Monthly Archives: May 2010

by | May 22, 2010 · 10:44 am

Mariners Recap — 5/21/2010

Mmm, 15 runs, it always goes down smooth. Beating up on San Diego brings to mind many Anchor Man quotes, but I’ll try and resist. First off, Sween Dog and Bard were fun to watch and cheer for last night. That is a scientific fact! Ok, I’ll stop with the Anchor Man fun. But really, who could have ever guessed those 2 vets could rack up 6 hits, 16 total bases, 3 home runs, and 9 RBI, in one game! Get used to seeing Bard behind the plate, because he has surpassed Hips and Moore’s combined performances in about 5 games.

This game was littered with statistical oddities, which is typical for a game where the teams combine for 30 hits and 23 runs. Baseball is a funny sport. The M’s scored 12 runs in 8 games between April 30th, and May 8th, a 78 inning stretch. Last night they scored 13 runs in 4 innings. Of course, they weren’t facing Wade LeBlanc during any of those abysmal 78 innings. I don’t understand how LeBlanc is good but I guess it helps pitching in the NL. It is also fun to look at how batting averages can change from one game to the next, when 15 hits are collected. The first number is the player’s average prior to the game, the second number is the new current average-

Sweeney- .226, .276
Bradley- .221, .244
Bard- .333, .400
Wilson- .239, .255

Here are a few more notes and hero/goat-

  • Milton Bradley had a great game. He worked the count, and his 3 hits were all stung. I could see him having a great rest of the year.
  • 347 pitches were thrown between both teams. I think that’s a lot.
  • I doubt Cliff Lee ever gets another win in a Mariners uniform when giving up 7 earned runs. But that’s what happened last night. Cliff didn’t have his best stuff, but even still, he didn’t walk a guy. His control is ridiculous.
  • The Padres didn’t draw a walk, and the Mariners scored 15 runs, but it was San Diego that had 3 more at-bats. Is this weird? I don’t know. I’m not sure why I’m typing this.

    Hero: Mike Sweeney and Josh Bard. Gotta go with co-heroes in this one. Those two were monsters last night.
    Goat: Jose Lopez. Lost in the fun and hugs from last night is the 0-5 night Lopey had. His defense has been great and with so many others struggling at the plate, Jose has flown under the radar. It’s tough to imagine Lopez gets anywhere near his 25 HR, 96 RBI from last year.

    Finally, if you didn’t read the live blog that Jeff Sullivan was doing over at LL, it is worth a read. I have pasted a few of my favorite lines. That dude is funny, and between the humor he recaps the game nicely too. Check that out after the jump! Continue reading →

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    by | May 21, 2010 · 4:10 pm

    Series Preview- M’s vs. Padres 5/21-5/23

    Jumping right in!

    Who Would You Rather Have?

    (Picks in bold.  Line-ups from tonight’s game.)

    C:  M’s Josh Bard vs. SD Nick Hundley.  Disclaimer to start: I know nothing about Hundley or a lot of other guys on the Padres.  This is mostly a guess.  He’s youngish, was decent but not too good offensively last year, not doing a lot this year.  Bard’s been smacking the ball, so I’ll take him.  It would take hardly anything to convince me otherwise.

    1B:  M’s Kotchman vs. SD Adrian Gonzalez.  I’m pretty sure about this one.

    2B:  M’s Figgins vs. SD David Eckstein.  Eckstein’s actually having a better year, but I can’t pick him on principle.

    3B:  M’s Lopez vs. SD Chase Headley.  Not sure how Headley is defensively, but as long as Lopez is hitting this poorly, it doesn’t matter a lot.

    SS:  M’s Josh Wilson vs. SD Everth Cabrera.  Neither guy is too good from what I can tell.  Wilson is hitting a little better, so we’ll take him, but I have zero conviction in this pick.

    LF:  M’s Milton vs. SD Scott Hairston.  Hairston’s probably been a touch better, actually.

    CF:  M’s Guti vs. SD Chris Denorfio

    RF:  M’s Ichiro vs. SD Will Venable

    DH:  M’s Sweeney vs. SD Oscar Salazar.  This is the saddest match-up of DHs in history.

    That’s 7-2 Mariners.  Wow!  These are two bad line-ups.  Guti and Ichi are the only M’s picks that are really beyond debate, same with A-Gon for the Padres.  The rest are pretty debateable.

    Pitching Match-ups

    Friday:  M’s Cliff Lee vs. SD Wade LeBlanc

    Saturday:  M’s Ian Snell vs. SD Clayton Richard.  Richard came over in the Peavy trade and isn’t having a great year, but better than Ian Snell.  No idea what to expect from Snell.  He’s been a little better in relief, so hopefully that will carry over.

    Sunday:  M’s Felix vs. SD Matt Latos.  Latos is great.  He’s just not Felix.

    Closer: M’s Aardsma vs. SD Heath Bell.  I remember seeing Bell for the first time and being extremely impressed.  Big fastball and slider, if I remember right.  He’s tough.  Aardsma’s been throwing well lately when I’ve seen him.

    Pitching’s even, but the Mariners have their two aces going.  Hopefully Felix is back to form.  That San Diego line-up is just as bad as the Mariners if you can contain Gonzalez.  I have no idea how they’re having such a good season.  Can anyone who knows more about the Padres fill me in?  If Snell throws well and we score even a few runs, we’ve got a good chance at a sweep.  I’ll be more than happy with two wins.

    Go Mariners!  Believe big!

    -Matthew

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    by | May 21, 2010 · 3:24 pm

    Wait ‘Til Next Year- Starting Pitching

    It’s hard to get excited enough about Seattle sports lately to want to write about them, so I haven’t much lately.  The Mariners are in a weird spot.  The season’s not over, but they need to make a run and get to .500 or so at least by the all-star break.  They’re not an old team, necessarily, but they don’t have a lot of young guys who need playing time to develop.  Most of their top minors talent is at Class AA right now, at best, and would be pushing it to make the club next year, especially out of spring training.

    Whether the team decides to trade Cliff Lee for some young talent or not, this team needs to make moves to get better for next year.  The next month or two will determine how focused on this year those moves also need to be.  I’m not writing off this year yet, but let’s take a look at how the team shapes up for 2011.

    Current roster guys under contract for next year will be in bold.  I’ll also include minor leaguers who might provide depth, along with how soon and much they might contribute.

    Note: after writing this starting pitching section, I realized this post would be a good 3,000 words, so I’m going to break it up by position.  Starting pitching today, bullpen up next when I get the chance.

    Starting Pitching

    Felix Hernandez

    Jason Vargas

    Doug Fister

    Ryan-Rowland Smith

    Luke French, Garrett Olson, Steven Shell:  Triple-A filler type.  Could step into the last spot in the rotation at any time and probably be okay.  If you get lucky one of them gets hot for a month or year, but not likely to have a lasting impact.

    Michael Pineda:  The Double-A star.  Best stuff in the Mariners system, could move fast if he stays healthy.  Decent chance to be in the rotation at some point in 2011.  Actual results if that were to happen unclear.

    Mauricio Robles, Steven Hensley, Daniel Cortes, Nick Hill: Rest of the AA rotation.  Less likely to see the bigs in 2011 than Pineda due to experience or talent level, but still a chance.  Much more upside than the guys in Tacoma, but not as ready even for the back end of the rotation.

    Potential Losses

    Ian Snell  Club has a 6.75 mil. option.  If it’s exercised, that means either Snell turned into Zack Greinke or Zduriencik went actually clinically insane.

    Cliff Lee  Who knows at this point.  Team could try to resign him, but it’s doubtful he would do it during the season, and he might not fit the budget anyway.  He could be traded, or they could just let him walk and take draft picks.  Could still be signed after the season in either case, but that’s doubtful.

    Erik Bedard  This is an even bigger mystery than Lee.  No reason to speculate either way until we see him on the field.

    Analysis

    There’s Felix and a whole lot of question marks.  Even if Vargas and Fister stay close to their current level all season, I still wouldn’t feel completely comfortable with them as my 2 and 3 starters heading into the year.  They really need to either keep Lee or find a guy with decent upside and established success.  They need a legit #2 starter, basically.

    -Matthew

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    by | May 21, 2010 · 1:00 pm

    A Spark or Just False Hope?

    This last week has been one of the most frustrating weeks I can remember as a sports fan.  Since last Friday’s win at Tampa Bay, the Mariners’ had gone on a 5-game losing streak in which they lost 4 of those games by one run.  Two of those games were walk-off wins and this 5-game skid doesn’t even count the 8th inning collapse in Baltimore last week.  We could see that the M’s were playing better than they had during their 8-game losing streak but the results weren’t there to prove it.  Unfortunately for this team, results are all that matters.

    On top of this, 5-star recruit Terrance Jones ended his recruiting roller coaster by signing with Kentucky Wednesday.  I’ve watched a Husky football team go 0-12, I watched the ’08 Mariners and I’ve watched so many other Seattle sports teams collapse but this was my mountain top of frustration.  These were my teams.  The 2010 Mariners were supposed to remind Seattle that it was truly a baseball city.  The 2010-11 Husky basketball team was going to be the one who finally made it to the elite eight, led by a mix of experience and great young talent.  But on Wednesday night, the lights were shut off on these hopes.

    Then came Thursday.  I don’t watch the Mariners because I think they’ll make the playoffs.  Sure, I hope they’ll make the playoffs but I watch the M’s because they’re my team.  Same goes for the Huskies.  Because of this, I faithfully took my place on the couch and turned on yesterdays afternoon game.  I didn’t expect to win but I watched anyway, again because they’re my team. 

    The game went like so many had before.  The Mariners’ kept it close but looked as if they’d come up just short.  But, this time they had a rally that didn’t end in disappointment.  With one swing of the bat by the most respected man on the team (yes, Griffey is the most respected player on that team) Mariner fans were allowed to do something they hadn’t done in a while.  Smile. 

    The question is whether this was a spark or just a good moment in a disappointing season.  The frustration of this week is still lingering even with the relief that yesterday brought.  Terrance Jones is still a Wildcat and the Mariners are still 8.5 back in the West.  But instead of the room being pitch black Griffey stumbled around to plug a night-light in.  Yesterday, he was the hero and I couldn’t think of a better way for this team to win than to mob the teammate they look up to the most.  But now, it’s a brand new day.  This team needs a winning streak and needs it to happen soon or this season will be all but over by July.  Today is not a must-win but it’s pretty dang close.  It’s time to see if this was a spark or if the room is still black. 

    Andrew

    A few random notes after the jump Continue reading →

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    by | May 19, 2010 · 5:04 pm

    Series Preview- M’s vs. Blue Jays 5/19-5/20

    The Mariners return home for a quick series, which is good because the Blue Jays are pretty solid.  Of course, everyone looks good compared to the Mariners right now.  This season is so strange.  It’s certainly not going well, but they are legitimately one of the least lucky teams I’ve seen in a lot of different areas.

    Milton Bradley is back tonight, which is excellent news.  That Sean White is going to Tacoma to make room on the roster is a big bonus.  If this were a movie, the team would come together with a rousing speech from Ichiro, start to hit like crazy, and win their next 20 in a row.  It’s not a movie, but I think a quick change in fortunes wouldn’t be surprising and could happen at any time.  Am I counting on it?  Not anymore, but crazy things happen.

    Who Would You Rather Have?

    (Pick is in bold.  Line-ups are from tonight’s game.)

    C:  M’s Josh Bard vs. Jays John Buck

    1B:  M’s Casey Kotchman vs. Jays Lyle Overbay.  They’re having almost an identical season offensively, which is not a good thing for either of them, so I’ll take Kotch for the defense.

    2B:  M’s Chone Figgins vs. Jays Aaron Hill.  Two more guys having extremely similar disappointing seasons.  Figgins is again a little better defensively.  If this were last year, I’d probably take Hill for the power.

    3B:  M’s Lopez vs. Jays Edwin Encarnacion.  A normal year from Lopez would make them about even offensively.

    SS:  M’s Josh Wilson vs. Jays Alex Gonzalez

    LF:  M’s Bradley vs. Jays Fred Lewis.  If Bradley starts hitting now that he’s back this changes quickly.  I don’t remember ever hearing of Lewis, but he’s having a decent year.

    CF:  M’s Guti vs. Jays Vernon Wells.  Really tough choice here.  Wells is having a renaissance year, but Guti’s been good and is significantly better defensively.  Still, Wells’ power is what this team needs right now.  I don’t know if it’ll last, but he’s my pick for now.

    RF:  M’s Ichiro vs. Jays Jose Bautista.  Bautista has 11 homers.  They Jays have 3 guys with 10 or 11 homers, and two are Bautista and Gonzalez.  Weird.

    DH:  M’s Sweeney vs. Jays Adam Lind

    That’s 6-3 Blue Jays.  Toronto seems to have mostly guys who are under- or overperfoming.  The Mariners have a couple of guys where you’d expect them and a bunch way below.

    Pitching Match-ups

    Wednesday:  M’s Doug Fister vs. Jays Brett Cecil.  Cecil’s young and has shown lots of K’s and overall good results in the minors, but hasn’t been anything great so far this year.

    Thursday:  M’s Vargas vs. Jays Ricky Romero

    Closer:  M’s Aardsma vs. Jays Kevin Gregg

    2-1 Blue Jays.  Toronto’s a pretty faceless team.  I don’t really know what to expect this series.  Hopefully the Mariners will build on yesterday’s offense and get a better result.

    Go Mariners!  Believe big!

    -Matthew

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    by | May 18, 2010 · 10:31 pm

    Game Recap – 5/18

    • Terrance Jones will sign a LOI tomorrow, hopefully with UW.
    • There may be some good Husky football recruiting news tomorrow.  It seemed like Sark was hinting at that on his twitter.
    • The Lost series finale is on Sunday.  This is good news if you like Lost because it will be awesome.  This is good news if you don’t like Lost because you won’t have to hear about it everytime you turn on the TV after Sunday.  It’s a win-win if you will.
    • Sasquatch! Music Festival is almost here!  That will be a good time for those involved.
    • The World Cup commercials are awesome.  Probably more awesome than the actual World Cup will be.  That’s not to say that I don’t enjoy the World Cup.  I just really enjoy the commercials.

    So, now get off the ledge and hang in there.  At least get off the ledge until the Mariners lose another game like this…. That will probably be tomorrow.  

    Hero:  Casey Kotchman.  The lineup wasn’t too bad tonight.  There were lots to choose from and if Rob Johnson hadn’t had a dumb base-running mistake, learned how to move his feet and blocked a ball, and didn’t suck I might have choose him. 

    Goat:  Kanekoa Texeira.  I don’t know, this seems right.  He faced two guys and let them both on base before getting pulled.  None of the pitchers were very good tonight.

    Dear Football, please come fast.

    Andrew

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    by | May 17, 2010 · 10:46 pm

    Game Recap 5/15-5/17

    Well, this sucks.  There’s some reason for hope but this really sucks.  I don’t want to recap these because it sucks enough watching them.

    5/15

    Hero: Mike Sweeney

    Goat:  Jesus Colome

    5/16

    Hero:  Cliff Lee

    Goat:  Griffey

    5/17

    Hero: Jose Lopez

    Goat:  Ryan Rowland-Smith.  We might not see him in the rotation again.

    A better post tomorrow and maybe even a win!  Happy Felix day!

    Andrew

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    by | May 15, 2010 · 2:29 pm

    The Worst Case Scenario? Pretty Close…

    Following the ridiculous 6-5 loss to Baltimore on Thursday, I was listening to Brock and Salk on 710 ESPN, and Dave Cameron from USSM was on the show. Cameron said the pre-season likelihood that the M’s would have finished the first 34 games at 13-21, would have been about 7-10%. This number is not a scientific fact, but anyone who knows a thing about baseball can look at the roster Seattle assembled, paired with the weak division they play in, and conclude that a 13-21 start would have been tough to imagine. Is this the worst case scenario? Well, of course it’s not the absolute worst case. That would be a winless team with multiple injured starters, a manager soon to be fired, and a clubhouse that is fist fighting. But this is pretty close to the worst possible scenario I could have thought up back in March. Here are 5 reasons why the M’s are where they are. (And sorry, this gets a little lengthy)

    1) Bad luck (aka sucking in crunch time)
    Last year, the M’s made hay in 1-run games. Despite giving up more runs than they scored, the M’s won 85 games, which by most standards, was an anomaly. The odd that Seattle could have racked up 85 W’s last year was slim when the year began. It was a pleasure seeing my team hang on in close games and show grit time and time again. This year, the Gods have not been so kind in similar games. In fact, in 9 of Seattle’s 21 losses, the M’s either led or were tied going into the eighth inning. That is a staggering result. If the Mariners could have won even just 4 of those 9 games, we would be talking about a 17-17 team heading into the Tampa series. The worst part is that in most cases, one minor miscue has been the difference between a win and a loss. The Byrnes whiffed bunt. The Johnson passed balls. The poor execution of bases loaded in extra innings. Those are the type of missed opportunities that has defined this team through 35 games. If you care to look at just how those 9 gut wrenching games played out, take a look at the quick summaries Shannon Drayer put together-http://www.mynorthwest.com/category/mariners_blog_articles/20100513/Too-Many-Tough-Losses

    2) Slow start offense
    In addition to the close losses, the Mariners are not hitting. Figgins, Kotchman, Griffey, Lopez, Bradley, Moore, Johnson and Jack Wilson are all off to slow starts. Typically you assume a few regulars will start slow, but it’s hard to win when all but 2 starters are hitting around .200 or lower. The offense is without a doubt the biggest reason the M’s are sitting where they are.

    3) The Bullpen
    The Mariners have a solid bullpen. I’d bet as many as 4 of our relievers could be closers on some major league teams. But despite good overall stats, some untimely blow ups have resulted in numerous losses. Lowe, League and Aardsma have combined to give up 6 home runs. That’s not the astounding number though, as 6 home runs between 3 relievers in mid-May is not unreasonable. What is astounding is that all 6 of those home runs were either game tiers or game winners, and all came in the 8th or 9th innings. Ouch. Often times home runs are not all the pitchers fault, because even perfectly executed pitches can be hit 400 feet by major league hitters. A lot of the bullpen’s failures are just plain bad luck. That’s just baseball. The bullpen is not a major concern for this team.

    4) Off the field issues
    The Bradley fiasco and the Griffey nap have been the two biggest off the field incidents thus far. The Milton thing was almost to be expected, considering his past, while the Griffey thing has snowballed from a minor issue to headlines on ESPN. That whole thing is just weird. You could include injuries in this category I suppose, to Cliff Lee, Mark Lowe, and Jack Wilson.

    5) Inconsistency
    The problem with this team is similar to the problem with my golf game. If I’m driving and putting well, my irons and chipping are failing me. If my short game is on, my drives are erratic. For the Mariners, the offense, starting pitching, and defense was great on Thursday. The bullpen was not, and so despite playing well in 3 out of 4 facets of the game, that one poor area bit us hard. It seems like that’s how it has gone all year. We just can’t play well in all aspects, and even when we play well in 2 or 3 areas, the 1 that we suck at ends up costing us the game.

    Reason for hope after the jump! Continue reading →

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