Tag Archives: Chone Figgins

by | April 10, 2010 · 8:49 pm

Game Recap – 4/10/2010

In my quest to tricking my fellow good guys into letting me cover each Felix start, I get to recap the Mariners second win of the season. 

For much of the game it looked as if it’d Seattle’s 5th straight loss.  The Mariners scored a run in the top of the first and then the offense went cold.  It didn’t go cold like it did in prior games though.  The Mariners outhit Texas all day long but they just couldn’t get runners across the plate.  Seattle had 12 hits on the day and a good share of those came before the 3-run ninth.  Baseball is a weird sport and the Mariners have been bad this week but luck hasn’t been on their side.  Their BABIP (batting average on balls in play) was way below average for the week and their were a few bad bounces in the field that hurt them.  I’m not making excuses for them but there’s statistical reason to believe things will get much better.

Anyway, the Mariners might not have had much of a chance in this game if it weren’t for King Felix.  He was fantastic today and if it weren’t for a Figgins throwing error, Felix might have only given up one run.  My favorite thing about watching Felix is that I never know which pitch will be his best on a given day.  Today I think it was his change-up.  His change came in at 86-88 mph and fell off the table when it reached the batter.  It was beautiful.  Another thing that stood out to me about this start was the way Felix handled Guerrero.  He used his two-seam fastball to tail in on the hands of Vladimir and then threw that change into the dirt.  He produced two strikeouts and a groundball to third from this.  Long live the King!

Despite this outing, the Mariners were still down by 2 heading into the 9th inning.  They scored 3 on a flurry of singles and pesky baseball.  Here’s exactly what happened:  single, walk, sacrifice bunt, single (run scored), single (run scored), single (run scored), double play.  It’s innings like this that explain why the Mariners, Angels, and A’s are described as “annoying teams”; there were no extra base hits in that inning, they just produced runs by playing simple baseball.  The singles were hit hard but watching single after single gets annoying when you’re opposing fans and it prolongs the inevitable agony more so than a quick 3 run homer. 

In the bottom of the 9th Aardsma looked very good in striking out the 1st and 3rd batter.  But the second hitter, Elvis Andrus, hit a rocket to right center.  Luckily, we have the best center fielder in the game.  Guti covered a ton of ground and jumped up against the wall to take away a home run from Andrus.  I could try to describe this more poetically but it wouldn’t do it justice; just go watch it if you haven’t seen it already (heck, go watch it if you have seen it already).  If he doesn’t make that catch who knows what happens in this game.  I’m glad that Franklin is on the Mariners and will be for quite a while.

Does this game take away my worries?  No, it was an ugly week (although, not as ugly as many people say) and we were dangerously close to being 1-5.  But, the way it stands now is that if we somehow get a win tomorrow we finish the road trip with a mediocre 3-4 record.  Not good but okay.  It’s not the end of the world if we lose either.  But let’s not worry about tomorrow until tomorrow.  Today was the type of game the Mariners will be playing all season and it was good to see them win. 

My hero/goat and a few other notes after the jump.  Continue reading →

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by | April 8, 2010 · 3:11 pm

Game Recap – 4/8/2010

I will make this as short as possible, because frankly I am not sure how many folks actually watched the game (day game), and it was brutal to listen to and follow.

Doug Fister started the game and only went 4 innings, 96 pitches. That tells the story right there. 56 strikes, 40 balls, not many swings-and-misses. Oakland was able to put the ball in play and force the issue offensively. Now, Oakland has no power, it was a lot of singles and doubles, and running the bases (sounds like what the M’s would like to do…). Davis, Barton and Ellis did all the damage for Oakland…

The Mariners on the other hand struggled yet again offensively. Brett Anderson took a shutout into the 7th inning. (An aside: If you look at Fister’s and Anderson’s lines for the game, they are also identical, yet Anderson was much more effective. That speaks volumes to how bad the Mariners hitting is right now…) Tuiasosopo played well at 1B, had 2 hits and an RBI. That’s a GREAT day for a Mariner right now. Good for him, I like his bat in the M’s lineup. Hopefully Wak can fit him in more. Gutierrez and Sweeney had the other RBIs. I like what Guti is doing at the plate. Overall though the offense sucks right now at generating runs. Trying to tag Figgins up at 1B to 2B on a fly ball to right really shows the hand Wak is playing, and what he is saying to the team: I know we will struggle to score so Ichiro and Figgins must steal and tag up all the time or we’ll never score. That’s a tough spot to be in. Other teams know this and are very aware of the steals and tag-ups.

Hero: Matt Tuiasosopo. He had two hits, an RBi and played 1B well. Sounds like a good day. (Jesus Colome is a close second, 3 very solid innings out of the pen…)

Goat: Doug Fister. Gotta go more than 4 innings. We all know the bullpen will be (is?) over-worked, so Fister only going 4 really sucks.

There is nothing else to observe from this stinker. (I really want to be optimistic, but this game set me back a bit…)

–Joe

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by | April 6, 2010 · 12:46 am

Game Recap — 4/5/2010

Thank God that baseball is back.  Halfway through the game I was sitting on the couch with my brother, each of us sipping a Mexican Coke and enjoying a baseball game.  There are times in life when you know you’re at the right place and that was one of those times.  I can’t remember the last time I was able to watch opening day with my brother and, in a life where it’s vital to cherish the little things, this was one small event that I am very grateful for.

On to the recap.  The Mariners were in control for most of this game.  They played like they will for most of the year: solid pitching, good defense, and tacking on a run here and there.  For most of this game the pitching was more than solid.  Felix’s line isn’t extremely pretty but take away some bad pitches from Sean White and it would be much better.  (More on Sean White later.)  Felix was still dominating, his control just wasn’t quite where it needed to be.  He got a ridiculous amount of ground ball outs, it’s hard to remember a fly ball.  As for his control, I’m not too worried.  The umpire tonight was bad (apparently he didn’t know what  low strike was) and Felix got a little tired in the later innings.  As the King gets stretched out more and more, his command will get better.  In the 6th and 7th innings he started leaving the ball up in the zone, this is what pitchers do when they’re tired, but for the most part he missed down in the zone.  This is a good sign and will be vital against Texas next time out.

The end of Felix’s outing brought us to Sean White.  Let me just say that I’m not a Sean White fan.  He benefited from a good deal of luck last year, his FIP was 2 runs higher than his ERA.  Wak doesn’t feel the same as I do about Sean White though and therefore he put him in after Felix.  I would’ve put in League, Lowe, or maybe even Sean Kelley but that didn’t happen.  Maybe White will prove me, and other skeptics, wrong this year but if he doesn’t I’ll be anxious to see what Wak does with him in the bullpen.  Thankfully, we won this game so I don’t have to be too upset with Sean White but if he keeps costing Felix wins I will get angrier.  For now, he’s okay.

As for the other two pitchers, I was impressed.  League was what I expected.  After that Jack Wilson error I got a little nervous but he produced another ground ball that turned into a double play.  I’m excited to see League throughout this year.  Aardsma did what he did last year.  I’ve always been on the fence about Aardsma but I do like that he comes right after hitters.  He was good tonight.

The offense tonight was about what I expect for the season.  Score a run here, score a run there and then what do you know, we end up with 5 runs in a game.  This team is way more patient than last years.  I’m pretty sure we matched the amount of walks we had last year in one game (sarcasm).  It will be nice to see Figgins, Kotchman, Bradley paired with Griffey give this team a patient approach. 

The stolen bases were fun and something I expect to see a lot of.  Speed is an underrated aspect of baseball and speed is something we have. 

Hero: Casey Kotchman. He was awesome tonight. I’m a Kotchman believer and one of the few who seem to think he will produce at a higher level this year. I like him batting third in the order and am excited to see what he can do this year. The fact that he got 4 RBI and a game winning hit in his first Mariner game is pretty cool.

Goat: Sean White. I didn’t understand White being the first reliever to pitch this year, especially considering it was the 7th inning and he was entering a jam. Everyone knows how lucky White got last year on balls in play, and his inability to strike guys out scares me. Tonight’s performance confirmed my fears of White this year.

A few more quick notes after the jump. Continue reading →

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by | April 4, 2010 · 7:46 pm

Y2010M! Chone Figgins

(Y2010M! stands for Your 2010 Mariners! and is a series of posts aiming to touch on every player possibly important to the Mariners’ season.)

For the better part of a decade, the Angels have dominated the AL West.  They’ve endured major personnel changes, a stream of seemingly terrible contracts, and the confusion of changing the location in their name without changing the location of the team.  They owe this dominance to a lot of great players obtained by both those terrible contracts and a steadily excellent farm system, but equally important is the identity they’ve formed as a franchise.  The common description for the Angels is “annoying”.  They do whatever is necessary to win, which means they win a lot of games they seem to have no business winning.  They usually have a couple of stars and few weak points in the line up, good to excellent pitching, and an undeterrable focus on the small things: base-running, defense, manufacturing runs.  Led by one of the best managers in baseball in Mike Scioscia, they play baseball “the right way”, which means that no matter what adversity a new season brought, they still managed to come out on top.

No player came to exemplify Angel baseball more than Chone Figgins.  He was always on base, ran like crazy, played everywhere on the diamond; he was in the middle of every rally and big play.  Vlad Guerrero was the big bat Mariner fans feared, Figgins was the one he was hitting in.

This year, Figgins is a Mariner.

It’s easy to proclaim Seattle signing Figgins to a four year contract as a changing of the guard in the AL West.  Seattle is building a team along the Angels blueprint, and LA looks weaker than at any point since they started their run of dominance.  With any luck, the Mariners will win the division and the Angels will finally succumb to injuries and age.  We’ll see.  Until the Angels don’t win, they deserve the benefit of the doubt.  It’s possible Figgins loses a step and a tick of bat speed and plays in only 100 games like 2007 and 2008 and the Angels plug the hole and keep winning.

But putting aside the metaphorical symbolism, Figgins is a huge add for the Mariners.  My uncle, a more casual Mariner fan, asked me about him this weekend, and I told him he might be the biggest offensive addition for any team in the league this year.  The reason: Figgins is always on base.  He led the league in walks (101) and was among the leaders in on-base percentage (.395), which is typically space reserved for guys with a little more power.  The biggest key to scoring more runs?  Having people on base.  Once on the bases, he runs like crazy, with 42 stolen bases last year.  2009 was a definite career year, so a downturn should be expected, but I wouldn’t expect it to be significant.  He’ll bat second behind Ichiro, a decision that has drawn attention and some criticism this spring.  Many argue that the team would score more runs with Chone drawing a walk to get on first and then Ichiro advancing him with a hit, rather than Ichiro hitting his way on and Chone then walking.  The current configuration likely will cost a few runs from instances where Figgins would be on second and an Ichiro single would drive him in, but as Dave Cameron pointed out, Figgins being on first during one of Ichiro’s infield hits would cost Ichiro the hit a lot of time, because it would be easier to get the fielder’s choice on Figgins.  We’ll just say it’s a wash and leave Ichiro to what he does best.

Hopefully the two of them will run wild whatever order they’re in, and the guys behind them will drive them in with some regularity.  Whether that happens or not, a guy who is constantly on base will be a nice change from the free swinging, low on-base guys the Mariners have had in recent year.  It’s worked for the Angels, so maybe it will work for the Mariners.

Happy Opening Day!

-Matthew

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by | April 1, 2010 · 2:26 pm

Random Day Dreaming Thoughts…

  • Has it ever occurred to anyone that only in baseball do managers wear uniforms just like the players? In football, the coach dresses comfortably like the fans and in basketball and hockey, the coach wears a suit like a top executive. Imagine if coaches in football, basketball and hockey all wore the team’s uniform, similar to in baseball. Makes for a funny image in my mind.
  • Jake Locker could be a New England Patriot next year. Here’s how-
    When the Raiders acquired Richard Seymour from the Pats last year, they gave up their 1st round pick in 2011. Considering the Raiders could be awful this year, and possibly even the worst team, it’s likely New England will have a top 5 pick next year, which is of course a rarity for a good team like the Patriots. To add to the intrigue, Tom Brady’s contract runs up after the 2010 season, and while it is likely the team will re-sign or franchise him, another Brady injury could add some uncertainty. Even if Brady is extended, he will be 33 after this year, so the Pats may be looking ahead and who knows, Jake Locker could be their target with a top 3 pick.

  • Is it safe to say the Mariners have the best hitter, AND the top 2 pitchers in the AL West? Ichiro, Felix, and Lee might be the top 3 players in the division. A healthy Bedard could contend for 3rd best pitcher too.
  • In other Mariners topics, does anyone find it odd that Chone Figgins came to Seattle as a great lead off hitting 3rd baseman, and now he is 2nd in the order and playing 2nd base? Obviously Ichiro is tough to beat out for the lead off spot, but in a year where production from the 3 hole could be difficult to come by, I think the team should have seriously considered Ichiro in that spot. Wouldn’t be the first time that discussion has come up though.
  • Finally, what’s to make of the Huskies wearing all Gold jerseys in their home opener just to draw attention to Jake Locker and his Heisman trophy campaign. Sounds odd to me…

    (Ok April fools on that last one)

    Although speaking of jerseys, I would love to see UW bust out black unis at some point this year!

    PS- Our next post will be our 100th by the Good Guys!

    -Dan

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    by | March 23, 2010 · 5:07 pm

    Two More Weeks

    The Mariners season opener is just two weeks from yesterday.  Luckily we have the NCAA tournament and the Huskies to watch those two weeks, because we have reached the official spring-training-is-incredibly-boring point.  This is also the point, though, where players start to round into shape and stop experimenting with swings and new pitches and such, so the results begin to mean a little more, but not really.  A look at some issues and questions still out there in Peoria after the jump! Continue reading →

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