Game 37, Padres at Mariners
7:05. Chris Young v Miguel Batista. Mike Cameron returns to Safeco Field (yayyy!).
Standard lineup for the M’s. Padres field two Giles (Gileses?), and play Branyan at DH.
I wanted to say something about the Padres being our natural rivals, but we’ve made the point about how ridiculous it (and the way interleague play works) for years, and I don’t see much point in repeating it.
Game 34, some schmucks versus Felix
7:05! FSN! Kelvim Escobar versus Felix Hernandez! He’s so awesome even Vlad cowers to face him in his first start back!
Felix Day! Oh yeah, it’s Feelix Day, la la la la, Felix Day, it’s the only day for me because it’s Felix Day, hot-cha-cha-cha, Felix Day…
And look at this lineup he’s facing.
LF-B Willits
3B-S Figgins
SS-R Cabrera
CF-S Matthews
1B-L Kotchman
DH-R Hillenbrand
2B-S Izturis
C-R Napoli
RF-S Murphy
Ha ha ha hilarious Mike! Now turn in the real lineup card. What?
Game 33, Yankees at Mariners
Andy Pettitte (two ts twice) v Horacio Ramirez. 1:05 FSN.
The Yankees run the same lineup out twice, the M’s sub Burke in for Johjima.
Courtesy of Fangraphs, which I’ve been playing around with since Dave proved a particularly interesting point yesterday:
Pettitte: 5.65 K/9 3.98 BB/9 0.42 HR/9 16.5% line drives
HoRam: 3.46 K/9 4.85 BB/9 .69 HR/9 22.4% line drives
Team offenses, by rank:
AVG: Yankees 3rd, Mariners 12th
OBP: Yankees 3rd, Mariners 23rd
SLG: Yankees 11th, Mariners 14th
So a really good offense, particularly adept at hitting for average and drawing walks, faces a pitcher who gives up a lot of walks and pitches to contact, as they say in the broadcasts.
Meanwhile, an impatient team with decent contact hitters who have some power but can’t draw walks face a groundball pitcher who doesn’t give up home runs.
Game 32, Yankees at Mariners
7:05, KSTW. DeSalvo v Batista.
AL starters, as a group: 4.73 ERA, 944 IP, 1031 H, 124 HR, 309 BB, 637 K
or 1.03 H/IP, .13 HR/IP, .33 BB/IP, .67 K/IP
Batista: 5.70 ERA, 36.1 IP (36.3), 44 H, 6 HR, 9 BB, 21 K
or 1.2 H/IP, .17 HR/IP, .25 BB/IP, .58 K/IP
That doesn’t include park adjustments, defense, or anything. Now, that seems like it’s not far off an average starter. But the ERA would make him a below-average starter in Tampa Bay (worst ERA in MLB), the strikeout rate is right in line with the 2nd-worst team in baseball at striking out opposing batters (the Mariners), and the home run rate… well, the team that’s given up the most home runs, Toronto, has a rate about 10% lower.
What I’m saying is that while Batista hasn’t given up 90 runs in the first inning to attract a lot of attention to himself, he isn’t good. He’s not even average. He kind of sucks so far, in fact, and there’s no way the M’s signed him to a three year, $25m deal for him to put up these kind of numbers.
DeSalvo’s last good season, if you’re curious, was in 2005, when in the second of three stints in Trenton he put up some decent numbers. Their rotation essentially wiped out from by injuries and Igawa’s ineffectiveness, the Yankees have been throwing out guys like Rasner (with 5 starts, he’s behind only Andy Pettitte), Chase Wright, Jeff Karstens, and tonight, DeSalvo. As a unit, their cannon fodder has been more effective than HoRam, Weaver, and Batista, who combined cost the Mariners over $18m (and Rafael Soriano).
Game 31, Yankees at Mariners
Darrell Rasner v Jarrod Washburn! 7:05, FSN.
Heyyyy, it’s Josh Phelps again! What’s up, Josh?
M’s offer their new standard lineup:
CF-L Ichiro
DH-B Turbo
LF-L Ibanez
1B-R Sexson
RF-R Guillen
3B-R Beltre
C-R Johjima
SS-R Betancourt
2B-R Lopez
Game 30, Mariners at Tigers
Jeff Weaver gets a chance to start in a flyball-friendly park against Justin Verlander. 10:05 am. No TV.
The Mariners are a half-game out of first place. They’ve been outscored by opponents by some amount of runs, yet there they are. The margins for the others? A’s +13, the Angels +5, Rangers -36. So it’s not as if the competition’s been particularly fierce.
Part of the reason it feels weird is that the team’s played, well, check this out.
Number of times the offense scored that many runs as “.”
Number of times the pitching allowed that many runs as “+”
0 - ..+++
1 - ..+
2 - ...+++++
3 - .....+
4 - ....+++
5 - ....+++
6 - .+++
7 - ...+
8 - ..++++
9 - .++
10
11 ++
12
13
14 .+
15 .
Game 29, Mariners at Tigers
Baek v Robertson.
Yup.
Game 28, Mariners at Tigers
HoRam v Bonderman. 4:05, FSN. Today’s contest: guess Sheffield’s line tonight.
M’s field Ichiro-Vidro-Ibanez-Sexson-Broussard-Beltre-Johjima-Betancourt-Lopez
Detroit bats Pudge leadoff!
Game 27, Mariners at Yankees
Miguel Batista v Emergency Starter DeSalvo.
Bloomquist likely to get another start, but he’s clutch, right, so he should be able to scratch this out.
The Yankees, adjusted standings-wise, are 16-13, and the M’s are 11-15. Make of that what you will.
Game 25, Mariners at Yankees
Post about the Julio Mateo situation
Jeff Weaver! In a nationally televised game! Because national broadcasts have to include the Yankees! It’s in the Constitution or something! 12:55 our time.
Another Weaver start! WOOOOO! Oh yeah! I know the Yankees are struggling badly, but if he pitches like we’ve seen so far, that offense could chase him out of the game before the ump calls “Play Ball!”. There’s a chunk of the Yankee lineup that’ll destroy him if he brings that weak sauce again. Hopefully, we get to see something else out of Weaver (who in the last week made comments about needing to be himself, so maybe he’ll be ignoring team instruction, which — well, hey, why not at this point, right?).
Today’s challenge: look at the tiny headshot MLB.com puts up for Weaver. Tell me what that expression is.