Game 63, Mariners at Angels
LHP Washburn v RHP Escobar.
Remeber, Washburn pitches well against his old team. They keep telling me that.
The now standard lineup for the M’s.
The Angels, though…
CF-B Figgins
SS-R Cabrera
LF-L Anderson
RF-R Guerrero
DH-R Salmon
1B-B Morales
C-R Napoli
3B-R Quinlan
2B-L Kennedy
Huh. Tim Salmon’s resurgence is a little astonishing. The guy’s hitting .271/.374/.475, and he’s 37, coming off a missed year preceded by a year where he only played in 60 games. He’s a lock for Comeback Player if he keeps this up, or even if he tails off significantly.
Game 61, Twins at Mariners
RHP Boof Bonser v LHP Jamie Moyer. 7:05.
At the request of several of our valued readers (including Laurie’s birthday request), supervision returns for this thread. Since the inception of comments, we often wrestle with how to encourage quality discussion and not tamper too much. Insult posts, off-topic stuff like people dropping by to remind Dave he wasn’t enthusiastic enough about Papelbon in a Beltre discussion… most of the choices are pretty easy.
But what about grammar, and spelling, and people who always type “Mariner’s”? We (and I’m probably more guilty of this than anyone) arbitrarily will reach into threads to nuke comments, and you get to see the dreaded []s. The reaction by the commenter is almost always immediate and strongly negative, and often means their follow-up comment gets [deleted, namecalling]. However, not working to maintain a decent signal/noise ratio and halfway worthwhile tone means chaos and horrible comment threads, and the people who contribute the most to the level of conversation are quickly turned off and leave.
What to do? Well, if no one out there is willing to, say, make an extremely generous cash donation to the “Hire a USSM Author to work on this full time” fund, it’s going to remain arbitrary and unfair. Sometimes making two errors that catch someone’s eye will get someone to swoop down, and sometimes you might get away with it. A comment that contributes substantially will almost certainly get a lot more leeway than PINIERO IS TEH SUX0R!!!oneone!! In general, game threads have much looser standards than normal comment threads.
Anyway. Boof’s his real name. I bet that gets mentioned on the broadcast.
Game 60, Twins at Mariners
At last, a major league ballgame. I’m not going to say anything about missing out on Andrew Miller, instead I’m just going to enjoy tonight’s game.
LHP Francisco Liriano v LHP Felix Hernandez. 7:05 etc etc.
Game 59, Royals at Mariners
RHP Mike Wood v RHP Gil Meche. 7:05, FSN. What a nice night for a game (at least until it gets horribly cold, anyway).
Standard defensive alignment and Beltre’s sticking to that #2 slot in the order.
So today’s fun note: I often mentally play a game when I compare lineups, which is “would I swap players?” For the Royals, there’s almost no one.
DeJesus for Reed – no
Graffanino for Lopez – no
Mienkiewicz for Sexson – I’ve never been a big fan of Sexson’s contract’s huge back end, but straight up? Nah.
Sanders for Ichiro! – no
Stairs for Everett – yes, but I’ve always had a soft spot for the Wonder Hamster, and my personal aversion to Everett’s well known.
Costa for Ibanez – no
Teahen for Beltre – it would get us out of Beltre’s contract, and yet no
Berroa for Betancourt – no
Buck for Johjima – no
And a lot of those are laughable comparisons. Okay, so then I thought about the Tacoma Rainiers… and I *still* wouldn’t trade most of the Rainiers for their KC equivalent player. That’s sad.
Game 58, Royals at Mariners
LHP Redman v LHP Washburn, 1:05, KSTW for your TV needs.
Hargrove’s “trying something new means your panicing” anti-LHP lineup of the day, brought to you by the anti-depressant industry.
Ichiro RH-L
Beltre 3b-R
Lopez 2b-R
Ibanez DH-LEverett DH-B
Sexson 1b-R
Johjima C-R
Bloomquist CF-R
Morse LF-R
Betancourt SS-R
Game 57, Royals at Mariners
RHP Etherton v RHP Pineiro. 7:05, FSN.
For the “fans still turn out for the weenend and summer games” there were only 29,000 at last night’s game and there were 21,000 tickets left for tonight’s, which would mean there’ll be over 30k tonight. For a Royals series and the Mariners on track for another disappointing season, that’s not so bad.
In Tacoma, Appier got released.
Game 56, Royals at Mariners
RHP Bob Keppel v LHP Jamie Moyer.
Beltre sticks in the #2 hole for… some reason, making it Ichiro!/Beltre/Lopez/Ibanez/Sexson/Everett/Johjima/Reed/Betancourt.
I’m hoping the M’s can pick up some cheap wins this series, but I fear it’ll be a badly-played batch of contests.
Game 55, Mariners at Rangers
RHP Felix Hernandez v LHP John Koronka, 11 something.
“When you start thinking, ‘Let’s try something new’  that’s a panic moveâ€Â
— Mike Hargrove
Ichiro! – RF/L
Beltre – 3B/R
Lopez – 2B/R
Ibanez – LF/L
Sexson – DH/R
Johjima – C/R
Bloomquist – CF/R
Morse – 1B/R
Betancourt – SS/R
PANIC!!!
Game 54, Mariners at Rangers
5:05. RHP Gil Meche v Kevin Millwood… and if you were complaining that Hargrove was locked into his lineup, check out this thing:
Ichiro – RF
Beltre – 3B
Lopez – 2B
Ibanez – LF WILLIE BLOOMQUIST steps into the breach!
Everett – DH
PETAGINE (!!) – 1B
Johjima – C
Reed – CF
Betancourt – SS
I have to think this is some kind of prank, and closer to game time they’ll say “kidding!”
Seriously — Beltre at #2? Abandoning L/R/L? Did Hargrove get suspended?
Game 53, Mariner at Rangers
LHP Jarrod Washburn v LHP John Rheinecker, which means… that’s riiiight….. Bloomquist starts in center! WOO HOOO!!!
5:05.
Only article I read that didn’t depress me by reminding me of these last few games: Larry Stone on the upcoming draft.