7/16 in SLG allowed
Defensive efficiency:
Seattle: 28/30. SD: 18/30
I can feel the excitement.
Young versus Batista!
Now watch, just to spite me, this’ll be a thrilling, defense-dominated low-scoring duel with both pitchers going a full nine innings before Ichiro wins the game in the ninth when he singles and then steals three bases on three pitches.
Sexson’s back, yayyy– wait, uhh…
CF-L Ichiro
2B-R Lopez
3B-R Beltre
LF-L Ibanez
1B-R Sexson
DH-L Clement
C-R Johjima
RF-R Balentien
SS-R Betancourt
San Diego fields
CF-L Gerut
2B-R Iguchi
RF-L Giles
1B-L A Gonzalez
DH-B Clark
3B-R Kouzmanoff
SS-R Greene
C-B Bard (both Padres catchers are switch hitters. That doesn’t happen often)
LF-R Hairston
Game 35, Rangers at Mariners
Padilla v Bedard. Go Bedard!
I don’t have a lot left in me after that last rant. Oakland won today, Angels are losing.
And if you thought that the team was going to try and close the gap, well, they’re starting Willie Bloomquist Lite at first base.
First base. Our first baseman is batting ninth in the order. Screw you, McLaren, there is no way to reasonably defend that decision.
Game 34, Rangers at Mariners
If the Mariners don’t manage to cut into the Angels’s lead in the next week or two, I get the feeling that there’s going to be a lot of finger pointing going on as to who’s responsible for the team’s awful fortunes, and there’s a very good chance that we’re going to see the new guys, called up to help the franchise, blamed for not turning the team around.
That’s too bad, because they don’t deserve it. Let’s compare where things stand right now just in terms of production.
Balentien’s hitting .238/.238/.524 in his 21 plate appearances. But Wilkerson was hitting .232/.348/.304, so every game he’s playing that Wilkerson doesn’t is an improvement just on offense.
Jeff Clement, new semi-DH, is hitting .176/.300/.176 in 20 plate appearances.
Jose Vidro, the old DH, hit .192/.248/.298 in 113 plate appearances. As a side note, to get to Clement’s line: -3 singles, -1 double, -1 walk (sort of).
In terms of overall contibutions, here’s their VORP: Vidro, -4.1, Clement, -1.2. Clement needs to suck as badly as he’s sucked for another 18 games before he’ll have hurt the team as much as Vidro already has.
If you want to portion out responsibility, start with the players who have really stunk up the place. Johjima, as much as I’ve been a fan, has been horrible (-7.1 VORP). Bloomquist still can’t hit, and managed to get over thirty plate appearances (-2.6 VORP). Miguel Cairo’s awful ten plate appearances (-1.8 plate appearances) hurt the team more than Clement has so far.
And that’s not even getting into who isn’t playing up to expectations or salary. Or the team’s defense, which has been bad.
The rotation’s been pretty good, though Batista and Bedard have disappointed to different degrees. Putz hasn’t been himself, and the bullpen’s been a real weakness so far, along with bullpen management.
Which brings us to the topic at hand. It’s not fair to blame Clement or Balentien if the team doesn’t come back to be competitive. They don’t fill out the lineup cards, forget who’s in the bullpen, or run the game. They didn’t assemble the roster, or hire the manager. They didn’t hire the GM who hired the manager.
Blame, if you’re going to hand it out, should flow upwards from the new guys who’ve only been playing for few games to the architects of the season, roster, and franchise.
But it’s too early yet for blame. Let’s wait a game, at least. And hey! There’s a game in an hour!